ow
gateway we were, as I expected stopped by two soldiers who stood on
guard there and asked our business. The captain answered that we had
changed our minds, and would follow on to Wambe's kraal. The soldiers
said no, we must now wait.

"To this we replied by pushing them to one side and marching in single
file through the gateway, which was not distant more than a hundred
yards from the koppie. While we were getting through, the men we had
pushed away ran towards the town calling for assistance, a call that was
promptly responded to, for in another minute we saw scores of armed men
running hard in our direction. So we ran too, for the koppie. As soon as
they understood what we were after, which they did not at first, owing
to the dimness of the light, they did their best to get there before us.
But we had the start of them, and with the exception of one unfortunate
man who stumbled and fell, we were well on to the koppie before
they arrived. This man they captured, and when fighting began on the
following morning, and he refused to give any information, they killed
him. Luckily they had no time to torture him, or they would certainly
have done so, for these Matuku people are very fond of torturing their
enemies.

"When we reached the koppie, the base of which covers about half an acre
of ground, the soldiers who had been trying to cut us off halted, for
they knew the strength of the position. This gave us a few minutes
before the light had quite vanished to reconnoitre the place. We found
that it was unoccupied, fortified with a regular labyrinth of stone
walls, and contained three large caves and some smaller ones. The next
business was to post the soldiers to such advantage as time would allow.
My own men I was careful to place quite at the top. They were perfectly
useless from terror, and I feared that they might try to escape and give
information of our plans to Wambe. So I watched them like the apple of
my eye, telling them that should they dare to stir they would be shot.

"Then it grew quite dark, and presently out of the darkness I heard
a voice--it was that of the leader of the soldiers who had escorted
us--calling us to come down. We replied that it was too dark to move, we
should hit our feet against the stones. He insisted upon our descending,
and we flatly refused, saying that if any attempt was made to dislodge
us we would fire. After that, as they had no real intention of attacking
us in the dark, th