suspicious-looking coat was drawn a broad assegai, and he
whipped round barely in time to avoid its full stroke. Each of the
other three also had risen and held a broad, gleaming blade, and without
a word came straight for him.

Tekana, as we have said, was no fool, also his conscience was not clear;
moreover, he was quite unarmed except for a stick. With this he knocked
the weapon from the first man's grasp, and then, without a word, he
started to run.

Now his chances were even. The assegais of his assailants were useless
for throwing purposes, and could he but gain his goal first his
prospective father-in-law would certainly afford him protection, if only
to save all that _lobola_ from slipping through his own fingers.

But his would-be murderers were as good at running as he, and he had no
start. They, too, wasted no words as they sprinted in his wake, and
there was scarcely a dozen yards between them. Yet the distance was
evenly kept.

For about a hundred yards this went on. Then the hindermost of the
pursuers stopped, and with lightning-like rapidity picked up a large
stone. This he hurled with power and precision. It smote the hunted
man hard and full on the base of the skull, bringing him to earth more
than half stunned. In a moment four assegai blades were buried again
and again in his body.

"The last of the three!" exclaimed one of the slayers, all of whom were
panting after their run. "Here is a thick bush. We will hide him."

This was done. Swinging it up by the wrists and heels they threw the
body into the thickest part of a thick clump that grew just beside the
track, not even troubling to see whether he had anything worth taking.
Plunder was not their object. Thus disappeared Tekana, who had set
forth so blithely in the early morning. When the next return should be
made for purposes of poll-tax collecting it would be represented that
Sebela and Tekana had gone away to work at the mines, as the latter had
frequently expressed his intention of doing. Pandulu did not matter.
He came from Natal, and had come secretly at that. He would not be
missed.

Whereby two things are manifest--that Sapazani was a very dangerous man
to betray, and that in a sparsely settled and savage country things are
done that never come to the knowledge of the ruling race at all.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

THE MATING.

"Yes, I have to be a bit careful," Ben Halse was saying. "You see, I've
got up a bit of