lk here," he declared. "Otherwise I go home."

Downes was speechless with rage--we have said that the day was
abnormally hot and oppressive, and that these two men, whenever they
met, invariably got upon each other's nerves. But he haply remembered
the burden of his remarks to Vidler. The whole township was practically
defenceless. No arms were visible certainly, but more than an
uncomfortable suspicion was upon his mind that they were there all the
same. It was a case for making the best of it. The while Vidler had
made the slightest perceptible sign to the court induna that he should
withdraw as though of his own accord, and with him the two native
constables.

"Go easy, sir," he whispered warningly to his superior, in an undertone.
The latter pulled himself together.

"Talk we now of Pandulu," he said.

"Pandulu?" echoed Sapazani.

"Yes. What of him?"

"Who is Pandulu?"

And Undhlawafa and the remainder of the group looked at each other, and
repeated, "Who is Pandulu?"

"He is a man from Natal," answered the magistrate. "He has been seen
near your kraal, Sapazani, he and Babatyana, who is wanted by the
Government. Where are these men?"

"Pandulu? Babatyana? Men from Natal?" repeated the chief. "Now,
_Nkose_, this is like talking through a bullock's skin. No _Amakafula_
have been at my kraal."

"I said not _at_ thy kraal, but near it," was the short reply. "Now a
chief is responsible to Government for all that happens within the tribe
which he rules--under the Government. Under the Government," repeated
Downes emphatically.

"Yet even a chief is not as the white man's God. He does not know
everything," was the sneering reply. "I would ask--why does the
Government allow its own people in Natal to come over into Zululand at
all? We need no _Amakafula_ in this country. Why does it allow them to
come here? Is it that it cannot prevent them?"

And something of their chief's sneer was echoed among the group, in the
shape of a smothered laugh.

"Prevent them?" retorted Downes. "A man of your intelligence, Sapazani,
must know that the Government has the power to sweep this land from end
to end if necessary until there is not a man left alive in it."

"The Government? Which Government?" answered the chief, with his head
on one side. "The Government of Natal or the Government of the Great
King beyond the sea?"

"Both Governments. Both work together. The question is childish."

"Bot