s `_Inkose_' instead; said the `_Bayete_'
was the salute for kings."

"He's about right," said Ben Halse. "There's a precious deal too much
of that `_Bayete_' joke going along. Every waggon-builder's apprentice
seems to expect it. What did Downes say? I'd like to have been there."

"He nearly died of rage. Then he asked Sapazani, rather sneeringly,
which king he would give the `_Bayete_' to, and the answer was, `Any
_king_,' which was rather smart. Downes talked of arresting him for
treating his court with insolence, but there were only three of our
chaps in the place, and Sapazani had a following with him big enough to
have captured the whole show, even with kerries, so he chucked that
plan."

"Well, he was wise there," said Ben Halse. "There's no law in existence
here or anywhere else I know of, that compels a native to address his
magistrate as `Your Majesty,' which is what giving him the salute royal
amounts to. And this particular chief--to name no names--is quite
knowing enough to get hold of a lawyer to stick up for him. There's
more than one that would be glad to, and could do it too."

The fact was that the speaker knew all about this incident as well as
did the narrator--and a good deal more connected with it which the
latter didn't, but this he kept to himself.

"Sapazani is a great friend of ours," said Verna; "but I should think
he'd be quite capable of making himself disagreeable if he was rubbed
the wrong way."

Then they talked on, about other things and people, and the afternoon
wore on. Suddenly Meyrick was seen to start as if he had been shot, and
to grope wildly and hurriedly in his pockets.

"I'm most awfully sorry, Mr Halse, for being such a forgetful ass," he
said; "but I forgot to give you this"--producing a letter. "Two of our
chaps came back from Ezulwini and brought it out."

"That's all right. I dare say it isn't a matter of life and death," was
the characteristic answer. But the speaker's face was not wholly
guiltless of a look of astonishment as he saw the envelope; and this was
evoked not so much by the sight, of the handwriting as by the fact that
the missive had never been through the post. While his guests were
saddling up he quickly mastered the contents, and his astonishment did
not decrease.

"How should you like a run down to Ezulwini, Verna?" he said, after the
police had gone.

"To Ezulwini?"

"Yes; perhaps to Durban."

"I'd like it a lot. Makes a ch