sly, with my broad-bladed, short-hafted assegai in my
right hand and my large war-shield in readiness in my left, and thus was
prepared for any enemy who might spring up, as it were, out of the
ground. Yet, if I would find my way down that night, it must be
quickly, for the sun was already touching the mountain-peaks opposite,
causing the great ironstone cliff faces to glow like fire.

"Suddenly, rounding a large rock, I came upon a man--a tall man--armed.
Up went his shield and assegai in readiness, even as did mine, as I
stopped short. Then I saw he was one of ourselves.

"`Greeting, son of Ntelani,' he said. `What do you here?'

"`Greeting, Gungana, _induna_ of the King,' I answered. `What do _you_
here?'

"`_Au_!' he cried, springing up from the rock against which he had been
leaning, his eyes flashing with anger. `Is it in that tone thou talkest
to me, thou jackal-whelp--to _me_, dog-cub?'

"`Spare me, father,' I answered in mock fear, for I had a design in
deceiving him, `spare me! My head has had a hard knock. It may be
that.'

"`In truth, thou speakest only just in time to save thy head from a far
harder knock, _umfane_, for the knobsticks of the King's executioners
come down hard upon the skulls of rebellious soldiers who disobey and
insult their commanders.'

"Now, _Nkose_, my blood boiled within me. The sneering `_umfane_' to
me, who, although not ringed, was yet an _inceku_, was too much.
Gungana should pay for that sneer. Moreover, self-preservation called
out loudly within me. For nothing less than my death would satisfy this
chief, the deadly import of whose words struck full upon my mind. A
charge of mutiny and disobedience brought against me by a commander of
Gungana's standing, the King, reproaching me as he often did with
rashness and lack of judgment, could hardly discredit, and would
certainly not pardon. It was my death or that of Gungana. But I
answered with deference:

"`How is it you are all alone here, my father? Have all men gone away
and left their chief?'

"`They have, but they shall mourn for it,' he answered. `I followed
those _abatagati_ dogs up here alone, but so many and so perilous are
the holes that I know not by which one of them we came up nor by which
we shall go down.'

"`By none of them shall _we_ go down, my father,' I shouted. `By none
of them shall _we_ go down, for one of us shall remain up here for
ever!'

"`Truly that knock on the head was a h