, by way of signifying that he was not there with
hostile intent, he extended both hands--open.

The effect was magical. Realising for the first time that he was
unarmed, the savages flung themselves upon him. Powerful and in good
training as he was, what could he do against numbers? At the same time,
a blanket was flung over his head and face, blinding and effectually
stifling him in its nauseous folds, and he was borne to the earth and
effectually pinioned by many and muscular hands.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inspector Chambers was an officer of promptitude and decision, and on
Harley Greenoak waking him up in the grey of dawn with the news that
Dick Selmes was nowhere in the camp, the sentries of the night before
were at once called to account, and the truth came out. The young
gentleman was not one of themselves, explained the defaulter, who
supposed, therefore, that he was not under the same orders. Ordering
the man to be put under arrest, the Inspector gave his directions, and
in a surprisingly short space of time nearly the whole troop was mounted
and heading at a trot for Vunisa's location.

"That's where we'll find him," pronounced Greenoak, adding grimly, "if
we find him at all. He'll have gone to look at that war-dance, sure as
eggs. I ought to have known he'd be trying it and kept my eye on him."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pummelled, pushed, hustled, his hands and arms secured with innumerable
knots of raw-hide; half suffocated, wholly nauseated by the greasy
effluvium of the filthy blanket which still enveloped his head and
shoulders, Dick Selmes was hurried down the hill by his captors. To his
attempts at speech with them, in the hope that even one among them might
understand English, the only reply was a savage growl in their own
tongue, accompanied by a dig in the back with the butt end of a kerrie.
Still, he did his best to keep his faculties of hearing undimmed, and,
listening with all his might, it seemed as though the roar of the
war-dance, instead of drawing nearer, became less marked. Whither were
they taking him? All sorts of frontier stories of the old wars which he
had heard came back to his mind: of the unsparing barbarities practised
by these savages on any unfortunate white man who should fall into their
hands; of soldiers, straggling from a column, cut off in the thick bush
and slo