e troop had come to his rescue. He could hear voices--
those of the Inspector Chambers and Harley Greenoak, mingling with the
deeper tones of his savage gaolers. He tried to call out, but could
utter no sound. They were withdrawing; still he was perforce dumb.
They had gone away. Ah, the agony of it! He strained at his bonds--
nearly suffocated himself with the horrible gag. All of no avail.

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

Very different looked Vunisa's location--now silent in slumber--as the
Police rode up, to the weird and stirring scene it had presented
throughout the best part of the night, but the yelping and barking of
innumerable curs soon brought forth some of its denizens. These stood,
open-mouthed with astonishment at the sight of the carbines and
revolvers of the Police troopers.

"The chief," said Harley Greenoak, decisively, "Vunisa, the chief. We
have a `word' to him."

Scowling sullenly, the savages began to make the usual excuses. The
chief was sick, and so on.

"A lie!" said Greenoak. "Bring him forth at once or we put the torch
into every hut in this valley."

By now all were astir. More than half the revellers had gone home, but
there were yet an awkwardly large number left, even for nearly a hundred
armed and mounted men. Still a hurried consultation went on, then, just
as Greenoak was losing patience, the chief himself appeared.

Vunisa was a tall, powerful man, with rather a heavy and sullen face,
but not without dignity even then. He had done nothing wrong, he
protested; why, then, should the Government send the _amapolise_ into
his kraal and threaten to destroy it?

"The young white man who came here last night," said Harley Greenoak.
"Where is he?"

The chief turned to his followers. What was this about a young white
man? Did anybody know? The while, Greenoak, who had dismounted, was
watching him keenly. No. Nobody knew.

"Then Vunisa will be arrested," he said.

The chief started, ever so slightly. An ominous hubbub arose among his
followers, the bulk of whom dived quickly into the huts again. They had
gone to arm.

In a moment they emerged, and the glint of assegai blades and the wave
of hard sticks was everywhere, as the kraal became alive with swarming
savages, the mutter of deep-toned voices eloquent with suppressed hate
and menace. And they outnumbered the Police ten to one.

The latter had loaded with ball car