sy getting out liquid and other
refreshment for the relief party, though its consumption must of
necessity be hurried, for Greenoak had advised immediate removal to the
settlement, and Waybridge was already inspanning the Cape cart.
Fortunately the Kafirs had not been able to get at the horses, the
stable door being commanded by the firing-line. And the urgency of such
advice was to receive prompt confirmation.

An exploration of the garden had been judged advisable, and this,
accompanied by several others, was undertaken by Greenoak. Here they
found one more body--and a badly wounded Kafir. He was shot through
both legs, but had managed to drag himself into cover.

"It is Kulondeka," he said, recognising his questioner. "Then I will
speak. There are several more wounded lying about--yes. The people
have gone, but they will come again, with many others, before sunrise.
Take the white women and go, Kulondeka--now, at once. I know you. You
and the other saved me, yonder, the day we fought Ndimba's people with
sticks. Go. Lose no time."

Greenoak rejoined the others, feeling pretty anxious. They were by no
means out of the wood yet. A large marauding band might appear at any
moment, and, after all, their number was a mere handful. So it was with
a modicum of relief that he saw the cart inspanned, and its inmates duly
installed. But having seen them once started, with their escort,
Greenoak slipped back to the garden with the remains of a bottle of
brandy in his hand, and administered an invigorating drink to the badly
wounded savage.

"Your people will find you here," he said, "and the others. Now, you
have felt how hard the white man's blow can fall. Tell them."

After the peril and relief a reaction ensued.

"I suppose those horrible wretches will burn down the house," Mrs
Waybridge remarked, as they sped along. "Or, at any rate, plunder it of
everything."

Hazel, for her part, thought the enemy would do both, when he saw the
extent of his losses during the defence, for, of course, under the
circumstances, the dead had been left just as they fell. But, not
aspiring to the part of Job's comforter, she refrained from recording an
opinion.

Those forming the relief party laughed good-naturedly among themselves
as they noted how uncommonly close to the Cape cart Dick Selmes would
persist in riding, some of the younger ones with a tinge of envy. He,
for his part, was keeping up a string of lively