them up. But the reason lies in
the fact that flight had not come into my plan at all. When I had
started in upon it my desperate enterprise offered two alternatives--
success or death--in the attempt. That a third alternative--flight--
might be open to me I had never for a moment contemplated; wherefore,
here I was in very evil case.

I managed to pluck some ears of green corn from a garden unperceived,
and this sustained me as I devoured it; for in those days we could live
for a long time on very little food, and but little rest. By the
following evening I had gained the foot of the mountain range called
_Inkume_, somewhat to the eastward of the Place of the Three Rifts,
where our great battle was fought and won--won for us chiefly by the
magic of Lalusini.

"Ah, ah!" I growled to myself, shaking my assegai in the direction
whence I had come. "This nation has doomed itself in taking the life of
her through whom its own life has been preserved."

Now just as the sun touched the rim of the western world, his last gleam
caused something to flash and shine. Ha! The glint of spears! _I_
ought to know it. And in the clear light that succeeded I could make
out a considerable body of armed men.

They were yet a great way off, but were coming towards me, not as though
straight from Kwa'zingwenya, but by a roundabout way. A search party,
of course. And now I thought gladly how I had been seen by none--though
of this I could not make altogether certain. But I would not linger
here. Darkness fell and the night was starry and still. Up and up,
higher and higher I climbed, intending to place the whole mountain range
between me and the Amandebeli nation by sunrise; but I was somewhat
weary, and the ascent was rough and very steep. As I drew near the
summit the night wind blew chill, singing through the long grass like
the wailings of countless ghosts, and strange cries and howlings would
float up from the mountain sides. But nothing cared I for ghosts now;
my chief thought was to avoid falling over cliffs and into chasms.

But when I had reached the summit of the range, as I thought, the stars
grew dim, and, in a moment more, were hidden altogether. A white mist
was creeping up from the further side, veiling everything. This was
bad, for the most experienced traveller is as a little child in a thick
mountain mist; and it was quite as likely as not that by continuing to
travel I might turn round unknowingly an