ighted their
pipes and went into council.

"Now then, Dick," said Alf Leigh, "as I, at all events, see no more of
those objectionable rifle-barrels round here, I'll repeat my question of
yesterday--What do we do next?"

"Ah! that's the point," responded Grenville. "Now doesn't it strike you
as very odd, not to say significant, that we should be so murderously
assaulted precisely on the spot where our mission is supposed to
commence? I am convinced that there is more in that attack than you
fancy. However, here is the inscription which, as you know, we found
scratched with a pin-point on a slaty rock down the Pass yesterday--`_An
Englishman and his daughter imprisoned in the Hell at the top of this
Pass. Help us, for the love of Heaven_.' Well, as you also know, we
resolved to carry help to the unfortunates who make this pitiful appeal
to our honour as countrymen, or die in the attempt; and, by Jove, if you
ask me anything, we came perilously near doing the latter yesterday. To
proceed, Myzukulwa here declares that there has been handed down for
generations in his tribe, legends of a strange and mighty people, who
frequent this pass by night only, who, on being followed, vanish into
thin air, and whose description answers accurately to the gentleman I
settled yesterday, with the one exception, easily accounted for, that
these people were said to have black faces."

"And a nice beginning we've made if, according to your idea, our friend
of yesterday was one of them," grumbled Leigh.

"Don't make any mistake, Alf," rejoined Grenville; "we shall gain
nothing by palaver; whoever sees the inside of their territory will
never again, with their consent, re-enter the outside world to give them
away. This kingdom is an inscrutable mystery, enveloped in something
like a hundred miles of inaccessible rock and impassable mountain, and
upon the very threshold of it I feel convinced that we have now
arrived."

"Inkoos," said the great Zulu, "your words are wise, even as the wisdom
of my father's father. For a thousand moons--ay, and for a thousand
before that--has this place been haunted, and the traditions of my
people ever warn us to beware of sleeping nigh to this falling water.
Many have done so, and have never again visited their kraals; I,
Myzukulwa, have alone done so and lived. More, Inkoos; as I watched
yesternight I heard strange sounds, as though the spooks (ghosts) were
mourning over the dead one who lies be