e joke was.

"Why," replied he, "I was just wondering, when I heard the first
explosion, how many of the men you sent against my friends this morning
would come back alive; but when I heard the second one, I came to the
satisfactory conclusion that not one of them would ever see East Utah
again."

The guard looked angry for a moment, but then smiled and said, "You are
a bold man; however, we shall see."

Soon after, Grenville was hurried away to his prison, and that night he
heard wailing and lamentations in the city, and knew that he had guessed
the truth, that another fearful calamity had befallen the Mormons, and
that his friends at the plateau were now practically safe from further
molestation.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

DARK DAYS.

Leaving poor Grenville in his dismal prison, we must now return for the
time being to our friends at the plateau.

Despite the awful storm which followed Grenville's departure, Leigh and
Myzukulwa kept diligent guard, for both were determined that they would
never again be caught napping. One of Grenville's last instructions to
Leigh had been to keep a double watch every night, and to at once get an
enormous pile of thorn-bushes up to the plateau, "when," said he, "you
can make a _chevaux de frise_ at the top of the path, which will keep
the whole Mormon nation fully employed whilst you shoot them."

In the very height of the storm the watchers, by a flash of lightning,
saw a figure approaching their position, and Leigh at once challenged,
but received no reply. The next flash, however, showed him that the
nocturnal wanderer was Amaxosa. The chief stalked up the path, shook
himself like a great dog, and then, without saying a single word,
entered the cave, deposited Grenville's weapons on the floor, and lay
down by the fire.

Now, however, this extraordinary and unexplained return penetrated the
reserve of even the well-trained Myzukulwa, who, after waiting in a
state of suppressed excitement for some moments to give his brother time
to speak, at length burst out with a torrent of questions.

"Since when has a child of the Undi learned to desert his chief? Thou
didst go out into the dark night but a few short hours ago with my
father, the great and mighty warrior; where is my father now? Myzukulwa
asks thee. Is he perchance dead? Then will I, Myzukulwa, the son of
Isanusi, follow on after the spirit of my father, and cry, `Behold, my
father, thy faithful war-dog of the r