of him,
for he was only a nuisance."

"Well," said Grenville at last, "the best thing you can do now you've
had a smoke and relieved your mind, Winfield, is to go to sleep, for you
stand much in need of rest after your long exposure and involuntary
fast. I'll have a chat with the Zulus now, and, if they consent, I
propose to lie hidden here for a couple of days, so that you can get
your strength up. So pray turn in at once--you too, Alf." And leaving
the pair to make their rough beds of dried leaves, he joined the Zulus,
who were talking earnestly together in the doorway of the cavern.

Amaxosa was quite confident that their place of shelter was altogether
unknown to the Mormons, as they had never been able to find him until
one evil day when they had stumbled across him a score of miles from the
spot they now occupied. Asked whether there was any way out of the
country, he said "No"; he had most thoroughly searched for a means of
exit, and had concluded that the white people were witch-finders, who
got in and out by flying over the mountains.

On being asked how he was brought in, he said he did not know, as he was
knocked senseless with a blow from the butt-end of a rifle before he was
captured, and had been expected to die for a week thereafter. Myzukulwa
had told him the story of their entry into this wonderful country, and
he (Amaxosa) was "very willing to follow and to fight for such great and
wise white chiefs, and would be their man to the death." Grenville then
bestowed some tobacco upon his new ally, and, after a hearty handshake,
sent both the brothers to lie down, whilst he himself took the first
watch, and cudgelled his brains as to the further movements of the whole
party. Three hours later, when he knocked the ashes out of his pipe and
lay down to rest, after having seen Amaxosa on guard, and given him
strict orders that no fire was on any consideration to be alight during
the daytime, Grenville's mind was quite made up.

They must carry off Miss Winfield by a _coup de main_ in the course of
the next few days, occupying the interim in choosing out and victualling
one or two exceptionally strong positions between their present refuge
and the great stairway. They must hold each of these as long as was
possible, falling back by degrees, and, after fighting their ultimate
position to the last gasp, endeavour to take the foe by surprise, and
circumvent--or, if needful, cut their way through--the gua