f success; and having been discussed in all its details, it was
unanimously adopted. The Zulus were recommended to rest and sleep all
day, and at sunset were despatched as arranged, the white men in the
meantime occupying themselves in completing, and if possible amplifying
still further, the natural defences of their rocky fortress.

The Zulus were armed, as usual, with their spears Myzukulwa willingly
relinquishing his revolver to Winfield, who had also possessed himself
of the rifle and ammunition of which the party had despoiled Abiram
Levert.

Grenville accompanied Myzukulwa and Amaxosa as far as the edge of the
veldt, and impressed upon them the desirability of deceiving the bridge
guard, if possible, as to the number of their persons; for, he
explained, "if the main body of Mormons see but two signal rockets, they
will suppose them to refer to Amaxosa and the Inkoos Winfield unarmed,
and will only send on a few men to capture them; whilst if three rockets
are fired, they will conclude at headquarters that it is our own party--
it being clearly their habit to send up a rocket for each foe sighted on
the outer veldt--and will send on all the men they have on the spot."
Then, wishing the brothers good luck, Grenville returned to the rock.
The night was passed quietly by the party, which was now again reduced
to its original, and, as Grenville said, fortunate number, Leigh adding
jocularly that he would back their "dauntless three" at long odds
against any Mormon trio in East Utah, the Holy Three preferred.

The next day was spent by the white men in examining their weapons with
anxious care, after which they rested and smoked, waiting with feverish
anxiety for the declining sun to set them on their way. At last the
time came, and, after feeding well, the trio shook hands all round, and
started out upon their desperate enterprise, for such it most certainly
was. Three men against the whole Mormon community, which numbered,
according to Winfield, probably a thousand able-bodied men, besides
women, children, and youths, and was by no means deficient in subtlety
of intellect.

The little party pushed forward in ominous silence, keeping carefully
under cover, and about three and a half hours later saw all securely
hidden in a patch of scrub which impinged upon the veldt a short mile
from the central bridge, whereupon, before the darkness fell, as it did
almost directly after their arrival, they could perceive _two_