aliant offer John Dawes, who was giving orders to inspan,
took no immediate notice. At length he said--

"You will get quite as much fighting as you can well take care of,
Nkumbi-ka-zulu, if you go on a little longer on your present tack. And,
mark me, anybody who tries to interfere with me will get more than
enough. Farewell to you. _Trek_!"

This last to the drivers. The whips cracked, the drivers yelled, and
the waggons rolled ponderously forward. The two Zulus were left
standing there a picture of mortification and disgust.

"You've got to be firm with these chaps, Ridgeley, once you do have a
difference with them," said Dawes, in his ordinarily self-possessed and
careless tone. "Well, it's lucky we've got Mouse back again so cheap.
That was really an uncommonly smart idea of yours, and a well-carried
out one."

They trekked on the best part of the night, Gerard and Dawes thoroughly
armed. Each rode on horseback, keeping a careful watch lest the
treachery of the now exasperated chief should prompt some aggression
under cover of night; but none took place. In the morning they beheld
two large bodies of Zulus in the distance, marching to the
north-westward, and could distinguish the glint of spears, and the echo
of their marching song. But on whatever errand these _impis_ were
bound, they evinced no desire to molest the trekkers, or even to
investigate nearer; in fact, their object seemed to be rather to avoid
these latter.

"There's trouble brewing," said Dawes, with a grave shake of the head as
he watched the _impis_ disappearing over a distant ridge. "Those chaps
are bound for the disputed territory, and if they fall foul of the Boers
it'll start the war going in fine style. I don't like the look of
things at all. The sooner we get into Swaziland the better. The Zulu
country's just a trifle too disturbed."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. This word, which properly applies to native beer, is used for
any intoxicating liquor. In this instance it would mean spirits.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

A NEW TERROR.

Several months later than the events last recorded, a large _trek_ might
have been seen, wending its way southward along the rugged bush _veldt_
lying beneath the Lebombo mountains, just outside the Zulu boundary.

It is evening, and the lustrous glow of the setting sun reddens the
great precipices of the craggy range, tingeing with vivid gol