the sweet golden
sunlight, yielding place to a flaming brassy glare, and the atmosphere
seemed to reek of blood.

"Poor devils!" said Dawes. "They're `eaten up' and no mistake. We had
better not let on about this to the `boys,' or all that diplomacy this
morning is just thrown away. Nothing on earth would keep them from
taking to their heels."

After all, it is human to err, and Dawes for once was wrong in his
judgment. Had the Swazis but stumbled upon the horrid sight, it would
most effectually have killed in them any further desire to tempt their
fate in a journey on their own account. They would have demanded
nothing better than to hug the vicinity of the waggons as closely as
possible.

With a dire foreboding of impending peril upon them the two quitted the
spot, and rode back upon their track, for they had come on ahead rather
further than they had intended. They had not progressed far, when Dawes
said quietly--

"Don't start, Ridgeley. But if you can do so without turning your head,
look up--to the left."

Gerard did so. High up on the slope of the hillside was a flash and
shimmer of something. The slanting rays of the afternoon sun glinted
upon the points of spears, upon the smooth surface of great shields. A
group of armed savages sat watching the two horsemen.

Whatever their intentions might have been, whether hostile or the
reverse, they made not the slightest attempt at concealment. There they
sat--out in the open. Had they been watching them when they discovered
the massacre; could they, indeed, have been seen from that point of
vantage? That these were the perpetrators of that barbarous deed Dawes
had little doubt. They were but few, certainly--a dozen at most--but
how many more were concealed close at hand, ready to spring out upon
them!

It was a terribly trying situation. While feigning to talk at their
ease as they rode along, the nerves of both of our two friends were
strung to the uttermost. Every moment might come the whiz of assegais
from the bush, which in places grew right down to the path--every moment
the roar of the war-shout, the swift and tiger-like charge. To Gerard
especially, less accustomed to peril than his companion, and by nature
less cool, the situation was desperately trying; and by the time they
reached the waggons, and the spot being convenient, ordered an outspan
then and there, the dark cloud of peril hovering above them seemed to
brood thicker and th