an twice the number; besides, the
tall fine frames, the haughty poise of the head, the large war-shields,
bespoke them Zulus.

They halted a brief moment as they came in sight of the fire, then
strode up to half a dozen paces of the two white men, and halting again,
eyed the latter in silence for a moment, and one of them said--

"_Saku bona_."

Dawes, as he returned the greeting, with one quick keen glance
scrutinised the group, and noted two things. The man they had met two
days before, Vunawayo, was not in it, and though all were fully armed,
they had not, in accordance with Zulu etiquette, deposited their weapons
a few paces in the background. They, for their part, he fancied, looked
meaningly at the two guns which lay beside himself and Gerard, and ready
to the hand of each. They were, as we have said, tall, fine men, and
most of them ringed. But though they carried the large war-shield
instead of the little ornamental shield usually employed on pacific
journeyings, and were fully armed with assegai and knobkerrie, and here
and there a battle-axe, their persons were bedizened by no martial
gear--being, in fact, devoid of little other adornment than the _mutya_.
These men, he decided, were either the whole or part of an "eating-up"
expedition [Note 1], or they were members of the dreaded Igazipuza.

The Zulus had squatted down on their haunches in crescent formation.
There were fifteen of them. Dawes handed them the large horn snuff-box
he always carried. It was passed round, and for a few minutes they were
all taking pinch after pinch in silent contentment. Then one of them
said--

"What have you got to sell, _Umlungu_?"

"Very little," was the answer. "We are at the end of our trip, not at
the beginning, and have got rid of nearly everything."

"Among the Swazi dogs? Why did you not come through the Zulu country?"

"We heard there had been too many traders there before us," replied
Dawes, unveraciously. "And in the part we did touch we could do
nothing. The people were not inclined to trade."

"Are these all your people?" went on the Zulu, with a glance at the four
Natal natives, who, Sintoba excepted, had been gazing at them with a
curiosity strongly dashed with awe. Sintoba, however, had given them
the "_Saku bona_" as on terms of perfect equality, and they had returned
it. "They are few to take care of so much property," went on the
spokesman.

"They are," said Dawes. "We had some Swaz