deserted, for it and its
surroundings showed no sign of life. Eagerly Gerard's glance sought the
waggons, and then his heart turned sick. They were still there, but
around them also was no sign of life. What had happened? But the next
glance was destined to sicken him yet more.

"Look--look!" he gasped, gripping Sobuza by the arm. "That is The
Tooth. Oh, good God!"

The last ejaculation escaped him in his grief. There rose the great
pyramid, clear and distinct in the light of early dawn. Something was
moving on its apex, and against the cliff-face several dark objects were
plainly discernible. To the sharp eyes of the Zulus, and, indeed, to
Gerard himself, the nature of them was unmistakable. They were human
forms, and they were hanging from the brow of the cliff.

Sobuza, to whom Gerard had imparted this novel and hideous form of
torture practised by the savage freebooters, gave a grunt of interest
and surprise as he beheld with his own eyes the actual process; for to
hang a man up by his dislocated arms wrenched round in the sockets was
unique and a novelty to him--barbarian as he was.

"We are too late--we are too late!" groaned Gerard.

"Not so, Jeriji," said the chief, sending another look at the grisly
cliff and the dangling bodies. "There are three of them. But not one
of them is a white man."

The rush of hope that rose in Gerard's heart was dashed.

"We cannot see the stake from here," he said--"the thing they call the
`point of The Tooth.' Oh, Heavens, if we are too late! Let us get
forward! Quick! We may be in time--we may be in time!"

But the Zulu chief, though concerned because of the agony of mind of his
young friend, was not there out of any considerations of sentiment. He
was there to carry out the orders of the king in all their drastic
severity, and was not going to risk failure and court ruin because one
unknown white man was in danger of a barbarous death at the hands of the
rebel clan. He had got to pursue the fighting force of the latter, and
leave it no time to master in any position favourable to itself.

"It can't be done, Jeriji," he replied. "Afterwards, when we have eaten
up all these dogs, then we will turn our attention to The Tooth."

"It will be too late then--too late!" said Gerard, angrily. "Listen,
Sobuza!" he almost shouted, as an idea struck him. "Give me a few men,
and I will go myself. Don't you see! That peak commands all the
hollow. I know, for