made my escape,
I rose and walked slowly away, still keeping in the thick smoke caused
by the fire of the hut.

Now people not accustomed to hunting game such as antelope, leopards,
and other like creatures, would probably have started off and run, as
soon as they got clear of the hut. I knew better than to do so stupid a
thing. If I had run, I should at once have attracted attention, and
been followed, and my race for life would have commenced immediately.
By moving slowly I was not noticed, and thus had gone more than a
hundred yards from the hut before a Zulu, who was running towards the
kraal which was burning, passed close to me, and seeing me, stopped;
and, recognising me, hurled an assagy at me. The practice I had gained
with Inyoni and Tembile stood me in good stead on this occasion, or I
should have been speared. I dodged the assagy, which stuck in the
ground near me, within reach of my arm, and seizing it threw it at my
enemy. He was not as quick in escaping as I had been, and my assagy
struck him in the chest and the blade passed through his body. I closed
with him at once, and with one of his own knob-kerries struck him on the
head, and I believe killed him. I did this so that he might not tell
any other Zulus that he had seen me. Possessing myself of his shield,
assagies, and knob-kerrie, I started off at a run towards the bush; for
it was there I hoped to conceal myself, and possibly escape the keen
eyes of the Zulus; for although they might follow my spoor as correctly
as a dog will follow a buck, I still hoped I might defeat all their
cunning.

The attention of all the Zulus was taken up with the kraal from which I
had escaped; for they expected me to rush out as soon as I found that
the smoke and fire would destroy me. That I should escape from the back
part of the hut had not been thought of.

The distance from the kraal to the Berea bush was about a mile, and this
distance I passed over at a rapid walk, and succeeded in entering the
bush without being recognised by any of the enemy. The Berea bush was
at this time visited annually by one or two herds of elephants which
came down from near the Zulu country. They stayed in the bush during
several months, and made paths through the thick jungle, along which a
man could walk easily. The bush was nearly impenetrable except along
these elephant tracks; so I thought I might easily conceal myself in
this bush for two or three days, unless my f