t of perfect peace! Indeed, at
that moment there came a kind of hint or premonition of them, since
suddenly through the utter quiet broke the blood-curdling wail of
a woman. It was followed by other wails and shouts, distant and yet
distinct. Then the silence fell again.

"Now, I thought to myself, that noise might very well have come from old
Magepa's kraal; luckily, however, sounds are deceptive in mist.

"Well, the end of it was that I waited there till the sun rose. The
first thing on which its bright beams struck was a mighty column of
smoke rising to heaven from where Magepa's kraal had stood!

"I went back to my wagons very sad--so sad that I could scarcely eat my
breakfast. While I walked I wondered hard whether the light had glinted
upon the tip of a buck's horn in that patch of green bush with the
sweet-smelling white flowers a night or two ago. Or had it perchance
fallen upon the point of the assegai of some spy who was watching my
movements! In that event yonder column of smoke and the horrible cries
that preceded it were easy to explain. For had not Magepa and I talked
secrets together, and in Zulu?

"On the following morning at dawn I attended at the drift in the faint
hope that Gita and her boy might arrive there as arranged. But nobody
came, which was not wonderful, seeing that Gita lay dead, stabbed
through and through, as I saw afterwards, (she made a good fight for
the child), and that her spirit had gone to wherever go the souls of the
brave-hearted, be they white or black. Only on the farther bank of the
river I saw some Zulu scouts who seemed to know my errand, for they
called to me, asking mockingly where was the pretty woman I had come to
meet?

"After that I tried to put the matter out of my head, which indeed was
full enough of other things, since now definite orders had arrived as to
the advance, and with these many troops and officers.

"It was just then that the Zulus began to fire across the river at such
of our people as they saw upon the bank. At these they took aim, and,
as a result, hit nobody. A raw Kaffir with a rifle, in my experience, is
only dangerous when he aims at nothing, for then the bullet looks after
itself and may catch you. To put a stop to this nuisance a regiment of
the friendly natives--there may have been several hundred of them--was
directed to cross the river and clear the kloofs and rocks of the Zulu
skirmishers who were hidden among them. I watched them go of