ght changed, and I knew it was no spook that
passed us by, but the black one, Zero himself, escaped in Muzi Zimba's
dress, and so I beckoned to Barad, my father, and down the well we went
to follow on his trail; but when we reached the narrow mountain pass, we
found it all blocked up with mighty rocks rolled from above, so that we
could not move them. Then climbed we forth again, and, skirting round
the mountain, we filled our ready hands with arms from the dead who lie
out yonder; and so sped we onwards through the night running our utmost
speed, but naught did we see, my father, until at dawn we struck the
Black One's footsteps crossing the western veldt, and these we followed
till the sun grew hot at noon, and so we tracked him to the thorn-girt
kraal of a mighty host of low black fellows; those men, they were, my
father, whose king was here when first we hither came.

"Lying hid, O chief, we watched, as well we might, and when the sun went
down, the host set out, led forward by the Black One, and the track they
took, my father, was the track of the women and the children who have
gone towards the sea.

"And then, my father, did I leave the Chieftain of the Stick to mark the
trail, and follow on their rear, whilst I returned at speed to tell thee
all.

"And now, O chiefs, think wisely and think quickly what ye do. There is
no time to waste--your army, split in twain by thrice a thousand men,
must travel like the wind if ye would happen on the spot, ere Zero eats
your friends and stamps them flat."

Briefly and succinctly, Grenville gave the Mormons the substance of the
Zulu's thrilling news, adding that, from his own knowledge, he could
tell them that this king was a very great warrior and the most notorious
slave-dealer in all the country side, with a fighting band of quite
three thousand men, who were experts in the use of both bow and spear.

Replying, the old Prophet said that he and his colleagues freely
pardoned the Zulu and his sable friend, and also thanked them for their
zeal, and would now ask further what course Grenville, who knew the
country so well, would advise them all to follow. Knowing, however,
that Amaxosa must have fully thought out his plan of action, Grenville
informed him that the ancient ones had pardoned his escape, and that of
Barad, and would wish to hear his plan for eating up the foe.

The great Zulu had quietly sat him down, and taken snuff to his heart's
content, but now he ro