sword-bayonet which lay on the ground
between them. She made a movement to seize it, with a desperate idea of
defending herself. The savage, however, was too quick for her. He
promptly set his foot on the weapon, saying in English--

"No take it."

By now Nidia's first fear had begun to calm down. She had been in the
power of some of these people before, and they had not harmed her;
wherefore she tried to put on a bold front towards this one.

"Who are you?" she said, speaking slowly to facilitate the man
understanding her. "You frightened me at first; not now."

"_Ikonde_, [baboon] he flighten much more," was the answer made with a
half laugh. Then Nidia noticed that this Matabele had by no means an
unpleasant face; indeed, she could hardly believe that he belonged to
the same race as the fiends who had slaughtered the Hollingworths.

"No be flighten," he went on. "I see you before--one, two, tlee--much
many time."

"Seen me before?" echoed Nidia in astonishment. "Where?"

"Kwa Jonemi."

"Jonemi?" she repeated, with a start. "You know him?"

The warrior laughed.

"Oh, yes, missis. I know him. I Pukele. Jonemi his boy."

"Ah; now I see. You were his servant? You are the man who saved his
life, when the others were all murdered?" For Nidia had, of course,
heard the whole story of the tragedy in Inglefield's quarters.

"I dat man, missie," said the other, with a grin that showed a
magnificent set of teeth. "Umlimo he say kill all Amakiwa--white
people. Pukele say, No kill Jonemi. _Amapolise_ dey kill Ingerfiel,
and missis, and strange white man. I not help. I go wit _amapolise_.
I save Jonemi. See," lifting his foot off the sword-bayonet, "_I_ give
him dis."

"And for that you will never be sorry, I promise you," said Nidia.
"Listen, Pukele. For that, and that alone, you shall have what will buy
twenty cows. _I_ will give it you when we are safe again. Only--you
must never tell Jonemi."

The man broke into extravagant expressions of delight, in his own
tongue, once he had begun to grasp the burden of this promise, declaring
that Jonemi had always been his "father," and he was not going to let
his "father" be killed, even at the bidding of ten Umlimos--looking
round rather furtively however, as he gave utterance to this
sacrilegious sentiment.

"You said you had seen me at Jonemi's," went on Nidia; "but I have never
been there. It must have been somewhere else."

"No somewhere