e me miss that stroke
was joy at seeing my father, the greatest of all _izanusi_ in our
midst."

"_Whau_!"

"Mr Lamont, do come and help us with the prizes. They balloted for who
should distribute them, and Lucy was chosen. Do come and stand by us
and help. They are going to begin now."

"I'm most awfully sorry, Miss Vidal, but I can't just now."

"You won't?" said Clare curtly, for she was not accustomed to be
refused.

"I can't," he repeated. "Do believe I have a good reason--and don't
direct any attention to me just now. Believe me, a great deal hangs
upon it."

"Very well," she said, and left him, marvelling. It must be as he had
said--still that he should refuse to do something for her and prefer to
talk to this squalid old savage instead--why, it was incomprehensible.

"What is covered up on that waggon, _Nkose_!" said the witch-doctor,
pointing to a waggon which stood just inside the fence. Its position,
perhaps, directly facing the Ehlatini ridge, suggested an inspiration to
Lamont. He answered--

"_Izikwa-kwa_." [Maxim guns.]

"'M--'m! _Izikwa-kwa_?" hummed the other, wholly unable to suppress a
considerable start of surprise. Then, recovering himself, he grinned,
in bland incredulity.

"_Inkosi_ is joking," he said. "There is no war."

"Nevertheless those are _izikwa-kwa_, loaded and ready to pour forth a
storm of bullets for the rest of the day;" and the speaker devoutly
prayed that the bar-keeper might not send his boy to get out another
supply of soda-water bottles from beneath the sail and thus expose the
fraud.

"Come. We will go and see them receive the rewards, those who have won
them. But first I would have something to remember the chief of
_izanusi_ by. So sell me that red cap which is on thy head, Qubani,"
producing some silver.

"Now nay, my father, now nay, for the nights are cold and this red cap
is warm--ah! ah! warm. See, here is a fine horn snuff-box, be content
with that instead, as a gift."

"Here I hold the lives of twelve men--six on each side," answered
Lamont, showing him the butt of a revolver, in one of his side pockets.
"If I receive not that red cap this instant, the first life it shall
spill will be that of the chief of all _izanusi_."

Qubani grunted, then his hand went slowly to his head. It was a tense,
a nerve-racking moment. Would this savage, defying death, hurl the
blood-red symbol high in the air, or--

The two were alone together now