. The fact was that the
shock of capture and the pain of his bruised leg, coming upon the strain
of the few days preceding, had told upon even Lamonts iron
constitution--added to which several days of wet weather and exposure
had brought about a bad attack of up-country fever. Now he lay covered
with several blankets, yet shivering as though he were lying in contact
with an iceberg.

His escape from death at the assegais of his captors was hardly short of
miraculous; and was partly due to the wave of wonder that went through
those who beheld him, reckoning as they did that he had been blown to
atoms in his own dwelling, partly to the intervention of Zwabeka; about
half of the impi which had reinforced the assailants of the Kezane Store
being composed of that chief's own followers. Now Zwabeka was not
acting out of sheer good-nature when thus intervening, although, as a
matter of fact, he liked Lamont, and would rather see him alive than
dead. He had a motive underlying, and the motive was this. Zwabeka did
not believe in the rising or in its ultimate success. He had been more
or less drawn into it, but he was far too shrewd a man to believe that
the whites would ever be driven out of the country, or that, even if
they were, they would not return in tenfold force. Then where would he,
and others, come in? Therefore, he was for `hedging,' in pursuance of
which line he was for saving Lamont's life--if possible.

If possible! But these were times when it hardly seemed possible--when
more than once a furious clamour was raised for the prisoner's life. It
had been discovered that he had been in command of the force which had
offered such a staunch and stout resistance at the Kezane, and before.
This was no man to let go, they represented, to do them incalculable
damage in the future. Besides, think of their own people who had been
slain--was no vengeance due to them? And the agitators were backed up
by at least one chief of equal standing with himself, together with
Gingamanzi and his band of Abantwana Mlimo.

But Zwabeka, albeit a morose savage, and given to pessimism, was a man
of character; and having made up his mind to the line he had chosen to
adopt, had no idea of wavering a hair's-breadth therefrom. Wherefore,
when such tumults were at their height, he would ask the clamourers what
satisfaction there could possibly be in killing a man who was nearly
dead already--pointing to the prisoner, who was so wea