out of such a crew.'

'They are my people,' he said simply.

By this time we had forded the Great Letaba, and were making our way
through the clumps of forest to the crown of the plateau. I noticed
that Laputa kept well in cover, preferring the tangle of wooded
undergrowth to the open spaces of the water-meadows. As he talked, his
wary eyes were keeping a sharp look-out over the landscape. I thrilled
with the thought that my own folk were near at hand.

Once Laputa checked me with his hand as I was going to speak, and in
silence we crossed the kloof of a little stream. After that we struck a
long strip of forest and he slackened his watch.

'If you fight for a great cause,' I said, 'why do you let a miscreant
like Henriques have a hand in it? You must know that the man's only
interest in you is the chance of loot. I am for you against Henriques,
and I tell you plain that if you don't break the snake's back it will
sting you.'

Laputa looked at me with an odd, meditative look.

'You misunderstand again, Mr Storekeeper. The Portuguese is what you
call a "mean white." His only safety is among us. I am campaigner
enough to know that an enemy, who has a burning grievance against my
other enemies, is a good ally. You are too hard on Henriques. You and
your friends have treated him as a Kaffir, and a Kaffir he is in
everything but Kaffir virtues. What makes you so anxious that
Henriques should not betray me?'

'I'm not a mean white,' I said, 'and I will speak the truth. I hope,
in God's name, to see you smashed; but I want it done by honest men,
and not by a yellow devil who has murdered my dog and my friends.
Sooner or later you will find him out; and if he escapes you, and
there's any justice in heaven, he won't escape me.'

'Brave words,' said Laputa, with a laugh, and then in one second he
became rigid in the saddle. We had crossed a patch of meadow and
entered a wood, beyond which ran the highway. I fancy he was out in his
reckoning, and did not think the road so near. At any rate, after a
moment he caught the sound of horses, and I caught it too. The wood
was thin, and there was no room for retreat, while to recross the
meadow would bring us clean into the open. He jumped from his horse,
untied with amazing quickness the rope halter from its neck, and
started to gag me by winding the thing round my jaw.

I had no time to protest that I would keep faith, and my right hand was
tethered to his pomm