it] _Ha_!"

And with each throaty, bloodthirsty gasp he plunges the knife, which he
has at last managed to free, into the body of the nearly exhausted
chief, drawing it down finally in a terrible ripping stroke. A single
gasping groan, and Ziboza sinks, as his adversary throws him from him.
And then the said adversary knows no more. The swirl of the flood
sweeping into the chasm, seems to rope him out, and the body of Hilary
Blachland, together with that of his savage antagonist, is borne down
within the raging rush of waters, rolling over and over on its way to
the Zambesi and the sea.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

"THAT IRRECLAIMABLE SCAMP!"

For some while after his departure from Lannercost, their recent guest
occupied a very large share in the conversation and thoughts of its
inmates. He had been so long with them, had become so much one of
themselves in their quiet, rather isolated life, and now his absence had
left a very real void.

He had written to them with fair frequency, telling of up-country
doings--of the growing aggressiveness of the Matabele, and of the
contemplated expedition, with the object of bringing Lo Bengula to book,
then of the actual formation of such expedition, by that time on the eve
of a start, and how he and young West had volunteered upon the Salisbury
Column, and were to serve in the scouting section. Then correspondence
had ceased. The expedition had set out.

It was then that Bayfield found himself importuned to increase the
circulation of two or three other newspapers, in addition to those
regularly sent him, by one subscriber, in order that no chance might be
missed of seeing the very latest concerning the Matabele war, and upon
such, Lyn and small Fred would fasten every post day.

"I say, Lyn!" cried the latter, disinterring his nose from a newly
opened sheet, "but won't Mr Blachland make Lo Bengula scoot, when once
he gets at him? Man! but I'd like to be there."

"But he and the King are great friends, Fred."

"Pooh! How can they be friends if they're at war? _Nouw ja_--but he
just will scoot old Lo Ben! I'd like to be there."

"I hope they'll take all sorts of proper precautions against surprises,"
said Lyn seriously, for she was just old enough to remember the shudder
of gloom which ran through the whole country when the disastrous news of
Isandhlwana had come upon it like a storm-burst fourteen years
previously. It had struck vividly upon her childish imagination