.

"Keep these children entirely out of sight, Beryl," enjoined her father,
"and it'll be no harm if you don't show yourself during the _indaba_.
There may be a lot of bluster and talking big; but it won't come to
anything worse, so don't be scared, any of you."

"I wish Brian were here, father," said Beryl anxiously.

"So do I, but he isn't. And if ever you've known of a situation in
which Brian has proved unable to take care of himself, I haven't. He'll
be all right."

The dogs, which had been walking up and down outside, growling, now
broke into such a clamour as to drown all speech, and charged furiously
down upon the advancing Kafirs as the foremost came in sight round the
bend of the cattle kraal, and would hardly be called off, even by their
master's most imperative tones, aided by two or three kerries shied at
them by the newcomers, an act in itself significant of the ugly and
dangerous mood which was upon our unwelcome visitors.

"Seems as if we'd got the whole of Kuliso's location," said Septimus
Matterson, as we took in the crowd which was advancing upon us. The
kloof indeed seemed black with Kafirs. Those who had horses dismounted
as they came in sight of the house, and the whole body of them came
straight on with a fellness of purpose that augured the worst.

It was a tense moment. Our unpleasantness with the people at the kraal
on our way in pursuit of the stolen oxen was nothing to this for a
situation. There must have been hundreds and hundreds of Kafirs here;
hulking, ochre-smeared barbarians, some of gigantic stature, all with an
expression of menace and determination and ferocity upon their savage
faces. Others, too, were coming on in the distance to swell their
numbers. My hand was closed round the butt of the revolver in my
pocket. I looked at Septimus Matterson. He had not moved, and was
still standing, calm and undismayed, confronting the furious and
threatening rout.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

A FELL ALTERNATIVE.

"Halt!"

Septimus Matterson put forth his hand and uttered just the one word, and
the effect was like fire applied to the train. A roar of menace and
fury ran through the whole crowd. A forest of dark grisly hands seemed
to tighten with murderous grip upon kerries, and assegais were shaken at
us; but the injunction was obeyed. The foremost were about fifty paces
from us, and others came swarming up in the background, forming an
immense half circle.

"We have come