e show was over he thought he might as well investigate it.

But the first glance at the scrawl which he unfolded made him start.
This is how it ran:

"Mr Elvesdon, resident Magistrate.

"Sir,

"You are a good man. I not want to see you hurt. I not want to see
Christian ladies hurt. I am Christian too. Get your party away so
soon as you ever can.

"I not give my name--but--do.

"Remember Mr Hope."

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

AFTER THE WARNING.

Just as he had thought, decided Elvesdon. Clearly the letter was from
some half--educated native, but how different its import to that which
he had expected. Was it a hoax, he wondered? Anyway its substance was
sufficiently disquieting. Surely so tried and trusted a chief as old
Tongwana could not be guilty of any such ghastly act of treachery as
that hinted at. His people, too, had paid up their taxes without a
murmur. The thing looked like a hoax.

It might be well to be on the safe side; to get his party away at once.
But then his official _prestige_ and influence would be irretrievably
wrecked. He would be showing distrust--fear--of those over whom he held
authority. But the sting of the whole communication lay in the
concluding words, "Remember Mr Hope."

These referred to a tragedy, which had befallen a little over a quarter
of a century back. The victim had been a magistrate in Pondoland, and
had been treacherously set upon and murdered, together with his two
clerks, while witnessing just such an entertainment as had been provided
here to-day.

Elvesdon was a boy at the time but he had since served in Pondoland--as
we heard him tell Thornhill--and there at that time the event was still
sufficiently fresh. But for those concluding words he would have felt
inclined to set the communication down as a practical joke.

Rapidly his clear mind reviewed the position. His camp was quite a mile
away; they had strolled that distance in order to gain the point whence
they could overlook the mimic attack upon the kraal. The horses were
knee-haltered, and grazing under the charge of his two boys, and they
were a little beyond, on the other side of the camp. The impi was
marching down the valley in a direction which should take it rather away
from the camp than towards it. Tongwana's kraal seemed deserted; even
the women had hurried out to see the sham fight.

"We may as well get back to camp now," he said carelessly. "The show's
about