unwontedly depressed. He groped around for some fresh twigs to throw on
the fire, and found a scanty remnant. As the flame flared up, making a
shimmer on the shining backs of innumerable cockroaches studding the
domed roof, he got out his pouch, and as he filled his pipe he thought
how there was about enough to stand him in for another day's smoke, and
that only. He also thought of Edala.

It was nothing new. He had been flunking of her all the time. Now,
however, he thought of her with a vividity of concentration that almost
seemed to bring her presence here within this squalid hut. Would she
miss him, or would her anxiety be all on account of her father? He did
not know what to think--he could only hope.

His companions were slumbering peacefully. Hour followed hour and still
he sat. The fire burned low, then went out altogether. The keen
breaths of the night air chilled him to the bone. Rolling his blanket
around him--they had been allowed the use of a blanket apiece by their
captors--he lay down and suddenly sleep came to him.

But not for long. Hardly five minutes seemed to have passed before he
was awake again--in reality it was as many hours. Daylight was
streaming into the hut through the wicker-door, but what had really
awakened him, and the other two as well, was a hubbub of voices outside.

"What the devil is that infernal racket?" he growled--a man awakened in
the soundness of a much needed sleep is apt to growl.

"Don't know. I'm listening," returned Thornhill. And the purport of
the said listening made the listener grow rather grave. Then the door
was violently banged against, and excited voices ordered those within to
come forth.

"What is it?" exclaimed Parry, springing up eager and alert. "Are we
rescued?"

But to his two elder companions an idea suggested itself. Had a white
force suddenly appeared and was threatening the kraal? If so the more
excuse they could find for delaying to come forth from the hut the
better.

"What is it?" called back Thornhill. "Wait now. _Gahle_, _gahle_! we
must dress ourselves."

They had lain down in their clothes, of course, but anything for an
excuse to gain time. But those without did not see things in the same
light. The uproar redoubled.

"Come forth! Come forth! _Au_! Dress yourselves? You shall be
dressed--in red."

Thornhill and Elvesdon looked at each other, and the look was that of
men who knew that their last hour had c