ing intently.
You or I could have heard nothing, but he can, and what he hears is the
sound of hoof-strokes.

Down the road now he takes his way, walking rapidly, and soon the
hoof-strokes draw very near indeed. Then he stops, and starts singing
to himself in a low, melodious croon.

The horseman appears in sight, advancing at a pace that is half
jog-trot, half canter. The moonlight reveals a thick-set, burly figure,
encased in a suit of clerical black. But the face which now shows
between the bow of the white "choker" and the wide-awake hat is not many
shades lighter than the whole get-up.

"_Saku bona, Mfundisi_," is the greeting of the watcher, whose singing,
purposely turned on to guard against the horse shying or stampeding at
the sudden appearance of anything living, has had that effect.

"_Yeh-bo_," answered the other. "Do I see Manamandhla, the Zulu?"

"Of the People of the Heavens am I, _Umfundisi_," was the reply, but the
tone in which the speaker enunciates the word "Umfundisi"--which means
"teacher" or "missionary"--contains a very thinly veiled sneer. "The
people down there have been awaiting you long."

"In the Cause, brother, in our holy Cause, no man's time is his own,"
answered the horseman, sanctimoniously. "_Whau_! have not I been
inoculating its sacred principles into the people at Ncapele's kraal--or
striving to, for Ncapele is old, and when a man is old enthusiasm is
dead within him. It is the young whom we have to teach. Wherefore I
could not turn my back upon him too soon."

The speaker did not think it necessary to explain that the undue time it
had taken to roast the succulent young goat which Ncapele had caused to
be slaughtered for his refection had had anything to do with the
lateness of his arrival. For that chief, although "a heathen man," was
not unmindful of the duties of hospitality. Which definition applied
equally to Manamandhla the Zulu; wherefore the attitude of that fine
savage towards the smug preacher to whom he had undertaken the office of
guide, was one of ill-concealed contempt.

"And the people--the people of Babatyana," went on the latter, "are they
ready to hear the good news--the glorious gospel of light and freedom?"

"They are ready," answered Manamandhla, who was striding beside the
other, easily keeping pace with the horse. "They are ready--ah-ah--very
ready."

"That is well--very well."

Here was an edifying picture, was it not, this zealous mi