been
worn by the continual passage of baboons; the second, that something
white was hanging on a bush near the top of the ascent.

It was a pocket-handkerchief.

Now there was no more doubt about the matter. With a beating heart I
began the ascent. For the first twenty feet it was comparatively easy,
for the rock shelved; the next ten feet was very difficult, but still
possible to an active man, and I achieved it, followed by Indaba-zimbi.
But the last twelve or fifteen feet could only be scaled by throwing a
rope over the trunk of a stunted tree, which grew at the bottom of the
opening. This we accomplished with some trouble, and the rest was easy.
A foot or two above my head the handkerchief fluttered in the wind.
Hanging to the rope, I grasped it. It was my wife's. As I did so I
noticed the face of a baboon peering at me over the edge of the cleft,
the first baboon we had seen that morning. The brute gave a bark and
vanished. Thrusting the handkerchief into my breast, I set my feet
against the cliff and scrambled up as hard as I could go. I knew that
we had no time to lose, for the baboon would quickly alarm the others. I
gained the cleft. It was a mere arched passage cut by water, ending in
a gulley, which led to a wide open space of some sort. I looked through
the passage and saw that the gulley was black with baboons. On they came
by the hundred. I unslung my elephant gun from my shoulders and waited,
calling to the men below to come up with all possible speed. The brutes
streamed on down the gloomy gulf towards me, barking, grunting, and
showing their huge teeth. I waited till they were within fifteen yards.
Then I fired the elephant gun, which was loaded with slugs, right into
the thick of them. In that narrow place the report echoed like a cannon
shot, but its sound was quickly swallowed in the volley of piercing
human-sounding groans and screams that followed. The charge of heavy
slugs had ploughed through the host of baboons, of which at least a
dozen lay dead or dying in the passage. For a moment they hesitated,
then they came on again with a hideous clamour. Fortunately by this time
Indaba-zimbi, who also had a gun, was standing by my side, otherwise I
should have been torn to pieces before I could re-load. He fired both
barrels into them, and again checked the rush. But they came on again,
and notwithstanding the appearance of two other natives with guns, which
they let off with more or less success, we