e pale beneath his tan. Even Hans was affected, for
he whispered to me in Dutch: "These are not men; these are devils, Baas,
and this journey of ours is one into hell."

Only Ragnall sat stern, silent, and apparently quite unmoved. Indeed
there was something almost sphinx-like about the set and expression of
his handsome face. Moreover, I felt sure that Harut and Marut recognized
the man's strength and determination and that he was one with whom they
must reckon seriously. Beneath all their smiles and courtesies I could
read this knowledge in their eyes; also that it was causing them grave
anxiety. It was as though they knew that here was one against whom their
power had no avail, whose fate was the master of their fate. In a sense
Harut admitted this to me, for suddenly he looked up and said in a
changed voice and in Bantu:

"You are a good reader of hearts, O Macumazana, almost as good as I am.
But remember that there is One Who writes upon the book of the heart,
Who is the Lord of us who do but read, and that what He writes, that
will befall, strive as we may, for in His hands is the future."

"Quite so," I replied coolly, "and that is why I am going with you to
Kendahland and fear you not at all."

"So it is and so let it be," he answered. "And now, Lords, are you ready
to start? For long is the road and who knows what awaits us ere we see
its end?"

"Yes," I replied, "long is the road of life and who knows what awaits us
ere we see its end--and after?"

Three hours later I halted the splendid white riding-camel upon which
I was mounted, and looked back from the crest of a wave of the desert.
There far behind us on the horizon, by the help of my glasses, I could
make out the site of the camp we had left and even the tall ant-hill
whence I had gazed in the moonlight at our mysterious escort which
seemed to have sprung from the desert as though by magic.

This was the manner of our march: A mile or so ahead of us went a picket
of eight or ten men mounted on the swiftest beasts, doubtless to give
warning of any danger. Next, three or four hundred yards away, followed
a body of about fifty Kendah, travelling in a double line, and behind
these the baggage men, mounted like everyone else, and leading behind
them strings of camels laden with water, provisions, tents of skin
and all our goods, including the fifty rifles and the ammunition that
Ragnall had brought from England. Then came we three white men and Han