quiet journey in
strange lands, which is what I mean to do."

"Ah! well, Macumazahn, in strange lands one meets strange men with whom
one does not always agree, and then _Inkosikaas_ begins to talk," and he
whirled the great axe round his head, making the air whistle as it was
forced through the gouge at its back.

I could get no more out of him, so having extracted a promise from him
that nothing should happen to Thomaso who, I pointed out, was probably
quite unjustly accused, I went away.

Still, the whole incident left a disagreeable impression on my mind,
and I began to wish that we were safe across the Zambesi without more
trouble. But we could not start at once because two of the Zulus were
still not well enough to travel and there were many preparations to
be made about the loads, and so forth, since the waggon must be left
behind. Also, and this was another complication--Hans had a sore upon
his foot, resulting from the prick of a poisonous thorn, and it was
desirable that this should be quite healed before we marched.

So it came about that I was really glad when Captain Robertson suggested
that we should go down to a certain swamp formed, I gathered, by some
small tributary of the Zambesi to take part in a kind of hippopotamus
battue. It seemed that at this season of the year these great animals
always frequented the place in numbers, also that by barring a neck of
deep water through which they gained it, they, or a proportion of them,
could be cut off and killed.

This had been done once or twice in the past, though not of late,
perhaps because Captain Robertson had lacked the energy to organise such
a hunt. Now he wished to do so again, taking advantage of my presence,
both because of the value of the hides of the sea-cows which were cut up
to be sent to the coast and sold as _sjamboks_ or whips, and because of
the sport of the thing. Also I think he desired to show me that he was
not altogether sunk in sloth and drink.

I fell in with the idea readily enough, since in all my hunting life I
had never seen anything of the sort, especially as I was told that the
expedition would not take more than a week and I reckoned that the sick
men and Hans would not be fit to travel sooner. So great preparations
were made. The riverside natives, whose share of the spoil was to be the
carcases of the slain sea-cows, were summoned by hundreds and sent off
to their appointed stations to beat the swamps at a signal gi