wn him a
long while, some time before the war, in fact, and he's a wonderfully
straight and reliable man. Well, a good many years ago a strange thing
came within his experience. Off the coast of Zululand, about where the
Umfolosi river runs out at Saint Lucia Bay, there arrived a ship--a
small ship, I gathered from his account, probably a brig or schooner.
Now this in itself was an event, because there was absolutely no trade
done with Zululand by sea in those days, any more than there is now.
But where this craft undertook to anchor was off one of the most rotten,
swampy and uninhabited parts of the whole coast. A boat put off from
her and came ashore, and in it were four men. They landed, and no
sooner had they done so than the vessel, which appears to have been
lying a good way out, was seen suddenly to disappear. She had, in fact,
gone to the bottom."

"One minute, Fleetwood," interrupted Wyvern. "When was this--have you
any sort of idea?"

"Yes, I have as it happens. It can't have been many months before the
big fight between Cetywayo and Umbulazi for the succession. Now that
came off at the end of 1856, which locates this earlier in the same
year. Good while back, isn't it? Close upon thirty years."

"Right. Go on."

"Well, then, they took some packages out of the boat; not very large
ones, but still, it seems, about as much as they could manage. They hid
the boat under bushes and started inland. All this, of course, was
seen, because although that part of the country is poorly populated,
still there were, and are, people there, and such an unusual occurrence
was not likely to go unspotted. But the Zulus didn't show themselves.
They kept out of sight, and shadowed the four."

"What sort of fellows were the said four?" asked Wyvern. "Nationality,
for instance. English?"

"I don't think so. From the account they were dark-skinned,
black-bearded chaps, and wore large rings in their ears. I should say--
though I've no personal experience of either--Italians or Spaniards--or,
maybe, Portuguese."

"Ah! very likely. The latter most probably."

"Well, they held along, inland, keeping the course of the Umfolosi river
not far on their left--that is, travelling north-west. They seemed to
have their own stores, for they avoided the kraals, and now and then
shot game; for they were well armed. When they came to where the Black
Umfolosi forks more northward they didn't hesitate but struck up it,