which showed that at least one among them had some previous knowledge of
the country, and this, in fact, was the case."

"How is it they weren't all captured and marched off to the king?"

"Yes. That's one of the very first questions that occurred to me.
Wyvern, and I put it at once. Mpande was king then. The answer was
that the country was in such a disturbed state just then, and the people
so unsettled, that the few living in those parts were extremely
unwilling to go to Nodwengu, for fear they should be obliged to take
sides in the row brewing between Cetywayo and his brother. You see, the
coast-dwelling Zulus are by no meant the flower of the nation, and these
didn't want to be drawn into any fighting at all. They preferred to sit
tight at home. They knew, too, that there was little chance of them
being hauled over the coals for it, because things were so excessively
sultry at and around the seat of government of the Zulu nation, that the
high authorities had no time to bother their heads about anything
further afield.

"Well, things went on so for a time, and their march progressed. The
people inhabiting the coast country took for granted these chaps had
been shipwrecked, and were making their way to the nearest settlements
of other whites, and it was not till they got in among the passes of the
Lebombo range that they were in any way interfered with, and then not
until they had reached the western side.

"This is where Hlabulana comes into the story. He was a young 'un
then--an _umfane_. Two of them surprised him while stealthily watching
the other two, and he says he has been no nearer death, even in the
thickest part of the late war, than he was on that occasion. One of
them could talk some Zulu, and they only spared him on condition he
should go with them and help carry the loads; and this he agreed to do,
partly out of scare and partly out of curiosity. Then the time came
when they quarrelled among themselves, the upshot of which was that two
of them knifed the other two in their sleep.

"Now came a deadlock. The two who were left were unable to carry all
the plunder, besides they were a good deal weakened and exhausted by
their long tramp. They had to hide most of their stuff, presumably
intending to return for it at some future time. They buried it
accordingly in a cave on the western side of the Lebombo, but Hlabulana
wasn't allowed to see the exact spot."

"Then how does he know that th