er his little
tricks," answered Fleetwood decisively. "Besides, it's him or us, and
you know what we've come up here for, Wyvern. I'm afraid you'll never
be practical, and it's time you learnt to be by now. I've never shirked
helping a friend in a row, but I'm not going out of my way to stick my
head into a hornet's nest for such an unhung blackguard as this."

"Hallo! What the deuce is up!" exclaimed Wyvern as the furious gallop
of a horse drew near. Nor was the mystery long in solving, for there
dashed right into the camp, and at headlong pace, no less a personage
than he whom they had just been discussing. Moreover he was bleeding
from a wound in the hand, and another in the head.

"Chaps," he roared, flinging himself unsteadily from the saddle. "Get
out the shooters mighty quick. The Usutus have looted my kraal, and are
coming on, hot foot, behind me. They'll be here in a sec."

Fleetwood and Wyvern looked at each other, and both thought the same.
Instead of putting their heads into a hornets' nest for this ruffian, he
had brought the hornets' nest about them.

"Oh, ah, but it can't be helped," he jeered, reading their thoughts.
"We're all in this together. You're white men and you can't refuse to
stand by another white man. So get out the shooters, and we'll give 'em
hell directly."

Our friends' camp consisted of a strong _scherm_, made of thorn boughs
tightly interlaced. Within this stood the two waggons, and at nightfall
the horses and oxen were brought inside, a necessary precaution, for the
bushy and broken fastnesses of the Lebombo range still contained a few
lions. Now, even as they were getting out arms and ammunition, the boys
who were outside came running in in alarm. Hlabulana, seated on the
ground, was taking snuff with his usual imperturbability. Mtezani
stood, equally imperturbable except that he gripped his shield and broad
assegais in such wise as to suggest that he was ready for as much fight
as anybody chose to put up for him.

There was not long to wait. The _scherm_ was erected in an open space,
and now from the lines of cover, swarms of Zulus were issuing. The
full-sized war-shields and certain personal adornments left no doubt as
to their errand being the reverse of a peaceful one, as they poured
forward ringing in the _scherm_ on every side. And, swift with thought
there flashed through Wyvern's brain the knowledge that they two had
attained the object of their search