ere rather often, and stuck here a little longer
than you wanted, how long would it be before you started to kick him off
the place?"

"Oh, not long, I expect," answered Falkner equably, amid the general
laugh at his expense.

"Quite so. Then from that, moment you might as well shut up shop."

"Isn't this Tyingoza the chief of the location?" asked Miss Sewin.

"Yes. He was here this morning."

"Oh, I should like to see him."

"You shall," I answered. "He's sure to be here to-night. If not I'll
send over for him the first thing in the morning. He's a great friend
of mine."

Falkner guffawed. "Friend of yours! Oh, I say now, Glanton. A
nigger!"

"All serene, Sewin. I've known quite as fine fellows in their way among
`niggers' as you call them--as among white men. Strange, isn't it?
But, fact, for all that."

"Now I come to think of it," said the Major, "I've noticed that the men
I've met over here, who have large experience of natives, invariably
speak well of them."

I rejoiced that the old man was coming to his senses on that point,
because there was less likelihood of him getting disgusted with and
leaving the neighbourhood.

"You have a perfectly lovely view from here, at any rate," said Miss
Sewin, when he had debated the oft-threshed-out question a little
further. "How black and jagged the Drakensberg peaks look over there.
And so that is Zululand?" turning to the expanse beyond the Tugela.

"By Jove!" said the Major. "It strikes me we are pretty much at
Cetywayo's mercy, right on the border as we are."

"If you're never at the mercy of anybody worse, you won't have cause for
uneasiness, Major," I said. "As long as he's let alone he'll let us
alone. There isn't a native chief in the whole of Africa who is less
likely to molest us in any way."

"And are these people round you Zulus, Mr Glanton?" went on Miss Sewin,
her beautiful eyes wide open as she gazed forth upon the country that
had awakened her interest.

"Yes. Those on the immediate border here, Tyingoza's people, and two or
three more of the large locations along the river. Further in they are
made up of all sorts of the tribes originally inhabiting what is now
Natal. Ah! Do you hear that? Here come some of them at any rate."

"Yes. They are singing, and quite well too."

I looked at her as she stood listening; her beautiful face lit up with
animation, and, I must admit, I was enjoying the position of host and
entert