her quick flash.

"'What is it?' I asked.

"'It is the spears of Wambe's impi, and they travel fast,' she answered
coolly.

"I suppose that my face showed how little I liked the news, for she went
on--

"'Fear not; they will stay to feast upon the elephants, and while they
feast we shall journey. We may yet escape.'

"After that we turned and pushed on again, till at length it grew so
dark that we had to wait for the rising of the moon, which lost us
time, though it gave us rest. Fortunately none of the men had seen that
ominous flashing of the spears; if they had, I doubt if even I could
have kept control of them. As it was, they travelled faster than I had
ever known loaded natives to go before, so thorough-paced was their
desire to see the last of Wambe's country. I, however, took the
precaution to march last of all, fearing lest they should throw away
their loads to lighten themselves, or, worse still, the tusks; for these
kind of fellows would be capable of throwing anything away if their own
skins were at stake. If the pious AEneas, whose story you were reading
to me the other night, had been a mongrel Delagoa Bay native, Anchises
would have had a poor chance of getting out of Troy, that is, if he was
known to have made a satisfactory will.

"At moonrise we set out again, and with short occasional halts travelled
till dawn, when we were forced to rest and eat. Starting once more,
about half-past five, we crossed the river at noon. Then began the long
toilsome ascent through thick bush, the same in which I shot the bull
buffalo, only some twenty miles to the west of that spot, and not more
than twenty-five miles on the hither side of Wambe's kraal. There were
six or seven miles of this dense bush, and hard work it was to get
through it. Next came a belt of scattered forest which was easier to
pass, though, in revenge, the ground was steeper. This was about two
miles wide, and we passed it by about four in the afternoon. Above this
scattered bush lay a long steep slope of boulder-strewn ground, which
ran up to the foot of the little peak some three miles away. As we
emerged, footsore and weary, on to this inhospitable plain, some of the
men looking round caught sight of the spears of Wambe's impi advancing
rapidly not more than a mile behind us.

"At first there was a panic, and the bearers tried to throw off their
loads and run, but I harangued them, calling out to them that certainly
I would shoot the fir