on the hillside, about four hundred yards to the right of
where we were.

"'Let us go and see,' said Nala, summoning his soldiers."

VIII--MAIWA IS AVENGED

"The impi formed up; alas, an hour before it had been stronger by a
third than it was now. Then Nala detached two hundred men to collect
and attend to the injured, and at my suggestion issued a stringent order
that none of the enemy's wounded, and above all no women or children,
were to be killed, as is the savage custom among African natives. On the
contrary, they were to be allowed to send word to their women that they
might come in to nurse them and fear nothing, for Nala made war upon
Wambe the tyrant, and not on the Matuku tribe.

"Then we started with some four hundred men for the chief's kraal. Very
soon we were there. It was, as I have said, placed against the mountain
side, but within the fortified lines, and did not at all cover more
than an acre and a half of ground. Outside was a tiny reed fence, within
which, neatly arranged in a semi-circular line, stood the huts of the
chief's principal wives. Maiwa of course knew every inch of the kraal,
for she had lived in it, and led us straight to the entrance. We peeped
through the gateway--not a soul was to be seen. There were the huts and
there was the clear open space floored with a concrete of lime, on which
the sun beat fiercely, but nobody could we see or hear.

"'The jackal has gone to earth,' said Maiwa; 'he will be in the cave
behind his hut,' and she pointed with her spear towards another small
and semi-circular enclosure, over which a large hut was visible, that
had the cliff itself for a background. I stared at this fence; by
George! it was true, it was entirely made of tusks of ivory planted in
the ground with their points bending outwards. The smallest ones, though
none were small, were placed nearest to the cliff on either side, but
they gradually increased in size till they culminated in two enormous
tusks, which, set up so that their points met, something in the shape of
an inverted V, formed the gateway to the hut. I was dumbfoundered with
delight; and indeed, where is the elephant-hunter who would not be, if
he suddenly saw five or six hundred picked tusks set up in a row, and
only waiting for him to take them away? Of course the stuff was what is
known as 'black' ivory; that is, the exterior of the tusks had become
black from years or perhaps centuries of exposure to wind and weath