dren. The
men were armed. We put a bold face on it, and gave out the usual
announcement that we did not want to kill anybody, but must have the
King. The natives seemed surprised and undecided; presently, as Major
Wilson and the rest of the patrol joined us, one of them volunteered to
come along with us and guide us to the King. He was only just ahead, the
man said. How many men were with him? we asked. The man put up his
little finger--dividing it up, so. Five fingers mean an impi; part of
the little finger, like that, should mean fifty to one hundred men.
Wilson said to me, "Go on ahead, taking that man beside your saddle;
cover him, fire if necessary, but don't you let him slip."

'So we started off again at a trot, for the light was failing, the man
running beside my horse, and I keeping a sharp eye on him. The track led
through some thick bush. We passed several scherms. Five miles from the
river we came to a long narrow vlei [a vlei is a shallow valley,
generally with water in it], which lay across our path. It was now
getting quite dark. Coming out of the bush on the near edge of the vlei,
before going down into it, I saw fires lit, and scherms and figures
showing dark against the fires right along the opposite edge of the
vlei. We skirted the vlei to our left, got round the end of it, and at
once rode through a lot of scherms containing hundreds of people. As we
went, Captain Napier shouted the message about the King wherever there
was a big group of people. We passed scherm after scherm, and still more
Matabele, more fires, and on we rode. Instead of the natives having been
scattering from the King, they had been gathering. But it was too late
to turn. We were hard upon our prize, and it was understood among the
Wilson patrol that they were going to bring the King in if man could do
it. The natives were astonished: they thought the whole column was on
them: men jumped up, and ran hither and thither, rifle in hand. We went
on without stopping, and as we passed more and more men came running
after us. Some of them were crowding on the rearmost men, so Wilson told
off three fellows to "keep those niggers back." They turned, and kept
the people in check. At last, nearly at the other end of the vlei,
having passed five sets of scherms, we came upon what seemed to be the
King's wagons, standing in a kind of enclosure, with a saddled white
horse tethered by it. Just before this, in the crowd and hurry, my man
slipped