away, and I had to report to Wilson that I had lost him. Of
course it would not have done to fire. One shot would have been the
match in the powder magazine. We had ridden into the middle of the
Matabele nation.

'At this enclosure we halted and sang out again, making a special appeal
to the King and those about him. No answer came. All was silence. A few
drops of rain fell. Then it lightened, and by the flashes we could just
see men getting ready to fire on us, and Napier shouted to Wilson,
"Major, they are about to attack." I at the same-time saw them closing
in on us rapidly from the right. The next thing to this fifth scherm was
some thick bush; the order was given to get into that, and in a moment
we were out of sight there. One minute after hearing us shout, the
natives with the wagons must have been unable to see a sign of us. Just
then it came on to rain heavily; the sky, already cloudy, got black as
ink; the night fell so dark that you could not see your hand before
you.

'We could not stay the night where we were, for we were so close that
they would hear our horses' bits. So it was decided to work down into
the vlei, creep along close to the other edge of it to the end we first
came round, farthest from the King's camp, and there spend the night.
This, like all the other moves, was taken after consultation with the
officers, several of whom were experienced Kaffir campaigners. It was
rough going; we were unable to see our way, now splashing through the
little dongas that ran down into the belly of the vlei, now working
round them, through bush and soft bottoms. At the far end, in a clump of
thick bush, we dismounted, and Wilson sent off Captain Napier, with a
man of his called Robinson, and the Victoria scout, Bayne, to go back
along the wagon-track to the column, report how things stood, and bring
the column on, with the Maxims, as sharp as possible. Wilson told
Captain Napier to tell Forbes if the bush bothered the Maxim carriages
to abandon them and put the guns on horses, but to bring the Maxims
without fail. We all understood--and we thought the message was
this--that if we were caught there at dawn without the Maxims we were
done for. On the other hand was the chance of capturing the King and
ending the campaign at a stroke.

'The spot we had selected to stop in until the arrival of Forbes was a
clump of heavy bush not far from the King's spoor--and yet so far from
the Kaffir camps that they could no