s of the animals began to be heard, and the jackals soon found
out the carcass of the rhinoceros. The stars were very brilliant, and
the soldier sat thinking of the past, and peopling in imagination those
fantastic masses of fallen ruin which had once at that hour rang with
bustle and merriment. The wind came in hot puffs, making the date and
palmyra leaves rustle as they waved to and fro; the noise of the stream
breaking over the fallen masonry was very monotonous, and soon the
sentry found himself dozing. He rose, heaped fresh wood on the fire,
looked out from the ledge into the night, listened to the cracking of
the branches, which told him that elephants were not far off, and then
again sat down.

The moon rose, silvering with its beams the finely-cut leaves of the
tall palmyra and the broken ruins, shining on the human figure at the
entrance of the cave, and gleaming on the bright barrel and lock of the
English rifle; but the soldier slept on his post; the jackals fought
over the carrion, the fire burned lower and lower, and finally went out.
Day was dawning, when a loud shout close to the mouth of the cavern
woke both the soldier and the missionary, but only to find themselves
surrounded by a band of the Amatonga warriors fully armed, while the
savage eyes and filed teeth of their chief Umhleswa, seemed to give a
more vindictive expression than ever to his repulsive face.

Volume 1, Chapter XI.

UMHLESWA'S BARGAIN.

The following day the whole kraal was in commotion, Umhleswa summoning
the braves of the tribe around him in council, the white men not being
deprived of their arms, but very closely watched. The assembly was a
noisy one. On the one hand the native superstitions invested the ruins
with a sacred character, and the Amatonga chief had been placed where he
was to prevent any access to them by Europeans. There could not be a
doubt that the whole tribe had been guilty of negligence, their chief
included, and that they were responsible to the king of Manica for what
had happened. On the other, Masheesh, as the representative of his
chief, loudly proclaimed the white men to be under Mozelkatse's
protection, and demanded their safety, threatening a dire revenge if
anything happened to them. The anger of so powerful and fierce a chief
as Mozelkatse was to be dreaded. Umhleswa, too, was an ambitious man,
and was not contented with his position as chief of a petty tribe. He
coveted firearms, and thes