“From curiosity merely.  I mean, I will tell you afterwards, pray go on.”

“Well, I stepped forward on to the rock and at first saw nothing, because at that moment the moon was hid by a cloud; indeed Nombe had waited for the cloud to pass over its face, before she thrust me forward.  Also some smoke from a fire below was rising straight in front of me.  Presently the cloud passed, the smoke thinned, and I saw the circle of those savage men seated beneath, and in their centre a great chief wearing a leopard’s skin cloak who I guessed was the king.  You I did not see, Mr. Quatermain, because you were behind a tree, yet I felt that you were there, a friend among all those foes.  I stood still, as I had been taught to do, and heard the murmur of astonishment and caught the gleam of the moonlight from the white feathers that were sewn upon my robe.

“Then I heard also the voice of Zikali speaking from beneath.  He called on you to come out to shoot at me, and the man whom I took to be the king, ordered you to obey.  You appeared from behind the tree, and I was certain from the look upon your face that at that distance you did not know who I was in my strange and glittering raiment.  You lifted the pistol and I was terribly afraid, for I had seen you shoot with it before on the verandah of the Temple and knew well that you do not miss.  Very nearly I screamed out to you, but remembered and was silent, thinking that after all it did not much matter if I died, except for the sake of Maurice here.  Also by now I guessed that I was being used to deceive those men before me into some terrible act, and that if I died, at least they would be undeceived.

“I thought that an age passed between the time you pointed the pistol and I saw the flash for which I was waiting.”

“You need not have waited, Heda,” I interposed, “for if I had really aimed at you you would never have seen that flash, at least so it is said.  I too guessed enough to shoot above you, although at the time I did not know that it was you on the rock; indeed I thought it was Nombe painted up.”

“Yes, I heard the bullet sing over me.  Then I heard the voice of Zikali challenging you to shoot him, and to tell the truth, hoped that you would do so.  Just before you fired for the second time, Nombe whispered to me—­’Throw’ and I threw the little red-handled spear into the air.  Then as the pistol went off Nombe whispered—­’Come.’  I slipped away down the path and back with her into the hut, where she kissed me and said that I had done well indeed, after which she took off my strange robe and helped me to put on my own dress.

“That is all I know, except that some hours later I was awakened from sleep and put into the litter where I went to sleep again, for what I had gone through tired me very much.  I need not trouble you with the rest, for we journeyed here in the same way that we had journeyed to Ulundi—­by night.  I did not see Zikali, but in answer to my questions, Nombe told me that the Zulus had declared war against the English.  What part in the business I had played, she would not tell me, and I do not know to this hour, but I am sure that it was a great one.