On this day we at length escaped from the Black Kloof, and in our own cart, for during the night our horses arrived mysteriously from somewhere, in good condition though rather wild.  I went to say good-bye to Zikali, who said little, except that we should meet once more after many moons.  Anscombe and Heda he would not see at all, but only sent them a message, to the effect that he hoped they would think kindly of him through the long years to come, since he had kept his promise and preserved them safe through many dangers.  I might have answered that he had first of all put them into the dangers, but considered it wise to hold my tongue.  I think, however, that he guessed my thought, if one can talk of guessing in connection with Zikali, for he said that they had no reason to thank him, since if he had served their turn they had served his, adding—­

“It will be strange in the times to be for the lady Heddana to remember that it was she and no other who crumpled up the Zulus like a frostbitten winter reed, since had she not appeared upon the rock in the Valley of Bones, there would have been no war.”

“She did not do this, you did it, Zikali,” I said, “making her your tool through love and fear.”

“Nay, Macumazahn, I did not do it; it was done by what you call God and I call Fate in whose hand I am the tool.  Well, say to the lady Heddana that in payment I will hold back the ghost of Nombe from haunting her, if I can.  Say also that if I had not brought her and her lover to Zululand they would have been killed.”

So we went from that hateful kloof which I have never seen since and hope I shall never see again, two of Zikali’s men escorting us until we got into touch with white people.  To these we said as little as possible.  I think they believed that we were only premature tourists who had made a dash into Zululand to visit some of the battlefields.  Indeed none of us ever reported our strange adventures, and after my experience with Kaatje we were particularly careful to say nothing in the hearing of any gentleman connected with the Press.  But as a matter of fact there were so many people moving about and such a continual coming and going of soldiers and their belongings, that after we had managed to buy some decent clothes, which we did at the little town of Newcastle, nobody paid any attention to us.

On our way to Maritzburg one amusing thing did happen.  We met Kaatje!  It was about sunset that we were driving up a steep hill not far from Howick.  At least I was driving, but Anscombe and Heda were walking about a hundred yards ahead of the cart, when suddenly Kaatje appeared over a rise and came face to face with them while taking an evening stroll, or as I concluded afterwards, making some journey.  She saw, she stared, she uttered one wild yell, and suddenly bundled over the edge of the road.  Never would I have believed that such a fat woman could have run so fast.  In a minute she was down the slope and had vanished into a dense kloof where, as night was closing in and we were very tired, it was impossible for us to follow her.  Nor did subsequent inquiry in Howick tell us where she was living or whence she came, for some months before she had left the place she had taken there as a cook.