not appear in the transaction at all.  Were it ever to be even suspected that he had betrayed the chief, not alone would he be certainly killed, but all his relations would be shunned by the other natives.  He was an old man, so for him, personally, nothing mattered very much, but a man is bound to consider the interests of his family.  Travelling only by night, and lying still and hidden during the day, were therefore absolutely necessary stipulations, and Langley and Whitson agreed to them as intelligible and reasonable.  All being settled, the latter started for the camp, Ghamba baring his teeth excessively as they walked away.

At dusk on the evening of the same day, Langley and Whitson met Ghamba once more at the large ant-heap, and the three at once proceeded on their course.  The only arms taken were revolvers of the government regulation pattern (breech-loading central fire).  They carried provisions calculated to last eight days, but took no blankets on account of having to travel at night.  When Ghamba volunteered to relieve them of a considerable share of their respective loads, Langley and Whitson were filled with grateful surprise.

The plan was as follows:  Whitson was to shoot Umhlonhlo, and then remain in the cave while Langley returned to the camp to report what had been done, and cause persons who could identify the body to be sent for.  They seem to have had no scruples as to the deed they meant to do; certainly Umhlonhlo deserved no more mercy than a beast of prey.  Nor does it seem to have struck them that possibly they might shoot the wrong man.  But there was an air of conviction about the manner in which Ghamba showed his teeth when asked whether he was positive as to the identity of the man in the cave, that would have dissipated the doubts of most men.  Besides this, he drew out the written undertaking which they had delivered to him, and said, with a profoundly businesslike look: 

“Do I not want the money?  Should I take all this trouble if I did not know what I were doing?”

They walked all night, only resting once or twice for a few minutes.  It was found that Ghamba, in spite of his age, was an extremely good walker; and when they halted at daylight, Langley was so done up that he could not have held out for another half-hour.  Whitson, the wiry, had not yet felt the least fatigue.

This march had taken them to the very foot of the Drakensberg range, and they rested in a valley between two of its main spurs.  Here they remained all day, comfortably located in a sheltered nook where there was plenty of dry grass.  Their resting-place was encircled by immense rocks.  Although the surrounding country was desolate to a degree, and neither a human being nor an animal was to be seen, Ghamba would not hear of their lighting a fire nor leaving the spot where they rested.  The weather was clear, and neither too warm nor too cold.  They slept at intervals during the day, and at evening felt quite recovered from their fatigue.