I looked and thrilled, though oppressed by the drear and desolate beauty of the scene around me, descended the wall and the ruined slope and made my way homewards, afraid even of my own shadow.  For I seemed to be the only living thing among the dead habitations of immemorial Kor.

Reaching our camp I found Hans awake and watching for me.

“I was just coming to look for you, Baas,” he said.  “Indeed I should have done so before, only I knew that you had gone to pay a visit to that tall white ‘Missis’ who ties up her head in a blanket, and thought that neither of you would like to be disturbed.”

“Then you thought wrong,” I answered, “and what is more, if you had made that visit I think it might have been one from which you would never have come back.”

“Oh yes, Baas,” sniggered Hans.  “The tall white lady would not have minded.  It is you who are so particular, after the fashion of men whom Heaven made very shy.”

Without deigning to reply to the gibes of Hans I went to lie down, wondering what kind of a bed poor Robertson occupied that night, and soon fell asleep, as fortunately for myself I have the power to do, whatever my circumstances at the moment.  Men who can sleep are those who do the work of the world and succeed, though personally I have had more of the work than of the success.

I was awakened at the first grey dawn by Hans, who informed me that Billali was waiting outside with litters, also that Goroko had already made his incantations and doctored Umslopogaas and his two men for war after the Zulu fashion when battle was expected.  He added that these Zulus had refused to be left behind to guard and nurse their wounded companions, and said that rather than do so, they would kill them.

Somehow, he informed me, in what way he could not guess, this had come to the ears of the White Lady who “hid her face from men because it was so ugly,” and she had sent women to attend to the sick ones, with word that they should be well cared for.  All of this proved to be true enough, but I need not enter into the details.

In the end off we went, I in my litter following Billali’s, with an express and a repeating rifle and plenty of ammunition for both, and Hans, also well armed, in that which had been sent for Umslopogaas, who preferred to walk with Goroko and the two other Zulus.

For a little while Hans enjoyed the sensation of being carried by somebody else, and lay upon the cushions smoking with a seraphic smile and addressing sarcastic remarks to the bearers, who fortunately did not understand them.  Soon, however, he wearied of these novel delights and as he was still determined not to walk until he was obliged, climbed on to the roof of the litter, astride of which he sat as though it were a horse, looking for all the world like a toy monkey on a horizontal stick.

Our road ran across the level, fertile plain but a small portion of which was cultivated, though I could see that at some time or other, when its population was greater, every inch of it had been under crop.  Now it was largely covered by trees, many of them fruit-bearing, between which meandered streams of water which once, I think, had been irrigation channels.