The Amahagger captains did not seem pleased with this plan which I think was too bold for their fancy, and began to murmur together.  Seeing that I must assert my authority at once, I walked up to them and said to their chief man,

“Hearken, my friend.  By your own wish, not mine, I have been appointed your general and I expect to be obeyed without question.  From the moment that the advance begins you will keep close to me and to the Black One, and if so much as one of your men hesitates or turns back, you will die,” and I nodded towards the axe of Umslopogaas.  “Moreover, afterwards She-who-commands will see that others of you die, should you escape in the fight.”

Still they hesitated.  Thereon without another word, I produced Zikali’s Great Medicine and held it before their eyes, with the result that the sight of this ugly thing did what even the threat of death could not do.  They went flat on the ground, every one of them, and swore by Lulala and by She-who-commands, her priestess, that they would do all I said, however mad it seemed to them.

“Good,” I answered.  “Now go back and make ready, and for the rest, by this time to-morrow we shall know who is or is not mad.”

From that moment till the end I had no more trouble with these Amahagger.

I will get on quickly with the story of this fight whereof the preliminary details do not matter.  At the proper time Goroko went off with two hundred and fifty men and one of the two Zulus to light the fires and, at an agreed signal, namely the firing of two shots in rapid succession by myself, to begin shouting and generally make as much noise as they could.

We also went off with the remaining three thousand, and before the moon rose, crept as quietly as ghosts down the right-hand ridge.  Being such a silent folk who were accustomed to move at night and could see in the dark almost as well as cats, the Amahagger executed this manoeuvre splendidly, wrapping their spear-blades in bands of dry grass lest light should glint on them and betray our movements.  So in due course we came to the patch of bush where the ridge widened out about five hundred yards from the plain beneath, and there lay down in four companies or regiments, each of them about seven hundred and fifty strong.

Now the moon had risen, but because of the mist which covered the surface of the plain, we could see nothing of the camp of Rezu which we knew must be within a thousand yards of us, unless indeed it had been moved, as the silence seemed to suggest.

This circumstance gave me much anxiety, since I feared lest abandoning their reputed habits, these Rezuites were also contemplating a night attack.  Umslopogaas, too, was disturbed on the subject, though because of Goroko and his men whose fires began to twinkle on the opposing ridge something over a mile away, they could not pass up there without our knowledge.

Still, for aught I knew there might be other ways of scaling this mountain.  I did not trust the Amahagger, who declared that none existed, since their local knowledge was slight as they never visited these northern slopes because of their fear of Rezu.  Supposing that the enemy gained the crest and suddenly assaulted us in the rear!  The thought of it made me feel cold down the back.