“‘When the edge of the sun appears, not before,’ answered the other Predikant.  ’Then the new queen will be brought out of the hut and this white man will be sacrificed to her.’

“‘I think it is a pity to wait so long,’ said the first Predikant, ’for never shall we sleep in peace until the red-hot pot is on his head.’

“‘First the victory, then the feast,’ answered the second Predikant, ’though he will not be so good to eat as that fat young woman who was with the new queen.’

“Then, Baas, they both smacked their lips and one of them went back towards the hut.  But the other did not go back.  No, he sat down on the ground and glowered at Baas Red-Beard upon the stone.  More, he struck him on the face to make him quiet.

“Now, Baas, when I saw this and remembered that they had said that they had eaten Janee whom I liked although she was such a fool, the spirit in me grew so very angry and I thought that I would give this old skellum (i.e. rascal) of a Predikant a taste of sacrifice himself, after which I purposed to creep to the hut and see if I could get speech with the Lady Sad-Eyes, if she was there.

“So I wriggled up behind the Predikant as he sat glowering over Red-Beard, and stuck my knife into his back where I thought it would kill him at once.  But it didn’t, Baas, for he fell on to his face and began to make a noise like a wounded hyena before I could finish him.  Then I heard a sound of shouts, and to save my life was obliged to run away into the mist, without loosing Red-Beard or seeing Lady Sad-Eyes.  I ran very hard, Baas, making a wide circle to the left, and so at last got back here.  That’s all, Baas.”

“And quite enough, too,” I answered, “though if they did not see you, the death of the Medicine-man may frighten them.  Poor Janee!  Well, I hope to come even with those devils before they are three hours older.”

Then I called up Umslopogaas and the Amahagger captains and told them the substance of the story, also that Hans had located the army, or part of it.

The end of it was that we made up our minds to attack at once; indeed I insisted on this, as I was determined if I could to save that unfortunate man, Robertson, who, from Hans’ account, evidently was now quite mad and raving.  So I fired the two shots as had been arranged and presently heard the sound of distant shoutings on the slope of the opposing ridge.  A few minutes later we started, Umslopogaas and I leading the vanguard and the Amahagger captains following with the three remaining companies.

Now the reader, presuming the existence of such a person, will think that everything is sure to go right; that this cunning old fellow, Allan Quatermain, is going to surprise and wipe the floor with those Rezuites, who were already beguiled by the trick he had instructed Goroko to play.  That after this he will rescue Robertson who doubtless shortly recovers his mind, also Inez with the greatest ease, in fact that everything will happen as it ought to do if this were a romance instead of a mere record of remarkable facts.  But being the latter, as it happened, matters did not work out quite in this convenient way.