word was brought.

"To this, after some demur, the other man consented, and went away,
remarking that he would soon be back. As he passed me he called out
with a sneer, pointing as he did so to the fading red in the western
sky--'Look your last upon the light, White Man, for the "Thing that
bites" lives in the dark.'

"Next day it so happened that I shot this man, and, do you know, I think
that he is about the only human being who has come to harm at my hands
for whom I do not feel sincere sorrow and, in a degree, remorse."




VII--THE ATTACK

"Just where we halted ran a little stream of water. I looked at it, and
an idea struck me: probably there would be no water on the koppie. I
suggested this to our captain, and, acting on the hint, he directed all
the men to drink what they could, and also to fill the seven or eight
cooking pots which we carried with us with water. Then came the crucial
moment. How were we to get possession of the koppie? When the captain
asked me, I said that I thought that we had better march up and take
it, and this accordingly we went on to do. When we came to the narrow
gateway we were, as I expected stopped by two soldiers who stood on
guard there and asked our business. The captain answered that we had
changed our minds, and would follow on to Wambe's kraal. The soldiers
said no, we must now wait.