The man looked at me, looked again, then, startled out of his Dutch
stolidity, cried to his wife, who was seated on the box of the waggon--

"Come here, Frau, come. Here is Allan Quatermain, the Englishman, the
son of the 'Predicant.' How goes it, Heer Quatermain, and what is the
news down in the Cape yonder?"

"I don't know what the news is in the Cape, Hans," I answered, solemnly;
"but the news here is that there is a Zulu Impi upon your spoor and
within two miles of the waggons. That I know, for I have just shot two
of their sentries," and I showed him my empty gun.

For a moment there was a silence of astonishment, and I saw the bronzed
faces of the men turn pale beneath their tan, while one or two of the
women gave a little scream, and the children crept to their sides.

"Almighty!" cried Hans, "that must be the Umtetwa Regiment that Dingaan
sent against the Basutus, but who could not come at them because of the
marshes, and so were afraid to return to Zululand, and struck north to
join Mosilikatze."

"Laager up, Carles! Laager up for your lives, and one of you jump on a
horse and drive in the cattle."

At this moment my own waggons came up. Indaba-zimbi was sitting on the
box of the first, wrapped in a blanket. I called him and told him the
news.

"Ill tidings, Macumazahn," he said; "there will be dead Boers about