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122  there is need, as mayhap there will be before the dawn. Here none can come at us except in front, and the place is narrow.

So I lay down and slept as soundly as ever I had done in my life, for a space of four or five hours I suppose. Then, by some instinct perhaps, I awoke suddenly, feeling much refreshed in that sweet mountain air, a new man indeed, and in the moonlight saw Umslopogaas striding towards me.

Arise, Macumazahn, he said. I hear men stirring below us.

At this moment Hans slipped past him, whispering,

The cannibals are coming, Baas, a good number of them. I think they mean to attack before dawn.

Then he passed behind me to warn the Zulus. As he went by, I said to him,

If so, Hans, now is the time for your Great Medicine to show what it can do.

The Great Medicine will look after you and me all right, Baas, he replied, pausing and speaking in Dutch, which Umslopogaas did not understand, but I expect there will be fewer of those Zulus to cook for before the sun grows hot. Their spirits will be turned into snakes and go back into the reeds from which they say they were torn out, he added over his shoulder.

I should explain that Hans acted as cook to our party and it was a grievance with him that the Zulus ate so much of the meat which he was called upon to prepare. Indeed, there is never much sympathy between Hottentots and Zulus.

What is the little yellow man saying about us? asked Umslopogaas suspiciously.

He is saying that if it comes to battle, you and your men will make a great fight, I replied diplomatically.

Yes, we will do that, Macumazahn, but I thought he said that we should be killed and that this pleased him.

Oh dear no! I answered hastily. How could he be pleased if that happened, since then he would be left defenceless, if he were not killed too. Now, Umslopogaas, let us make a plan for this fight.

So, together with Robertson, rapidly we discussed the thing. As a result, with the help of the Zulus, we dragged together some loose stones and the tops of three small thorn trees which we had cut down, and with them made a low breastwork, sufficient to give us some protection if we lay