The men
who went with her in the morning I saw not.'
'Was the child alive?' asked Mr Mackenzie, hoarsely.
'She was white as the snow, but well, my father. They passed
quite close to me, and looking up from where I lay hid I saw
her face against the sky.'
'God help her and us!' groaned the clergyman.
'How many are there of them?' I asked.
'More than two hundred -- two hundred and half a hundred.'
Once more we looked one on the other. What was to be done?
Just then there rose a loud insistent cry outside the wall.
'Open the door, white man; open the door! A herald -- a herald
to speak with thee.' Thus cried the voice.
Umslopogaas ran to the wall, and, reaching with his long arms
to the coping, lifted his head above it and gazed over.
'I see but one man,' he said. 'He is armed, and carries a basket
in his hand.'
'Open the door,' I said. 'Umslopogaas, take thine axe and stand
thereby. Let one man pass. If another follows, slay.'
The door was unbarred. In the shadow of the wall stood Umslopogaas,
his axe raised above his head to strike. Just then the moon
came out. There was a moment's pause, and then in stalked a
Masai Elmoran, clad in the full war panoply that I have already
described, but bearing a large basket in his hand.
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