shouted for a passage. 'Make way!' I cried in Kaffir. 'I bear a

message from the Inkulu.*2 Clear out, you dogs!'
*1 The Communion Sabbath.

*2 A title applied only to the greatest chiefs.
They recognized the horse, and fell back with a salute. Had

I but known it, the beast was famed from the Zambesi to the
Cape. It was their king's own charger I rode, and who dared

question such a warrant? I heard the word pass through the
bush, and all down the road I got the salute. In that moment I

fervently thanked my stars that I had got away first, for there
would have been no coming second for me.

At the cliff-foot I found a double line of warriors who had
the appearance of a royal guard, for all were tall men with

leopard-skin cloaks. Their rifle-barrels glinted in the moon-
light, and the sight sent a cold shiver down my back. Above

them, among the scrub and along the lower slopes of the
kranzes, I could see further lines with the same gleaming

weapons. The Place of the Snake was in strong hands that night.
I dismounted and called for a man to take my horse. Two of

the guards stepped forward in silence and took the bridle. This
left the track to the cave open, and with as stiff a back as I

could command, but a sadly fluttering heart, I marched
through the ranks.

The path was lined with guards, all silent and rigid as graven
images. As I stumbled over the stones I felt that my appearance

scarcely fitted the dignity of a royal messenger. Among those
splendid men-at-arms I shambled along in old breeches and

leggings, hatless, with a dirty face, dishevelled hair, and a torn
flannel shirt. My mind was no better than my body, for now

that I had arrived I found my courage gone. Had it been
possible I would have turned tail and fled, but the boats were

burned behind me, and I had no choice. I cursed my rash
folly, and wondered at my exhilaration of an hour ago. I was

going into the black mysterious darkness, peopled by ten
thousand cruel foes. My knees rubbed against each other, and

I thought that no man had ever been in more deadly danger.
At the entrance to the gorge the guards ceased and I went

on alone. Here there was no moonlight, and I had to feel my
way by the sides. I moved very slowly, wondering how soon I

should find the end my folly demanded. The heat of the ride
had gone, and I remember feeling my shirt hang clammily on

my shoulders.
Suddenly a hand was laid on my breast, and a voice

demanded, 'The word?'
'Immanuel,' I said hoarsely.

Then unseen hands took both my arms, and I was led
farther into the darkness. My hopes revived for a second. The

password had proved true, and at any rate I should enter the cave.
In the darkness I could see nothing, but I judged that we

stopped before the stone slab which, as I remembered, filled
the extreme end of the gorge. My guide did something with

the right-hand wall, and I felt myself being drawn into a kind
of passage. It was so narrow that two could not go abreast, and

so low that the creepers above scraped my hair. Something
clicked behind me like the turnstile at the gate of a show.

Then we began to ascend steps, still in utter darkness, and a
great booming fell on my ear. It was the falling river which

had scared me on my former visit, and I marvelled that I had
not heard it sooner. Presently we came out into a gleam of

moonlight, and I saw that we were inside the gorge and far
above the slab. We followed a narrow shelf on its left side (or

'true right', as mountaineers would call it) until we could go
no farther. Then we did a terrible thing. Across the gorge,

which here was at its narrowest, stretched a slab of stone. Far,
far below I caught the moonlight on a mass of hurrying waters.

This was our bridge, and though I have a good head for crags,
I confess I grew dizzy as we turned to cross it. Perhaps it was

broader than it looked; at any rate my guides seemed to have
no fear, and strode across it as if it was a highway, while I

followed in a sweat of fright. Once on the other side, I was
handed over to a second pair of guides, who led me down a

high passage running into the heart of the mountain.
The boom of the river sank and rose as the passage twined.

Soon I saw a gleam of light ahead which was not the moon. It
grew larger, until suddenly the roof rose and I found myself in

a giganticchamber. So high it was that I could not make out
anything of the roof, though the place was brightly lit with

torches stuck round the wall, and a great fire which burned at
the farther end. But the wonder was on the left side, where the

floor ceased in a chasm. The left wall was one sheet of water,
where the river fell from the heights into the infinite depth,

below. The torches and the fire made the sheer stream glow
and sparkle like the battlements of the Heavenly City. I have

never seen any sight so beautiful or so strange, and for a
second my breath stopped in admiration.

There were two hundred men or more in the chamber, but
so huge was the place that they seemed only a little company.

They sat on the ground in a circle, with their eyes fixed on the
fire and on a figure which stood before it. The glow revealed

the old man I had seen on that morning a month before moving
towards the cave. He stood as if in a trance, straight as a tree,

with his arms crossed on his breast. A robe of some shining
white stuff fell from his shoulders, and was clasped round his

middle by a broad circle of gold. His head was shaven, and on
his forehead was bound a disc of carved gold. I saw from his

gaze that his old eyes were blind.
'Who comes?'he asked as I entered.

'A messenger from the Inkulu,' I spoke up boldly. 'He
follows soon with the white man, Henriques.'

Then I sat down in the back row of the circle to await
events. I noticed that my neighbour was the fellow 'Mwanga

whom I had kicked out of the store. Happily I was so dusty
that he could scarcely recognize me, but I kept my face turned

away from him. What with the light and the warmth, the drone
of the water, the silence of the folk, and my mental and

physical stress, I grew drowsy and all but slept.
CHAPTER XI

THE CAVE OF THE ROOIRAND
I was roused by a sudden movement. The whole assembly

stood up, and each man clapped his right hand to his brow and
then raised it high. A low murmur of 'Inkulu' rose above the

din of the water. Laputa strode down the hall, with Henriques
limping behind him. They certainly did not suspect my

presence in the cave, nor did Laputa show any ruffling of his
calm. Only Henriques looked weary and cross. I guessed he

had had to ride my pony.
The old man whom I took to be the priestadvanced towards

Laputa with his hands raised over his head. A pace before they
met he halted, and Laputa went on his knees before him. He

placed his hands on his head, and spoke some words which I
could not understand. It reminded me, so queer are the tricks of

memory, of an old Sabbath-school book I used to have which
had a picture of Samuel ordaining Saul as king of Israel. I think

I had forgotten my own peril and was enthralled by the majesty
of the place - the wavering torches, the dropping wall of green