I was watching at a little distance as you bade me do and the sun being hot, I shut my eyes to keep out the glare of it, so that I did not see them until they had passed me and heard the noise." "You mean that you were asleep or drunk, Hans, but go on." "Baas, I do not know," he answered shamefacedly, "but after that I climbed a tall tree with a kind of bush at the top of it" (I ascertained afterwards that this was a sort of leafy-crowned palm), "and from it I saw everything without being seen." "What did you see, Hans ?" I asked him.
"I saw the big men run up and make a kind of circle round the village.
Then they shouted, and the people in the village came out to see what was the matter.

Thomaso and some of the men caught sight of them first and ran away fast into the hillside at the back where the trees grow, before the circle was complete.

Then the women and the children came out and the big men killed them with their spears--all, all!" "Good God!" I exclaimed.

"And what happened at the house and to the lady ?" "Baas, some of the men had surrounded that also and when she heard the noise the lady Sad-Eyes came out on to the stoep and with her came the two Zulus of the Axe who had been left sick but were now quite recovered.

A number of the big men ran as though to take her, but the two Zulus made a great fight in front of the little steps to the stoep, having their backs protected by the stoep, and killed six of them before they themselves were killed.