I remember I fixed my eyes on a spur of hill beyond the kraal, and walked on with the best resolution I could find.

Already I felt in my breast some of the long thin assegais of Umbooni's men.
But Laputa did not intend that I should be butchered.

A word from him brought his company into order, and the next thing I knew I was facing him, where he stood in front of the biggest kya, with Henriques beside him, and some of the northern indunas.

Henriques looked ghastly in the clear morning light, and he had a linen rag bound round his head and jaw, as if he suffered from toothache.

His face was more livid, his eyes more bloodshot, and at the sight of me his hand went to his belt, and his teeth snapped.