"Swift, brother, bind on the wolf's hide, take shield! Swift, I say--for the Slayers of the king are at your gates!" Now Nada sprang up also, and they did his bidding like people in a dream; and, while they found their garments and a shield, Galazi took beer and drank it, and got his breath again.

They stood without the hut.
Now the heaven was grey, and east and west and north and south tongues of flame shot up against the sky, for the town had been fired by the Slayers.
Umslopogaas looked and his sense came back to him: he understood.

"Which way, brother ?" he said.
"Through the fire and the impi to our Grey People on the mountain," said Galazi.

"There, if we can win it, we shall find succour." "What of my people in the kraal," asked Umslopogaas.
"They are not many, brother; the women and the children are gone.

I have roused the men--most will escape.