I see a way of making a great deal of money out of these Zulus; and having lost everything upon that Delagoa Bay trek, I want money." "We all do," I answered, "especially if we are starting in life.

So when it is convenient to you to settle your debts I shall be glad." "Oh! have no fear," he exclaimed with a sudden lighting up of his dark face, "I will pay you what I owe you, every farthing, with good interest thrown in." "The king has just told me that is your intention," I remarked quietly, looking him full in the eyes.

Then I walked on, leaving him staring after me, apparently without a word to say.
I went straight to the hut that was allotted to Retief in the little outlying guard-kraal, which had been given to us for a camp.

Here I found the commandant seated on a Kaffir stool engaged in painfully writing a letter, using a bit of board placed on his knees as a desk.
He looked up, and asked me how I had got on with Dingaan, not being sorry, as I think, of an excuse to pause in his clerical labours.
"Listen, commandant," I said, and, speaking in a low voice, so as not to be overheard, I told him every word that had passed in the interviews I had just had with Dingaan, with Thomas Halstead, and with Pereira.
He heard me out in silence, then said: "This is a strange and ugly story, Allan, and if it is true, Pereira must be an even bigger scoundrel than I thought him.

But I can't believe that it is true.