Her lips moved as though she were talking to an invisible companion, and from time to time, like one who acts upon directions, she took a pinch of ashes and blew them, either towards Heda's hut or ours.

Yes, she did this when all decent young women should have been asleep, like one who keeps some unholy, midnight assignation.
Talking with her master, Zikali, or trying to cast spells upon us, confound her! thought I to myself, and very silently crept back into the hut.

Afterwards it occurred to me that she might have had another motive, namely of watching to see that none of us left the huts.
The rest of the night went by somehow.

Once, listening with all my ears, I thought that I caught the sound of a number of men tramping and of some low word of command, but as I heard no more, concluded that fancy had deceived me.

There I lay, puzzling over the situation till my head ached, and wondering how we were to get clear of the Black Kloof and Zikali, and out of Zululand which I gathered was no place for white people at the moment.
It seemed to me that the only thing was to make start for Dundee on the Natal border, and for the rest to trust to fortune.