



Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




Into the Unknown, by Lawrence Fletcher.

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INTO THE UNKNOWN, BY LAWRENCE FLETCHER.

Into the Unknown--by Lawrence Fletcher



CHAPTER ONE.

THE GHOSTS' PASS.

"Well, old man, what do we do next?"  The speaker, a fine young fellow
of some five-and-twenty summers, reclining on the rough grass, with
clouds of tobacco-smoke filtering through his lips, looked the picture
of comfort, his appearance belying in every way the discontent expressed
in his tones as he smoked his pipe in the welcome shade of a giant rock,
which protected him and his two companions from the mid-day glare of a
South African sun.

Alfred Leigh, second son of Lord Drelincourt, was certainly a handsome
man: powerfully and somewhat heavily built, his physique looked perfect,
and, as he gradually and lazily raised his huge frame from the rough
grass, he appeared--what he was, in truth--a splendid specimen of
nineteenth-century humanity, upwards of six feet high, and in the
perfection of health and spirits; a fine, clear-cut face, with blue eyes
and a fair, close-cropped beard, completed a _tout ensemble_ which was
English to a degree.

The person addressed was evidently related to the speaker, for, though
darker than his companion, and by no means so striking in face or
figure, he still had fair hair, which curled crisply on a well-shaped
head, and keen blue eyes which seemed incessantly on the watch and were
well matched by a resolute mouth and chin, and a broad-shouldered frame
which promised strength from its perfect lines.  Dick Grenville,
_aetat._ thirty, and his cousin, Alf Leigh, were a pair which any three
ordinary mortals might well wish to be excused from taking on.

The third person--singular he certainly looked--was a magnificent
creature, a pure-blooded Zulu chief, descended from a race of warriors,
every line of his countenance grave and stern, with eyes that glistened
like fiery stars under a lowering cloud, the man having withal a general
"straightness" of appearance more easily detected than described.  A
"Keshla," or ringed man, some six feet three inches high, of enormously
powerful physique, armed with a murderous-looking club and a brace of
broad-bladed spears, and you have a faithful picture of Myzukulwa, the
Zulu friend of the two cousins.

The scene is magnificently striking, but grand with a loneliness awful
beyond description, for, so far as the eye can reach, the fervid sun
beats upon nothing but towering mountain-peaks, whose grey and rugged
summits pierce the fleecy heat-clouds, and seem to lose themselves in a
hopeless attempt to fathom the unspeakable majesty beyond.

"Do next, old fellow?"  The words came in cool, quiet tones.  "Well, if
I were you, Alf, I should convey my carcass out of the line of fire from
yonder rifle, which has been pointed at each of our persons in
succession during the last two minutes;" and Grenville, with the stem of
his pipe, indicated a spot some three hundred yards away, where his keen
eye had detected the browned barrel of a rifle projected through a
fissure in the rock; then, in quick, incisive tones, suiting the action
to the word, "Lie down, man!" and not a moment too soon, as an angry
rifle-bullet sang over his head and flattened against the rock.  In
another instant all three were ensconced behind a rocky projection, and
endeavouring to ascertain their unknown assailants' force.

Truly, an unpleasant place was this to be beleaguered in--little food,
still less water, and positively no cover to protect them in the event
of a night attack upon the position they occupied.  Grenville quietly
picked up the flattened bullet, eyed it curiously, and then handed it to
Myzukulwa with an interrogative look; the other scarcely glanced at the
missile and replied quietly, yet in singularly correct English, "Inkoos
(chief), that lead came from a very old gun, but it is a true one--the
Inkoos, my master, was too near it."

"Yes," responded Grenville, who had now quite taken command of matters,
"but we must find out how many of these rascals are lurking behind
yonder rocks with murder in their hearts."  So saying he coolly stepped
out into the open again, ostensibly to pick up his pipe, which lay on
the ground, but kept his eye warily fixed upon the expected point of
offence, and instantly dropped on his hands and knees as another bullet
whizzed over him.  Then he quietly rose to his feet, but with a beating
heart, for, if the rifle were a double-barrelled one, or if more than
the one marksman were lying hid, he was in deadly peril.  No shot
followed, however, and he calmly picked up his pipe and again sought
shelter with his companions.

"Now, chief," said Grenville, after a brief interval, "wait till I have
drawn the scoundrel's fire again, and then rush him," and, executing a
rapid movement round the rocky boulder which served the party as a
shelter, he once more provoked the fire of the hidden foe, delivered
with greater accuracy than before, the bullet grazing the skin of one
hand as he swung himself into cover, crying, "Now, Myzukulwa!" but the
fleet-footed Zulu was already half-way across the open space, going like
a sprint-runner, having started simultaneously with the flash of the
rifle.  In a moment more the cousins were after him, only to find, upon
reaching the rock, that there was no trace of the would-be assassin, and
that the Zulu was hopelessly at fault.  A little powder spilled upon a
stone showed where the man had been placed, and that was all.

Just then Grenville's quick eye "spotted" the barrel of a rifle slowly
rising a hundred yards away, out of a hollow in the ground,
imperceptible from where they stood; he instinctively pitched forward
his Winchester, and the two reports blended into one.  Leigh's hat flew
off his head, carried away by a bullet, and at the same instant
Myzukulwa again "rushed" the hidden marksman, only to find the work
done; and a gruesome sight it was.  There lay a fine-looking man,
stone-dead, with the blood welling out of a ghastly hole in his head,
the heavy shell-bullet doing frightful execution at such short range,
having fairly smashed his skull to pieces.

The Englishmen were very considerably taken aback at finding that their
assailant was as white-skinned as themselves; they had half expected to
find some loafing Hottentot or Kaffir, though the accuracy of the
shooting had already caused Grenville to doubt that the marksman could
be either of these, for, as a general rule, if a Kaffir aims at anything
a hundred yards from him he misses it nine times out of ten.  The dead
man was dressed in a deerskin costume, which caused the cousins to
remark that he looked like many a man they had seen when shooting
buffalo on the prairies of the Wild West.  His gun proved to be a long
flint-lock rifle of an obsolete type, but extremely well finished, and
it was the flash of the powder in the pan which had enabled Grenville to
anticipate the leaden messenger from this weapon.

Leigh, who was disposed to scoff at their present undertaking, which he
called "a wild-goose chase," gave it as his opinion that the miserable
man was some escaped convict who had gravitated up country, and who, no
doubt, imagined that the white men were in search of him with a native
tracker--anyway, it had been a very near thing with them, and nothing
but Grenville's unceasing watchfulness could have saved his cousin's
life, as it unquestionably had done, twice over.

Grenville listened in silence to Leigh's remarks, and then, turning
their backs on the mortal remains of their foe, they left him to the
eternal solitude of that vast and rocky wilderness.

Several hours of hard toil followed, during which they slowly and warily
ascended the Pass, without, however, seeing any further sign of life.
Stopping once to take a hurried mouthful of dried deer-flesh, the party
was soon again on its way, and reached the top of the Pass just before
sunset.  Beyond this point all possibility of advance in any direction
seemed at an end.  The mountains shot up towards the sky, based, as it
were, by a precipitous wall of rock, and flanked by mighty spurs, whose
peaks stood out, clear and sharp, some fifteen thousand feet above the
Pass, their barren and rugged sides almost beautified by the glow of the
setting sun.

The sterile appearance of the valley was, however, to some slight extent
relieved by a magnificent waterfall, which appeared to receive its
supply through a fissure in the wall of rock, whence it came sheer over
a beetling crag and fell from a height of at least one hundred feet into
a rocky basin at the very head of the Pass.

Grenville quickly bestowed his party in a small cave for the night, and
by the time they were comfortably domiciled the sun had set.  He then
mounted guard whilst the others slept, and three hours later, having
aroused the Zulu, he himself turned in for a much-needed rest.



CHAPTER TWO.

AN ANXIOUS DAY.

In the morning, after a meal of dried flesh and water--an appetising
repast at which Leigh grumbled considerably--the trio lighted their
pipes and went into council.

"Now then, Dick," said Alf Leigh, "as I, at all events, see no more of
those objectionable rifle-barrels round here, I'll repeat my question of
yesterday--What do we do next?"

"Ah! that's the point," responded Grenville.  "Now doesn't it strike you
as very odd, not to say significant, that we should be so murderously
assaulted precisely on the spot where our mission is supposed to
commence?  I am convinced that there is more in that attack than you
fancy.  However, here is the inscription which, as you know, we found
scratched with a pin-point on a slaty rock down the Pass yesterday--`_An
Englishman and his daughter imprisoned in the Hell at the top of this
Pass.  Help us, for the love of Heaven_.'  Well, as you also know, we
resolved to carry help to the unfortunates who make this pitiful appeal
to our honour as countrymen, or die in the attempt; and, by Jove, if you
ask me anything, we came perilously near doing the latter yesterday.  To
proceed, Myzukulwa here declares that there has been handed down for
generations in his tribe, legends of a strange and mighty people, who
frequent this pass by night only, who, on being followed, vanish into
thin air, and whose description answers accurately to the gentleman I
settled yesterday, with the one exception, easily accounted for, that
these people were said to have black faces."

"And a nice beginning we've made if, according to your idea, our friend
of yesterday was one of them," grumbled Leigh.

"Don't make any mistake, Alf," rejoined Grenville; "we shall gain
nothing by palaver; whoever sees the inside of their territory will
never again, with their consent, re-enter the outside world to give them
away.  This kingdom is an inscrutable mystery, enveloped in something
like a hundred miles of inaccessible rock and impassable mountain, and
upon the very threshold of it I feel convinced that we have now
arrived."

"Inkoos," said the great Zulu, "your words are wise, even as the wisdom
of my father's father.  For a thousand moons--ay, and for a thousand
before that--has this place been haunted, and the traditions of my
people ever warn us to beware of sleeping nigh to this falling water.
Many have done so, and have never again visited their kraals; I,
Myzukulwa, have alone done so and lived.  More, Inkoos; as I watched
yesternight I heard strange sounds, as though the spooks (ghosts) were
mourning over the dead one who lies below us."

"Hah!" said Grenville, starting suddenly to his feet, "we'll have
another look at that body," and, followed by his companions, he strode
away down the Pass, but, when the party reached the scene of the
previous day's rencontre, the lifeless remains were nowhere to be seen;
there was the hole, the rock crusted with coagulated blood, but not the
faintest trace of the body they had left behind them a dozen hours
before.  Clearly no beast of prey had been responsible for its
disappearance, for the man's gun and ammunition had also been removed.
A lengthy and careful examination of the surroundings revealed nothing;
all was barren rock, without a single sign of its having ever been
pressed by the foot of man, and, with most uncomfortable feelings, the
trio retraced their steps up the Pass, and reached the cave again, weary
and disheartened, as the sun went out with the rapidity peculiar to the
latitudes of Equatorial Africa, at once plunging everything into
darkness that might be felt.

Grenville's active mind was, however, at work upon the incidents of the
day, and he never rested until his party was safely housed in a cave
some hundred yards from the previous location.  This night all kept
watch; and well was it for them that they were on the alert, for, just
before the moon got up, the darkness of the Pass was suddenly cut, as if
by magic, with the flash of at least a score of rifles, fired so as to
fairly sweep their old resting-place.  Grenville and his companions
crouched down amongst the rocks, straining eyes and ears for sight or
sound of their murderously-inclined foes; but all was as still as death,
and at daybreak the Pass was again, to all appearance, utterly deserted,
only their old cave was strewn with flattened bullets, which had been
fired with murderous precision.

Grenville tried to get Myzukulwa's views upon the events of the night as
they smoked their pipes after breakfast, but the chief was unusually
reticent.  "Spooks," he said, "who shot as well as these did were
dangerous; nothing but a spook could shoot like that in the dark."
Leigh was for clearing out altogether; he was as plucky a fellow as ever
stepped, but this sort of thing was enough to shake any man's nerves.
That day was spent in a rigid search which literally left no stone
unturned; but the keenest scrutiny revealed no place of concealment and
no way into the mountain--over it none could go, for that towering wall
of rock would have defied anything short of an eagle's wings--and a
couple of hours before sunset the party set off again down the Pass.



CHAPTER THREE.

A LEAP IN THE DARK.

As the party sullenly descended the Pass, no one seemed in a
conversational mood, but Leigh noticed that his cousin took a very easy
pace, and urged them to feed well, just before the sun set.

No sooner was the darkness fairly upon them than Grenville turned short
in his tracks and quietly said, "I'm going back, Alf, and I'm going
through with this.  There's a secret up there, and I believe it's a
black one, and I've no intention of playing into the hands of these
rascals by running away."

"But, my dear boy," remonstrated Leigh, with a rueful face, "you don't
know your way into the mountain; you aren't a bird to fly over it, and
you'll only get yourself shot."

"I believe I do know my way into the mountain, and I hope I shan't get
shot; so come along, old fellow," replied his cousin.

Grumbling and arguing, Leigh turned to follow, and very soon Grenville
imposed the strictest silence upon his companions.

The darkness was now something almost tangible, but after walking--or,
rather, feeling--their way at a funereal pace for a couple of hours, the
murmur of the waterfall broke upon their ears, and the stars now
beginning to grow bright, greater caution than ever became necessary.
Soon the trio were flat on the ground, wriggling along like three
gigantic lizards over the rough, knobbly rocks, which called forth many
a subdued groan from poor Leigh.  The advance was, however, continued,
all obstacles to the contrary notwithstanding, and in another hour the
party lay securely hidden within a stone-throw of the waterfall.

A little later, becoming dissatisfied with his position, Grenville drew
his party back some fifty yards under the cover of a rock, and then
proceeded to act in a most singular manner.  Divesting himself of his
hat, jacket, and hunting-shirt, he slipped a brace of six-shooters into
his hip-pockets, and, directing Leigh and the Zulu to stay where they
where--unless they heard him blow a small whistle, which he always
carried--he left the pair wondering at his extraordinary movements, and
gradually and cautiously approached the Fall.  Arrived there, his
conduct became curious to a degree, for, lying flat on the rock, on the
very edge of the basin indeed, where the spray from the cataract fell in
a continuous and blinding shower, Grenville first commenced feeling
about inside the rush of the water at the very back of the Fall, and
finally buried himself, head and shoulders, in the water of the basin,
frequently raising his head to take breath.  After he had expended quite
ten minutes in this edifying manner, he gave a grunt indicative of
satisfaction, rose dripping wet, and retired into concealment behind the
nearest rock, watching the Fall like a lynx.

Soon his patience was well rewarded, for a wonderful and beautiful thing
happened.  In a single instant the Fall grew gloriously light and
beautiful, and the foaming, flashing surface of the water seemed by the
touch of some fairy wand transformed into a stupendous rainbow of
indescribable loveliness, as the changing lights appeared to come and go
through the driving rifts of steaming, gauze-like vapour.

Grenville smiled, and made himself, if possible, still smaller amongst
the stones; a slight splashing was heard, and in another moment the
light went out suddenly and the Fall resumed its normal appearance--a
white, angry-looking streak of sliding foam, clearly outlined against
the dark background of rock.  And now Grenville could see by the
starlight the forms of fully a dozen men who appeared to have sprung
from the earth; crouching down, he lay for some moments breathless and
motionless as the rocks beneath him, but, hearing no footsteps, and
cautiously raising his head, he found no one within his limited range of
vision.  Hazardous though the act was, Grenville crawled out,
snake-like, to the spot where he had seen the strange party take its
stand, and, by following the damp feel of the rock where wet footsteps
had passed, quickly satisfied himself that the enemy had proceeded down
the Pass.  Quietly rejoining his anxious friends, he led them back,
after a brief consultation, to the basin at the foot of the Fall, into
which each silently dropped in turn, and instantly vanished from sight.

A few moments later three dripping, panting forms stood whispering
together upon a rocky ledge, which was in fact the entrance to a vast
cave, by which, as Grenville had cleverly surmised, their assailants
passed through the base of the mountain-range and obtained access to
their mysterious country beyond.

The air, though dense with a heavy, noxious odour, was still very
refreshing to the party after their dive; but Grenville soon reminded
the others that they had no time to lose, and, warning them to look to
their arms, ammunition and matches, all of which had been most carefully
enveloped in mackintosh ground-sheets, himself proceeded to strike a
light.  Now the striking of a match is a very trifling affair at
ordinary times, but, with a dark and doubtless vast unknown before them,
each waited anxiously to see what the tiny flame would reveal.  One
brief instant it shed its feeble light upon their pallid faces, then, in
an endeavour to pierce the apparently limitless gloom, Grenville raised
the match above his head, and at that very moment there was a wild,
hissing rush, and the cavern stood revealed in a blinding glare of
light.  The match had evidently ignited by accident a reservoir of
natural gas, and this, in the shape of an enormous stream of fire, now
hung globe-like from a rift in the roof of rock, where it arched a score
of feet above their heads.

One glance was sufficient to tell the merest novice in such matters that
this cavern had at some distant date formed the channel of one of those
underground rivers by no means uncommon in Africa.  What had been the
bed of the stream was, however, filled in with earth, and was now to all
intents and purposes a very passable road, which, after mounting a short
hill that served in fact to keep back the water from the basin, ran
straight before them as far as the light could penetrate.

The first act of the whole party was to remove themselves from the
intense heat thrown out by the gas; their next, to draw their
pistol-cartridges and slip fresh ones into the chambers; and hardly was
this done when a startled exclamation, uttered just behind them, caused
all to turn hurriedly, only to find themselves confronted by a most
repulsive-looking white man, who stood dripping unpleasantly upon the
rocky ledge and regarding them with a scowling face.

The newcomer appeared altogether unarmed, and our friends promptly
rushed at him; but he incontinently turned tail, and dived out through
the entrance, followed like a flash of light by Myzukulwa.

The cousins waited in anxious suspense for close upon a minute, and then
the great Zulu silently appeared upon the rock and lay gasping for
breath.  Soon, however, regaining his wind--

"Inkoos," he said, "he was too quick for me; the coward ran away down
the pass; but first he fired his gun, and it was answered by another gun
a mile away."

It was quite clear that the man had been a sentinel near to their old
sleeping-place, and, seeing the Fall suddenly light up of its own
accord, had come down to examine the unusual phenomenon.

The three now fell to eagerly discussing their position.  If they were
holding the only entrance to the passage, they could with their
revolvers defy almost any number of men attacking through the water; but
if, on the other hand, there was more than one way of access to the
cave, or if another hostile body, attracted by the firing, should come
up the river Pass, our friends would be placed between the devil and the
deep sea with a vengeance.

Then, again, if the foe had any means of extinguishing the light from
outside, the trio would be entirely at their mercy.

This light was evidently a pure gas generated in the mountain, and used
by these strange people to light them to the entrance of the cave; but
how they extinguished it, and how without its help they followed their
subterranean road through the absolutely inky gloom, was a mystery to
the adventurers.

On looking about, however, they discovered a bundle of torches made of a
resinous woody fibre, and lighting one of these in the gas-flame,
Grenville proceeded to examine the road and see what cover, if any, it
might offer.  Hardly had he taken a dozen steps when a stream of water
poured through the fissure in the roof of rock, extinguishing the gas in
an instant.  Grenville quickly whispered to his friends to bring the
torches and follow him, as without proper light to shoot by it was
impossible for them to hold the entrance to the passage.  "Bring every
single torch you can find," he said, "and keep your eyes skinned for any
more lying about the road.  We'll keep these beggars in darkness if
possible; and once let us get to daylight, and we'll fight them if need
be."

And now by the light of one torch the party proceeded in single file at
a good speed, for the roadway was fair, and, when the first hill had
been climbed, proved decidedly on the down grade.  This surprised
Grenville, as he had been of opinion that the water had formerly come
from the inside of the cavern and emptied itself into the basin; the
reverse, however, had evidently been the case.

After they had travelled about half a mile, the road, to Grenville's
delight, twisted almost at a right angle--this would, of course, hide
the light from their pursuers--and directly after the turn had been
negotiated, Leigh called attention to a niche in the rock where several
more torches were found; these they promptly annexed, and the party
again hurried on, the air momentarily growing fresher and keener.

Truly this cavernous road was a strange and awesome affair; the roof
here and there vanished from human ken in utter and indescribable
blackness, but uniformly it hung some fifteen to twenty feet above their
heads, and had been worn quite smooth by the rapid action of water, but
was quickly becoming a vast bed of growing stalactites, which flashed
back the rays of the torch like a sparkling sea of vivid radiance set
with many-hued and lovely diadems.

After the party had accomplished quite five miles, Grenville suddenly
called a halt, whilst all listened intently for a moment, and then,
having first examined his matches, he extinguished the torch, and,
holding one another's hands, the trio crept cautiously forward.  Despite
all their care, however, in turning a corner some hundred yards further
they fairly walked into another sentinel, who promptly flew at their
throats, and for a full minute Pandemonium seemed let loose in the
bowels of the mountain.  Grenville, with his customary coolness, quickly
extricated himself from the scrimmage and struck a light, only to find
Leigh and an awkward-looking customer locked in a deadly grip.  The
draught here proved strong, and the match was blown out as soon as
lighted; but its flash showed the Zulu all he needed to know--enemy from
friend--and in another instant the sentinel lay a corpse, and Myzukulwa
was eulogising his war-club.  Quickly the party passed on, and in
another minute found themselves at the top of a massive stone stairway,
and again under the lovely canopy of heaven, with the welcome moon
shimmering down upon them in all the weird, glittering glory of an
Equatorial African midnight.

The scene revealed to them by the moonlight was inexpressibly beautiful
and magnificent; below them some hundred feet only the rolling veldt in
all its mysterious silence swept sheer away as far as the eye could
reach, whilst to the right and left towered the majestic spurs of the
mountain-range, their snowcapped crests gleaming white under the
brilliant moon, and rendered even more vivid by contrast with the awful
chasms which here and there rent the precipitous rocks with unfathomed
depths of yawning blackness.

No sign of any living creature could they see; yet each knew that it
would be sheer madness to strike out into the unknown veldt, without
water, almost without food, and with the knowledge that a few minutes,
more or less, would in all likelihood bring their pursuers to the head
of the stairway, whence, under such a clear light, the movements of
their party over the scrub would be distinctly visible for miles.  After
a brief colloquy, they descended the stairway and glided along the wall
of rock, stepping on the stones and keeping carefully in the shadow,
meantime seeking keen-eyed for a secure hiding-place adjacent to water.

Almost within gun-shot of the stairway, the party hit upon a narrow
canon in the rocks, into which they entered, and, posting Leigh as a
sentinel, Grenville consulted with Myzukulwa, and, after they had
whispered together for a few moments, the Zulu slipped out of the
opening and was instantly engulfed in the shadows of the mountain.
Taking up his position opposite his cousin, Grenville looked at his
watch and found it was after two o'clock in the morning; the pair then
proceeded carefully to wipe out their Winchester rifles, and each felt
happier when he lowered his gun with the magazine chock-full of
cartridges.  These rifles, though made on the Winchester pattern,
carried a heavy shell-bullet, and had proved themselves uncommonly
serviceable weapons amongst the heaviest game, and, as both men were
crack shots, any hostile person getting within range was likely to have
an unpleasantly hot time of it.  The Zulu alone carried no rifle, but he
had so far overcome the traditions of his race as to use a heavy service
revolver, whilst each of the cousins possessed a brace of Smith and
Wesson's six-shooters.  This and the knowledge that they had plenty of
ammunition, having only parted with their bearers two days before at the
foot of the Pass, was reassuring.  And now, as the pair awaited the
Zulu's return, a very curious and fearsome thing happened: the canon,
which, when they entered it, had been as dark as Erebus, was being
gradually lighted by the moon, and, as the silvery radiance illumined
the centre of the gulf, a guarded exclamation broke from the astonished
watchers as they saw that the canon terminated abruptly some two hundred
yards from them in a gigantic wall of apparently solid rock; yet from
the very centre of this mighty but otherwise commonplace mass looked out
a prodigious and perfect model of a human face, about five times the
size of life, complete in every detail, and most diabolical in its
expression; the eyes, from which streamed scintillating rays of fire,
appeared to be rigidly examining every nook and corner of the canon, and
the cousins, who felt somewhat creepy, almost involuntarily drew outside
the entrance and kept close in the shadow.

At this juncture a cloud crossed the moon, and it was at once evident
that the unearthly-looking figure borrowed no light from the heavenly
orb, for the exaggerated lineaments showed up as if cut with a sword of
fire out of the inky blackness of the chasm, and on its brow they could
now read, in English, the words:--

"The Eyes of the Holy Three are Unsleeping."

And each knew he was gazing upon the fateful and universally-hated
emblem of the false and filthy prophet of the Mormon creed.  The cloud
passed from the moon, and even as it did so, the light behind the
hideous face died out, and the wall of rock regained its normal
appearance, scarcely revealing to the straining eyes of the watchers
that the counterfeit presentment of the human head had ever existed,
save in their excited imaginations.

At this moment the Zulu rejoined the cousins, but as both eagerly
welcomed him, and were about to speak, another diversion occurred.  A
gleaming, rushing thread of living fire suddenly shot up from the
stairway and cut its way across the heavens, bursting at its extreme
height into a shower of blazing and meteoric stars; and hardly had its
radiance died out, than it was followed by a second and similar
messenger, which in its turn was succeeded by a third, and then all was
again as still as death.

"Three rockets," said Grenville, "meaning three enemies in the camp; so
look out for squalls.  Watch keenly where the answer comes from."  And
hardly had he spoken, when a single answering rocket was fired, probably
a score of miles away, across the veldt.



CHAPTER FOUR.

INTO THE UNKNOWN.

Grenville briefly detailed to the Zulu all they had seen in the canon,
eliciting many wondering comments from him as to the possible utility of
the figure in warfare, after which he gave them an account of his
reconnaissance.  Suffice it to say that he had rigidly examined the
adjacent rocks, and found several small fissures which appeared quite
practicable of defence, but had ultimately concluded their present
position to be the best, as they were free to strike out upon the veldt,
without--so far as he could judge--bringing themselves within range of
any likely rifle-posts.

On repassing the stairway, he had heard a subdued murmur of voices, and
guessed that their enemies were consulting over the body of the
sentinel, and had now realised that three men, already accountable for
the deaths of two of their comrades, were by this time at large
somewhere within the jealously-guarded precincts of their own secret
kingdom; and thinking that the sooner he regained his party the