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Often, after going round the farm, I start at two or three o'clock and ride into Greytown and back; but that is only a matter of some fifteen miles each way. Still, when one has got seven men's lives depending upon one, one makes a big effort." "I tell you what, Mr. Searle. The best thing you can do is to strip and lie down. I will set the two Zulus to knead you.
"They dare not drag you from my house by force, and I will not allow them to enter." "There is no time to be lost then, for they are very close to the bank," said Rupert. "I will go and see what they are about." Captain Broderick led the chief and his wife into the house, while Rupert hastened to where he could watch the Zulus.
Captain Robertson was still sleeping when we passed the village and of this I was heartily glad, since the remains of a cannibal feast are not pleasant to behold, especially when they are ! Indeed, of these I determined to be rid at once, so slipping off the waggon with Hans and some of the farm boys, for none of the Zulus would defile themselves by touching such human remnants I made up two of the smouldering fires, the light of which the voorlooper had seen upon the sky, and on to them cast, or caused to be cast, those poor fragments.
Certainly it depressed me. Now the light was growing, and we could see some way into the mist which still hung densely over the river, and now ah! there it was. From the other side of the hill, a thousand yards or more from the laager, came a faint humming sound. It grew and grew till it gathered to a chant the awful war chant of the Zulus. Soon I could catch the words.
Therefore, at any cost, the fugitives must be intercepted and destroyed to a man. So the Makalakas hastened down the pass, after instructing the Balotsi to keep on the trail of the Zulus over the mountains, harass their rear, and notify their whereabouts by lighting fires on the nearest hills surrounding them every night. But this was a service for which the Balotsi had no stomach.
On January 21, Colonel, then Major, Dartnell, the officer in command of the Natal Mounted Police and volunteers, who had been sent out to effect a reconnaissance of the country beyond Isandhlwana, reported that the Zulus were in great strength in front of him.
M. W. Pretorius, one of the Boer leaders, publicly stating at a meeting of the farmers that "previous to the Annexation Sir T. Shepstone had threatened the Transvaal with an attack from the Zulus as an argument for advancing the Annexation."
Going to his uncle, Henri Marais, he told him, not all the truth, but that he had learnt for certain that his daughter Marie was in dreadful danger of her life because of some intended attack of the Zulus, and that all the Boers among whom she dwelt were also in danger of their lives.
"No, no," answered Crawford; "I'll accompany you; I don't mind a wetting; and though the Zulus we saw cannot yet have got as far as this, even should they have pursued us, there may be others concealed near at hand, who, if they find you alone, might venture to attack you." They accordingly turned their horses' heads as Rupert proposed.
As they dared not go forward for fear lest they should fall into the hands of the Zulus, they fled back northwards, running all night, only to find in the morning that they had lost their way in the bush.
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