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Not once has it stood between me and death, but twice, and that at the hands of your people." A murmur of astonishment escaped his hearers. But the king said: "When was this other time? for such would, in truth, be something of a test." Then Laurence told the tale of his conflict with the Ba-gcatya warriors beneath the tree-fern by the lagoon and the murmur among the listeners deepened.
His scheme seemed already to glow with success. He had suspected for some time that Lindela regarded him with more than favour; and indeed, while weighing the prospect of casting in his lot with the Ba-gcatya, he had already in his own mind marked her out to share it. Now, however, the thing had become imperative.
There was even a note of dismay. Forgetting their mutinous intentions now, all crowded around their white leaders, eager to learn full particulars. And in that moment Laurence, ever observant, was not slow to perceive, both in the looks and tones of the party, quite enough to confirm all that Hazon had said as to the terror inspired by the very name of the redoubtable Ba-gcatya.
In order to save not merely his life, but to escape a fate which brooded over him with a peculiarly haunting horror, he had got to do this thing, to take to wife, according to the customs of the Ba-gcatya, the daughter of Nondwana, the niece of the king.
The prophecy seemed to have come true as regarded the prophet but for himself? well, the loss reconciled him still more to his life among the Ba-gcatya. Of Tyisandhlu he had seen but little. Now and then the king would send for him and talk for a time upon things in general, and all the while Laurence would feel that the shrewd, keen eyes of this barbarian ruler were reading him like a book.
If they take this position they'll have to rush it, and rush it hard. Well, do you believe in the Ba-gcatya now, Stanninghame?" Save a nod the other makes no answer, and now the attention of both men is upon the scene before them. Some few of the fugitives, in the desperation of their terror, are gradually outstripping their pursuers.
That it was that of a dead man he could see at a glance also that it was one of the Ba-gcatya. With a shudder he remembered the luckless wretch he had seen dragged away but a day or two before his own seizure whether for evil-doing or as a customary sacrifice he had been condemned to this, Laurence had not inquired at the time.
And then, indeed, was amazement wild, incredulous, bewildering amazement his dominant feeling, for by the light thus obtained he saw that the hut was tenanted by two persons. No feminine voice, however, was raised to bid him welcome in the soft tongue of the Ba-gcatya, but a loud, full-flavoured, masculine English one: "Stanninghame by the great Lord Harry!
In their forefront is Lutali Lutali, whirling a great scimitar, hewing down more than one of the too venturesome Ba-gcatya, and that in spite of the broad bull-hide shield deftly wielded Lutali, uttering a semi-religious war-cry, his erect form and keen, haughty face the very personification of absolute and dauntless valour.
He had now been several months among the Ba-gcatya; and had long since ceased to feel any misgiving as to his personal safety at their hands. But his sense of security was destined to receive a rude shock, and it came about in this way.
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