"_Umlungu_" meaning simply "white man" was impudent, especially as I was sure some, if not all, of these knew me. At that moment I took in that they were all young men, of any age not much overtopping twenty, consequently at the most reckless and mischievous stage of human existence. "Go--go," I answered. "Send your fathers here. I talk not with children." The hubbub grew deafening and they drew in closer--growling, chattering in their fine deep voices, pointing viciously at us with their blades. My taunt had exasperated them to a dangerous degree. One fellow went so far as to dance out from among the rest and _gwaza_ at me with his assegai, and all were brandishing theirs and closing in upon us nearer and nearer. I have always made a point of never being afraid of savages, but really when you get an irresponsible young ruffian lunging an eighteen-inch assegai blade within half that distance of your nose, and he backed up by thirty others, the situation begins to have its skeery side. "Keep 'em steady a minute, Glanton, while I get out our `barkers'," said Falkner. "That'll start 'em to the rightabout double quick." "No. Better leave that. They're only blowing off steam." But I wasn't easy: more, I realised that the situation was a confoundedly ticklish one. They were working each other up into a state of ungovernable excitement, and simply howling down whatever I was trying to say. If I had had my pistol on I believe I should have drawn it, but it was at that moment reposing in one of the waggon pockets, some twenty-five yards behind us. The same held good of Falkner's. He, characteristically, now brought matters to a crisis. "Shut that silly jaw," he growled, seizing the wrist of a fellow who was doing _gwaza_ with a big assegai close to his face, and, with the other hand hitting him a terrific blow right between the eyes, felling him. Then I thought my last hour had come, but no--they fell back as though scared. Falkner's fighting powers had done us yeoman's service after all, was the thought that flashed through my mind--and then I saw that it was not so; that our respite was due to another cause. Unseen by either party to the turmoil two Zulus had come up--and one of them I knew, and knowing him, felt devoutly thankful that he was a pretty considerable chief. "Now I see men," I said, "men with rings on. Now I can talk. Greeting, Nonguza." He answered me with scant cordiality. He was a tall, fine man, but his face was heavy and sullen, more than that, it was a cruel face. The glance he shot at Falkner especially was not benevolent. "I see you, Iqalaqala," he said. "What is this, for my dogs seem to be barking over loud!"