No sooner were they out of sight than Labotsibeni's men again began dancing and shouting their war-cries. I could feel our warriors tightening up, and shouted for Vilakazi. I told him to watch closely and prevent any warrior from breaking ranks, and demanded that he stop them from dancing. He went along the ranks and spoke to the indunas, who turned and yelled at their men. In spite of this, I could see the plumes beginning to sway and felt that it would not be long before they were at it again. This time I doubted whether we could stop them if the "enemy" began taunting them. Labotsibini's men shouted and jumped, and presently one or two began running forward a short distance. A warrior would seemingly be overcome by his emotions and would make a quick dash into the "No Man's Land" between the forces, using up his energy by a particularly violent fit of dancing. When this was spent he would hop back to his place near the kraal, yelling all the while. I realized the danger of this sort of thing. If these enthusiastic savages came far enough, they would tempt some of our men to dance out and meet them. This would mean a killing. There would be some rapid blows with the knob-kerries, accompanied by the hollow thud when the shields caught the strokes, and finally one blow would go home and the victim would drop. Like a flash would come the stab of the assegai and there would be a dead man on the ground! Our indunas knew this better than I did, and they walked up and down before their excited warriors watching for the first man to break ranks. Tuys and I held our rifles ready, fully intending to shoot the first warrior who started for the middle ground. It was a ticklish position and my white companions stood nervously waiting for the break they felt was coming. At the moment when it seemed as though the dam must burst and our men get beyond control, a sudden silence came over the shouting lunatics at the kraals. I understood the reason when I saw our envoys coming out of the royal kraal, still escorted by Lomwazi and his indunas. Amid deep silence they walked slowly to the spot where they had met before and stopped long enough to ceremoniously salute each other. Then Lomwazi and his bodyguard returned to the village and L'Tunga and the others came to where we stood. They appeared angry and worried. Lochien also looked dejected, and Tuys and I listened while L'Tunga made his report. "Queen Labotsibeni sends word that she will not surrender the throne, Nkoos," he said. "She told me to tell our queen that she must die before the throne passed to Sebuza, and not after." Evidently the old queen had made up her mind that the government could not protect her from the sacrifice if she allowed Sebuza to become king. "When I told her that we had many more warriors than she had," the witch-doctor went on, "she declared that her indunas would fight to the death, that so long as she held Zombode she was Queen of Swaziland!"