All looked back, and the same idea was in the mind of each. Had Lo Bengula thought better of it, and yielded to the bloodthirsty clamour of his warriors? For the gates of Bulawayo were pouring forth a dense black swarm, which could be none other than the impi gathered there at the time of their visit,--and this, clear of the entrance, was advancing at a run, heading straight for the four equestrians. These looked somewhat anxious. Their servants, the two Bechuana boys, went grey with fear. "Is it a case of leg-bail?" said Blachland, surveying the on-coming horde. "No, we must face it anyhow," answered Pemberton, puffing at his pipe tranquilly. "Besides, we can't leave these poor devils of boys to be murdered. Eh, Sybrandt?" "Never run away, except in a losing fight and there's no help for it," was the reply. Accordingly they kept their horses at a walk. But the moment was a thrilling one. On swept the impi; but now it had drawn up into a walk, and from its ranks arose a song-- "Uti mayihlome, mayihlome katese njebo! Ise nompako wayo namanyatelo ayo! Utaho njalo. Uti mayihlome katese njebo!" This strophe--which may be rendered roughly to mean, "He says (i.e. the King), `Let it (the impi) arm. Let it arm at once. Come with its food, with its sandals.' He says always. He says, `Let it arm at once!'"-- was boomed forth from nearly two thousand throats, deafening, terrifying. But the impi swept by, and, passing within a hundred yards, singing in mighty volume its imposing war-song, shields waving, and assegais brandished menacingly towards the white men, it poured up the opposite slope, taking a straight line, significantly symbolical of the unswerving purpose it had been sent to fulfil. An involuntary feeling of relief was upon the party, upon all but one, that is. For Hilary Blachland, noting the direction taken by this army of destroyers, could not but admit a qualm of very real and soul-stirring misgiving. That he had good grounds for the same we shall see anon. CHAPTER FOUR. HERMIA. "I don't care. I'll say it again. It's a beastly shame him leaving you alone like this." "But you are not to say it again, or to say it at all. Remember of whom you are speaking." "Oh, no fear of my forgetting that--of being able to forget it. All the same, he ought to be ashamed of himself." And the speaker tapped his foot impatiently upon the virgin soil of Mashunaland, looking very hot, and very tall, and very handsome. The remonstrant, however, received the repetition of the offence in silence, but for a half inaudible sigh, which might or might not have been meant to convey that she was not nearly so angry with the other as her words seemed to imply or their occasion to demand. Then there was silence.