"Look yonder," he said. "There is trouble in the Gaika location to-night. Take the _Inkosikazi_ and leave--this very night. I know what I say." Then, marking the other's hesitation, "I know what I say," he repeated impressively. "Am I not the _Inkosikazi's_ watch-dog? Am I not her eyes and ears? Even now there is one approaching from Nteya's kraal." He had struck a listening attitude. Eustace, his recent experiences fresh in his mind, felt depressed and anxious, gazing expectantly into the darkness, his hand upon the butt of his revolver. "Halt! Who comes there?" he cried in the Xosa tongue. "A friend, Ixeshane!" came the prompt reply, as a dark form stepped into view. Now that life was worth living again, Eanswyth felt all her old apprehensions return; but she had every confidence in her lover's judgment and the fidelity of her trusted old retainer. "_Hau_, Ixeshane! You are here; it is good," said the new arrival in the most matter-of-fact way, as though he were not wondering to distraction how it was that the man who had been reported slain in the Bomvana country by the hostile Gcalekas, should be standing there alive and well before him. "I am here to warn the _Inkosikazi_. She must leave, and at once. The fire-tongues of the Amaxosa are speaking to each other; the war-cry of the Ama Ngqika is cleaving the night." "We have seen and heard that before, Ncanduku," answered Eustace, recognising the new arrival at once. "Yet your people would not harm us. Are we not friends?" The Kafir shook his head. "Who can be called friends in war-time?" he said. "There are strangers in our midst--strangers from another land. Who can answer for them? I am Ncanduku, the brother of Nteya. The chief will not have his friends harmed at the hands of strangers. But they must go. Look yonder, and lose no time. Get your horses and take the _Inkosikazi_, and leave at once, for the Ama Ngqika have responded to the call of their brethren and the Paramount Chief, and have risen to arms. _The land is dead_." There was no need to follow the direction of the Kafir's indication. A dull, red glare, some distance off, shone forth upon the night; then another and another. Signal fires? No. These shone from no prominent height, but from the plain itself. Then Eustace took in the situation in a moment. The savages were beginning to fire the deserted homesteads of the settlers. "Inspan the buggy quickly, Josane," he said. "And, Ncanduku, come inside for a moment. I will find _basela_ [Best rendered by the familiar term `backshish'] for you and Nteya." But the voice which had conveyed such timely warning responded not. The messenger had disappeared.