"Why, what's become of the Bomvana?" suddenly inquired someone. They looked around. There was no sign of their guide. Could he have been playing them false and slipped away in the confusion? Even now the enemy might be lying in wait somewhere in overwhelming force, ready to cut off their retreat. "By Jove! There he is!" cried another man presently. "And--the beggar's dead!" He was. In the confusion of the attack they had forgotten their guide, who must have fallen into the hands of the enemy, and have been sacrificed to the vengeance of the latter. The body of the unfortunate Bomvana, propped up in a sitting posture against a tree by his slayers in savage mockery, presented a hideous sight. The throat was cut from ear to ear, and the trunk was nearly divided by a terrible gash right across it just below the ribs, while from several assegai stabs the dark arterial blood was still oozing forth. "Faugh!" exclaimed Hoste with a grimace of disgust, while two or three of the younger men of the party turned rather pale as they shudderingly gazed upon the sickening sight. "Poor devil! They've made short work of him, anyhow." "H'm! I don't wonder at it," said Shelton. "It must be deuced rough to be sold by one of your own men. Still, if that chap's story was true he was the aggrieved party. However, let's get on. We've got our work all before us still." They had. It was no easy matter to drive such an enormous herd through the thick bush. Many of the animals were very wild, besides being thoroughly scared with all the hustling to and fro they had had--and began to branch off from the main body, drawing a goodly number after them. These had to be out-manoeuvred, yet it would never do for the men to straggle, for the Kafirs would hardly let such a prize go without straining every effort to retain it. Certain it was that the savages were following them in the thick bush as near as they dared, keenly watching an opportunity to retrieve--or partially retrieve--the disaster of the day. Cautiously, then, the party retreated with their spoil, seeking a favourable outlet by which they could drive their unwieldy capture into the open country; for on all sides the way out of the valley was steep, broken, and bushy. Suddenly a shout of warning and of consternation went up from a man on the left of the advance. All eyes were turned on him--and from him upon the point to which he signalled. What they saw there was enough to send the blood back to every heart. CHAPTER NINETEEN. THE LAST CARTRIDGE. This is what they saw. Over the brow of the high ridge, about a mile in their rear, a dark mass was advancing. It was like a disturbed ants' nest--on they came, those dark forms, swarming over the hill--and the sun glinted on assegai blades and gun-barrels as the savage host poured down the steep slope, glancing from bush to bush, rapidly and in silence.