"Baas, asiye ekaya," which, of country, but not one of us The Zulu has no use for such happenings. He will cheerfully gorge meat that has gone higher than anything dreamed of in the old land, and he does not care how it came by its death as long as it was not killed by lightning, but to strike a dead buck is quite another thing. "Let us go home, Baas; I told you there was something wrong with our trip." He was speaking Zulu now, and I knew there was no use trying to argue with him. The sun was almost overhead anyway, and there was little use my going on alone. We left the great brute, and turned back for our waggon. Kali had not a word to say. A cup of coffee and a rusk cheered me up considerably, and with my pipe going well I propped my back against the waggon wheel and proceeded to plan out to-morrow's hunt in case my friends should have had no luck. Kali sat near the fire looking as if he had just heard that rinderpest had cleared out his cattle, and that there was not a beast left to him. Presently over the ridge came the other three hunters, followed by their "boys" with nothing. My saw a sign of any recent move of buck. Mac and Tom were for going on, but it was too hot, and I thought we had better get back and see how you had fared. How did you and Kali get on? Kali seems fed up." Kali refused to go on, and although it may appear absurd now, at the time I was quite as ready to chuck it. I fired at a buffalo in the long grass, and made a bull's-eye of a shot only to find that the brute had been dead for hours, if not days," and I told him the details. Bill pulled a long face. "If Kali gets talking to the other 'boys,' they'll refuse to go out again." "I know they will, but he is a faithful soul, and he won't let us down if he can help it." Bill's crowd had been talking or trying to talk to Kali, but I had noticed that he would have nothing to do with them. He had retired under the waggon and pretended to be asleep. The others sat round the fire roasting mealies on the lid of an iron pot, and stoking up in case they should have to go out in the afternoon; but there was many a side glance towards Kali, who was generally the life of the party, with an occasional look towards me. They were wondering what had happened to us. I began to doze, when Kali wakened me with the request for a shilling. I knew what he meant to do. He was going to consult an Isanusi (witch-doctor). Before we came in sight of the people in the village, Kali stopped and turned to me. "The Baas will not speak there," said he. 66 In Zulu I said, "Don't be a fool and throw your money away, Kali." "Give me a shilling, Baas," look and listen." said he. It was his money after all, and he might be satisfied and go on hunting. If I refused to give him the shilling, he might in terror of the unknown insist on going back, and if he went all my boys would go. I gave him the money, but told him I was going with him. Kulungile" ("It is well "), 66 said Kali. I explained to Bill what I was going to do, and he agreed that the party had better remain by the waggon until our return. Kali had waited while I spoke to my brother, but as soon as I had finished he struck out east, and I followed. He must have heard of the Isanusi's village, for he never hesitated, but held on at a great pace. We passed no villages, for in summer the country is full of malaria, and the Zulu has given it a wide berth. Mile after mile we travelled until we must have put six miles between us and the waggon, and I found myself in a part of the country unknown to me before. I was very thankful to see the tops of some huts, and hoped that Kali would find his " doctor there, and that "the bones" would be favourable. No, I have only come to It was not a great village. There were half a dozen beehive huts in a semicircle round the cattle-fold, which was made of branches of thorn trees. There were a few children running about when we arrived, but they dived into the nearest hut when they saw the white man. With his back against the wall of the cattle-fold and his legs stretched out in front sat a man in middle life busy trimming an ox-reim. A woman put down a large clay pot full to the brim with water, on which there floated a leafy twig, set there to keep the water from having too much play. As her eye caught the colour of the white man her hand went up in respectful salutation, and "Nkosana ("little chief"), she said. The man never raised his eye from the reim. There was quite a long pause after Kali's salutation of Sakubona Baba" before he replied, as if his thoughts had been miles away, Sakubona.' Kali did not waste time. He took the shilling and threw it on the mat on which the man was sitting, with, "Tell me." The Isanusi, without any further question as to what he wanted-not even the courteous, "Where are you from? -reached over to a piece of rolled skin near him, took from it certain small bones tied up inside, flattened out the skin, and rolled the bones out on it. He was doubled up now with his knees up to his chin, and his eyes glaring at the bones lying, to my view, higgledypiggledy on the skin. He sat thus with his gaze fixed for a minute or two, and then he began to speak. In the morning I was up betimes with a very firm determination that it would not be my fault if a doe was killed or an already dead buck hit. I warned Bill, for I knew that there would be no holding the Zulus with us once the doctor's predictions and the result of our shooting showed that danger still hung over us. Kali made no demur about You are with a party of coming with me, but he rewhite hunters." minded me as we started that That's easy," said I to we must get a ram and get it myself. quick. We were away before the others had moved, for I remembered that there were ridges near the Mzinene where one could generally pick up a rheet buck. The country was open there, and there was less chance of knocking over a doe in the excitement of the hunt. "You have had bad luck." "That's easy, too," I said, but from that on I had nothing to say. I was out of my depth. 'To-day one of you fired and hit, but did not kill. There is grave danger hanging over your party. If to-morrow any one of you fires and hits and does not kill, one of you will die. If the first buck hit and killed is a doe, grave danger will still rest upon your party. If the first buck hit and killed is a ram, all will be well. That is all I see. Go well." His voice stopped. gathered his bones, tied them and rolled them in the skin, and put it back alongside him, reached for the shilling and put that away, and then, lay ing hold of the reim, started once more on his trimming. Kali stood and watched while this was done, and then with a muttered, "Sala kahle one fired." ("Rest well "), he turned and took the path back to the waggon. He VOL. CCXX.-NO. MCCCXXIX. The sun was not very high before we got to our ground, and my luck was in, for the first buck I saw was a fine ram scampering up the hillside. A well-placed shot behind the shoulder rolled him over, and when we got up to him he was lying dead. As I stood over him admiring a very fine pair of horns, I remembered Kali's warning, and turning to him said, "Well, Kali, the bad luck has gone. Whatever evil spell was on us has passed now." "Yes, Baas; it is well if this shot of yours is the first We pulled out our knives, and had started to skin the buck when a Zulu arrived D 2 breathless. quick, They started back to the camp, and passing under a tree Tom, who had left the others, was jumped upon by the leopard, which had chewed him up considerably before his cries brought Mac and Bill to his aid. We had to carry poor Tom into camp, and then trek back to Durban, where he lay in hospital for weeks before he was pronounced out of danger by the medicos. We slung our buck into a thorn-tree and set off. We learned when we got to the others that although they had started long after us, they had only gone a few yards from the camp when a Duiker doe sprang up, and in the excitement it had been shot. The boys would go no farther. THE CUXHAVEN RAID. DURING the early part of the war the chief duty of the Harwich Force was to scout in the German Bight, in order to give notice of any movement of the enemy's surface craft. Many were the incursions into the Bight, and all without result. Towards the end of November 1914 a plan was evolved at the Admiralty to make a determined assault on the Cuxhaven aerodromes by means of seaplanes, and by this means possibly to bring on a meeting between the two fleets. This affair, known as the Cuxhaven Raid, was planned to take place on 22nd November 1914, but after an abortive attempt, of which more hereafter, it did not actually take place until Xmas Day. This was the first naval air raid into the enemy's country; it caused considerable alarm and excitement in Germany, and was the forerunner of many others. The Harwich Force was detailed to escort three seaplane carriers to a position twelve miles due west of Heligoland, which was considered to be a suitable position to commence operations. It must be borne in mind that in the early stages of the war seaplanes were in their infancy. Long flights had not previously been attempted, and the machines in use in those days would be looked on as prehistoric at the present time. Their engines were faulty, their speed was slow, and their radius of action was very limited. They carried no armament, and their only means of offensive action was by dropping bombs -if we except the revolvers carried by the pilot and his observer, and possibly a couple of rifles. Three seaplane carriersEngadine, Riviera, and Empress of India-were hurriedly fitted out for the enterprise, each carrying three seaplanes of the "Fairy" type. Their hangars were merely canvas affairs, and afforded little protection from wind or weather. After some preliminary and very necessary drill at hoisting in and out the seaplanes, the Harwich Force, consisting of the Arethusa, Fearless, Undaunted, and twelve torpedo boat destroyers, in company with the three seaplane carriers, sailed from Harwich on the evening of the 22nd November with the intention of arriving at the prearranged startingpoint half an hour before daylight morning. on the following All went well, except that the rain, which descended in torrents during the night, penetrated the canvas hangars and caused the wings of the machines to become what is known in the Air Service as |