"What a surprise!" he said, turning quickly to me. "Now we're in for it! Keep close, lad, and we'll win through!"
Before I could reply, Lochien began dancing. In another moment our entire army was chanting and springing up and down like madmen.
"Soukbulala! Soukbulala!—I will kill you! I will kill you!" they shouted. From individual shouts this quickly fell into a sort of rude rhythm, its heavy bass rolling away across the plain.
Immediately the warriors at the kraals commenced their dance, and their shouts reached us with the snap of gunshots. Our men waved their knob-kerries, assegais, and shields in the air, and Labotsibeni's home guard did the same. The air was full of murderous tools and we were surrounded by giant savages who seemed to have suddenly gone mad.
This awful bedlam lasted for some time. Actually, it was six minutes by my watch, but such a six minutes! Every second I expected to see some of our warriors dash forward and attack the enemy.
L'Tunga came to himself first. He sprang out to Lochien, who still danced in front of us all, and caught him by the arms. Lochien stopped dancing, and a second later he turned to our army and threw up his arms. Like a statue he held the great shield above his head, standing there as though suddenly turned to bronze.
This was a signal for the dance to cease. In a little time our warriors saw him and quieted down, only their agitated plumes showing that their excitement was not wholly dead. Labotsibeni's warriors caught the change, and soon they, too, became quiet. They swayed to and fro in front of the kraals, but remained as silent as our impis.
L'Tunga and Lochien came back hurriedly to us for a conference.
"Nkoos, this is not what we expected," Lochien said to me in an anxious tone. "We didn't believe Labotsibeni could muster so many men. What shall we do now? Shall we go through with the plan, or fight? Perhaps it is better to fight. We have more than five thousand warriors, and they cannot have more than about three thousand. Shall we fight?"
"No! No!" I replied most emphatically. "Go through with the plan as arranged. Tell Labotsibeni that you have many more warriors than she has. Tell her that you don't want to have any killing, but that she must surrender the throne."