But the opportunity never arrived, for just as the chums were on the point of turning in they heard a din without. This was quite unusual, for the Makoh'lenga were given to act as silently as possible. It was fairly late in the evening—nearly ten o'clock—at which hour the majority of the inhabitants had retired for the night.
"What's up now, I wonder?" exclaimed Colin, making for the open doorway, with Tiny a close second.
It was now close on the time of full moon. The huge, yellow orb was within thirty degrees of its zenith, and the light was almost as strong as that of a summer's day in England.
Approaching the village was a solid mass of armed men, and every warrior in the place was turning out to meet them. At first the chums imagined that the two parties were antagonistic towards each other, but they were wrong in their surmise. The two bands fused, and in a dense mass they marched onwards, every man shouting at the top of his voice and brandishing his spear.
Arriving at the open space between the houses and the brink of the cliff, the Makoh'lenga warriors halted in four columns with perfect alignment.
In front stood four indunas, or chiefs, one of them being he who had directed the operations resulting in the capture of Colin and Tiny, while a few paces ahead of the four stood another individual, whose elaborate dress of red and white silk, with a golden breast-plate and helmet, proclaimed him to be of the very highest rank. He alone of all the Makoh'lenga departed from the custom of simplicity in costume.
Presently this gorgeous potentate addressed the now silent warriors. When he had finished his lengthy speech he was greeted with shouts of acclamation in which the word "Umkomasi" occurred frequently.
"Umkomasi!" exclaimed Colin. "Why, that was the name our Van der Wyck mentioned."
Before Desmond could offer any remark about a dozen men detached themselves from the mass of warriors, and ran towards the house where the chums were quartered.
Unceremoniously Desmond and Sinclair were seized, their arms bound behind their backs, and hurried into the presence of the Chief Umkomasi.