For a few moments the latter looked steadily at the captives, then at a sign they were led to a position midway between the four regiments. An order rang out, and as one man the armed Makoh'lenga stepped out, forming into one long column, with Umkomasi leading and the other chiefs at the head of their respective regiments, while Colin and Tiny, surrounded by their guards, were placed in the centre of the column.
At the end of a three-mile march, beyond the limits explored by the chums in their wanderings, the Makoh'lenga ascended a zigzag path that appeared to be the only means of communicating with the extensive vastness that rose from the lofty tableland in which the village was built.
Arriving at the summit, the warriors broke into a steady run, like men who were behind time in keeping an appointment.
Colin and Tiny had to run, too, in spite of being hampered by having their arms bound, but the gentle application of a couple of spear points quickly settled any disinclination on the part of the captives to increase their pace.
At length the warriors came to a halt in a vast natural amphitheatre, the ground sloping gradually from a depression nearly half a mile in diameter. Only in a comparatively small section did the enclosing bank rise steeply. Here rocks rose abruptly to a height of nearly two hundred feet, and in the centre of this cliff was a lofty cave, with an entrance so wide that the interior was visible to every man drawn up in orderly formation without.
Into the cave Umkomasi and his immediate subordinates entered, making obeisance as they did so. Then, closely guarded, Colin and Tiny were urged towards the enormous cavity.
It was a hideous scene that met their horrified eyes. The walls of the cave were of glittering quartz, with rich veins of virgin gold. That in itself would not have frozen the blood in their veins; it was the terrible object that confronted them in the centre of the cave.
Fashioned of solid gold was an enormous image of a lion, with wide-open jaws and one paw upraised, displaying formidable talons. Either by mechanical means or by some hidden human agency the paw was moving slowly yet remorselessly in the glare of a hundred torches upheld by a double row of motionless men.
Immediately underneath the paw was a block of gold with six rings set in it—three on either side, while a few paces in front of the hideous image was a raised slab of gold on which lay a cushion of white cloth.
On the cushion lay a small object, which Colin and Tiny recognised as the swastika. The amulet, instead of bringing them good luck, had landed Colin and his chum into a very tight corner, indeed!