midnight
He mentions Laputa only in a footnote as a renegade Christian who had something to do with fomenting discontent . He considers that the word ` Inkulu , ' which he often heard , was a Zulu name for God . Mr Upton is a picturesque historian , but he knew nothing of the most romantic incident of all . This is the tale of the midnight shepherding of the ` heir of John ' by Arcoll and his irregulars . At Bruderstroom , where I was lying unconscious , there were two hundred men of the police ; sixty-three Basuto scouts under a man called Stephen , who was half native in blood and wholly native in habits ; and three commandoes of the farmers , each about forty strong . The commandoes were really companies of the North Transvaal Volunteers , but the old name had been kept and something of the old loose organization . There were also two four-gun batteries of volunteer artillery , but these were out on the western skirts of the Wolkberg following Beyers 's historic precedent .