KAATJE BRINGS NEWS
Zikali burst into one of his peals of laughter, so unholy that it
caused the blood in me to run cold.
“The King’s word is _war_,” he cried. “Let Nomkubulwana take that word
back to heaven. Let Macumazahn take it to the White Men. Let the
captains cry it to the regiments and let the world grow red. The King
has chosen, though mayhap, had I been he, I should have chosen
otherwise; yet what am I but a hollow reed stuck in the ground up which
the spirits speak to men? It is finished, and I, too, am finished for a
while. Farewell, O King! Where shall we meet again, I wonder? On the
earth or under it? Farewell, Macumazahn, I know where we shall meet,
though you do not. O King, I return to my own place, I pray you to
command that none come near me or trouble me with words, for I am
spent.”
“It is commanded,” said Cetewayo.
As he spoke the fire went out mysteriously, and the wizard rose and
hobbled off at a surprising pace round the corner of the projecting
rock.
“Stay!” I called, “I would speak with you;” but although I am sure he
heard me, he did not stop or look round.
I sprang up to follow him, but at some sign from Cetewayo two _indunas_
barred my way.
“Did you not hear the King’s command, White Man?” one of them asked
coldly, and the tone of his question told me that war having been
declared, I was now looked upon as a foe. I was about to answer sharply
when Cetewayo himself addressed me.
“Macumazahn,” he said, “you are now my enemy, like all your people, and
from sunrise to-morrow morning your safe-conduct here ends, for if you
are found at Ulundi two hours after that time, it will be lawful for
any man to kill you. Yet as you are still my guest, I will give you an
escort to the borders of the land. Moreover, you shall take a message
from me to the Queen’s officers and captains. It is—that I will send an
answer to their demands upon the point of an assegai. Yet add this,
that not I but the English, to whom I have always been a friend, sought
this war. If Sompseu had suffered me to fight the Boers as I wished to
do, it would never have come about. But he threw the Queen’s blanket
over the Transvaal and stood upon it, and now he declares that lands
which were always the property of the Zulus, belong to the Boers.
Therefore I take back all the promises which I made to him when he came
hither to call me King in the Queen’s name, and no more do I call him
my father. As for the disbanding of my _impis_, let the English disband
them if they can. I have spoken.”
“And I have heard,” I answered, “and will deliver your words
faithfully, though I hold, King, that they come from the lips of one
whom the Heavens have made mad.”
At this bold speech some of the Councillors started up with threatening
gestures. Cetewayo waved them back and answered quietly, “Perhaps it
was the Queen of Heaven who stood on yonder rock who made me mad. Or
perhaps she made me wise, as being the Spirit of our people she should
surely do. That is a question which the future will decide, and if ever
we should meet after it is decided, we will talk it over. Now, _hamba
gachle!_ (go in peace).”
“I hear the king and I will go, but first I would speak with Zikali.”
“Then, White Man, you must wait till this war is finished or till you
meet him in the Land of Spirits. Goza, lead Macumazahn back to his hut
and set a guard about it. At the dawn a company of soldiers will be
waiting with orders to take him to the border. You will go with him and
answer for his safety with your life. Let him be well treated on the
road as my messenger.”
Then Cetewayo rose and stood while all present gave him the royal
salute, after which he walked away down the kloof. I remained for a
moment, making pretence to examine the blade of the little assegai that
had been thrown by the figure on the rock, which I had picked from the
ground. This historical piece of iron which I have no doubt is the same
that Chaka always carried, wherewith, too, he is said to have killed
his mother, Nandie, by the way I still possess, for I slipped it into
my pocket and none tried to take it from me.
Really, however, I was wondering whether I could in any way gain access
to Zikali, a problem that was settled for me by a sharp request to move
on, uttered in a tone which admitted of no further argument.
Well, I trudged back to my hut in the company of Goza, who was so
overcome by all the wonders he had seen that he could scarcely speak.
Indeed, when I asked him what he thought of the figure that had
appeared upon the rock, he replied petulantly that it was not given to
him to know whence spirits came or of what stuff they were made, which
showed me that he at any rate believed in its supernatural origin and
that it had appeared to direct the Zulus to make war. This was all I
wanted to find out, so I said nothing more, but gave up my mind to
thought of my own position and difficulties.
Here I was, ordered on pain of death to depart from Ulundi at the dawn.
And yet how could I obey without seeing Zikali and learning from him
what had happened to Anscombe and Heda, or at any rate without
communicating with him? Once more only did I break silence, offering to
give Goza a gun if he would take a message from me to the great wizard.
But with a shake of his big head, he answered that to do so would mean
death, and guns were of no good to a dead man since, as I had shown
myself that night, they had no power to shoot a spirit.
This closed the business on which I need not have troubled to enter,
since an answer to all my questionings was at hand.
We reached the hut where Goza gave me over to the guard of soldiers,
telling their officer that none were to be permitted to enter it save
myself and that I was not to be permitted to come out of it until he,
Goza, came to fetch me a little before the dawn.
The officer asked if any one else was to be permitted to come out, a
question that surprised me, though vaguely, for I was thinking of other
things. Then Goza departed, remarking that he hoped I should sleep
better than he would, who “felt spirits in his bones and did not wish
to kiss them as I seemed to like to do.” I replied facetiously,
thinking of the bottle of brandy, that ere long I meant to feel them in
my stomach, whereat he shook his head again with the air of one whom
nothing connected with me could surprise, and vanished.
I crawled into the hut and put the board over the bee-hole-like
entrance behind me. Then I began to hunt for the matches in my pocket
and pricked my finger with the point of Chaka’s historical assegai.
While I was sucking it to my amazement I heard the sound of some one
breathing on the further side of the hut. At first I thought of calling
the guard, but on reflection found the matches and lit the candle,
which stood by the blankets that served me as a bed. As soon as it
burned up I looked towards the sound, and to my horror perceived the
figure of a sleeping woman, which frightened me so much that I nearly
dropped the candle.
To tell the truth, so obsessed was I with Zikali and his ghosts that
for a few moments it occurred to me that this might be the Shape with
which I had talked an hour or two before. I mean that which had seemed
to resemble the long-dead lady Mameena, or rather the person made up to
her likeness, come here to continue our conversation. At any rate I was
sure, and rightly, that here was more of the handiwork of Zikali who
wished to put me in some dreadful position for reasons of his own.
Pulling myself together I advanced upon the lady, only to find myself
no wiser, since she was totally covered by a kaross. Now what was to be
done? To escape, of which of course I had thought at once, was
impossible since it meant an assegai in my ribs. To call to the guard
for help seemed indiscreet, for who knew what those fools might say? To
kick or shake her would undoubtedly be rude and, if it chanced to be
the person who had played Mameena, would certainly provoke remarks that
I should not care to face. There seemed to be only one resource, to sit
down and wait till she woke up.
This I did for quite a long time, till at last the absurdity of the
position and, I will admit, my own curiosity overcame me, especially as
I was very tired and wanted to go to sleep. So advancing most gingerly,
I turned down the kaross from over the head of the sleeping woman, much
wondering whom I should see, for what man is there that a veiled woman
does not interest? Indeed, does not half the interest of woman lie in
the fact that her nature is veiled from man, in short a mystery which
he is always seeking to solve at his peril, and I might add, never
succeeds in solving?
Well, I turned down that kaross and next instant stepped back amazed
and, to tell the truth, somewhat disappointed, for there, with her
mouth open, lay no wondrous and spiritual Mameena, but the stout,
earthly and most prosaic—Kaatje!
“Confound the woman!” thought I to myself. “What is she doing here?”
Then I remembered how wrong it was to give way to a sense of romantic
disappointment at such a time, though as a matter of fact it is always
in a moment of crisis or of strained nerves that we are most open to
the insidious advances of romance. Also that there was no one on earth,
or beyond it, whom I ought more greatly to have rejoiced to see. I had
left Kaatje with Anscombe and Heda; therefore Kaatje could tell me what
had become of them. And at this thought my heart sank—why was she here
in this most inappropriate meeting-place, alone? Feeling that these
were questions which must be answered at once, I prodded Kaatje in the
ribs with my toe until, after a good deal of prodding, she awoke, sat
up and yawned, revealing an excellent set of teeth in her cavernous,
quarter-cast mouth. Then perceiving a man she opened that mouth even
wider, as I thought with the idea of screaming for help. But here I was
first with her, for before a sound could issue I had filled it full
with the corner of the kaross, exclaiming in Dutch as I did so—
“Idiot of a woman, do you not know the Heer Quatermain when you see
him?”
“Oh! Baas,” she answered, “I thought you were some wicked Zulu come to
do me a mischief.” Then she burst into tears and sobs which I could not
stop for at least three minutes.
“Be quiet, you fat fool!” I cried exasperated, “and tell me, where are
your mistress and the Heer Anscombe?”
“I don’t know, Baas, but I hope in heaven” (Kaatje was some kind of a
Christian), she replied between her sobs.
“In heaven! What do you mean?” I asked, horrified.
“I mean, Baas, that I hope they are in heaven, because when last I saw
them they were both dead, and dead people must be either in heaven or
hell, and heaven, they say, is better than hell.”
“_Dead!_ Where did you see them dead?”
“In that Black Kloof, Baas, some days after you left us and went away.
The old baboon man who is called Zikali gave us leave through the
witch-girl, Nombé, to go also. So the Baas Anscombe set to work to
inspan the horses, the Missie Heda helping him, while I packed the
things. When I had nearly finished Nombé came, smiling like a cat that
has caught two mice, and beckoned to me to follow her. I went and saw
the cart inspanned with the four horses all looking as though they were
asleep, for their heads hung down. Then after she had stared at me for
a long while Nombé led me past the horses into the shadow of the
overhanging cliff. There I saw my mistress and the Baas Anscombe lying
side by side quite dead.”
“How do you know that they were dead?” I gasped. “What had killed
them?”
“I know that they were dead because they _were_ dead, Baas. Their
mouths and eyes were open and they lay upon their backs with their arms
stretched out. The witch-girl, Nombé, said some Kaffirs had come and
strangled them and then gone away again, or so I understood who cannot
speak Zulu so very well. Who the Kaffirs were or why they came she did
not say.”
“Then what did you do?” I asked.
I ran back to the hut, Baas, fearing lest I should be strangled also,
and wept there till I grew hungry. When I came out of it again they
were gone. Nombé showed me a place under a tree where the earth was
disturbed. She said that they were buried there by order of her master,
Zikali. I don’t know what became of the horses or the cart.”
“And what happened to you afterwards?”
“Baas, I was kept for several days, I cannot remember how many, and
only allowed out within the fence round the huts. Nombé came to see me
once, bringing this,” and she produced a package sewn up in a skin.
“She said that I was to give it to you with a message that those whom
you loved were quite safe with One who is greater than any in the land,
and therefore that you must not grieve for them whose troubles were
over. I think it was two nights after this that four Zulus came, two
men and two women, and led me away, as I thought to kill me. But they
did not kill me; indeed they were very kind to me, although when I
spoke to them they pretended not to understand. They took me a long
journey, travelling for the most part in the dark and sleeping in the
day. This evening when the sun set they brought me through a Kaffir
town and thrust me into the hut where I am without speaking to any one.
Here, being very tired, I went to sleep, and that is all.”
And quite enough too, thought I to myself. Then I put her through a
cross-examination, but Kaatje was a stupid woman although a good and
faithful servant, and all her terrible experiences had not sharpened
her intelligence. Indeed, when I pressed her she grew utterly confused,
began to cry, thereby taking refuge in the last impregnable female
fortification, and snivelled out that she could not bear to talk of her
dear mistress any more. So I gave it up, and two minutes later she was
literally snoring, being very tired, poor thing.
Now I tried to think matters out as well as this disturbance would
allow, for nothing hinders thought so much as snores. But what was the
use of thinking? There was her story to take or to leave, and evidently
the honest creature believed what she said. Further, how could she be
deceived on such a point? She swore that she had seen Anscombe and Heda
dead and afterwards had seen their graves.
Moreover, there was confirmation in Nombé’s message which could not
well have been invented, that spoke of their being well in the charge
of a “Great One,” a term by which the Zulus designate God, with all
their troubles finished. The reason and manner of their end were left
unrevealed. Zikali might have murdered them for his own purposes, or
the Zulus might have killed them in obedience to the king’s order that
no white people in the land were to be allowed to live. Or perhaps the
Basutos from Sekukuni’s country, with whom the Zulus had some
understanding, had followed and done them to death; indeed the
strangling sounded more Basuto than Zulu—if they were really strangled.
Almost overcome though I was, I bethought me of the package and opened
it, only to find another apparent proof of their end, for it contained
Heda’s jewels as I had found them in the bag in the safe; also a spare
gold watch belonging to Anscombe with his coat-of-arms engraved upon
it. That which he wore was of silver and no doubt was buried with him,
since for superstitious reasons the natives would not have touched
anything on his person after death. This seemed to me to settle the
matter, presumptively at any rate, since to show that robbery was not
the cause of their murder, their most valuable possessions which were
not upon their persons had been sent to me, their friend.
So this was the end of all my efforts to secure the safety and
well-being of that most unlucky pair. I wept when I thought of it there
in the darkness of the hut, for the candle had burned out, and going on
to my knees, put up an earnest prayer for the welfare of their souls;
also that I might be forgiven my folly in leading them into such
danger. And yet I did it for the best, trying to judge wisely in the
light of such experience of the world as I possessed.
Now alas! when I am old I have come to the conclusion that those things
which one tries to do for the best one generally does wrong, because
nearly always there is some tricky fate at hand to mar them, which in
this instance was named Zikali. The fact is, I suppose, that man who
thinks himself a free agent, can scarcely be thus called, at any rate
so far as immediate results are concerned. But that is a dangerous
doctrine about which I will say no more, for I daresay that he is
engaged in weaving a great life-pattern of which he only sees the
tiniest piece.
One thing comforted me a little. If these two were dead I could now
leave Zululand without qualms. Of course I was obliged to leave in any
case, or die, but somehow that fact would not have eased my conscience.
Indeed I think that had I believed they still lived, in this way or in
that I should have tried not to leave, because I should have thought it
for the best to stay to help them, whereby in all human probability I
should have brought about my own death without helping them at all.
Well, it had fallen out otherwise and there was an end. Now I could
only hope that they had gone to some place where there are no more
troubles, even if, at the worst, it were a place of rest too deep for
dreams.
Musing thus at last I dozed off, for I was so tired that I think I
should have slept although execution awaited me at the dawn instead of
another journey. I did not sleep well because of that snoring female on
the other side of the hut whose presence outraged my sense of propriety
and caused me to be invaded by prophetic dreams of the talk that would
ensue among those scandalmongering Zulus. Yes, it was of this I
dreamed, not of the great dangers that threatened me or of the terrible
loss of my friends, perhaps because to many men, of whom I suppose I am
one, the fear of scandal or of being the object of public notice, is
more than the fear of danger or the smart of sorrow.
So the night wore away, till at length I woke to see the gleam of dawn
penetrating the smoke-hole and dimly illuminating the recumbent form of
Kaatje, which to me looked most unattractive. Presently I heard a
discreet tapping on the doorboard of the hut which I at once removed,
wriggling swiftly through the hole, careless in my misery as to whether
I met an assegai the other side of it or not. Without a guard of eight
soldiers was standing, and with them Goza, who asked me if I were ready
to start.
“Quite,” I answered, “as soon as I have saddled my horse,” which by the
way had been led up to the hut.
Very soon this was done, for I brought out most of my few belongings
with me and the bag of jewels was in my pocket. Then it was that the
officer of the guard, a thin and melancholy-looking person, said in a
hollow voice, addressing himself to Goza—
“The orders are that the White Man’s wife is to go with him. Where is
she?”
“Where a man’s wife should be, in his hut I suppose,” answered Goza
sleepily.
Rage filled me at the words. Seldom do I remember being so angry.
“Yes,” I said, “if you mean that Half-cast whom someone has thrust upon
me, she is in there. So if she is to come with us, perhaps you will get
her out.”
Thus adjured the melancholy-looking captain, who was named Indudu,
perhaps because he or his father had longed to the Dudu regiment,
crawled into the hut, whence presently emerged sounds not unlike those
which once I heard when a _ringhals_ cobra followed a hare that I had
wounded into a hole, a muffled sound of struggling and terror. These
ended in the sudden and violent appearance of Kaatje’s fat and
dishevelled form, followed by that of the snakelike Indudu.
Seeing me standing there before a bevy of armed Zulus, she promptly
fell upon my neck with a cry for help, for the silly woman thought she
was going to be killed by them. Gripping me as an octopus grips its
prey, she proceeded to faint, dragging me to my knees beneath the
weight of eleven stone of solid flesh.
“Ah!” said one of the Zulus not unkindly, “she is much afraid for her
husband whom she loves.”
Well, I disentangled myself somehow, and seizing what I took to be a
gourd of water in that dim light, poured it over her head, only to
discover too late that it was not water but clotted milk. However the
result was the same, for presently she sat up, made a dreadful-looking
object by this liberal application of curds and whey, whereon I
explained matters to her to the best of my power. The end of it was
that after Indudu and Goza had wiped her down with tufts of thatch
dragged from the hut and I had collected her gear with the rest of my
own, we set her on the horse straddlewise, and started, the objects of
much interest among such Zulus as were already abroad.
At the gate of the town there was a delay which made me nervous, since
in such a case as mine delay might always mean a death-warrant. I knew
that it was quite possible Cetewayo had changed, or been persuaded to
change his mind and issue a command that I should be killed as one who
had seen and knew too much. Indeed this fear was my constant companion
during all the long journey to the Drift of the Tugela, causing me to
look askance at every man we met or who overtook us, lest he should
prove to be a messenger of doom.
Nor were these doubts groundless, for as I learned in the after days,
the Prime Minister, Umnyamana, and others had urged Cetewayo strongly
to kill me, and what we were waiting for at the gate were his final
orders on the subject. However, in this matter, as in more that I could
mention, the king played the part of a man of honour, and although he
seemed to hesitate for reasons of policy, never had any intention of
allowing me to be harmed. On the contrary the command brought was that
any one who harmed Macumazahn, the king’s guest and messenger, should
die with all his House.
Whilst we tarried a number of women gathered round us whose
conversation I could not help overhearing. One of them said to another—
“Look at the white man, Watcher-by-Night, who can knock a fly off an
ox’s horn with a bullet from further away than we could see it. He it
was who loved and was loved by the witch Mameena, whose beauty is still
famous in the land. They say she killed herself for his sake, because
she declared that she would never live to grow old and ugly, so that he
turned away from her. My mother told me all about it only last night.”
Then you have a liar for a mother, thought I to myself, for to
contradict such a one openly would have been undignified.
“Is it so?” asked one of her friends, deeply interested. “Then the lady
Mameena must have had a strange taste in men, for this one is an ugly
little fellow with hair like the grey ash of stubble and a wrinkled
face of the colour of a flayed skin that has lain unstretched in the
sun. However, I have been told that witches always love those who look
unnatural.”
“Yes,” said Number one, “but you see now that he is old he has to be
satisfied with a different sort of wife. She is not beautiful, is she,
although she has dipped her head in milk to make herself look white?”
So it went on till at length a runner arrived and whispered something
to Indudu who saluted, showing me that it was a royal message, and
ordered us to move. Of this I was glad, for had I stopped there much
longer, I think I should have personally assaulted those gossiping
female idiots.
Of our journey through Zululand there is nothing particular to say. We
saw but few people, since most of the men had been called up to the
army, and many of the kraals seemed to be deserted by the women and
children who perhaps were hidden away with the cattle. Once, however,
we met an impi about five thousand strong, that seemed to cover the
hillside like a herd of game. It consisted of the Nodwengu and the
Nokenke regiments, both of which afterwards fought at Isandhlwana. Some
of their captains with a small guard came to see who we were, fine,
fierce-looking men. They stared at me curiously, and with one of them,
whom I knew, I had a little talk. He said that I was the last white man
in Zululand and that I was lucky to be alive, for soon these, and he
pointed to the hordes of warriors who were streaming past, would eat up
the English to “the last bone.” I answered that this remained to be
seen, as the English were also great eaters, whereat he laughed,
replying, that it was true that the white men had already taken the
first bite—a very little one, from which I gathered that some small
engagement had happened.
“Well, farewell, Macumazahn,” he said, as he turned to go, “I hope that
we shall meet in the battle, for I want to see if you can run as well
as you can shoot.”
This roused my temper and I answered him—
“I hope for your sake that we shall not meet, for if we do I promise
that before I run I will show you what you never saw before, the
gateway of the world of Spirits.”
I mention this conversation because by some strange chance it happened
at Isandhlwana that I killed this man, who was named Simpofu.
During all those days of trudging through hot suns and thunderstorms,
for I had to give up the mare to Kaatje who was too fat to walk, or
said she was, I was literally haunted by thoughts of my murdered
friends. Heaven knows how bitterly I reproached myself for having
brought them into Zululand. It seemed so terribly sad that these young
people who loved each other and had so bright a future before them,
should have escaped from a tragic past merely to be overwhelmed by such
a fate. Again and again I questioned that lump Kaatje as to the details
of their end and of all that went before and followed after the murder.
But it was quite useless; indeed, as time went on she seemed to become
more nebulous on the point as though a picture were fading from her
mind. But as to one thing she was always quite clear, that she had seen
them dead and had seen their new-made grave. This she swore “by God in
Heaven,” completing the oath with an outburst of tears in a way that
would have carried conviction to any jury, as it did to me.
And after all, what was more likely in the circumstances? Zikali had
killed them, or caused them to be killed; or possibly they were killed
in spite of him in obedience to the express, or general, order of the
king, if the deed was not done by the Basutos. And yet an idea occurred
to me. How about the woman on the rock that the Zulus thought was their
Princess of the Heavens? Obviously this must be nonsense, since no such
deity existed, therefore the person must either have been a white woman
or one painted up to resemble a white woman; seen from a distance in
moonlight it was impossible to say which. Now, if it were a white
woman, she might, from her shape and height and the colour of her hair,
be Heda herself. Yet it seemed incredible that Heda, whom Kaatje had
seen dead some days before, could be masquerading in such a part and
make no sign of recognition to me, even when I covered her with my
pistol, whereas that Nombé would play it was likely enough.
Only then Nombé must be something of a quick-change artist since but a
little while before she was beyond doubt personating the dead Mameena.
If it were not so I must have been suffering from illusions, for
certainly I seemed to see some one who looked like Mameena, and only
Zikali, and through him Nombé, had sufficient knowledge to enable her
to fill that role with such success. Perhaps the whole business was an
illusion, though if so Zikali’s powers must be great indeed. But then
how about the assegai that Nomkubulwana, or rather her effigy, had
seemed to hold and throw, whereof the blade was at present in my
saddle-bag. That at any rate was tangible and real, though of course
there was nothing to prove that it had really been Chaka’s famous
weapon.
Another thing that tormented me was my failure to see Zikali. I felt as
though I had committed a crime in leaving Zululand without doing this
and hearing from his own lips—well, whatever he chose to tell me. I
forget if I said that while we were waiting at the gate where those
silly women talked so much nonsense about Mameena and Kaatje, that I
made another effort through Goza to get into touch with the wizard, but
quite without avail. Goza only answered what he said before, that if I
wished to die at once I had better take ten steps towards the Valley of
Bones, whence, he added parenthetically, the Opener of Roads had
already departed on his homeward journey. This might or might not be
true; at any rate I could find no possible way of coming face to face
with him, or even of getting a message to his ear. No, I was not to
blame; I had done all I could, and yet in my heart I felt guilty. But
then, as cynics would, say, failure is guilt.
At length we came to the ford of the Tugela, and as fortunately the
water was just low enough, bade farewell to our escort before crossing
to the Natal side. My parting with Goza was quite touching, for we felt
that it partook of the nature of a deathbed adieu, which indeed it did.
I told him and the others that I hoped their ends be easy, and that
whether they met them by bullets or by bayonet thrusts, the wounds
would prove quickly mortal so that they might not linger in discomfort
or pain. Recognizing my kind thought for their true welfare they
thanked me for it, though with no enthusiasm. Indudu, however, filled
with the spirit of repartee, or rather of “tu quoque”, said in his
melancholy fashion that if he and I came face to face in war, he would
be sure to remember my words and to cut me up in the best style, since
he could not bear to think of me languishing on a bed of sickness
without my wife Kaatje to nurse me (they knew I was touchy about
Kaatje). Then we shook hands and parted. Kaatje, hung round with
paraphernalia like the White Knight in “Alice through the
Looking-glass,” clinging to a cooking-pot and weeping tears of terror,
faced the foaming flood upon the mare, while I grasped its tail.
When we were as I judged out of assegai shot, I turned, with the water
up to my armpits, and shouted some valedictory words.
“Tell your king,” I said, “that he is the greatest fool in the world to
fight the English, since it will bring his country to destruction and
himself to disgrace and death, as at last, in the words of your
proverb, ‘the swimmer goes down with the stream.’”
Here, as it happened, I slipped off the stone on which I was standing
and nearly went down with the stream myself.
Emerging with my mouth full of muddy water I waited till they had done
laughing and continued—
“Tell that old rogue, Zikali, that I know he has murdered my friends
and that when we meet again he and all who were in the plot shall pay
for it with their lives.”
Now an irritated Zulu flung an assegai, and as the range proved to be
shorter than I thought, for it went through Kaatje’s dress, causing her
to scream with alarm, I ceased from eloquence, and we struggled on to
the further bank, where at length we were safe.
Thus ended this unlucky trip of mine to Zululand.