Then we bargained for a while, but the details of that business
transaction of long ago will interest no one. Indeed, I only mention the
matter to show that Masapo was plotting to bring trouble on the ruling
house, whereof Panda was the representative at that time.
When we had concluded our rather nefarious negotiations, which were to
the effect that I was to receive so many cattle in return for so many
guns, if I could deliver them at a certain spot, namely, Umbezi's kraal,
I returned to the circle where Umbezi, his followers and guests were
sitting, purposing to bid him farewell. By now, however, meat had been
served, and as I was hungry, having had little breakfast that morning,
I stayed to eat. When I had finished my meal, and washed it down with a
draught of tshwala (that is, Kafir beer), I rose to go, but just at that
moment who should walk through the gate but Saduko?
"Piff!" said Mameena, who was standing near me, speaking in a voice that
none but I could hear. "When two bucks meet, what happens, Macumazahn?"
"Sometimes they fight and sometimes one runs away. It depends very much
on the doe," I answered in the same low voice, looking at her.
She shrugged her shoulders, folded her arms beneath her breast, nodded
to Saduko as he passed, then leaned gracefully against the fence and
awaited events.
"Greeting, Umbezi," said Saduko in his proud manner. "I see that you
feast. Am I welcome here?"
"Of course you are always welcome, Saduko," replied Umbezi uneasily,
"although, as it happens, I am entertaining a great man." And he looked
towards Masapo.
"I see," said Saduko, eyeing the strangers. "But which of these may be
the great man? I ask that I may salute him."
"You know well enough, umfokazana" (that is, low fellow), exclaimed
Masapo angrily.
"I know that if you were outside this fence, Masapo, I would cram that
word down your throat at the point of my assegai," replied Saduko in a
fierce voice. "Oh, I can guess your business here, Masapo, and you can
guess mine," and he glanced towards Mameena. "Tell me, Umbezi, is this
little chief of the Amansomi your daughter's accepted suitor?"
"Nay, nay, Saduko," said Umbezi; "no one is her accepted suitor. Will
you not sit down and take food with us? Tell us where you have been, and
why you return here thus suddenly, and--uninvited?"
"I return here, O Umbezi, to speak with the white chief, Macumazahn. As
to where I have been, that is my affair, and not yours or Masapo's."
"Now, if I were chief of this kraal," said Masapo, "I would hunt out of
it this hyena with a mangy coat and without a hole who comes to devour
your meat and, perhaps," he added with meaning, "to steal away your
child."