"How many men are there in the town?" I asked.
"About seven hundred who carry spears," they answered, "together with
others in outlying kraals. Moreover, watchmen are always set at the
gateways in the walls."
"And where are the cattle?" I asked again.
"Here, in the valley beneath, Macumazahn," answered the spokesman. "If
you listen you will hear them lowing. Fifty men, not less, watch them at
night--two thousand head of them, or more."
"Then it would not be difficult to get round these cattle and drive them
off, leaving Bangu to breed up a new herd?"
"It might not be difficult," interrupted Saduko, "but I came here to
kill Bangu, as well as to seize his cattle, since with him I have a
blood feud."
"Very good," I answered; "but that mountain cannot be stormed with three
hundred men, fortified as it is with walls and schanzes. Our band would
be destroyed before ever we came to the kraal, since, owing to the
sentries who are set everywhere, it would be impossible to surprise the
place. Also you have forgotten the dogs, Saduko. Moreover, even if it
were possible, I will have nothing to do with the massacre of women and
children, which must happen in an assault. Now, listen to me, O Saduko.
I say let us leave the kraal of Bangu alone, and this coming night send
fifty of our men, under the leadership of the guides, down to yonder
bush, where they will lie hid. Then, after moonrise, when all are
asleep, these fifty must rush the cattle kraal, killing any who may
oppose them, should they be seen, and driving the herd out through
yonder great pass by which we have entered the land. Bangu and his
people, thinking that those who have taken the cattle are but common
thieves of some wild tribe, will gather and follow the beasts to
recapture them. But we, with the rest of the Amangwane, can set an
ambush in the narrowest part of the pass among the rocks, where the
grass is high and the euphorbia trees grow thick, and there, when they
have passed the Nek, which I and my hunters will hold with our guns, we
will give them battle. What say you?"
Now, Saduko answered that he would rather attack the kraal, which he
wished to burn. But the old Amangwane, Tshoza, brother of the dead
Matiwane, said: "No, Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night, is wise. Why should we waste our
strength on stone walls, of which none know the number or can find the
gates in the darkness, and thereby leave our skulls to be set up as
ornaments on the fences of the accursed Amakoba? Let us draw the Amakoba
out into the pass of the mountains, where they have no walls to protect
them, and there fall on them when they are bewildered and settle
the matter with them man to man. As for the women and children, with
Macumazahn I say let them go; afterwards, perhaps, they will become
our women and children."