United States or Cuba ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Where are the Amawombe?" I asked. "All dead by now, I think, Baas, as we should be had not your horse bolted. Wow! but they made a great fight one that will be told of! They have carried those three regiments away upon their spears." "That's good," I said. "But where are we going?" "To Natal, I hope, Baas. I have had enough of the Zulus for the present.
There were several open parts, where, had the Zulus been keeping a bright look-out, I must have been seen, although they might have taken me for a jackal or a lion. I crawled along as fast as I could, not stopping even to look behind me, until I reached the brow of the hill. On getting to the other side I saw a number of cattle, with several horses among them, cropping the grass.
"Forgive me," he answered in a rich, and to Rachel's astonishment, perfectly educated voice, "forgive me for disturbing you. I am ashamed, but it is necessary. The Zulus " and he paused. "Well, sir," asked Rachel, "what about the Zulus?" "A regiment of them are coming down here on the warpath. They are hunting fugitives.
"I should have been caught, however, had I not heard your signal guns," he answered; "for the Zulus were creeping up so noiselessly, that they were almost upon us before the men had time to jump into the waggon; and even though Vermack lashed on his horses, we had great difficulty in keeping ahead of them."
Then they went down the cave, and as silently as possible began to work at the wall, destroying in a few minutes what had been built up with so much labour. When it was nearly down the Zulus were told that there was an enemy outside, and that they must help to catch him if necessary, but were not to harm him.
Only I understood him to say that the Zulus had killed you." "If you mean Hernan Pereira," I answered, "where did you meet him?" "Why, down by the Tugela there, in a bad way. However, he can tell you all about that himself, for I have brought him with me to show us the path to Dingaan's kraal. Where is Pereira? Send Pereira here. I want to speak with him."
At first I took no notice of him beyond scowling, but presently, goaded into anger, I prophesied that he would be dead in an hour! He only laughed aloud. "Oh! White Spirit," he said, "is it so? Well, I've walked a long way from Zululand, and shall be glad of a rest." And he got it shortly, as will be seen. Now the Zulus began to sing again "We have caught the White Spirit, my brother! my brother!
"Neither, Macumazahn, for these are my own cattle. Listen, now, and I will tell you a story. You have heard of Matiwane, the chief of the Amangwane?" "Yes," I answered. "His tribe lived near the head of the Umzinyati, did they not? Then they were beaten by the Boers or the English, and Matiwane came under the Zulus.
The Goths were a people of remarkable courage and extraordinary force of body. But the feeling with which Italians and, above all, Romans would regard them as masters of their country and confiscators of its soil, can only be expressed by what the English would feel if a swarm of Zulus were to take possession of England.
All this he said, showing neither surprise nor resentment, which convinced me of what I had suspected throughout, that never for an instant did he believe that I should fall in with his suggestions and try to influence the Zulus to declare war. No, this talk of his was but a blind; there was some deeper scheme at work in his cunning old brain which he was hiding from me.
Word Of The Day