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The moment Umslopogaas saw the latter he stopped his bloodthirsty talk and greeted him. 'Ah, Bougwan, he cried, 'greeting to thee, Inkoos! Thou art surely weary. Didst thou hunt too much yesterday? Then, without waiting for an answer, he went on 'Listen, Bougwan, and I will tell thee a story; it is about a woman, therefore wilt thou hear it, is it not so?
'Who is on my side? cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear, for she saw that public sympathy was turning against her. 'What, Bougwan, thou comest not? she said, addressing Good, who was standing close to her, in a low, concentrated voice. 'Thou pale-souled fool, for a reward thou shalt eat out thy heart with love of me and not be satisfied, and thou mightest have been my husband and a king!
"Ou, Bougwan," ejaculated the Kafirs; "ou! ou!" They called Good "Bougwan," or Glass Eye, because of his eye-glass. "Oh, 'Bougwan!" re-echoed Sir Henry and I, and from that day Good's reputation as a marvellous shot was established, at any rate among the Kafirs. Really he was a bad one, but whenever he missed we overlooked it for the sake of that giraffe.
"They are very silent," said Good; and indeed the intense stillness among such a vast concourse of living men was almost overpowering. "What says Bougwan?" asked Infadoos. I translated. "Those over whom the shadow of Death is hovering are silent," he answered grimly. "Will many be killed?" "Very many."
Well was it for Bougwan that he had the skin of iron on him, or he had been pierced. Then for the first time he saw who the woman was, and without a word he fell back astonished, and unable to speak. She, too, was astonished, and spoke not, but suddenly she laid her finger on her lip, thus, and walked towards and through the curtain, and with her went Bougwan.
"Yea, my lords," answered the old chief with a smile, which was reflected on the faces of his companions; "if ye do this thing, we will be satisfied indeed." "It shall be done; we three, Incubu, Bougwan, and Macumazahn, have said it, and it shall be done. Dost thou hear, Infadoos?"
But for you three, Incubu, Macumazahn, and Bougwan, the path is always open; for, behold, ye are dearer to me than aught that breathes. "And ye would go. Infadoos, my uncle, and my Induna, shall take you by the hand and guide you with a regiment. There is, as I have learned, another way across the mountains that he shall show you. Farewell, my brothers, brave white men.
See me no more, for I have no heart to bear it. Behold! I make a decree, and it shall be published from the mountains to the mountains; your names, Incubu, Macumazahn, and Bougwan, shall be "hlonipa" even as the names of dead kings, and he who speaks them shall die. So shall your memory be preserved in the land for ever. "Go now, ere my eyes rain tears like a woman's.
Then she stretched out her hand and he kissed it, whereon I gathered myself together to advance and take her, seeing that now had Bougwan become a woman, and no longer knew the good from the evil, when behold! she was gone. 'Gone! I ejaculated. 'Ay, gone, and there stood Bougwan staring at the wall like one asleep, and presently he went too, and I waited a while and came away also.
Umbopa, my friend, you ought to be grateful to us; your skin came near to having an air-hole made in it." "I am grateful, Bougwan," was Umbopa's answer, when I had translated, "and I shall not forget. As for Infadoos, he will be here by-and-by. We must wait." So we lit our pipes and waited.
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