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Updated: June 29, 2025
If you have to shoot, aim low." In a few minutes Ghamba returned. "Come on," he said. "He is sitting at the fire in front of the cave. I have just seen him." "Where is the cave," asked Whitson, "is it far from here?" "We will reach it very soon; you can see the light of the fire from a few paces ahead."
He began to show signs of fatigue soon after midnight, so at Ghamba's suggestion a considerable portion of his load was transferred to the shoulders of Whitson, who seemed to be as tireless as Ghamba himself. At daybreak they halted in the depths of another tremendous gorge with precipitous sides.
Ghamba told him all about the Basutos, amongst whom he had lived; about the old days in Natal, before even the Dutch occupation, when Tshaka's impis wiped whole tribes out of existence; of the recent wars in Zululand and the Cape Colony, and as to the probability of future disturbances.
"Very well," said Ghamba, "I will tell you everything, but you must both remember what you have sworn to." "Yes, all right," said Whitson. Ghamba then looked at Langley, who repeated the words. "I will tell you," said Ghamba, "all I can remember, and you can ask questions, which I shall answer truly.
This they followed until they reached a part where it was so narrow that the sides seemed almost to touch over their heads. Beyond, the cliffs fell apart, and then apparently curved towards each other again, thus forming an immense amphitheatre. At the entrance to this Ghamba stopped, and said in a whisper that they were now close to the cave.
This was interpreted, but the threat had no apparent effect. So Whitson seized Ghamba and dragged him to the fire, where he flung him down on the very edge of the glowing embers. "Now," said Whitson, holding him down with his foot, so that he got severely scorched, "for the last time, will you speak?" "Take me away from the fire, and I will speak," said Ghamba, in English.
He had a vague feeling of un-easiness which he could not overcome. Langley promised to keep awake, but he was too tired to do so. He sat with his back against a rock, and after some futile efforts to keep his eyes open, fell fast asleep. By and by Ghamba woke him gently, and, pointing to Whitson, whose revolver lay in the leather case close to his hand, whispered;
Whom did that belong to? You surely never got a white woman up here?" "Yes, we did," said Ghamba, with a horrible half smile which bared the gums high above the sockets of his tusks. "She was a young girl who strayed from a waggon passing over the mountain by the Ladysmith road, only a day's walk from here.
So they lifted him, and set him again with his back to the rock. "Now," said Whitson, "go ahead, and no nonsense." "If I tell the whole truth," said Ghamba, still speaking English, and with a fair accent, "will you swear not to burn me, but to shoot me, so that I shall die at once?" "I will," said Whitson. "You too must swear," said Ghamba, looking at Langley. "Yes, I swear."
But there was an air of conviction about the manner in which Ghamba showed his teeth when asked whether he was positive as to the identity of the man in the cave, that would have dissipated the doubts of most men. Besides this, he drew out the written undertaking which they had delivered to him, and said, with a profoundly businesslike look: "Do I not want the money?
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