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"Then, white lord," answered Komba, "you will do well to stop in this place in the midst of your family, since, if you try to bring it with you to Pongo-land, you will be killed as you set foot upon the shore." Before I could find an answer Brother John spoke, saying: "It is natural that the great hunter, Macumazana, should not wish to be parted from what which to him is as a stick to a lame man.
Bausi nodded in the African fashion, that is by raising the chin, not depressing it, and Komba went on: "I have placed myself in your power, trusting to your honour. You can kill me if you wish, though that will avail nothing, since there are others waiting to become Kalubi in my place."
Mavovo and Hans stood behind us, the latter supporting himself with his large bamboo stick. Komba obeyed. Especially did he narrate how, in obedience to a message which he had received from the Motombo, he had invited the white lords to Pongo-land, and even accepted them as envoys from the Mazitu when none would respond to King Bausi's invitation to fill that office.
So Komba rose, and in his cold, precise voice narrated his share in the transaction, telling how he had visited Bausi, and all that had happened in connection with the embassy. Again the Motombo appeared to go to sleep, only opening his eyes once as Komba described how we had been searched for firearms, whereon he nodded his great head in approval and licked his lips with his thin red tongue.
A number of the soldiers, including Komba, who acted as steersman, also sprang into the canoe that was instantly pushed out from beneath the bridge or platform on which the Motombo sat and down the little creek into the still water of the canal or estuary, or whatever it may be, that separates the wall of rock which the cave pierces from the base of the mountain.
Where did they get them from, I wonder, and what was the origin of their race? I cannot answer the question, for I never found out with any certainty. Nor do I think they knew themselves. The indaba was resumed. Komba was very insistent that this should be included; at the time I wondered why.
We deposited him in the box that Komba had kindly provided in preparation for this inevitable event, and Brother John said a prayer over his miscellaneous remains. Then, after consultation and in the very worst of spirits, we set out to seek the way to the home of the Mother of the Flower.
Only he had stipulated that they should bring with them none of their magic weapons which vomited out smoke and death, as the Motombo had commanded. At this information the expressive countenance of the Kalubi once more betrayed mental disturbance that I think Komba noted as much as we did.
In the hour of your own death remember this death." "Would you bewitch me, white man?" said the Kalubi, glaring at him angrily. "If so " and once more he lifted the spear, but as John never stirred, held it poised irresolutely. Komba thrust himself between them, crying: "Back, Dogeetah, who dare to meddle with our customs! Is not the Kalubi Lord of life and death?"
Komba led us to the feast-house, where the fire in the pit was out, or had been covered over, and the grid and its horrible burden had disappeared. Also now all the mats were rolled up, so that the clear moonlight flowed into and illuminated the place.
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