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Updated: June 26, 2025
But Bwana Kingozi's low voice cut across the merriment. "Bandika!" he commanded. And immediately Cazi Moto and Simba took up the cry. "Bandika! bandika! bandika!" they vociferated over and over. Cazi Moto moved here and there, lively as a cricket, his eyes alert for any indication of slackness, his kiboko held threateningly. But there was no need for the latter.
"I hear men marching," said Kingozi. Cazi Moto stopped. "It is the safari of Bibi-ya-chui." Already Kingozi's nickname for her had been adopted. Cazi Moto disappeared, and a moment later was heard outside pouring water into the canvas basin. Instead of arising immediately, as was his ordinary custom, Kingozi lay still. The Leopard Woman was already travelling! What could that mean?
"He says," Cazi Moto summarized all this, "that he was very sick, but that this medicine" indicating the thermometer "cured him." "He lies again," said Kingozi. "This is not medicine, but magic that tells me when a man has uttered lies. This man must beware or he will get kiboko." The Kavirondo scuttled away, and Kingozi gave his attention to the second patient.
Thereupon all the rest laughed after the strange, heartless custom of the African native. Or is it heartless? We do not know. The day's march had passed through the phase of coordinated action. It was now the duty of each man to get in if he could. It was Kingozi's duty to arrive first, and to arrange succour for Cazi Moto and those whom he drove.
"That bibi is a great memsahib," he told Mali-ya-bwana. "And this evening we will go to see her. Be you ready to go also." In the early darkness of equatorial Africa Kingozi, accompanied by Mali- ya-bwana with a lantern, crossed over to the other camp. Simba and Cazi Moto had come in almost at dusk; but they were very tired, and Kingozi considered it advisable to let them rest.
All these things shimmered and flickered and wavered in the mirage of noon. Only the sun itself stared clear and unchanging. At about two o'clock Kingozi awoke and raised his voice. Mali-ya-bwana, next in command after Cazi Moto and Simba, answered. "Get the big gun," he was told, "and the water bottles."
He thrust a clinical thermometer beneath the Kavirondo's tongue, glancing at a wrist watch as he did so. "Cazi Moto," he said calmly after three minutes, "this man is a liar. He is not sick; he merely wants to get out of carrying a load." The Kavirondo, his eyes rolling, shot forth a torrent of language.
"Cazi Moto! Simba!" he shouted angrily. "Bwana?" "Sah?" two panting voices answered. "What is this?" They both began to speak at once. "You, Cazi Moto," commanded Kingozi. "These men are liars," began Cazi Moto. "What men?" "These men who brought the barua. They tell lies, bad lies, and we beat them for it." "Since when have you beaten liars? And since when have I ceased to deal punishment?
He recalled the incident in all its little details himself in his chair and Cazi Moto squatting before the three bottles set up before them, carefully tracing in the sand with a stick the characters on the labels; the Leopard Woman's sudden dash forward; the tinkle of smashed glass, and her voice panting with excitement: "I will read your labels for you now the bottle you hold in your hand!
At the fifth rest period five of the seven men stumbled wearily in; but Cazi Moto and the other two did not appear before Kingozi ordered a resumption of the march. But the mountains had moved near. When this had happened Kingozi could not have told. It was between two rest periods. From an immense discouraging distance, they towered imminent.
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