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Will not yonder King be hurled down this cleft? Is he not the star that falls?" And they nodded and smiled at each other. But Dingaan leapt up in his rage and terror, and with him leapt up the Councillors and witch doctors, all save he who was named Mopo, son of Makedama, who sat still gazing at the ground.
"To-morrow, O King, few will be left to mourn; for the land will be swept of men." "Why, Mopo, son of Makedama? But a few have perished of all the thousands who are gathered together. Number the people and they will not be missed." "But a few have died beneath the assegai and the kerrie, O King. Yet hunger and thirst shall finish the spear's work.
But I sat down on the floor of the hut over against the king, and we talked through the fire. "Tell me of the cattle that I sent thee to number, Mopo, son of Makedama," said Chaka. "Have my servants dealt honestly with my cattle?" "They have dealt honestly, O king," I answered. "Tell me, then, of the number of the cattle and of their markings, Mopo, forgetting none."
I stopped, and a great shout of laughter went up from all who stood round. "Very well, Mopo and thy sister Baleka," said Chaka, grimly. "Good-morning to you, Mopo and Baleka also, good-night!" "O Chaka," I broke in, "I am Mopo, son of Makedama of the Langeni tribe. It was I who gave thee a gourd of water many years ago, when we were both little.
Chaka bade him rise, and greeted him kindly; but all the thousands of the people yet lay upon their breasts beating the dust with their heads. "Rise, Makedama, my child, father of the people of the Langeni," said Chaka, "and tell me why art thou late in coming to my mourning?" "The way was far, O King," answered Makedama, my father, who did not know me. "The way was far and the time short.
"The witch-doctors rule in Zululand, and not I, Mopo, son of Makedama," he said to me. "Where, then, is it to end? Shall I myself be smelt out and slain? These Isanusis are too strong for me; they lie upon the land like the shadow of night. Tell me, how may I be free of them?"
For there, on the crest of the hill, about ten spear-throws away, was a party of six armed men, people of my own tribe children of my father Makedama who still pursued us to take us or kill us. They saw us they raised a shout, and began to run. We too sprang up and ran ran like bucks, for fear had touched our feet. Now the land lay thus.
It is gone like last month's moon; how it went I will tell you by-and-bye. Our tribe lived in a beautiful open country; the Boers, whom we call the Amaboona, are there now, they tell me. My father, Makedama, was chief of the tribe, and his kraal was built on the crest of a hill, but I was not the son of his head wife.
"Good words!" answered Chaka. "Now tell me, son of Makedama, how may this matter be put to proof?" Then I leaned forward, whispering into the ear of the Black One, and he nodded heavily. Thus I spoke then, because I, too, saw the evil of the Isanusis, I who knew their secrets. Also, I feared for my own life and for the lives of all those who were dear to me.
Now the kraal of the chief, my father, Makedama, was two hundred paces away, and I must go thither, for there Baleka slept. Also I dared not enter by the gate, because a man was always on guard there. So I cut my way through the reed fence with my assegai and crept to the hut where Baleka was with some of her half-sisters.
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