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Updated: June 23, 2025
Now Maputa saw his purpose and with a yell of terror turned to fly. Hadden waited a second to get the sight fair on his broad back, then just as the soldiers appeared above the rise he pressed the trigger. He was a noted shot, and in this instance his skill did not fail him; for, before he heard the bullet tell, Maputa flung his arms wide and plunged to the ground dead.
"You will be comfortable here, Macumazahn," said Maputa, "during your stay, which we hope will be long, since, although there will soon be a mighty crowd at Nodwengu, the King has given orders that none except your own servants are to enter this valley." "I thank the King; but why will there be a crowd, Maputa?" "Oh!" he answered with a shrug of the shoulders, "because of a new thing.
Here, after seeing that his regiment made a full meal, as a good general should, old Maputa joined me, whom I asked whether he thought there would be any fighting for him that day. "I think so, I think so," he answered cheerfully. "It seems to me that the Usutu greatly outnumber Umbelazi and the Isigqosa, and, of course, as you know, Panda's orders are that if he is in danger we must help him.
In due course I reached Nodwengu without accident, having sent forward one of my hunters to report my approach to Panda. When my wagons arrived outside the Great Place they were met by none other than my old friend, Maputa, he who had brought me back the pills before our attack upon Bangu. "Greeting, Macumazahn," he said.
So the plot was made, and after some further conversation upon points of detail, the two conspirators shook hands and parted. "That ought to come off all right," reflected Hadden to himself as he plunged and floated in the waters of the stream, "but somehow I don't quite trust our friend Maputa.
Also I think that Saduko is no good councillor. Indeed, were I the prince," added the old fellow shrewdly, "I would not keep him whose wife I had stolen as the whisperer in my ear." "Nor I, Maputa," I answered as I bade him good-bye. Two days later, early in the morning, Maputa came to me again and said that Panda wished to see me.
A roar of delight rose from the watching Amawombe, while old Maputa clapped his thin brown hands and grinned from ear to ear. "Thank you, Macumazahn. A very good omen! Now I am sure that, whatever those Isigqosa dogs of Umbelazi's may do, we King's men shall make an excellent end, which is all that we can hope. Oh, what a beautiful shot!
The alleged theft it was comparatively easy to disprove, but the wizardry remained a matter of argument. "You are a dog, and a son of a dog," shouted Maputa, shaking his fat fist in the face of the trembling but indignant Umgona.
When next the harvest ripens, this I promise, that neither Nahoon nor Umgona, nor any of his kraal shall be left to gather it." "And how will you manage that, Maputa?" "I do not know, but I will find a way. Oh! I tell you, a way shall be found." Hadden patted the pony's neck meditatively, then leaning forward, he looked the chief in the eyes and said:
With these soldiers, seated on his pony, for he was too fat to walk, waited the Chief Maputa. Observing that their expected guests had arrived, the men knocked out the dakka pipe, replaced the snuff boxes in the slits made in the lobes of their ears, and secured the four of them. "What is the meaning of this, O King's soldiers?" asked Umgona in a quavering voice.
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