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Updated: May 12, 2025
You were about to tell me that there is trouble in the village, of a kind that I can cure. Was it not so?" "Even so, 'Nkos'," answered 'Ngaga. "The trouble is this.
As 'Ngaga preceded me into the hut I heard a low murmur of greeting pass between him and someone else, which told me that the owner was at home; then I followed and stood upright in what was, to my eye, inky blackness.
Will you do this for us, O my father? He is very wary, and will not allow us to approach him within the length of a spear cast; but he cannot escape your fire weapon: and it shall be that if you slay him, I, 'Ngaga, will send forward a messenger to the Great One, Moshesh, announcing thy coming to his kraal, and taking with him a tale that shall cause the Great One's face to smile upon thee."
"Baas," he said, "'Ngaga, a Basuto, the headman of the village, would speak with you. Shall I say that your ears are open?" "Yes," answered I. "Let him come hither and speak freely."
While I was taking breakfast, about an hour later, 'Ngaga came up from the village to express the hearty thanks of himself and the rest of the inhabitants for the service which I had rendered them by destroying the leopard; and when we had chatted for half an hour or so, and 'Ngaga had accepted a present of a yard of brass wire, a handful of parti-coloured beads, and a cotton handkerchief gorgeously emblazoned in red, blue, green, and yellow, he said: "'Nkos', after I left you last night I went to the hut of Mafuta and was permitted to enter.
'Ngaga seemed suddenly disconcerted. He stood silent for a full minute or more, apparently plunged in disquieting thought. Then he spoke, deprecatingly. "'Nkos'," he said, "how shall I answer thee? Mafuta is a strange and wilful man, impatient of authority, and distrustful of strangers; moreover, he loves not white men: therefore it may well be that he will refuse what thou dost ask of him.
"Very well," I said; "I am willing to do what I can for thee and thine, O 'Ngaga, and thus will I do it. Thou shalt to-night station two men in a place from which they can watch the path leading from the leopard's den to the village; and it shall be that if the beast shows himself, one man shall hasten hither to the wagon with the news, while the other remains to watch, and if need be follow him.
'Ngaga has already dispatched a messenger apprising the king of your presence in his country, and, if you ask permission to pass through and hunt in it, the Great One will doubtless give it, especially as you have rendered his people the service of slaying the leopard that has been preying upon them.
"It is good," answered 'Ngaga, "and I will go even now to the village and send out two trustworthy men to watch, and do thy bidding," and the man flung up his hand in farewell salute before turning to leave me. But I stopped him. "Stay, 'Ngaga," said I; "I have not yet finished speaking with thee.
Be seated," he continued, waving me toward the other end of the couch; "and as for you, 'Ngaga, having brought the 'mlungu hither, your task is accomplished, and you may depart." So, while I deposited myself upon the pallet, 'Ngaga bade us both a somewhat ceremonious farewell, and vanished through the opening into the blazing sunlight without.
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