"I did but fight as a soldier in his ranks." "Oh, yes, we know that, we know all that, Macumazahn; and Maputa was a clever monkey in his way, but we know also that you taught him how to jump.

Well, he is dead, and nearly all the Amawombe are dead, and of my three regiments but a handful is left; the vultures have the rest of them.

That is all finished and forgotten, Macumazahn, though by good fortune the spears went wide of you, who doubtless are a magician, since otherwise you and your servant and your horse would not have escaped with a few scratches when everyone else was killed.

But you did escape, as you have done before in Zululand; and now you see here lie certain men who were born of my father.

Yet one is missing--he against whom I fought, aye, and he whom, although we fought, I loved the best of all of them.