"Well, I do not altogether wonder at it; but please continue your story." "There is none, Inkoosi.

They brought you here, they told me how the evil brute of a buffalo had nearly killed you in the pool; that is all." "Yes, yes, Mameena; but how did I get out of the pool ?" "Oh, it seems that your servant, Sikauli, the bastard, leapt into the water and engaged the attention of the buffalo which was kneading you into the mud, while Saduko got on to its back and drove his assegai down between its shoulders to the heart, so that it died.

Then they pulled you out of the mud, crushed and almost drowned with water, and brought you to life again.

But afterwards you became senseless, and so lay wandering in your speech until this hour." "Ah, he is a brave man, is Saduko." "Like others, neither more nor less," she replied with a shrug of her rounded shoulders.

"Would you have had him let you die?
I think the brave man was he who got in front of the bull and twisted its nose, not he who sat on its back and poked at it with a spear." At this period in our conversation I became suddenly faint and lost count of things, even of the interesting Mameena.