"I see," I answered. "I am to pull Panda's hot iron out of the fire and
to extinguish the fire. If I succeed I may keep a piece of the iron when
it gets cool, and if I burn my fingers it is my own fault, and I or my
House must not come crying to Panda."
"O Watcher-by-Night, you have speared the bull in the heart," replied
Maputa, the messenger, nodding his shrewd old head. "Well, will you go
up with Saduko?"
"Say to the King, O Messenger, that I will go up with Saduko because I
promised him that I would, being moved by the tale of his wrongs, and
not for the sake of the cattle, although it is true that if I hear any
of them lowing in my camp I may keep them. Say to Panda also that if
aught of ill befalls me he shall hear nothing of it, nor will I bring
his high name into this business; but that he, on his part, must not
blame me for anything that may happen afterwards. Have you the message?"
"I have it word for word; and may your Spirit be with you, Macumazahn,
when you attack the strong mountain of Bangu, which, were I you," Maputa
added reflectively, "I think I should do just at the dawn, since the
Amakoba drink much beer and are heavy sleepers."
Then we took a pinch of snuff together, and he departed at once for
Nodwengu, Panda's Great Place.
Fourteen days had gone by, and Saduko and I, with our ragged band of
Amangwane, sat one morning, after a long night march, in the hilly
country looking across a broad vale, which was sprinkled with trees like
an English park, at that mountain on the side of which Bangu, chief of
the Amakoba, had his kraal.
It was a very formidable mountain, and, as we had already observed, the
paths leading up to the kraal were amply protected with stone walls in
which the openings were quite narrow, only just big enough to allow one
ox to pass through them at a time. Moreover, all these walls had been
strengthened recently, perhaps because Bangu was aware that Panda looked
upon him, a northern chief dwelling on the confines of his dominions,
with suspicion and even active enmity, as he was also no doubt aware
Panda had good cause to do.
Here in a dense patch of bush that grew in a kloof of the hills we held
a council of war.
So far as we knew our advance had been unobserved, for I had left my
wagons in the low veld thirty miles away, giving it out among the local
natives that I was hunting game there, and bringing on with me only
Scowl and four of my best hunters, all well-armed natives who could
shoot. The three hundred Amangwane also had advanced in small parties,
separated from each other, pretending to be Kafirs marching towards
Delagoa Bay. Now, however, we had all met in this bush. Among our number
were three Amangwane who, on the slaughter of their tribe, had fled with
their mothers to this district and been brought up among the people of
Bangu, but who at his summons had come back to Saduko. It was on these
men that we relied at this juncture, for they alone knew the country.
Long and anxiously did we consult with them. First they explained, and,
so far as the moonlight would allow, for as yet the dawn had not broken,
pointed out to us the various paths that led to Bangu's kraal.