“Did I not tell you, Macumazahn, that when two bucks met they would fight?” whispered Mameena suavely into my ear.
“Yes, Mameena, you did–or rather I told you. But you did not tell me what the doe would do.”
“The doe, Macumazahn, will crouch in her form and see what happens–as is the fashion of does,” and again she laughed softly.
“Why not do your own hunting, Masapo?” asked Saduko. “Come, now, I will promise you good sport. Outside this kraal there are other hyenas waiting who call me chief–a hundred or two of them–assembled for a certain purpose by the royal leave of King Panda, whose House, as we all know, you hate. Come, leave that beef and beer and begin your hunting of hyenas, O Masapo.”
Now Masapo sat silent, for he saw that he who thought to snare a baboon had caught a tiger.
“You do not speak, O Chief of the little Amansomi,” went on Saduko, who was beside himself with rage and jealousy. “You will not leave your beef and beer to hunt the hyenas who are captained by an umfokazana! Well, then, the umfokazana will speak,” and, stepping up to Masapo, with the spear he carried poised in his right hand, Saduko grasped his rival’s short beard with his left.
“Listen, Chief,” he said. “You and I are enemies. You seek the woman I seek, and, mayhap, being rich, you will buy her. But if so, I tell you that I will kill you and all your House, you sneaking, half-bred dog!”
With these fierce words he spat in his face and tumbled him backwards. Then, before anyone could stop him, for Umbezi, and even Masapo’s headmen, seemed paralysed with surprise, he stalked through the kraal gate, saying as he passed me:
“Inkoosi, I have words for you when you are at liberty.”
“You shall pay for this,” roared Umbezi after him, turning almost green with rage, for Masapo still lay upon his broad back, speechless, “you who dare to insult my guest in my own house.”
“Somebody must pay,” cried back Saduko from the gate, “but who it is only the unborn moons will see.”
“Mameena,” I said as I followed him, “you have set fire to the grass, and men will be burned in it.”
“I meant to, Macumazahn,” she answered calmly. “Did I not tell you that there was a flame in me, and it will break out sometimes? But, Macumazahn, it is you who have set fire to the grass, not I. Remember that when half Zululand is in ashes. Farewell, O Macumazana, till we meet again, and,” she added softly, “whoever else must burn, may the spirits have you in their keeping.”
At the gate, remembering my manners, I turned to bid that company a polite farewell. By now Masapo had gained his feet, and was roaring out like a bull:
“Kill him! Kill the hyena! Umbezi, will you sit still and see me, your guest–me, Masapo–struck and insulted under the shadow of your own hut? Go forth and kill him, I say!”
“Why not kill him yourself, Masapo,” asked the agitated Umbezi, “or bid your headmen kill him? Who am I that I should take precedence of so great a chief in a matter of the spear?” Then he turned towards me, saying: “Oh, Macumazahn the crafty, if I have dealt well by you, come here and give me your counsel.”
“I come, Eater-up-of-Elephants,” I answered, and I did.
“What shall I do–what shall I do?” went on Umbezi, brushing the perspiration off his brow with one hand, while he wrung the other in his agitation. “There stands a friend of mine”–he pointed to the infuriated Masapo–“who wishes me to kill another friend of mine,” and he jerked his thumb towards the kraal gate. “If I refuse I offend one friend, and if I consent I bring blood upon my hands which will call for blood, since, although Saduko is poor, without doubt he has those who love him.”
“Yes,” I answered, “and perhaps you will bring blood upon other parts of yourself besides your hands, since Saduko is not one to sit still like a sheep while his throat is cut. Also did he not say that he is not quite alone? Umbezi, if you will take my advice, you will leave Masapo to do his own killing.”