"
Robert crossed his arms and said: "Say on."
"White man, I promised you life if you would show us how to pierce or
climb those walls. But you have made fools of us--you have set us to cut
through rock with spears and axes. Yes, to hoe at rock as though it were
soil--you who with the wisdom of your people could have taught us some
better way. Therefore we must go back to our king disgraced, having
failed in his service, and therefore you who have mocked us shall die.
Come down now, that we may kill you quietly, and learn whether or no you
are a brave man."
Then it was, while her lover's hand was moving towards the pistol hidden
beneath his coat, that Benita, with a quick movement, emerged from the
waggon in which she crouched, and stood up at his side upon the driving
box.
"_Ow!_" said the Captain. "It is the White Maiden. Now how came she
here? Surely this is great magic. Can a woman fly like a bird?" and they
stared at her amazed.
"What does it matter how I came, chief Maduna?" she answered in Zulu.
"Yet I will tell you why I came. It was to save you from dipping your
spear in the innocent blood, and bringing on your head the curse of the
innocent blood. Answer me now. Who gave you and your brother yonder your
lives within that wall when the Makalanga would have torn you limb from
limb, as hyenas tear a buck? Was it I or another?"
"Inkosi-kaas--Chieftainess," replied the great Captain, raising his
broad spear in salute.
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