I give you the life
of that white fox, your husband, and I hope that he will not trick you
as he has tricked us, and set you to hoe rock instead of soil," and he
looked at Robert wrathfully. "I give him to you and all his belongings.
Now, is there anything else that you would ask?"
"Yes," replied Benita coolly, "you have many oxen there which you took
from the other Makalanga. Mine are eaten and I need cattle to draw
my waggon. I ask a present of twenty of them, and," she added by an
afterthought, "two cows with young calves, for my father is sick yonder,
and must have milk."
"Oh! give them to her. Give them to her," said Maduna, with a tragic
gesture that in any other circumstances would have made Benita laugh.
"Give them to her and see that they are good ones, before she asks our
shields and spears also--for after all she saved my life."
So men departed to fetch those cows and oxen, which presently were
driven in.
While this talk was in progress the great impi of the Matabele was
massing for the march, on the flat ground a little to the right of
them. Now they began to come past in companies, preceded by the lads
who carried the mats and cooking-pots and drove the captured sheep and
cattle. By this time the story of Benita, the witch-woman whom they
could not kill, and who had mysteriously flown from the top of the peak
into their prisoner's waggon, had spread among them.
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