"Yes, Inkoosi; my own is dead, and I am not too well treated here. She
called me a witch."
"Did she?" I answered. "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. When I awoke again she
was gone, and in her place was old Umbezi, who, I noticed, took down
a mat from the side of the hut and folded it up to serve as a cushion
before he sat himself upon the stool.
"Greeting, Macumazahn," he said when he saw that I was awake; "how are
you?"
"As well as can be hoped," I answered; "and how are you, Umbezi?"
"Oh, bad, Macumazahn; even now I can scarcely sit down, for that bull
had a very hard nose; also I am swollen up in front where Sikauli struck
me when he tumbled out of the tree. Also my heart is cut in two because
of our losses."
"What losses, Umbezi?"
"Wow! Macumazahn, the fire that those low fellows of mine lit got to our
camp and burned up nearly everything--the meat, the skins, and even the
ivory, which it cracked so that it is useless. That was an unlucky hunt,
for although it began so well, we have come out of it quite naked; yes,
with nothing at all except the head of the bull with the cleft horn,
that I thought you might like to keep."
"Well, Umbezi, let us be thankful that we have come out with our
lives--that is, if I am going to live," I added.