Black Heart and White Heart | Page 8

old chief Maputa, I will free you from his importunity. The girl,
says Nahoon, is fair--good, I myself will be gracious to her, and she
shall be numbered among the wives of the royal house. Within thirty
days from now, in the week of the next new moon, let her be delivered
to the /Sigodhla/, the royal house of the women, and with her those
cattle, the cows and the calves together, that Nahoon has given you, of
which I fine him because he has dared to think of marriage without the
leave of the king."

CHAPTER II
THE BEE PROPHESIES
"'A Daniel come to judgment' indeed," reflected Hadden, who had been
watching this savage comedy with interest; "our love-sick friend has
got more than he bargained for. Well, that comes of appealing to
Cæsar," and he turned to look at the two suppliants.
The old man, Umgona, merely started, then began to pour out sentences
of conventional thanks and praise to the king for his goodness and
condescension. Cetywayo listened to his talk in silence, and when he
had done answered by reminding him tersely that if Nanea did not
appear at the date named, both she and he, her father, would in due
course certainly decorate a cross-road in their own immediate
neighbourhood.
The captain, Nahoon, afforded a more curious study. As the fatal words
crossed the king's lips, his face took an expression of absolute
astonishment, which was presently replaced by one of fury--the just
fury of a man who suddenly has suffered an unutterable wrong. His

whole frame quivered, the veins stood out in knots on his neck and
forehead, and his fingers closed convulsively as though they were
grasping the handle of a spear. Presently the rage passed away--for as
well might a man be wroth with fate as with a Zulu despot--to be
succeeded by a look of the most hopeless misery. The proud dark eyes
grew dull, the copper-coloured face sank in and turned ashen, the
mouth drooped, and down one corner of it there trickled a little line of
blood springing from the lip bitten through in the effort to keep silence.
Lifting his hand in salute to the king, the great man rose and staggered
rather than walked towards the gate.
As he reached it, the voice of Cetywayo commanded him to stop.
"Stay," he said, "I have a service for you, Nahoon, that shall drive out
of your head these thoughts of wives and marriage. You see this white
man here; he is my guest, and would hunt buffalo and big game in the
bush country. I put him in your charge; take men with you, and see that
he comes to no hurt. So also that you bring him before me within a
month, or your life shall answer for it. Let him be here at my royal
kraal in the first week of the new moon--when Nanea comes--and then
I will tell you whether or no I agree with you that she is fair. Go now,
my child, and you, White Man, go also; those who are to accompany
you shall be with you at the dawn. Farewell, but remember we meet
again at the new moon, when we will settle what pay you shall receive
as keeper of my guns. Do not fail me, White Man, or I shall send after
you, and my messengers are sometimes rough."
"This means that I am a prisoner," thought Hadden, "but it will go hard
if I cannot manage to give them the slip somehow. I don't intend to stay
in this country if war is declared, to be pounded into /mouti/ (medicine),
or have my eyes put out, or any little joke of that sort."
*****
Ten days had passed, and one evening Hadden and his escort were
encamped in a wild stretch of mountainous country lying between the
Blood and Unvunyana Rivers, not more than eight miles from that
"Place of the Little Hand" which within a few weeks was to become
famous throughout the world by its native name of Isandhlwana. For

three days they had been tracking the spoor of a small herd of buffalo
that still inhabited the district, but as yet they had not come up with
them. The Zulu hunters had suggested that they should follow the
Unvunyana down towards the sea where game was more plentiful, but
this neither Hadden, nor the captain, Nahoon, had been anxious to do,
for reasons which each of them kept secret to himself. Hadden's object
was to work gradually down to the Buffalo River across which he
hoped to effect a retreat into Natal. That of Nahoon was to linger in the
neighbourhood of the kraal of Umgona, which was situated not very far
from their present