Part 19 (1/2)

”Very et hold of soain ”I suppose, though, in the light of your discovery I h with a whole skin”

The ease and tactfulness of the answer saved the situation The tension relaxed Stride had been having a little too e instinct, one, or even two there present were not prepared to swear to the in it

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

FORGING THE BLADES

Male his trade busily Around hi Zulus

Male, as well he ht, for his trade was a profitable one, and he had wives and cattle galore He had ana and Mpande and Cetywayo, and as a skilled craftsreat In those days his remuneration had been rendered in cattle or other kind, noas in hard Englishelse would satisfy him

Such blades he turned out, such splendid blades, keen as razors, the fluting in perfect sy purposes; long, tapering ones, which would bring down a buck at forty yards if well thrown, or an eneana had commanded them more than once, indeed when a ht his destruction that king had ordered the death of that rival instead Cetywayo had even more keenly appreciated his skilful craftsht safely have put up a notice over his prier to the Royal Fa; and the binding of the blades, and the plaiting of the raw hide which should secure these within their hafts to last for all tied blades were iai turned out by old Malemba and his son never fell in reputation It was to the iun-un purchasable at six or seven pounds in an ironed mostly out of old scrap iron--cask-hoops, nuts, bolts, anything throay by the roadside, but carefully collected

For years Malemba's trade had been in abeyance, if not practically extinct There had been occasional ru had come of them Well, it didn't matter He was a rich man, in short, a successful manufacturer who had made his pile and could afford to retire And yet--and yet--the hard Englishthat should render ayears comfortable and pleasant; and further, Malemba loved his craft, and took an artist's pride in it; wherefore even his prosperity left soan to creep about, and the ated In the midst of which Malemba was sent for by a powerful chief, and offered such teain And that chief was Sapazani

For Sapazani had wielded weapons of Malemba's manufacture with his own hand, had wielded the so ain

Sapazani, the ultra-conservative, had no use for assegais fabricated across the seas He knew the balance and the temper of the home-made article to a nicety, especially that made by Mklemba Wherefore he sent his invitation to the latter, and lo! under the noses of the civil officials and the half-dozen police who represented or carried out law and order in the district, Maleais _per diem_ But the Lumisana district was a very wide, wild and, in parts, inaccessible tract, and in one of its e set up

”Ah, my sons,” said the old man, as he paused in his work to take snuff, while his assistants were arranging their primitive bellows ”Ah, my sons, I fear me that what I do is useless What are these poor weapons beside the thunder and lightning ith the Aisi and the Amabuna poured death upon each other from distances further than a h to use these?”

”But, my father,” answered one of the spectators, ”what if the _izanusi_ put _muti_ upon us which render the white man's bullets of no avail?”

The old man chuckled, and his face crinkled up

”Will the _izanusi_ doctor themselves and then stand up and let themselves be shot at?” he answered ”Will they do this? _Ou_!”

This was a puzzler His hearers were pretty sure they would do no such thing, yet so ingrained is this stale and fli the numbers of ti it out of the native system

”I made blades for that Elephant who fell by 'the stroke of Sopuza,'

when your fathers were children,” went on the old es an ox, until he had to take flight when our nation was divided But then the guns of the Amabuna shot but feebly and there was opportunity to run in and make an end

But nohen the white man's bullets fall thick as the stones in the fiercest hail stor to a row of blades which awaited the binding Whereby it will be seen that Maleuroup They were inclined to ht of it

”We will not allow thehed another of them ”We shall eat them up while they sleep”

”But will they sleep?” said the old man, his head on one side