Part 7 (1/2)
”I nised hi to hih, for he kne I chanced to be in the battle, but he glared at Magepa, and said:
”'Why, Macus hich you tried to bitealso, one who can run fast, for how coain? _Ow!_ if I had my way I would find a strip of hide to fit his neck'
”'Not so,' I answered, 'he has the King's peace and he is a bravethat I ran from the ranks of the Tulwana, while he stood where he was'
”'You mean that your horse ran, Macu, I will not hurt hi he went his way
”'Yet soon or late he _will_ hurt one 'U'Cetewayo has aas the shadow thrown by a tree at sunset Moreover, as he knoell, it is true that I ran, Macuh not till all was finished and I could do nostill You reied us and we ate that up also Well, in that fight I got a tap on the head fro which I had just put on, for I think I was the youngest soldier in that regi saved me; still, for a while I lost ht was over and Cetewayo's people were searching for our wounded that they ht kill them Presently they found me and saw that there was no hurt on me
”'”Here is one who sha his spear
”'Then it was that I sprang up and ran, as but just married and desired to live He struck at me, but I jumped over the spear, and the others that they threw an to hunt me, but, Macumazahn, I who am named ”The Buck,” because I am swifter of foot than any ot away safe'
”'Well done, Magepa,' I said 'Still, re swioes with the stream and the swift runner is run down”'
”'I know it, Macumazahn,' he answered, with a nod, 'and perhaps in a day to come I shall know it better'
”I took little heed of his words at the time, but more than thirty years afterwards I reepa Now, friends, I will tell you hoas renewed at the time of the Zulu War
”As you knoas attached to the centre column that advanced into Zululand by Rorke's Drift on the Buffalo River Before as declared, or at any rate before the advance began, while it ht it would be averted, I was eoods to the little Rorke's Drift Station, that which beca what infor that there was a kraal a mile or so the other side of the river, of which the people were said to be very friendly to the English, I determined to visit it You may think this was rash, but I was so well known in Zululand, where for o whither I would quite unmolested and, indeed, under the royal protection, that I felt no fear forI crossed the drift and headed for a kloof in which I was told the kraal stood Ten e kraal; there ht huts and a cattle enclosure surrounded by the usual fence The situation, however, was very pretty, a knoll of rising ground backed by the wooded slopes of the kloof As I approached, I sao to the kraal to hide, and when I reached the gateway for soth a small boy appeared who inforourd'
”'Quite so,' I answered; 'still, go and tell the headman that Macumazahn wishes to speak with him'
”The boy departed, and presently I saw a face that seeateway After a careful inspection its owner ee, perhaps between sixty and seventy, with a finely-cut face, a little grey beard, kind eyes and very well-shaped hands and feet, the fingers, which twitched incessantly, being re, Macumazahn,' he said, 'I see you do not reela, and of the last stand of the Tulwana, and of a certain talk at the kraal of our Father-who-is-dead' (that is King Panda), 'and of hoho sits in his place' (he meant Cetewayo), 'told you that if he had his way he would find a hide rope to fit the neck of a certain one'
”'Ah!' I said, 'I know you now, you are Magepa the Buck So the Runner has not yet been run down'
”'No, Macumazahn, not yet, but there is still ti'
”'How have you prospered?' I asked hih, Macumazahn, in all ways except one I have three wives, but hter, who is married and lives with me, for her husband, too, is dead He was killed by a buffalo, and she has not yet ain But enter and see'
”So I went in and saw Magepa's wives, old wohter, whose naht me some _maas_, or curdled milk, to drink She was a well-formed woman, very like her father, but sad-faced, perhaps with a prescience of evil to coer was a beautiful boy of soepa, ran to his The old :
”'It is well that this toddler and I should love one another, Macu that he is the last of my race All the other children here are those of the people who have come to live inthe little boy who, his mother told me, was named Sinala upon the cheek, an attention that he resented
”'They have been called away on duty,' answered Magepa shortly; and I changed the subject
”Then we began to talk about old ti that this wasthe kraal