Part 27 (1/2)
Now Umslopogaas shook in his rage, and the great axe glimmered as he shook. He turned to the captain who was behind him, and said: ”Say, Galazi the Wolf, shall we kill this man and those with him?”
”Nay,” answered the Wolf, grinning, ”do not kill them; you have given them safe conduct. Moreover, let them go back to their dog of a king, that he may send out his puppies to do battle with our wolves. It will be a pretty fight.”
”Get you gone, O Mouth,” said Umslopogaas; ”get you gone swiftly, lest mischief befall you! Without my gates you shall find food to satisfy your hunger. Eat of it and begone, for if to-morrow at the noon you are found within a spear's throw of this kraal, you and those with you shall bide there forever, O Mouth of Dingaan the king!”
Now I made as though I would depart, then, turning suddenly, I spoke once more, saying:--
”There were words in your message to the Black One who is dead of a certain man--nay, how was he named?--of a certain Mopo.”
Now Umslopogaas started as one starts who is wounded by a spear, and stared at me.
”Mopo! What of Mopo, O Mouth, whose eyes are veiled? Mopo is dead, whose son I was!”
”Ah!” I said, ”yes, Mopo is dead--that is, the Black One who is gone killed a certain Mopo. How came it, O Bulalio, that you were his son?”
”Mopo is dead,” quoth Umslopogaas again; ”he is dead with all his house, his kraal is stamped flat, and that is why I hated the Black One, and therefore I hate Dingaan, his brother, and will be as are Mopo and the house of Mopo before I pay him tribute of a single ox.”
All this while I had spoken to Umslopogaas in a feigned voice, my father, but now I spoke again and in my own voice, saying:--
”So! Now you speak from your heart, young man, and by digging I have reached the root of the matter. It is because of this dead dog of a Mopo that you defy the king.”
Umslopogaas heard the voice, and trembled no more with anger, but rather with fear and wonder. He looked at me hard, answering nothing.
”Have you a hut near by, O Chief Bulalio, foe of Dingaan the king, where I, the mouth of the king, may speak with you a while apart, for I would learn your message word by word that I may deliver it without fault.
Fear not, Slaughterer, to sit alone with me in an empty hut! I am unarmed and old, and there is that in your hand which I should fear,”
and I pointed to the axe.
Now Umslopogaas, still shaking in his limbs, answered ”Follow me, O Mouth, and you, Galazi, stay with these men.”
So I followed Umslopogaas, and presently we came to a large hut. He pointed to the doorway, and I crept through it and he followed after me. Now for a while it seemed dark in the hut, for the sun was sinking without and the place was full of shadow; so I waited while a man might count fifty, till our eyes could search the darkness. Then of a sudden I threw the blanket from my face and looked into the eyes of Umslopogaas.
”Look on me now, O Chief Bulalio, O Slaughterer, who once was named Umslopogaas--look on me and say who am I?” Then he looked at me and his jaw fell.
”Either you are Mopo my father grown old--Mopo, who is dead, or the Ghost of Mopo,” he answered in a low voice.
”I am Mopo, your father, Umslopogaas,” I said. ”You have been long in knowing me, who knew you from the first.”
Then Umslopogaas cried aloud, but yet softly, and letting fall the axe Groan-Maker, he flung himself upon my breast and wept there. And I wept also.
”Oh! my father,” he said, ”I thought that you were dead with the others, and now you have come back to me, and I, I would have lifted the axe against you in my folly. Oh, it is well that I have lived, and not died, since once more I look upon your face--the face that I thought dead, but which yet lives, though it be sorely changed, as though by grief and years.”
”Peace, Umslopogaas, my son,” I said. ”I also deemed you dead in the lion's mouth, though in truth it seemed strange to me that any other man than Umslopogaas could have wrought the deeds which I have heard of as done by Bulalio, Chief of the People of the Axe--ay, and thrown defiance in the teeth of Chaka. But you are not dead, and I, I am not dead. It was another Mopo whom Chaka killed; I slew Chaka, Chaka did not slay me.”
”And of Nada, what of Nada, my sister?” he said.
”Macropha, your mother, and Nada, your sister, are dead, Umslopogaas.
They are dead at the hands of the people of the Halakazi, who dwell in Swaziland.”
”I have heard of that people,” he answered presently, ”and so has Galazi the Wolf, yonder. He has a hate to satisfy against them--they murdered his father; now I have two, for they have murdered my mother and my sister. Ah, Nada, my sister! Nada, my sister!” and the great man covered his face with his hands, and rocked himself to and fro in his grief.