if you will. Is there one here who wishes to be killed?"

No one answered, for the mighty-chested Zulu looked very formidable.

"I am a doctor also," went on Mavovo, "one of the greatest of doctors
who can open the 'Gates of Distance' and read that which is hid in the
womb of the Future. Therefore I will answer your questions which you
put to the lord Macumazana, the great and wise white man whom I serve,
because we have fought together in many battles. Yes, I will be his
Mouth, I will answer. The white man Dogeetah, who is your blood-brother
and whose word is your word among the Mazitu, will arrive here at sunset
on the second day from now. I have spoken."

Bausi looked at me in question.

"Yes," I exclaimed, feeling that I must say something and that it did
not much matter what I said, "Dogeetah will arrive here on the second
day from now within half an hour after sunset."

Something, I know not what, prompted me to allow that extra half-hour,
which in the event, saved all our lives. Now Bausi consulted a while
with the execrable Imbozwi and also with the old one-eyed General
Babemba while we watched, knowing that our fate hung upon the issue.

At length he spoke.

"White men," he said, "Imbozwi, the head of the witch-finders here,
whose hair you burnt off by your evil magic, says that it would be
better to kill you at once as your hearts are bad and you are planning
mischief against my people. So I think also. But Babemba my General,
with whom I am angry because he did not obey my orders and put you
to death on the borders of my country when he met you there with your
caravan of slaves, thinks otherwise. He prays me to hold my hand, first
because you have bewitched him into liking you and secondly because if
you should happen to be speaking the truth--which we do not believe--and
to have come here at the invitation of my brother Dogeetah, he,
Dogeetah, would be pained if he arrived and found you dead, nor could
even he bring you to life again. This being so, since it matters little
whether you die now or later, my command is that you be kept prisoners
till sunset of the second day from this, and that then you will be
led out and tied to stakes in the market-place, there to wait till
the approach of darkness, by when you say Dogeetah will be here. If
he arrives and owns you as his brethren, well and good; if he does not
arrive, or disowns you--better still, for then you shall be shot to
death with arrows as a w