y nose--insist on my accompanying them whither I don't
particularly want to go--and drive off my cattle in that same direction
to ensure my following them. Yet this is what your people have done, O
chief of the Igazipuza."

"Am I armed?" spake Ingonyama, very conveniently ignoring the other's
explanation and complaint. "Behold me," stretching forth his hands; "I
have not even a stick."

This was true. Yet if the redoubted head of the Igazipuza could afford
to sit unarmed, surrounded by his fierce warriors, in perfect safety, it
was an experiment which Dawes, in the light of recent experience, had no
intention of trying. Indeed, as regarded himself and his companion, he
considered it a highly dangerous one. To submit to coercion well-gilded
and concealed like a pill, was good policy up to a certain point. When
such coercion took the form of open and undisguised bullying, to submit
was impolitic. In fact Dawes had resolved at all costs not to submit.

"It is as the chief says," he replied. "But if the chief is not armed,
all his people are, and they are numerous. Now we are but two men--we
are our own chiefs and people, too. Under these circumstances it is our
custom to carry arms, and it is a custom we cannot lay aside."

"_Whau_! This white man has a valiant tongue," muttered Vunawayo with a
sneer.

"And now, O chief, we will begin by demanding redress," went on Dawes in
vigorous pursuance of his policy of boldness. "Your people have treated
us with something very like hostility--have forced us out of our way--
and have over-driven our cattle and oxen. Yet we are not at war with
the people of Zulu, nor have we quarrel with any tribe or clan within
the same."

"Surely there is a mistake," spoke Ingonyama. "The hostility you
mention is but their method of showing delight. They hoped to help make
you rich by bringing you hither to trade. What have you got to sell?"

"Before I trade here, O Ingonyama, there is another matter I would speak
about," said Dawes. "With our waggons were certain Amaswazi. These
people have been set upon by your warriors and three of them killed.
What now shall we say when their chiefs ask, `Where are our children
whom we hired to you to drive your cattle? Where are they, that they
return not to their own land?'"

"But they were not your servants, _Umlungu_," said Vunawayo. "Were they
not already fleeing to their own land, when our people met them and
_turned them back_