. Segregated into small herds, they
were carefully watched. With the first case of sickness becoming
apparent the whole herd containing it was doomed. And now nearly the
whole of Madula's herds had been declared infected.

The place appointed for this wholesale slaughter was an open plain some
little distance from the kraal. About threescore dead oxen lay where
they had fallen, the nostrils of a few still frothy with the fatal
running which denoted the fell pestilence. John Ames, grounding his
smoking rifle, turned to talk with Inglefield and another white man, the
latter being one of the Government cattle inspectors. Both these
carried rifles, too, and behind them was drawn up a troop of native
police. In a great semicircle Madula's people squatted around, their
countenances heavy with sullen rankling, their hearts bitter and
vengeful. In the mind of the chief the dexterous venom of Shiminya was
taking full effect. The fact of a few cattle being sick was seized upon
by their rulers as a pretext for the destruction of all; and what would
become of the people then? In the minds of the people the predictions
of Umlimo were being fulfilled to the letter. Now, however, they could
afford to wait. Soon there would be no more cattle; soon--very soon--
there would be no more whites.

John Ames, laying down his weapon, addressed the muttering, brooding
savages. It was a most revolting task that which had been put upon him,
he explained; not one that he would have undertaken of his own free
will. To shoot down miserable unresisting animals in cold blood, one
after another, could not be otherwise. It would seem to the people that
to destroy the whole as well as the sick was an act of sheer wanton
tyranny, but they must not look at it in that light. The Government was
their father, and had their interests at heart; and although it was
found necessary to reduce them to seeming poverty for the time being,
yet they would not be losers in the long run. Then, again, they were in
no worse case than the white men themselves, whose cattle was destroyed
in the same way if disease broke out; but, above all, they must be
patient, and bear in mind that by right of conquest all the cattle in
the land belonged to the Government, and what they had was only allowed
them by favour. This disease was a cloud they were all passing through,
white and black alike. It would pass, and the sun would shine forth
again. Let them be patie