But none of them could catch me--no, not one. I went like the wind;
I went like a buck when the dogs wake it from sleep; and presently the
sound of their chase grew fainter and fainter, till at last I was out of
sight and alone.

CHAPTER III. MOPO VENTURES HOME

I threw myself down on the grass and panted till my breath came back;
then I went and hid in a patch of reeds down by a swamp. All day long I
lay there thinking. What was I to do? Now I was a jackal without a hole.
If I went back to my people, certainly they would kill me, whom they
thought a thief. My blood would be given for Noma's, and that I did not
wish, though my heart was sad. Then there came into my mind the thought
of Chaka, the boy to whom I had given the cup of water long ago. I had
heard of him: his name was known in the land; already the air was big
with it; the very trees and grass spoke it. The words he had said and
the vision that my mother had seen were beginning to come true. By the
help of the Umtetwas he had taken the place of his father Senzangacona;
he had driven out the tribe of the Amaquabe; now he made war on Zweete,
chief of the Endwande, and he had sworn that he would stamp the Endwande
flat, so that nobody could find them any more. Now I remembered how this
Chaka promised that he would make me great, and that I should grow fat
in his shadow; and I thought to myself that I would arise and go to him.
Perhaps he would kill me; well, what did it matter? Certainly I should
be killed if I stayed here. Yes, I would go. But now my heart pulled
another way. There was but one whom I loved in the world--it was
my sister Baleka. My father had betrothed her to the chief of a
neighbouring tribe, but I knew that this marriage was against her wish.
Perhaps my sister would run away with me if I could get near her to tell
her that I was going. I would try--yes, I would try.

I waited till the darkness came down, then I rose from my bed of weeds
and crept like a jackal towards the kraal. In the mealie gardens I
stopped awhile, for I was very hungry, and filled myself with the
half-ripe mealies. Then I went on till I came to the kraal. Some of my
people were seated outside of a hut, talking together over a fire. I
crept near, silently as a snake, and hid behind a little bush. I knew
that they could not see me outside the ring of the firelight, and I
wanted to hear what they said. As I guessed, they were talking of me
and called me many names. They