y body
servant, with the hunters, had just carried off the ivory--a fine lot of
tusks--to my wagons.

"Well, Umbezi," I said, "and how has it fared with you since we parted a
year ago? Have you seen anything of Saduko, who, you may remember, left
you in some wrath?"

"Thanks be to my Spirit, I have seen nothing of that wild man,
Macumazahn," answered Umbezi, shaking his fat old head in a fashion
which showed great anxiety. "Yet I have heard of him, for he sent me a
message the other day to tell me that he had not forgotten what he owed
me."

"Did he mean the sticks with which he promised to bray you like a green
hide?" I inquired innocently.

"I think so, Macumazahn--I think so, for certainly he owes me nothing
else. And the worst of it is that, there at Panda's kraal, he has grown
like a pumpkin on a dung heap--great, great!"

"And therefore is now one who can pay any debt that he owes, Umbezi," I
said, taking a pull at the "squareface" and looking at him over the top
of the pannikin.

"Doubtless he can, Macumazahn, and, between you and me, that is the real
reason why I--or rather Masapo--was so anxious to get those guns. They
were not for hunting, as he told you by the messenger, or for war, but
to protect us against Saduko, in case he should attack. Well, now I hope
we shall be able to hold our own."

"You and Masapo must teach your people to use them first, Umbezi. But
I expect Saduko has forgotten all about both of you now that he is the
husband of a princess of the royal blood. Tell me, how goes it with
Mameena?"

"Oh, well, well, Macumazahn. For is she not the head lady of the
Amasomi? There is nothing wrong with her--nothing at all, except that as
yet she has no child; also that--," and he paused.

"That what?" I asked.

"That she hates the very sight of her husband, Masapo, and says that
she would rather be married to a baboon--yes, to a baboon--than to him,
which gives him offence, after he has paid so many cattle for her.
But what of this, Macumazahn? There is always a grain missing upon
the finest head of corn. Nothing is _quite_ perfect in the world,
Macumazahn, and if Mameena does not chance to love her husband--" and he
shrugged his shoulders and drank some "squareface."

"Of course it does not matter in the least, Umbezi, except to Mameena
and her husband, who no doubt will settle down in time, now that Saduko
is married to a princess of the Zulu House."

"I hope so, Macumazahn, but, to