r goods. So what
have you to gain by showing them the medicine? But perchance if it were
on the neck of Umslopogaas and _he_ showed it to them and brought it to
their minds that those who touch him who is in the shadow of Zikali's
Great Medicine, or aught that is his, die within three moons in this
way or in that--well, Baas, who knows?" and again he coughed drily and
stared up at the sky.

I translated what Hans had said in Dutch to Umslopogaas, who remarked
indifferently,

"This little yellow man is well named Light-in-Darkness; at least the
plan can be tried--if it fails there is always time to die."

So thinking that this was an occasion on which I might properly do so,
for the first time I took off the talisman which I had worn for so long,
and Umslopogaas put it over his head and hid it beneath his blanket.

A little while later the messengers returned and this time the captain
himself came with them, as he said to greet me, for I knew him slightly
and once we had dealt together about some cattle. After a friendly chat
he turned to the matter of Umslopogaas, explaining the case at some
length. I said that I quite understood his position but that it was a
_very_ awkward thing to interfere with a man who was the actual wearer
of the Great Medicine of Zikali itself. When the captain heard this his
eyes almost started out of his head.

"The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads!" he exclaimed. "Oh, now
I understand why this Chief of the People of the Axe is
unconquerable--such a wizard that no one is able to kill him."

"Yes," I replied, "and you remember, do you not, that he who offends the
Great Medicine, or offers violence to him who wears it, dies horribly
within three moons, he and his household and all those with him?"

"I have heard it," he said with a sickly smile.

"And now you are about to learn whether the tale is true," I added
cheerfully.

Then he asked to see Umslopogaas alone.

I did not overhear their conversation, but the end of it was that
Umslopogaas came and said in a loud voice so that no one could miss a
single word, that as resistance was useless and he did not wish me,
his friend, to be involved in any trouble, together with his men he had
agreed to accompany this King's captain to the royal kraal where he had
been guaranteed a fair trial as to certain false charges which had been
brought against him. He added that the King's captain had sworn upon
the Great Medicine of the Open