er-of-Roads to give him safe conduct and
attempt no mischief against him which, as was well known throughout
the land, was an oath that could not be broken by anyone who wished to
continue to look upon the sun.

I asked the captain if these things were so, also speaking in a loud
voice. He replied, Yes, since his orders were to take Umslopogaas alive
if he might. He was only to kill him if he would not come.

Afterwards, while pretending to give him certain articles out of the
waggon, I had a few private words with Umslopogaas, who told me that the
arrangement was that he should be allowed to escape at night with his
people.

"Be sure of this, Macumazahn," he said, "that if I do not escape,
neither will that captain, since I walk at his side and keep my axe,
and at the first sign of treachery the axe will enter the house of that
thick head of his and make friends with the brain inside.

"Macumazahn," he added, "we have made a strange journey together and
seen such things as I did not think the world had to show. Also I have
fought and killed Rezu in a mad battle of ghosts and men which alone
was worth all the trouble of the journey. Now it has come to an end as
everything must, and we part, but as I believe, not for always. I do
not think that I shall die on this journey with the captain, though I do
think that others will die at the end of it," he added grimly, a saying
which at the time I did not understand.

"It comes into my heart, Macumazahn, that in yonder land of witches and
wizards, the spirit of prophecy got caught in my moocha and crept into
my bowels. Now that spirit tells me that we shall meet again in the
after-years and stand together in a great fray which will be our last,
as I believe that the White Witch said. Or perhaps the spirit lives in
Zikali's Medicine which has gone down my throat and comes out of it in
words. I cannot say, but I pray that it is a true spirit, since although
you are white and I am black and you are small and I am big, and you are
gentle and cunning, whereas I am fierce and as open as the blade of my
own axe, yet I love you as well, Macumazahn, as though we were born
of the same mother and had been brought up in the same kraal. Now that
captain waits and grows doubtful of our talk, so farewell. I will return
the Great Medicine to Zikali, if I live, and if I die he must send one
of the ghosts that serve him, to fetch it from among my bones.

"Farewell to you also, Yellow Man,