"The wizards have died hard, and we have had a right merry fight," said
Sobuza, turning away. "With more men we could have crushed them
quicker, but then we should not have had so grand a fight. I think,
Jeriji, that the Great Great One knew this when he sent but a thousand
men, for in such blood-letting do we keep our spears sharp in these
peaceable times."

As they rejoined the _impi_, it became evident that an altercation of
some kind was going forward; the parties thereto being a young unringed
man and an Udhloko warrior.

"It is mine, I say!" vociferated the former, who was being backed up by
more and more of his friends. "It is mine! I won it!"

"You won it!" was the contemptuous reply of the _kehla_. "_Ha_!
_umfane_ [`Boy,' i.e. an unringed man]. I have it. I took it. Come
now, you, and take it!"

"I will," shouted the other in answer to this direct challenge. And
supported by a gathering number of his friends he rushed upon the ringed
man. The latter, however, seemed equally well supported. Spears waved
threateningly as the parties confronted each other. It seemed as if
civil strife was going to follow upon the extermination of the
legitimate enemy.

"Peace!" cried Sobuza, sternly. "What it this, that the king's
hunting-dogs snarl against each other?"

"This, father," appealed the young warrior. "That gun is mine. I won
it fairly. Jeriji promised it. He said, `If you get near Jandosi when
we attack, if you are the first to reach his side, that double gun shall
be yours. I promise it.' That was the `word' of Jeriji. And was I not
the first to reach his side, I and my kinsmen? _Whau_! There is
Jeriji. Ask him, my father. Ask him if such was not his word?"

"Nkumbi-ka-zulu speaks every word of the truth, _induna_ of the king,"
said Gerard. "I did promise him the gun on those terms, and he has won
it fairly."

Thus called upon to adjudicate, Sobuza heard what the other side had to
say, and the fact that the warrior in whose possession it now was had
only picked up the gun instead of having taken it from an enemy in
battle went far towards simplifying matters. It had been thrown away
early in the conflict by Vunawayo, who, not understanding firearms, had
been so violently kicked at the first discharge that he had elected, and
wisely, to fight with such weapons as he did understand. So the chief
decreed that Nkumbi-ka-zulu had fairly earned the weapon, and it was
handed over to hi