ading, reached us.
They got the horses by the head and straightened them out, while
Anscombe plied his whip. A dash forward and the wheels were on
the bottom again.

Three minutes later we were safe on the further bank, which my
mare had already reached, where I lay gasping on my face,
ejaculating prayers of thankfulness and spitting out muddy water.

CHAPTER X

NOMBE

The Swazis, shivering, for all these people hate cold, and
shaking themselves like a dog when he comes to shore, gathered
round, examining me.

"Why!" said one of them, an elderly man who seemed to be their
leader, "this is none other than Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night,
the old friend of all us black people. Surely the spirits of our
fathers have been with us who might have risked our lives to save
a Boer or a half-breed." (The Swazis, I may explain, did not like
the Boers for reasons they considered sound.)

"Yes," I said, sitting up, "it is I, Macumazahn."

"Then why," asked the man, "did you, whom all know to be wise,
show yourself to have suddenly become a fool?" and he pointed to
the raging river.

"And why," I asked, "do you show yourself a fool by supposing
that I, whom you know to be none, am a fool? Look across the
water for your answer."

He looked and saw the Basutos, fifty or more of them, arriving,
just too late.

"Who are these?" he asked.

"They are the people of Sekukuni whom you should know well
enough. They have hunted us all night, yes, and before, seeking
to murder us; also they have stolen our oxen, thirty-two fine
oxen which I give to your king if he can take them back. Now
perhaps you understand why we dared the Crocodile River in its
rage."

At the name of Sekukuni the man, who it seemed was the captain of
some border guards, stiffened all over like a terrier which
perceives a rat. "What!" he exclaimed, "do these dirty Basuto
dogs dare to carry spears so near our country? Have they not yet
learned their lesson?"

Then he rushed into the water, shaking an assegai he had snatched
up, and shouted,

"Bide a while, you fleas from the kaross of Sekukuni, till I can
come across and crack you between my thumb and finger. Or at the
least wait until Macumazahn has time to get his rifle. No, put
down those guns of yours; for every shot you fire I swear that I
will cut ten Basuto throats when we come to storm your koppies,
as we shall do ere long."

"Be silent," I said, "and let me speak."