would have been no Isandhlwana
disaster."

He brooded awhile, for, as I knew, this was a sore subject with him, one
on which he would rarely talk. Although he escaped himself, Quatermain
had lost friends on that fatal field. He went on:--

"To return to old Magepa. I had known him for many years. The first time
we met was in the battle of the Tugela. I was fighting for the king's
son, Umbelazi the Handsome, in the ranks of the Tulwana regiment--I mean
to write all that story, for it should not be lost. Well, as I have told
you before, the Tulwana were wiped out; of the three thousand or so of
them I think only about fifty remained alive after they had annihilated
the three of Cetewayo's regiments that set upon them. But as it chanced
Magepa was one who survived.

"I met him afterwards at old King Panda's kraal and recognised him
as having fought by my side. Whilst I was talking to him the Prince
Cetewayo came by; to me he was civil enough, for he knew how I chanced
to be in the battle, but he glared at Magepa, and said:

"'Why, Macumazahn, is not this man one of the dogs with which you tried
to bite me by the Tugela not long ago? He must be a cunning dog also,
one who can run fast, for how comes it that he lives to snarl when so
many will never bark again? _Ow!_ if I had my way I would find a strip
of hide to fit his neck.'

"'Not so,' I answered, 'he has the King's peace and he is a brave man
--braver than I am, anyway, Prince, seeing that I ran from the ranks of
the Tulwana, while he stood where he was.'

"'You mean that your horse ran, Macumazahn. Well, since you like this
dog, I will not hurt him,' and with a shrug he went his way.

"'Yet soon or late he _will_ hurt me,' said Magepa, when the Prince had
gone. 'U'Cetewayo has a memory long as the shadow thrown by a tree at
sunset. Moreover, as he knows well, it is true that I ran, Macumazahn,
though not till all was finished and I could do no more by standing
still. You remember how, after we had eaten up the first of Cetewayo's
regiments, the second charged us and we ate that up also. Well, in that
fight I got a tap on the head from a kerry. It struck me on my man's
ring which I had just put on, for I think I was the youngest soldier in
that regiment of veterans. The ring saved me; still, for a while I lost
my mind and lay like one dead. When I found it again the fight was over
and Cetewayo's people were searching for our wounded that they might
kill them.