Presently they found me and saw that there was no hurt on me.

"'"Here is one who shams dead like a stink-cat," said a big fellow,
lifting his spear.

"'Then it was that I sprang up and ran, who was but just married and
desired to live. He struck at me, but I jumped over the spear, and
the others that they threw missed me. Then they began to hunt me, but,
Macumazahn, I who am named "The Buck," because I am swifter of foot than
any man in Zululand, outpaced them all and got away safe.'

"'Well done, Magepa,' I said. 'Still, remember the saying of your
people, "At last the strong swimmer goes with the stream and the swift
runner is run down."'

"'I know it, Macumazahn,' he answered, with a nod, 'and perhaps in a day
to come I shall know it better.'

"I took little heed of his words at the time, but more than thirty years
afterwards I remembered them.

"Such was my first acquaintance with Magepa. Now, friends, I will tell
you how it was renewed at the time of the Zulu War.

"As you know, I was attached to the centre column that advanced into
Zululand by Rorke's Drift on the Buffalo River. Before war was declared,
or at any rate before the advance began, while it might have been and
many thought it would be averted, I was employed transport-riding
goods to the little Rorke's Drift Station, that which became so famous
afterwards, and incidentally in collecting what information I could of
Cetewayo's intentions. Hearing that there was a kraal a mile or so
the other side of the river, of which the people were said to be very
friendly to the English, I determined to visit it. You may think this
was rash, but I was so well known in Zululand, where for many years,
by special leave of the king, I was allowed to go whither I would quite
unmolested and, indeed, under the royal protection, that I felt no fear
for myself so long as I went alone.

"Accordingly one evening I crossed the drift and headed for a kloof in
which I was told the kraal stood. Ten minutes' ride brought me in sight
of it. It was not a large kraal; there may have been six or eight huts
and a cattle enclosure surrounded by the usual fence. The situation,
however, was very pretty, a knoll of rising ground backed by the wooded
slopes of the kloof. As I approached, I saw women and children running
to the kraal to hide, and when I reached the gateway for some time
no one would come out to meet me. At length a small boy appeared who
informed me that the kraal wa