ng.

"Have you seen Umbezi?" asked Saduko of them.

"No," they answered; "he was asleep when we got here, but his people say
that he is coming out presently."

"Then tell his people that he had better be quick about it, or I shall
turn him out," replied the proud Saduko.

Just at this moment the kraal gate opened and through it appeared
Umbezi, looking extremely fat and foolish; also, it struck me,
frightened, although this he tried to conceal.

"Who visits me here," he said, "with so much--um--ceremony?" and with
the carved dancing-stick he carried he pointed doubtfully at the lines
of armed men. "Oh, it is you, is it, Saduko?" and he looked him up
and down, adding: "How grand you are to be sure. Have you been robbing
anybody? And you, too, Macumazahn. Well, _you_ do not look grand. You
look like an old cow that has been suckling two calves on the winter
veld. But tell me, what are all these warriors for? I ask because I have
not food for so many, especially as we have just had a feast here."

"Fear nothing, Umbezi," answered Saduko in his grandest manner. "I have
brought food for my own men. As for my business, it is simple. You asked
a hundred head of cattle as the lobola [that is, the marriage gift] of
your daughter, Mameena. They are there. Go send your servants to the
kraal and count them."

"Oh, with pleasure," Umbezi replied nervously, and he gave some orders
to certain men behind him. "I am glad to see that you have become rich
in this sudden fashion, Saduko, though how you have done so I cannot
understand."

"Never mind how I have become rich," answered Saduko. "I _am_ rich; that
is enough for the present. Be pleased to send for Mameena, for I would
talk with her."

"Yes, yes, Saduko, I understand that you would talk with Mameena;
but"--and he looked round him desperately--"I fear that she is still
asleep. As you know, Mameena was always a late riser, and, what is more,
she hates to be disturbed. Don't you think that you could come back,
say, to-morrow morning? She will be sure to be up by then; or, better
still, the day after?"

"In which hut is Mameena?" asked Saduko sternly, while I, smelling a
rat, began to chuckle to myself.

"I really do not know, Saduko," replied Umbezi. "Sometimes she sleeps in
one, sometimes in another, and sometimes she goes several hours' journey
away to her aunt's kraal for a change. I should not be in the least
surprised if she had done so last night. I have no contr