' It
is with you who are great here that I wish to come to terms. Listen: if
you grant my desire, not only will I fulfil yours upon your foes, but
when the girl is delivered into my hands I will give you this rifle and
a hundred rounds of cartridges."
Maputa looked at the sporting Martini, and his eyes glistened.
"It is good," he said; "it is very good. Often have I wished for such a
gun that will enable me to shoot game, and to talk with my enemies from
far away. Promise it to me, White Man, and you shall take the girl if I
can give her to you."
"You swear it, Maputa?"
"I swear it by the head of Chaka, and the spirits of my fathers."
"Good. At dawn on the fourth day from now it is the purpose of Umgona,
his daughter Nanea, and Nahoon, to cross the river into Natal by the
drift that is called Crocodile Drift, taking their cattle with them and
flying from the king. I also shall be of their company, for they know
that I have learned their secret, and would murder me if I tried to
leave them. Now you who are chief of the border and guardian of that
drift, must hide at night with some men among the rocks in the shallows
of the drift and await our coming.
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