It was empty; there was not even a breath to be
heard. So I crept in and began to search for my assegais, my water-
gourd, and my wood pillow, which was so nicely carved that I did not
like to leave it. Soon I found them. Then I felt about for my skin
rug, and as I did so my hand touched something cold. I started, and
felt again. It was a man's face--the face of a dead man, of Noma, whom
I had killed and who had been laid in my hut to await burial. Oh! then
I was frightened, for Noma dead and in the dark was worse than Noma
alive. I made ready to fly, when suddenly I heard the voices of women
talking outside the door of the hut. I knew the voices; they were
those of Noma's two wives, and one of them said she was coming in to
watch by her husband's body. Now I was in a trap indeed, for before I
could do anything I saw the light go out of a hole in the hut, and
knew by the sound of a fat woman puffing as she bent herself up that
Noma's first wife was coming through it. Presently she was in, and,
squatting by the side of the corpse in such a fashion that I could not
get to the door, she began to make lamentations and to cal down curses
on me. Ah! she did not know that I was listening. I too squatted by
Noma's head, and grew quick-witted in my fear. Now that the woman was
there I was not so much afraid of the dead man, and I remembered, too,
that he had been a great cheat; so I thought I would make him cheat
for the last time.
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