He would know this: if it is true that you
refuse to own his sovereignty, to pay tribute to him in men and maids
and cattle, and to serve him in his wars? Answer, you little headman!
--answer in few words and short!"
Now Umslopogaas gasped for breath in his rage, and again he fingered
the great axe. "It is well for you, O Mouth," he said, "that I swore
safe conduct to you, else you had not gone hence--else you had been
served as I served certain soldiers who in bygone years were sent to
search out one Umslopogaas. Yet I answer you in few words and short.
Look on those spears--they are but a fourth part of the number I can
muster: that is my answer. Look now on yonder mountain, the mountain
of ghosts and wolves--unknown, impassable, save to me and one other:
that is my answer. Spears and mountains shall come together--the
mountain shall be alive with spears and with the fangs of beasts. Let
Dingaan seek his tribute there! I have spoken!"
Now I laughed shrilly, desiring to try the heart of Umslopogaas, my
fosterling, yet further.
"Fool!" I said. "Boy with the brain of a monkey, for every spear you
have Dingaan, whom I serve, can send a hundred, and your mountain
shall be stamped flat; and for your ghosts and wolves, see, with the
mouth of Dingaan I spit upon them!" and I spat upon the ground.
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