"That is my desire, _Inkoos_, but Nahoon will not consent. He says that there is to be war between us and you white men, and he will not break the command of the king and desert from his army."
"Then he cannot love you much, Nahoon, and at least you have to think of yourself. Whisper into the ear of your father and fly together, for be sure that Nahoon will soon follow you. Ay! and I myself with fly with you, for I too believe that there must be war, and then a white man in this country will be as a lamb among the eagles."
"If Nahoon will come, I will go, _Inkoos_, but I cannot fly without Nahoon; it is better I should stay here and kill myself."
"Surely then being so fair and loving him so well, you can teach him to forget his folly and to escape with you. In four days" time we must start for the king"s kraal, and if you win over Nahoon, it will be easy for us to turn our faces southwards and across the river that lies between the land of the Amazulu and Natal. For the sake of all of us, but most of all for your own sake, try to do this, Nanea, whom I have loved and whom I now would save. See him and plead with him as you know how, but as yet do not tell him that I dream of flight, for then I should be watched."
"In truth, I will, _Inkoos_," she answered earnestly, "and oh! I thank you for your goodness. Fear not that I will betray you--first would I die. Farewell."
"Farewell, Nanea," and taking her hand he raised it to his lips.
Late that night, just as Hadden was beginning to prepare himself for sleep, he heard a gentle tapping at the board which closed the entrance to his hut.
"Enter," he said, unfastening the door, and presently by the light of the little lantern that he had with him, he saw Nanea creep into the hut, followed by the great form of Nahoon.
"_Inkoos_," she said in a whisper when the door was closed again, "I have pleaded with Nahoon, and he has consented to fly; moreover, my father will come also."
"Is it so, Nahoon?" asked Hadden.
"It is so," answered the Zulu, looking down shamefacedly; "to save this girl from the king, and because the love of her eats out my heart, I have bartered away my honour. But I tell you, Nanea, and you, White Man, as I told Umgona just now, that I think no good will come of this flight, and if we are caught or betrayed, we shall be killed every one of us."
"Caught we can scarcely be," broke in Nanea anxiously, "for who could betray us, except the _Inkoos_ here----"
"Which he is not likely to do," said Hadden quietly, "seeing that he desires to escape with you, and that his life is also at stake."
"That is so, Black Heart," said Nahoon, "otherwise I tell you that I should not have trusted you."
Hadden took no notice of this outspoken saying, but until very late that night they sat there together making their plans.
On the following morning Hadden was awakened by sounds of violent altercation. Going out of his hut he found that the disputants were Umgona and a fat and evil-looking Kaffir chief who had arrived at the kraal on a pony. This chief, he soon discovered, was named Maputa, being none other than the man who had sought Nanea in marriage and brought about Nahoon"s and Umgona"s unfortunate appeal to the king. At present he was engaged in abusing Umgona furiously, charging him with having stolen certain of his oxen and bewitched his cows so that they would not give milk. The alleged theft it was comparatively easy to disprove, but the wizardry remained a matter of argument.
"You are a dog, and a son of a dog," shouted Maputa, shaking his fat fist in the face of the trembling but indignant Umgona. "You promised me your daughter in marriage, then having vowed her to that _umf.a.gozan_--that low lout of a soldier, Nahoon, the son of Zomba--you went, the two of you, and poisoned the king"s ear against me, bringing me into trouble with the king, and now you have bewitched my cattle.
Well, wait, I will be even with you, Wizard; wait till you wake up in the cold morning to find your fence red with fire, and the slayers standing outside your gates to eat up you and yours with spears----"
At this juncture Nahoon, who till now had been listening in silence, intervened with effect.
"Good," he said, "we will wait, but not in your company, Chief Maputa.
_Hamba!_ (go)----" and seizing the fat old ruffian by the scruff of his neck, he flung him backwards with such violence that he rolled over and over down the little slope.
Hadden laughed, and pa.s.sed on towards the stream where he proposed to bathe. Just as he reached it, he caught sight of Maputa riding along the footpath, his head-ring covered with mud, his lips purple and his black face livid with rage.
"There goes an angry man," he said to himself. "Now, how would it be----" and he looked upwards like one seeking an inspiration. It seemed to come; perhaps the devil finding it open whispered in his ear, at any rate--in a few seconds his plan was formed, and he was walking through the bush to meet Maputa.
"Go in peace, Chief," he said; "they seem to have treated you roughly up yonder. Having no power to interfere, I came away for I could not bear the sight. It is indeed shameful that an old and venerable man of rank should be struck into the dirt, and beaten by a soldier drunk with beer."
"Shameful, White Man!" gasped Maputa; "your words are true indeed. But wait a while. I, Maputa, will roll that stone over, I will throw that bull upon its back. When next the harvest ripens, this I promise, that neither Nahoon nor Umgona, nor any of his kraal shall be left to gather it."
"And how will you manage that, Maputa?"
"I do not know, but I will find a way. Oh! I tell you, a way shall be found."
Hadden patted the pony"s neck meditatively, then leaning forward, he looked the chief in the eyes and said:--
"What will you give me, Maputa, if I show you that way, a sure and certain one, whereby you may be avenged to the death upon Nahoon, whose violence I also have seen, and upon Umgona, whose witchcraft brought sore sickness upon me?"
"What reward do you seek, White Man?" asked Maputa eagerly.
"A little thing, Chief, a thing of no account, only the girl Nanea, to whom as it chances I have taken a fancy."
"I wanted her for myself, White Man, but he who sits at Ulundi has laid his hand upon her."
"That is nothing, Chief; I can arrange with him who "sits at Ulundi." 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. First Nanea will cross driving the cows and calves, for so it is arranged, and I shall help her; then will follow Umgona and Nahoon with the oxen and heifers. On these two you must fall, killing them and capturing the cattle, and afterwards I will give you the rifle."
"What if the king should ask for the girl, White Man?"
"Then you shall answer that in the uncertain light you did not recognise her and so she slipped away from you; moreover, that at first you feared to seize the girl lest her cries should alarm the men and they should escape you."
"Good, but how can I be sure that you will give me the gun once you are across the river?"
"Thus: before I enter the ford I will lay the rifle and cartridges upon a stone by the bank, telling Nanea that I shall return to fetch them when I have driven over the cattle."
"It is well, White Man; I will not fail you."
So the plot was made, and after some further conversation upon points of detail, the two conspirators shook hands and parted.
"That ought to come off all right," reflected Hadden to himself as he plunged and floated in the waters of the stream, "but somehow I don"t quite trust our friend Maputa. It would have been better if I could have relied upon myself to get rid of Nahoon and his respected uncle--a couple of shots would do it in the water. But then that would be murder and murder is unpleasant; whereas the other thing is only the delivery to justice of two base deserters, a laudable action in a military country. Also personal interference upon my part might turn the girl against me; while after Umgona and Nahoon have been wiped out by Maputa, she _must_ accept my escort. Of course there is a risk, but in every walk of life the most cautious have to take risks at times."
As it chanced, Philip Hadden was correct in his suspicions of his coadjutor, Maputa. Even before that worthy chief reached his own kraal, he had come to the conclusion that the white man"s plan, though attractive in some ways, was too dangerous, since it was certain that if the girl Nanea escaped, the king would be indignant. Moreover, the men he took with him to do the killing in the drift would suspect something and talk. On the other hand he would earn much credit with his majesty by revealing the plot, saying that he had learned it from the lips of the white hunter, whom Umgona and Nahoon had forced to partic.i.p.ate in it, and of whose coveted rifle he must trust to chance to possess himself.
An hour later two discreet messengers were bounding across the plains, bearing words from the Chief Maputa, the Warden of the Border, to the "great Black Elephant" at Ulundi.