“Yes, Tante (aunt), here I am,” I answered gloomily, “and I wish to heaven that I was somewhere else.”

Just then Dingaan, having settled his great bulk upon the stool and recovered his breath, called to the lad Halstead, who was with him, and said: 

“O Tho-maas, ask your brother, Macumazahn, if he is ready to try to shoot the vultures.  If not, as I wish to be fair, I will give him a little more time to make his magic medicine.”

I replied sulkily that I was as ready as I was ever likely to be.

Then the Vrouw Prinsloo, understanding that the king of the Zulus was before her, advanced upon him, waving her umbrella.  Catching hold of Halstead, who understood Dutch, she forced him to translate an harangue, which she addressed to Dingaan.

Had he rendered it exactly as it came from her lips, we should all have been dead in five minutes, but, luckily, that unfortunate young man had learnt some of the guile of the serpent during his sojourn among the Zulus, and varied her vigorous phrases.  The gist of her discourse was that he, Dingaan, was a black-hearted and bloody-minded villain, with whom the Almighty would come even sooner or later (as, indeed, He did), and that if he dared to touch one hair of her or of her companions’ heads, the Boers, her countrymen, would prove themselves to be the ministers of the Almighty in that matter (as, indeed, they did).  As translated by Halstead into Zulu, what she said was that Dingaan was the greatest king in the whole world; in fact, that there was not, and never had been, any such a king either in power, wisdom, or personal beauty, and that if she and her companions had to die, the sight of his glory consoled them for their deaths.

“Indeed,” said Dingaan suspiciously, “if that is what this man-woman says, her eyes tell one story and her lips another.  Oh!  Tho-maas, lie no more.  Speak the true words of the white chieftainess, lest I should find them out otherwise, and give you to the slayers.”

Thus adjured, Halstead explained that he had not yet told all the words.  The “man-woman,” who was, as he, Dingaan, supposed, a great chieftainess among the Dutch, added that if he, the mighty and glorious king, the earth-shaker, the world-eater, killed her or any of her subjects, her people would avenge her by killing him and his people.

“Does she say that?” said Dingaan.  “Then, as I thought, these Boers are dangerous, and not the peaceful folk they make themselves out to be,” and he brooded for a while, staring at the ground.  Presently he lifted his head and went on:  “Well, a bet is a bet, and therefore I will not wipe out this handful, as otherwise I would have done at once.  Tell the old cow of a chieftainess that, notwithstanding her threats, I stick to my promise.  If the little Son of George, Macumazahn, can shoot three vultures out of five by help of his magic, then she and her servants shall go free.  If not, the vultures which he has missed shall feed on them, and afterwards I will talk with her people when they come to avenge her.  Now, enough of this indaba.  Bring those evildoers here that they may thank and praise me, who give them so merciful an end.”