“But they will torture him!”
“Not until my return.”
He moved towards the kraal gate. The word which Mandevu had whispered in his ear was “Opondo.”
The renegade was seated within the chief’s principal hut. His hard, vindictive face was firm and impenetrable.
“Greeting, Sapazani,” he began, without ceremony. “Thou must give up thy purpose. The two yonder must be allowed to go free.”
The snatching of a bone from a hungry mastiff might convey some sort of idea of the expression which came over Sapazani’s face at this utterance; the very tone of which admitted of no dispute.
“Must?” he repeated.
“Yes, must.”
“Hau! I am no chief!” he said sneeringly, “no chief. And if I refuse?”
“Then thou wilt indeed be no chief, son of Umlali, for it would ruin the whole of our plan to carry out thy purpose.”