“The King laughed.
“‘Did I tremble, son of Ntelani? Was there fear in my face?’ he said.
“‘Fear? Fear in the eyes of the Elephant whose tread shaketh the world! Now, my father, how could such a thing be?’ I answered.
“‘Good,’ he said, filling out a measure of snuff. Then, with his spoon arrested in mid-air: ‘I think he has come among us for good, Untúswa. Gungana did well to spare his life and bring him hither.’
“Now, I bethought me that this praise should have been mine. Had the King’s mind been different on the matter, then Gungana was welcome to all the responsibility of it. Now, not so. Wherefore I said—being young, and believing as we still do when young, that right, and not might, is right:
“‘That is but a blind side of the case, O Black Black One! I it was who spared the old Mosutu’s life—who not only spared, but saved it—and that in order that he might show the powers of his múti before the eyes of the King.’
“And then I told the whole tale of how I had saved the magician from the spears even of my brethren-in-arms. But I was not quite prepared for the manner in which it was received.
“‘So, Untúswa, you are a bigger man than your induna?’ said Umzilikazi, in that quiet, half-laughing, but terrible voice he took when he desired to make men’s hearts tremble within them. ‘And did you think, then, to tell me what I knew not—I, to whom all things are known; to whom not a single thing passes unknown, Untúswa, not one single thing?’
“Au, Nkose! Then, as the King spoke these words, I knew what fear was if I had never known before. For I thought of Nangeza, and of the sure penalty that we had incurred. No wonder that, with the King’s terrible eyes upon me, seeming to burn the very thoughts out of my breast—no wonder, Nkose, I should have felt myself growing grey with fear. But I cried aloud in praise of the wisdom of the Great Great One, and so akin is the most desperate fear to the most intrepid valour, that I—at that moment when the King was in the most to be dreaded of all his moods—took upon myself to urge my claim to the promised reward. Even while doing so I felt that I was digging my own grave. But to my surprise the King burst out laughing.
“‘Au!’ he cried. ‘Ntelani has bred a lion-cub indeed, and one who knows not fear. But here again, Untúswa, are you not showing yourself, for all your valour, to be but a child? The firing of the kraal was a right valorous deed; yet where was the valour of it in comparison with that of standing before the King this day, to belittle one of the King’s indunas, and to importune the King at a moment when he would fain sleep? Valour without wisdom means but the destruction of its owner, wherefore learn judgment before aspiring to the isicoco. Now go, Untúswa, the would-be kehla.’ (Head-ringed man.)