Another swift flow of words from Makupi.
“He says—that two men of the old Imbezu Regiment are with him always—armed with assegai—but there are never any horses near, and they never unbind his hands. He eats well, with the air of a man who is content—but his eyes are looking always beyond the hills and though he pretends to be content they see that his desire lies in Mashonaland.”
When Makupi’s tale was finished the sun was gone, and nothing was left of the sunset but a little red light and one last streak of gold that lingered between two hills. He folded his hands upon his breast and stood still with his eyes drooped to the ground.
“Poor Kinsella!” said Maurice abstractedly, almost like a man speaking in his sleep. “What a dog’s life—for nearly two years!”
Like a little codicil to a last will and testament Makupi added a few more words.
“This is a very secret matter, and forbidden by the Umlimo to be spoken of to any, under pain of—” he made a dramatic gesture of stabbing. “It would have been better for me to have told any of the secrets of the Matabele and the Makalikas than this. But because the Inkosizaan is like the departed glory of the Matabeleland, and her hands are kind and healing to all she touches, I have told.”
“You have done well,” said Maurice firmly. He had wakened from his dreaminess now; “and we’ll take care you don’t suffer for it. But look here, Makupi, will you go with me to the Matoppoe and show me the way to the cave of the Umlimo?”
Makupi looked at me for a moment.
“If the Inkosizaan wishes, I will go and show the way,” he said. “But it will not be easy to overcome those men of the Imbezu with their assegais and stabbing knives; some of the Umlimo’s people have guns too, which they did not give up after the war. We will have to wait in secret places of the hills with horses always ready to start, and coming upon them by surprise spring on the guard and kill them, then quickly unbind the white man and ride away. But it is hard to say how long we shall have to wait hiding in the hills.”
“That’s nothing. Be ready to start the dawn after to-morrow’s dawn, Makupi. Do not fail me—or the Inkosizaan.”