She threw a startled look at Compton, which he was keen to notice; then, with an expression of puzzlement, she nodded her head.
"Your meaning is dark, lion's cub. See, the valley is kraaled in like the goat-pen, and if the goats be not in the kraal they are outside the kraal. As for Ngonyama, see where the women build his hut against his coming."
"I see," said Compton. "Perhaps he was sent for by the chief, and has gone a journey, for the enemy are on the move."
"That is plainer to me," she said quickly. "It must be so, for the chief loves Ngonyama."
"Yes; that must be the reason. It lifts a load off my mind, mother."
"Ow aye I did not like to see your face clouded; and now you will make medicine for me?"
"I will; bat there are a few things I require. I am young at this work, mother, and cannot do without all the aids."
"Oh ay, I know," and she nodded her head with a fierce look in her eyes. "The blood of a man, the heart of a kid, and the tongue of a crocodile."
"No, no; a calabash of fat and a little wax. Only that."
"Your medicine is not like mine," she said musingly; "but I have it in my mind now that the good white man used much fat in his medicine."