“They do not seek us?”
“So the chief says. They came here in search of riches stored below,” and the thud of his assegai was heard as it struck the floor. “They find us here. It is the worse for us—but they do not seek us. So says the chief.”
“Is there such a treasure?”
“No chief would tell where the grain pit is dug in the kraal, or if it were full of grain. But the Zulus do not hunt on a cold spoor. If they come after riches, who will say they are not here?”
“But who told the Zulus of the store? They were encamped here before, and did not enter the ruins.”
Sirayo repeated this, and the chief, with an angry exclamation, poured out a volume of excited words.
“He says the secret must have been told them by one of the witch-doctors who lived here, and who alone knew of it with the chiefs.”
There was a noise in the room of someone moving. Laura cried out that something had brushed against her, and there was a scraping, followed by a rush of cold wind.
Each grasped a weapon, and deep silence ensued as they listened; then Webster struck a match, and, as the feeble light spread, they followed its path through the blackness.
“Yoh!” exclaimed Klaas, whose eyes gleamed as they rolled, “the umtagati (witch-doctor) has gone,” and he thrust his assegai through an opening in the wall opposite to the gap through which they had entered.