“It is not well for an old woman to be here without good food and warm shelter. You should have a hut in the kraal,” said Sirayo.
“They killed my son when he brought me food one night,” she said hoarsely; “and they threaten to smell out my daughter if I leave these rocks—the sons of dogs and earth-pigs!”
“Soh! we will talk over this in the morning. In the meantime go you to the river, and call out that we have gone.”
“But you will stay and slay them?”
“We have said it.”
“Oh ay, I will go. They have grown fat on lies; now I will repay them. I will show you this night where they keep their girls, all young and fat, the he-goats that they are.”
When she had gone, Hume immediately pointed out that they could turn the superstitious fears of the people to their own advantage.
“Well, for my part,” said Sirayo, “I am curious about these girls. If they have put up long with the company of snuffy old men, they will know how to receive a man and a warrior;” and he stretched his limbs.
The old woman, having done her mission by shouting until someone heard her, returned, and led them up the mountain, where, in a kloof whose narrow entrance was almost hidden by huge rocks, they found a small kraal and saw the light of fires.
The old woman clapped her hands and called out: