“Oh, your news is old like yourself, mother,” said Noenti. “We saw the fighting, and our people won; but it was because of the stranger who led them—a great man.”
“Oh, well, if you know everything I will return; when I was a girl I always listened to what my elders had to say. So you saw the fight and the great chief. I could have told about him, but you already know.”
“Tell us!” they all cried together. “Catch her, hold her fast!” and, running round the fire, they came full tilt against Sirayo.
“Yinny!” they cried, and bolted like rabbits for the hut, while the old dame laugh shrilly.
Presently they peeped out, and after much giggling emerged once more, and came and peeped up at Sirayo, and walked round him.
“What say you, my children, have I not done well? Here is the great chief himself.”
The girls shrieked with laughter, and then, under the direction of Noenti, brought out meat and thick Kaffir beer.
Hume left them seated round the fire, chattering like children all together, and sat at the mouth of the kloof, gazing idly before him. And as he sat there watching the stars in the east he heard footsteps approaching stealthily, so he stepped gently from the rock, crouching down in the shadow.
As the group at the fire laughed while the girls filled the calabash, seeing how much their magnificent visitor could drink, Hume appeared within the circle of light with a man in his grasp.
“Here is another visitor,” he said.