“Fool!” I said. “Boy with the brain of a monkey, for every spear you have Dingaan, whom I serve, can send a hundred, and your mountain shall be stamped flat; and for your ghosts and wolves, see, with the mouth of Dingaan I spit upon them!” and I spat upon the ground.
Now Umslopogaas shook in his rage, and the great axe glimmered as he shook. He turned to the captain who was behind him, and said: “Say, Galazi the Wolf, shall we kill this man and those with him?”
“Nay,” answered the Wolf, grinning, “do not kill them; you have given them safe conduct. Moreover, let them go back to their dog of a king, that he may send out his puppies to do battle with our wolves. It will be a pretty fight.”
“Get you gone, O Mouth,” said Umslopogaas; “get you gone swiftly, lest mischief befall you! Without my gates you shall find food to satisfy your hunger. Eat of it and begone, for if to-morrow at the noon you are found within a spear’s throw of this kraal, you and those with you shall bide there forever, O Mouth of Dingaan the king!”
Now I made as though I would depart, then, turning suddenly, I spoke once more, saying:—
“There were words in your message to the Black One who is dead of a certain man—nay, how was he named?—of a certain Mopo.”
Now Umslopogaas started as one starts who is wounded by a spear, and stared at me.
“Mopo! What of Mopo, O Mouth, whose eyes are veiled? Mopo is dead, whose son I was!”
“Ah!” I said, “yes, Mopo is dead—that is, the Black One who is gone killed a certain Mopo. How came it, O Bulalio, that you were his son?”
“Mopo is dead,” quoth Umslopogaas again; “he is dead with all his house, his kraal is stamped flat, and that is why I hated the Black One, and therefore I hate Dingaan, his brother, and will be as are Mopo and the house of Mopo before I pay him tribute of a single ox.”