“Well?”
“Inkoos, I have met this girl before, I have met her when I have been sent to buy ‘maas’ (buttermilk) at the kraal.”
“Good!”
“Inkoos, the girl came to bring heavy news, such as will press upon your heart. Secocoeni, chief of the Bapedi, who lives over yonder under the Blue Mountains, has declared war against the Boers.”
“I hear.”
“Sikukuni wants rifles for his men, such as the Boers use. He has heard of the Inkosis hunting here. To-night he will send an Impi to kill the Inkosis and take their guns.”
“These are the words of the Intombi?”
“Yes, Inkoos, these are her very words. She was sitting outside the hut, grinding ‘imphi’ (Kafir corn) for beer, when she heard Secocoeni’s messenger order her father to call the men together to kill us to-night.”
“I hear. At what time of the night was the killing to be?”
“At the first break of the dawn, so that they may have light to take the waggon away by.”