Simba began accusing himself of cowardice, and everything else that was bad, when the young chief stopped him, and said:
“Not so, Simba; thou art big and a good target for an arrow; but I am small and thin, and if there had been twenty I could, by being prudent, have escaped easily. None of these people like to come out to the open to fight, and so long as there was but one to fight they would never have chased anybody else; and by dodging through the bushes, shooting the most forward of them, I could have so thinned them that when they reached us on this peak they would not have been able to take us without losing many more men, and perhaps losing all. If we all had been together those fellows might have killed two or three of us, and whom could we have spared?—Selim? Abdullah? Niani? No, Simba; thou seest that I could not have acted otherwise.”
“I saw that when you told us to go,” said Moto. “Who of us knows much about arrows? Master Selim and Master Abdullah know nothing; Niani is too small even if he did know. Simba says he don’t, and I am sure I know but very little compared to a man who all his life has shot with nothing else but his bow. Now, with a gun—”
“Ah, yes; if we had but three or four guns,” sighed Simba, “thou wouldst not have been left alone, Kalulu.”
“If I had only my English gun here now,—two barrels,—always true—not one of those men would have escaped,” remarked Selim.
“But, my brother, surely only two have escaped as it is,” replied Kalulu, laughing; “and they are too scared to trouble us any more, I think, though it is time for us to be off before others from the village on the other side of the valley come after us. Here is a spear for thee, Moto; and a spear also for thee, Simba. I will keep one spear, and Selim and Abdullah may keep the hows and arrows. We shall have something for Niani by-and-by, perhaps.”
“I hope not,” said Simba, “before we get amongst friends.”
This feat of Kalulu’s in killing four men raised him highly in Simba’s estimation, and the consequence of it was that he came to pay great deference to him, far greater than he ever had paid to him before; for thus far, except that he showed himself capable of bearing great fatigue, could run well, was lithe and strong for his age, he had looked upon him as a boy merely. Now, however, as he turned to seek the deep woods, on the ridge leading from the peak to the low range of hills beyond, he furtively eyed him from head to foot, and then shook his head, muttering to himself; “What is the matter, friend Simba,” asked Kalulu, “that thou dost eye me so, and shake thy head?”
“Thou hast a quick eye, Kalulu; and it is as true as thy wrist and arm. I have been thinking,” he said in a low voice, “that when thou art a few years older thou wilt be almost as strong as I am now, and that when thou returnest to thy country, Ferodia will be sorry for what he has done, for he will find thee a very lion in his way.”
“Thou mayst well say that, Simba,” said Moto. “The little boy who pinned my arm to the shield I held when Kisesa attacked his father’s village, is improved wonderfully. Wallahi! if he kills four men now when he is but a boy, how many will he kill when he is a man. Ferodia will wish that he had never thought of being king.”