“‘No madness, but simple deviltry,’ answered the Shangaan, and there came a murmur of support from the Kafirs about him. ‘The leader of the baboons is Naqua, and it was he who taught them the trick they played us to-night.’
“‘Naqua?’ repeated Shadrach, feeling cold and weak.
“‘The bushman,’ explained the old man; ‘the yellow man with the long, lean arms who gave false counsel to the baas.’
“‘It is true,’ came the chorus of the Kafirs; ‘it is true. We saw it.’
“Shadrach pulled himself together and raised a hand to the lintel of the door to steady himself.
“‘Fetch me Naqua!’ he ordered, and a pair of them went upon that errand. But they came back empty: Naqua was not at his hut, and none had news of him.
“Shadrach dismissed the Kafirs to patch their wounds, and at sun-up he went down to the lands where the eight dead Kafirs still lay amid the corn, to see what traces remained of the night’s work. He had hoped to find a clue in the tracks, but the feet of the Kafirs and the baboons were so mingled that the ground was dumb, and on the grass there remained, of course, no sign of the baboons’ return. He was no fool, my stepsister’s first husband, and since a wild and belly-quaking tale was the only one that offered, he was not ready to cast it aside till a better one were found. At any rate, it was against Naqua that his preparations were directed.
“He had seven guns in his house for which ammunition could be found, and from among all the Kafirs on the land he chose a half-dozen Zulus, who, as you know, will always rather fight than eat. These were only too ready to face the baboons again, since they were to have guns in their hands; and a kind of ambush was devised. They were to lie amid the corn so as to command the flank of the beasts, and Shadrach was to lie in the middle of them, and would give the signal when to commence firing by a shot from his own rifle. There was built, too, a pile of brushwood lying on straw soaked in oil, and this one of them was to put a light to as soon as the shooting began.
“It was dark when they took their places, and then commenced a long and anxious watch amid the corn, when every bush that creaked was an alarm, and every small beast of the veldt that squealed set hearts to thumping. From where he lay on his stomach, with his rifle before him, Shadrach could see the line or ridge of rocks over which the baboons must come, dark against a sky only just less dark; and, with his eyes fixed on this, he waited. Afterwards he said that it was not the baboons he waited for, but the yellow man Naqua, and he had in his head an idea that all the evil and pain that ever was, and all the sin to be, had a home in that bushman. So a man hates an enemy.
“They came at last. Five of them were suddenly seen on the top of the rocks, standing erect and peering round for a trap; but Shadrach 471 and his men lay very still, and soon one of these scouts gave a call, and then was heard the pat! pat! of hard feet as the body of them came up. There was not light enough to tell one from another, except by size, and as they trooped down amid the corn, Shadrach lay with his finger throbbing on his trigger, peering among them. But he could see nothing except the mass of their bodies, and, waiting till the main part of them was past him, so that he could have a shot at them as they came back, should it happen that they retired at once, he thrust forward his rifle, aimed into the brown, and fired.