'
"'You mean that your horse ran, Macumazahn. Well, since you like this
dog, I will not hurt him,' and with a shrug he went his way.
"'Yet soon or late he _will_ hurt me,' said Magepa, when the Prince had
gone. 'U'Cetewayo has a memory long as the shadow thrown by a tree at
sunset. Moreover, as he knows well, it is true that I ran, Macumazahn,
though not till all was finished and I could do no more by standing
still. You remember how, after we had eaten up the first of Cetewayo's
regiments, the second charged us and we ate that up also. Well, in that
fight I got a tap on the head from a kerry. It struck me on my man's
ring which I had just put on, for I think I was the youngest soldier in
that regiment of veterans. The ring saved me; still, for a while I lost
my mind and lay like one dead. When I found it again the fight was over
and Cetewayo's people were searching for our wounded that they might
kill them. Presently they found me and saw that there was no hurt on me.
"'"Here is one who shams dead like a stink-cat," said a big fellow,
lifting his spear.
"'Then it was that I sprang up and ran, who was but just married and
desired to live. He struck at me, but I jumped over the spear, and
the others that they threw missed me.
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