"Just as he had finished speaking I thought that I heard a sound in the
dense green bush behind us. It reminded me of the noise a man makes
when he tries to stifle a cough, and frightened me. For if we had been
overheard by a spy, Magepa was as good as dead, and the sooner I was
across the river the better.
"'What's that?' I asked.
"'A bush buck, Macumazahn. There are lots of them about here.'
"Not being satisfied, though it is true that buck do cough like this,
I turned my horse to the bush, seeking an opening. Thereon something
crashed away and vanished into the long grass. In those shadows, of
course, I could not see what it was, but such light as remained glinted
on what might have been the polished tip of the horn of an antelope
or--an assegai.
"'I told you it was a buck, Macumazahn,' said Magepa. 'Still, if you
smell danger, let us come away from the bush, though the orders are that
no white man is to be touched as yet.'
"Then, while we walked on towards the ford, he set out with great
detail, as Kaffirs do, the exact arrangements that he proposed to make
for the handing over of his daughter and her child into my care. I
remember that I asked him why he would not send her on the following
morning, instead of two mornings later.
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