Also I wondered why he did not free himself from the bundle on
his back, and came to the conclusion that he must be a witch-doctor, and
that the bundle contained his precious charms or medicines.
"This was while he was yet a long way off, but when he came nearer,
within three or four hundred yards, of a sudden I caught the outline of
his face against a good background, and knew it for that of Magepa.
"'My God!' I said to myself, 'it is old Magepa the Buck, and the bundle
in the mat will be his grandson, Sinala!'
"Yes, even then I felt certain that he was carrying the child upon his
back.
"What was I to do? It was impossible for me to cross the river at
that place, and long before I could get round by the ford all would be
finished. I stood up on my rock and shouted to those brutes of Kaffirs
to let the man alone. They were so excited that they did not hear
my words; at least, they swore afterwards that they thought I was
encouraging them to hunt him down.
"But Magepa heard me. At the moment he seemed to be failing, but the
sight of me appeared to give him fresh strength. He gathered himself
together and leapt forward at a really surprising speed. Now the river
was not more than three hundred yards away from him, and for the first
two hundred of these he quite outdistanced his pursuers, although they
were most of them young men and comparatively fresh.
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