'
"'Then all is well, Macumazahn.' (_A pause_.) 'It _was_ a spy in the
bush, not a buck. He overheard our talk. The King's slayers came. Gita
held the door of the hut while I took the child, cut a hole through the
straw with my assegai, and crept out at the back. She was full of spears
before she died, but I got away with the boy. Till your Kaffirs found
me I lay hid in the bush, hoping to escape to Natal. Then I ran for the
river, and saw you on the farther bank. _I_ might have got away, but
that child is heavy.' (_A pause_.) 'Give him food, Macumazahn, he must
be hungry.' (_A pause_.) 'Farewell. That was a good saying of yours--the
swift runner is outrun at last. Ah! yet I did not run in vain.'
(_Another pause, the last_.) Then he lifted himself upon one arm and
with the other saluted, first the boy Sinala and next me, muttering,
'Remember your promise, Macumazahn.'
"That is how Magepa the Buck died. I never saw anyone carrying weight
who could run quite so well as he," and Quatermain turned his head away
as though the memory of this incident affected him somewhat.
"What became of the child Sinala?" I asked presently.
"Oh! I sent him to an institution in Natal, and afterwards was able
to get some of his property back for him.
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