“Then I am sorry,” I exclaimed.

He looked at me shrewdly.

“Are you?  So am I. Yet his counsel must be asked, and better that it should be here in my presence than yonder secretly at the Black Kloof.  I would kill him if I dared, but I dare not, who am sure—­why I may not say—­that the same sun will see his death and mine.”

He waved his hand to show that the talk on this matter was ended, then added—­

“Macumazahn, you are my prisoner for a while, but give me your word that you will not try to escape and you may go where you will within an hour’s ride of Ulundi.  I would pay you well to stop here with me, but this I know you would never do should there be trouble between us and your people.  Therefore I promise you that if war breaks out I will send you safely to Natal, or perhaps sooner, as my messenger, whence doubtless you will return to fight against me.  Know that I have given orders that every other white man or woman who is found in Zululand shall be killed as a spy.  Even John Dunn has fled or is flying, or so I hear, John Dunn who has fed out of my hand and grown rich on my gifts.  You yourself would have been killed as you came from Swazi-Land in your cart, had not command been sent to those chiefs through whose lands you passed that neither they nor their people were so much as to look at you.”

Now for one intense moment I thought, as hard as ever I had done in my life.  It was evident—­unless he dealing very cunningly with me, which I did not believe—­that Cetewayo knew nothing of Anscombe and Heda, but thought that I had come into Zululand alone.  Should I or should I not tell him and beg his protection for them?  If I did so he might refuse or be unable to give it to them far away in the midst of a savage population aflame with the lust of war.  As the incident of the morning showed, it was as much as he could do to protect myself, although the Zulus knew me for their friend.  On the other hand no one who dwelt under Zikali’s blanket, to use the Kaffir idiom, would be touched, because he was looked on as half divine and therefore everything under it down to the rat in his thatch was sacred.  Now Zikali by implication and Nombe with emphasis, had promised to safeguard these two.  Surely, therefore, they would run less risk in the Black Kloof than here at Ulundi, if ever they got so far.

All this went through my brain in an instant, with the result that I made up my mind to say nothing.  As the issue proved, this was a terrible mistake, but who can always judge rightly?  Had I spoken out it seems to me probable that Cetewayo would have granted my prayer and ordered that these two should be escorted out of Zululand before hostilities began, although of course they might have been murdered on the way.  Also, for a reason that will become evident later, it is possible that there would never have been any hostilities.  All I can plead is, that I acted for the best and Fate would have it so.  Another moment and the chance was gone.