If the Black Kendah saw him go, of which I am doubtful, for they all seemed to be lost in consultation round their king and the dead general, Goru, they made no attempt to follow him.  Another possibility is that they thought he was trying to lead them into some snare or ambush.

I do not know what they thought because I never heard them mention Hans or the matter of his disappearance, if indeed they ever realized that there was such a person.  Curiously enough in the case of men who had just shown themselves so brave, this last accident of the decease of Goru coming on the top of all their other casualties, seemed to take the courage out of them.  It was as though they had come to the conclusion that we with our guns were something more than mortal.

For several minutes they debated in evident hesitation.  At last from out of their array rode a single man, in whom I recognized one of the envoys who had met us in the morning, carrying in his hand a white flag as he had done before.  Thereon I laid down my rifle in token that I would not fire at him, which indeed I could not do having nothing to fire.  Seeing this he came to within a few yards and halting, addressed Marut.

“O second Prophet of the Child,” he said, “these are the words of Simba the King:  Your god has been too strong for us to-day, though in a day to come it may be otherwise.  I thought I had you in a pit; that you were the bucks and I the hunter.  But, though with loss, you have escaped out of the pit,” and the speaker glanced towards our retreating force which was now but a cloud of dust in the far distance, “while I the hunter have been gored by your horns,” and again he glanced at the dead that were scattered about the plain.  “The noblest of the buck, the white bull of the herd,” and he looked at me, who in any other circumstances would have felt complimented, “and you, O Prophet Marut, and one or two others, besides those that I have slain, are however still in the pit and your horn is a magic horn,” here he pointed to my rifle, “which pierces from afar and kills dead all by whom it is touched.”

“So I caught those gentry well in the middle,” thought I to myself, “and with soft-nosed bullets!”

“Therefore I, Simba the King, make you an offer.  Yield yourselves and I swear that no spear shall be driven through your hearts and no knife come near your throats.  You shall only be taken to my town and there be fed on the best and kept as prisoners, till once more there is peace between the Black Kendah and the White.  If you refuse, then I will ring you round and perhaps in the dark rush on you and kill you all.  Or perhaps I will watch you from day to day till you, who have no water, die of thirst in the heat of the sun.  These are my words to which nothing may be added and from which nothing shall be taken away.”

Having finished this speech he rode back a few yards out of earshot, and waited.

“What will you answer, Lord Macumazana?” asked Marut.