“Kransick!  Kransick!” which means “ill in the skull,” or “mad,” exclaimed Hans to the others as he tapped his forehead significantly.  “They have caught it from Dogeetah, one who lives on insects which he entangles in a net, and carries no gun to kill game.  Well, I knew they would.”

The hunters nodded in assent, and Sammy lifted his arms to Heaven as though in prayer.  Only Mavovo seemed indifferent.  Then came the question of which of them was to accompany us.

“So far as I am concerned that is soon settled,” said Mavovo.  “I go with my father, Macumazana, seeing that even without a gun I am still strong and can fight as my male ancestors fought with a spear.”

“And I, too, go with the Baas Quatermain,” grunted Hans, “seeing that even without a gun I am cunning, as my female ancestors were before me.”

“Except when you take medicine, Spotted Snake, and lose yourself in the mist of sleep,” mocked one of the Zulus.  “Does that fine bedstead which the king sent you go with you?”

“No, son of a fool!” answered Hans.  “I’ll lend it to you who do not understand that there is more wisdom within me when I am asleep than there is in you when you are awake.”

It remained to be decided who the third man should be.  As neither of Brother John’s two servants, who had accompanied him on his cross-country journey, was suitable, one being ill and the other afraid, Stephen suggested Sammy as the man, chiefly because he could cook.

“No, Mr. Somers, no,” said Sammy, with earnestness.  “At this proposal I draw the thick rope.  To ask one who can cook to visit a land where he will be cooked, is to seethe the offspring in its parent’s milk.”

So we gave him up, and after some discussion fixed upon Jerry, a smart and plucky fellow, who was quite willing to accompany us.  The rest of that day we spent in making our preparations which, if simple, required a good deal of thought.  To my annoyance, at the time I wanted to find Hans to help me, he was not forthcoming.  When at length he appeared I asked him where he had been.  He answered, to cut himself a stick in the forest, as he understood we should have to walk a long way.  Also he showed me the stick, a long, thick staff of a hard and beautiful kind of bamboo which grows in Mazitu-land.

“What do you want that clumsy thing for,” I said, “when there are plenty of sticks about?”

“New journey, new stick!  Baas.  Also this kind of wood is full of air and might help me to float if we are upset into the water.”

“What an idea!” I exclaimed, and dismissed the matter from my mind.

At dawn, on the following day, we started, Stephen and I riding on the two donkeys, which were now fat and lusty, and Brother John upon his white ox, a most docile beast that was quite attached to him.  All the hunters, fully armed, came with us to the borders of the Mazitu country, where they were to await our return in company with the Mazitu regiment.  The king himself went with us to the west gate of the town, where he bade us all, and especially Brother John, an affectionate farewell.  Moreover, he sent for Komba and his attendants, and again swore to him that if any harm happened to us, he would not rest till he had found a way to destroy the Pongo, root and branch.