“Can you put it back again, white lord?” he asked.

“That will depend upon how you behave,” I replied.

Then without another word he turned and walked back to the soldiers, who received him with shouts of laughter.  Evidently Imbozwi was not a popular character, and his discomfiture delighted them.

Babemba also was delighted.  Indeed, he could not praise our magic enough, and at once began to make arrangements to escort us to the king at his head town, which was called Beza, vowing that we need fear no harm at his hands or those of his soldiers.  In fact, the only person who did not appreciate our black arts was Imbozwi himself.  I caught a look in his eye as he marched off which told me that he hated us bitterly, and reflected to myself that perhaps I had been foolish to use that burning-glass, although in truth I had not intended to set his head on fire.

“My father,” said Mavovo to me afterwards, “it would have been better to let that snake burn to death, for then you would have killed his poison.  I am something of a doctor myself, and I tell you there is nothing our brotherhood hates so much as being laughed at.  You have made a fool of him before all his people and he will not forget it, Macumazana.”

CHAPTER IX

BAUSI THE KING

About midday we made a start for Beza Town where King Bausi lived, which we understood we ought to reach on the following evening.  For some hours the regiment marched in front, or rather round us, but as we complained to Babemba of the noise and dust, with a confidence that was quite touching, he sent it on ahead.  First, however, he asked us to pass our word “by our mothers,” which was the most sacred of oaths among many African peoples, that we would not attempt to escape.  I confess that I hesitated before giving an answer, not being entirely enamoured of the Mazitu and of our prospects among them, especially as I had discovered through Jerry that the discomfited Imbozwi had departed from the soldiers on some business of his own.  Had the matter been left to me, indeed, I should have tried to slip back into the bush over the border, and there put in a few months shooting during the dry season, while working my way southwards.  This, too, was the wish of the Zulu hunters, of Hans, and I need not add of Sammy.  But when I mentioned the matter to Stephen, he implored me to abandon the idea.

“Look here, Quatermain,” he said, “I have come to this God-forsaken country to get that great Cypripedium, and get it I will or die in the attempt.  Still,” he added after surveying our rather blank faces, “I have no right to play with your lives, so if you think the thing too dangerous I will go on alone with this old boy, Babemba.  Putting everything else aside, I think that one of us ought to visit Bausi’s kraal in case the gentleman who you call Brother John should turn up there.  In short, I have made up my mind, so it is no use talking.”