The idea of Umslopogaas, that man of blood and iron, bringing flowers to a young lady, was so absurd that I broke out laughing and even the sad-faced Inez smiled.  Then she left me to see about something and I went to speak to Hans and asked him what had happened.

“Something rather queer, I think, Baas,” he answered vacuously, “though I did not quite understand the last part.  The doctor, Goroko, smelt out Thomaso as the man who had made them sick, and though they will not kill him because we are guests here, those Zulus are very angry with Thomaso and I think will beat him if they get a chance.  But that is only the small half of the stick,” and he paused.

“What is the big half, then?” I asked with irritation.

“Baas, the Spirit in Goroko——­”

“The jackass in Goroko, you mean,” I interrupted.  “How can you, who are a Christian, talk such rubbish about spirits?  I only wish that my father could hear you.”

“Oh!  Baas, your reverend father, the Predikant, is now wise enough to know all about Spirits and that there are some who come into black witch-doctors though they turn up their noses at white men and leave them alone.  However, whatever it is that makes Goroko speak, got hold of him so that his lips said, though he remembered nothing of it afterwards, that soon this place would be red with blood—­that there would be a great killing here, Baas.  That is all.”

“Red with blood!  Whose blood?  What did the fool mean?”

“I don’t know, Baas, but what you call the jackass in Goroko, declared that those who are ’with the Great Medicine’—­meaning what you wear, Baas—­will be quite safe.  So I hope that it will not be our blood; also that you will get out of this place as soon as you can.”

Well, I scolded Hans because he believed in what this doctor said, for I could see that he did believe it, then went to question Umslopogaas, whom I found looking quite pleased, which annoyed me still more.

“What is it that Goroko has been saying and why do you smile, Bulalio?” I asked.

“Nothing much, Macumazahn, except that the man who looks like tallow that has gone bad, put something in our food which made us sick, for which I would kill him were he not Red-beard’s servant and that it would frighten the lady his daughter.  Also he said that soon there will be fighting, which is why I smiled, who grow weary of peace.  We came out to fight, did we not?”

“Certainly not,” I answered.  “We came out to make a quiet journey in strange lands, which is what I mean to do.”

“Ah! well, Macumazahn, in strange lands one meets strange men with whom one does not always agree, and then Inkosikaas begins to talk,” and he whirled the great axe round his head, making the air whistle as it was forced through the gouge at its back.

I could get no more out of him, so having extracted a promise from him that nothing should happen to Thomaso who, I pointed out, was probably quite unjustly accused, I went away.