murdered him, and I should have tasted the assegai. So I made another
plan. I would go and find the cattle in the valley where I had smelt
them out, but I would not bring them to the secret hiding-place. No; I
would drive them straight to the kraal, and denounce Noma before the
chief, my father, and all the people. But I was young in those days,
and did not know the heart of Noma. He had not been a witch-doctor
till he grew old for nothing. Oh! he was evil!--he was cunning as a
jackal, and fierce like a lion.. He had planted me by him like a tree,
but he meant to keep me clipped like a bush. Now I had grown tall and
overshadowed him; therefore he would root me up.

I went to the corner of my hut, Noma watching me all the while, and
took a kerrie and my small shield. Then I started through the
moonlight. Till I was past the kraal I glided along quietly as a
shadow. After that, I began to run, singing to myself as I went, to
frighten away the ghosts, my father.

For an hour I travelled swiftly over the plain, till I came to the
hillside where the bush began. Here it was very dark under the shade
of the trees, and I sang louder than ever. At last I found the little
buffalo path I sought, and turned along it. Presently I came to an
open place, where the moonlight crept in between the trees. I knelt
down and looked. Yes! my snake had not lied to me; there was the spoor
of the cattle. Then I went on gladly till I reached a dell through
which the water ran softly, sometimes whispering and sometimes talking
out loud. Here the trail of the cattle was broad: they had broken down
the ferns with their feet and trampled the grass. Presently I came to
a pool. I knew it--it was the pool my snake had shown me. And there at
the edge of the pool floated the drowned ox, its foot caught in a
forked root. All was just as I had seen it in my heart.