buck. They killed my mother with a throwing assegai; it entered at her
back and came out at her heart. I went mad, I drew it from her body, I
ran at them. I dived beneath the shield of the first, a very tall man,
and held the spear, so, in both my little hands. His weight came upon
its point and it went through him as though he were but a bowl of
buttermilk. Yes, he rolled over, quite dead, and the handle of the
spear broke upon the ground. Now the others stopped astonished, for
never had they seen such a thing. That a child should kill a tall
warrior, oh! that tale had not been told. Some of them would have let
me go, but just then Bangu came up and saw the dead man, who was his
brother.

"'Wow!' he said when he knew how the man had died. 'This lion's cub is
a wizard also, for how else could he have killed a soldier who has known
war? Hold out his arms that I may finish him slowly.'

"So two of them held out my arms, and Bangu came up with his spear."

Saduko ceased speaking, not that his tale was done, but because his
voice choked in his throat. Indeed, seldom have I seen a man so moved.
He breathed in great gasps, the sweat poured from him, and his muscles
worked convulsively. I gave him a pannikin of water and he drank, then
he went on:

"Already the spear had begun to prick--look, here is the mark of
it"--and opening his kaross he pointed to a little white line just below
the breast-bone--"when a strange shadow thrown by the fire of the
burning huts came between Bangu and me, a shadow as that of a toad
standing on its hind legs. I looked round and saw that it was the
shadow of Zikali, whom I had seen once or twice. There he stood, though