it is that which he has chosen? He will take his road and he will play
the part which the Great-Great has prepared for him. Seek not to know
more. Why should you, since Time will tell you the story? And now go
to rest, Macumazahn, as I must who am old and feeble. And when it
pleases you to visit me again, we will talk further. Meanwhile,
remember always that I am nothing but an old Kafir cheat who pretends to
a knowledge that belongs to no man. Remember it especially, Macumazahn,
when you meet a buffalo with a split horn in the pool of a dried-up
river, and afterwards, when a woman named Mameena makes a certain offer
to you, which you may be tempted to accept. Good night to you,
Watcher-by-Night with the white heart and the strange destiny, good
night to you, and try not to think too hardly of the old Kafir cheat who
just now is called 'Opener-of-Roads.' My servant waits without to lead
you to your hut, and if you wish to be back at Umbezi's kraal by
nightfall to-morrow, you will do well to start ere sunrise, since, as
you found in coming, Saduko, although he may be a fool, is a very good
walker, and you do not like to be left behind, Macumazahn, do you?"

So I rose to go, but as I went some impulse seemed to take him and he
called me back and made me sit down again.

"Macumazahn," he said, "I would add a word. When you were quite a lad
you came into this country with Retief, did you not?"

"Yes," I answered slowly, for this matter of the massacre of Retief is
one of which I have seldom cared to speak, for sundry reasons, although
I have made a record of it in writing.* Even my friends Sir Henry
Curtis and Captain Good have heard little of the part I played in that
tragedy. "But what do you know of that business, Zikali?"