By his side stood Maiwa panting, but unhurt, and wearing on her
face a proud and terrifying air.
"'They are gone, Macumazahn,' said the chief; 'there is little to fear
from them, their heart is broken. But where is Wambe the chief?--and
where is the white man thou camest to save?'
"'I know not,' I answered.
"Close to where we stood lay a Matuku, a young man who had been shot
through the fleshy part of the calf. It was a trifling wound, but it
prevented him from running away.
"'Say, thou dog,' said Nala, stalking up to him and shaking his red
spear in his face, 'say, where is Wambe? Speak, or I slay thee. Was he
with the soldiers?'
"'Nay, lord, I know not,' groaned the terrified man, 'he fought not
with us; Wambe has no stomach for fighting. Perchance he is in his kraal
yonder, or in the cave behind the kraal,' and he pointed to a small
enclosure on the hillside, about four hundred yards to the right of
where we were.
"'Let us go and see,' said Nala, summoning his soldiers."
VIII--MAIWA IS AVENGED
"The impi formed up; alas, an hour before it had been stronger by a
third than it was now. Then Nala detached two hundred men to collect
and attend to the injured, and at my suggestion issued a stringent order
that none of the enemy's wounded, and above all no women or children,
were to be killed, as is the savage custom among African natives. On the
contrary, they were to be allowed to send word to their women that they
might come in to nurse them and fear nothing, for Nala made war upon
Wambe the tyrant, and not on the Matuku tribe.
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