"Lord, we dig them deep, for we are cunning workers, and do not fear death as common men do; also we dig them straightly--into the very heart of hills we dig them." Bosambo looked at the sloping ground covered with hateful gum. "Old man," said he softly, "here shall you dig, you and your people, for in the heart of this hill is such a truth as you desire--my young men shall bring you food and build huts for you, and I will place one who is cunning in the way of hills to show you the way." The old man's eyes gleamed joyously, and he clasped the ankles of his magnanimous host. "Lord," said he humbly, "now is the prophecy fulfilled, for it was said by the great Idoosi, 'You shall come to a land where the barbarian rules, and he shall be to you as a brother!'" "Nigger," said Bosambo in his vile English--yet with a certain hauteur, "you shall dig 'um tunnel--you no cheek 'um, no chat 'um, you lib for dear tunnel one time." He watched them as, singing the song of the well, they went to work, women, men, and even little children undermining the Chief B'limisaka's territory and creating for Bosambo the right of way for which his soul craved. CHAPTER IX THE GREEN CROCODILE _Cala cala_, as they say, seven brothers lived near the creek of the Green One. It was not called the creek of the Green One in those far-off days, for the monstrous thing had no existence. And the seven brothers had seven wives who were sisters, and it would appear from the legend that these seven wives were unfaithful to their husbands, and upon a certain night in the full of the moon, the brothers returning from an expedition into the forest, discovered the extent of their infamy, and they tied the sisters together, the wrists of one to the ankles of the other, and they led them to the stream, and no sooner had they disappeared beneath the black waters than there was almighty splashing and bubbling of water, and there came crawling from the place where the unfaithful wives had sunk so terrible a monster that the seven brothers fled in fear. This was the Green One, with his long ugly snout, cold, vicious eyes, and his great clawed feet. Some say that these women had been changed by magic into the Crocodile of the Pool, and many people believe this and speak of the Green One in the plural. Certain it is, that this terrible crocodile lived through the ages--none hunting her, she was left in indisputable possession of the flat sand-bank wherein to lay her eggs, and ranged the sandy shore of the creek undisturbed. She was regarded with awe; sacrifices, living and dead, were offered to her from time to time, and sometimes a cripple or two was knocked on the head and left by the water's edge for her pleasure. She was indeed a veritable scavenger of crime for the neighbouring villages about, and earned some sort of respect, for, as the saying went: "Sandi does not speak the language of the Green One."