"Granting for the sake of argument they never can, it is hardly to be wondered at," replied Ames, tranquilly. "Their very existence as at present constituted is a mistake, and may prove a most serious one some of these days. First of all, the Matabele have never been more than half conquered, and having given them peace--on not such easy terms, mind--the first thing we do is to pick out a number of them, arm them, and teach them to shoot. And such fellows are turned loose to keep their own crowd in order. Well, it isn't in human nature that the plan won't lead to ructions, and this is only another of them. I know natives, Inglefield, and you don't, if you'll excuse my saying so. Now, every man Jack of your Matabele Police imagines himself a bigger man than the old indunas of the country before whom he used to shake in his shoes. And the Matabele won't stand that for ever." "Oh, come now, Ames, you're putting things rather strong. Besides, we seem to have heard all that before." "And so these fellows can swagger around in their uniforms and put on side, and crow over the old indunas, and bully the crowd at large, and-- what is worse, use their position to pay off old grudges. Which is just what seems to have been done in the present case." "The devil it does! Who says so?" "The man who has been talking the most is Samvu, the brother of Madula," went on Ames. "He is here to complain of your men. They appear to have acted in a pretty high-handed way at Madula's, and the wonder is they didn't come to blows. You remember what the orders were to Nanzicele? We gave them conjointly." "Yes. He was to remind Madula that more cattle were due from him, and that it is time they were sent in." "Precisely. Well, what do you think the fellow has been doing? He sent half his patrol to drive off all Madula's cattle, while he kept the people of the kraal busy with _indaba_. Even then he seems to have cheeked the chief and played Harry all round. The wonder is he didn't bring on a fight. As it was, the whole kraal turned out, and simply ran all the cattle back again." "If he did that, of course he exceeded his orders," allowed Inglefield, albeit somewhat grudgingly. "But how do we know these chaps are not lying?" "I don't think they are, but of course we must have a full investigation. We can begin it this afternoon. It's dinner-time now. Come in and have a bite, Inglefield." "No thanks, old chap. I've got something going at the camp, and my cook will get careless if I keep disappointing him. I'll look round in an hour or so. But--I say. Why the deuce should Nanzicele--oh, dash it, I can't get round these infernal clicks!--why should he have played the fool at that particular kraal?" "There comes in what I was saying before about paying off old grudges. He had a squabble about a girl at that very kraal a little while back, and now sees his chance. Well, so long. We'll go thoroughly into the thing."