“So be it. We have heard that the people of George are now ruled by a woman, and as you, Macumazahn, are one of that people, doubtless it is the same among your party.” Here I may add that thenceforward the Zulus always accepted the Vrouw Prinsloo as the _Inkosikaas_ or chieftainess of our little band, and with the single exception of myself, whom they looked upon as her “mouth,” or _induna_, would only transact business with or give directions to her. The other Boers they ignored completely. This point of etiquette settled, Kambula bade me repeat what he had already told me, that we were prisoners whom he was instructed by Dingaan to convey to his Great Place, and that if we made no attempt to escape we should not be hurt upon the journey. I did so, whereon the vrouw asked as I had done, who had informed Dingaan that we were coming. I repeated to her word for word what the Zulus had told me, that it was Pereira, whose object seems to have been to bring about my death or capture. Then the vrouw exploded. “Do you hear that, Henri Marais?” she screamed. “It is your stinkcat of a nephew again. Oh! I thought I smelt him! Your nephew has betrayed us to these Zulus that he may bring Allan to his death. Ask them, Allan, what this Dingaan has done with the stinkcat.” So I asked, and was informed they believed that the king had let Pereira go on to his own people in payment of the information that he had given him. “My God!” said the vrouw, “I hoped that he had knocked him on the head. Well, what is to be done now?” “I don’t know,” I answered. Then an idea occurred to me, and I said to Kambula: “It seems to be me, the son of George, that your king wants. Take me, and let these people go on their road.” The three Zulus began to discuss this point, withdrawing themselves a little way so that I could not overhear them. But when the Boers understood the offer that I had made, Marie, who until now had been silent, grew more angry than ever I had seen her before. “It shall not be!” she said, stamping her foot. “Father, I have been obedient to you for long, but if you consent to this I will be obedient no more. Allan saved my cousin Hernan’s life, as he saved all our lives. In payment for that good deed Hernan tried to murder him in the kloof—oh! be quiet, Allan; I know all the story. Now he has betrayed him to the Zulus, telling them that he is a terrible and dangerous man who must be killed. Well, if he is to be killed, I will be killed with him, and if the Zulus take him and let us free, I go with him. Now make up your mind.” Marais tugged at his beard, staring first at his daughter and then at me. What he would have answered I do not know, for at that moment Kambula stepped forward and gave his decision.