“‘Why, Macumazahn, is not this man one of the dogs with which you tried to bite me by the Tugela not long ago? He must be a cunning dog also, one who can run fast, for how comes it that he lives to snarl when so many will never bark again? _Ow!_ if I had my way I would find a strip of hide to fit his neck.’ “‘Not so,’ I answered, ‘he has the King’s peace and he is a brave man —braver than I am, anyway, Prince, seeing that I ran from the ranks of the Tulwana, while he stood where he was.’ “‘You mean that your horse ran, Macumazahn. Well, since you like this dog, I will not hurt him,’ and with a shrug he went his way. “‘Yet soon or late he _will_ hurt me,’ said Magepa, when the Prince had gone. ‘U’Cetewayo has a memory long as the shadow thrown by a tree at sunset. Moreover, as he knows well, it is true that I ran, Macumazahn, though not till all was finished and I could do no more by standing still. You remember how, after we had eaten up the first of Cetewayo’s regiments, the second charged us and we ate that up also. Well, in that fight I got a tap on the head from a kerry. It struck me on my man’s ring which I had just put on, for I think I was the youngest soldier in that regiment of veterans. The ring saved me; still, for a while I lost my mind and lay like one dead. When I found it again the fight was over and Cetewayo’s people were searching for our wounded that they might kill them. Presently they found me and saw that there was no hurt on me. “‘"Here is one who shams dead like a stink-cat,” said a big fellow, lifting his spear. “‘Then it was that I sprang up and ran, who was but just married and desired to live. He struck at me, but I jumped over the spear, and the others that they threw missed me. Then they began to hunt me, but, Macumazahn, I who am named “The Buck,” because I am swifter of foot than any man in Zululand, outpaced them all and got away safe.’ “‘Well done, Magepa,’ I said. ‘Still, remember the saying of your people, “At last the strong swimmer goes with the stream and the swift runner is run down.”’ “‘I know it, Macumazahn,’ he answered, with a nod, ‘and perhaps in a day to come I shall know it better.’ “I took little heed of his words at the time, but more than thirty years afterwards I remembered them. “Such was my first acquaintance with Magepa. Now, friends, I will tell you how it was renewed at the time of the Zulu War.