"Well, you see, it's war-time," answered Carhayes bluntly, beginning to think he might just as well say something to save his life, if words could save it, that is. "I have met your people in fair fight, and I challenge any man, black or white, to deny that I have acted fair, square, and above board. And when we do take prisoners we don't treat them as I have been treated since I was brought here. They are taken care of by the doctors if wounded, as I am; not tied up and starved and kicked, as I have been." "Their doctors are the Fingo dogs," interrupted the chief darkly, "their medicine a sharp assegai. Freeborn men of the House of Gcaleka to die at the hand of a Fingo slave! _Hau_!" A roar of execration went up at this hit. "To the fire with him!" howled the savage crowd. "Give him to us, Great Chief, that we may make him die a hundred deaths!" "That is the sort of healing my children get when they fall into the hands of Amanglezi. And you, _umlungu_, you have offered an insult to the House of Gcaleka in the person of Hlangani, my herald, a man of the House of Hintza, my father. Was it war-time when you shed his blood? Did you meet in fair fight when you shot him suddenly and at close-quarters, he having no gun?" "Was it war-time when Hlangani entered the Gaika location to stir up strife? Was it right that he should bring his dogs on to my farm to hunt my bucks?" answered Carhayes fearlessly. "Again, was it fair play for four men, armed with assegais, to attack one, who had but two shots? Or was it self-defence? Listen to my words, Kreli, and you chiefs and _amapakati_ of the House of Gcaleka," he went on, raising his voice till it was audible to the whole assemblage. "In the presence of you all I proclaim Hlangani a coward. He has struck and insulted me because I am bound. He dare not meet me free. I challenge him to do so. Loosen these bonds. I am weak and wounded. I cannot escape--you need not fear--and let him meet me if he dares, with any weapon he chooses. I challenge him. If he refuses he is nothing but a cowardly dog, and worse than the meanest Fingo. If you, Kreli, refuse my request, it is because you _know_ this bragging herald of yours to be a coward." The fierce rapidity of this harangue, the audacity of the request embodied within it, took away the auditors' breath. Yet the idea appealed to them--appealed powerfully to their ardently martial sympathies. The very novelty of such a duel as that proposed invested it with a rare attractiveness. "What does Hlangani say?" observed Kreli, with a partly amused glance at his subordinate.