I stared at Mavovo, for I was too
thunderstruck to speak.
"Ah!" said Mavovo, "that Spotted Snake of yours" (he referred to
Hans), "is great in his own way, for he has even been able to put
courage into the hearts of slaves. Do you not understand, my father,
that they are about to attack those Arabs, yes, and to pull them down,
as wild dogs do a buffalo calf?"
It was true: this was the Hottentot's superb design. Moreover, it
succeeded. Up on the hillside he had watched the progress of the fight
and seen how it must end. Then, through the interpreter who was with
him, he harangued those slaves, pointing out to them that we, their
white friends, were about to be overwhelmed, and that they must either
strike for themselves, or return to the yoke. Among them were some who
had been warriors in their own tribes, and through these he stirred
the others. They seized the slave-sticks from which they had been
freed, pieces of rock, anything that came to their hands, and at a
given signal charged, leaving only the women and children behind them.
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