"Then I hope that the rite is not catching."
"Never," I replied, proffering him a biscuit. "And now, General
Babemba, tell me, why do you come against us with about five hundred
armed men?"
"To kill you, white lords--oh! how hot is this holy drink, yet
pleasant. You said that it was not catching, did you not? For I
feel----"
"Eat the cake," I answered. "And why do you wish to kill us? Be so
good as to tell me the truth now, or I shall read it in the magic
shield which portrays the inside as well as the out," and lifting the
cloth I stared at the glass.
"If you can read my thoughts, white lord, why trouble me to tell
them?" asked Babemba sensibly enough, his mouth full of biscuit.
"Still, as that bright thing may lie, I will set them out. Bausi, king
of our people, has sent me to kill you, because news has reached him
that you are great slave dealers who come hither with guns to capture
the Mazitus and take them away to the Black Water to be sold and sent
across it in big canoes that move of themselves.
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