If he arrives and owns you as his brethren, well and good; if
he does not arrive, or disowns you--better still, for then you shall
be shot to death with arrows as a warning to all other stealers of men
not to cross the borders of the Mazitu."
I listened to this atrocious sentence with horror, then gasped out:
"We are not stealers of men, O King, we are freers of men, as Tom and
Jerry of your own people could tell you."
"Who are Tom and Jerry?" he asked, indifferently. "Well, it does not
matter, for doubtless they are liars like the rest of you. I have
spoken. Take them away, feed them well and keep them safe till within
an hour of sunset on the second day from this."
Then, without giving us any further opportunity of speaking, Bausi
rose, and followed by Imbozwi and his councillors, marched off into
his big hut. We too, were marched off, this time under a double guard
commanded by someone whom I had not seen before. At the gate of the
kraal we halted and asked for the arms that had been taken from us.
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