Say you not so, O
people?"
"Aye," roared the multitude fiercely, "take them away."
"Not a popular character, Imbozwi," Stephen remarked to me in a
reflective voice. "Well, he is going to be served hot on his own toast
now, and serve the brute right."
"Who is the false doctor now?" mocked Mavovo in the silence that
followed. "Who is about to sup on arrow-heads, O Painter-of-white-
spots?" and he pointed to the mark that Imbozwi had so gleefully
chalked over his heart as a guide to the arrows of the archers.
Now, seeing that all was lost, the little humpbacked villain with a
sudden twist caught me by the legs and began to plead for mercy. So
piteously did he plead, that being already softened by the fact of our
wonderful escape from those black graves, my heart was melted in me. I
turned to ask the king to spare his life, though with little hope that
the prayer would be granted, for I saw that Bausi feared and hated the
man and was only too glad of the opportunity to be rid of him.
Imbozwi, however, interpreted my movement differently, since among
savages the turning of the back always means that a petition is
refused.
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