"
"Yes," I said, "we understand that, and a good deal more of which we
will talk later. But, to change the subject, where do you come from
now, and how did you happen to turn up just in the nick of time?"
"I was journeying here across country by a route I will show you on my
map," he answered, "when I met with an accident to my leg" (here
Stephen and I looked at each other) "which kept me laid up in a Kaffir
hut for six weeks. When I got better, as I could not walk very well I
rode upon oxen that I had trained. That white beast you saw is the
last of them; the others died of the bite of the tsetse fly. A fear
which I could not define caused me to press forward as fast as
possible; for the last twenty-four hours I have scarcely stopped to
eat or sleep. When I got into the Mazitu country this morning I found
the kraals empty, except for some women and girls, who knew me again,
and threw these flowers over me. They told me that all the men had
gone to Beza Town for a great feast, but what the feast was they
either did not know or would not reveal.
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