rather like your reverend father when he dressed himself up and went into a box to preach. Seeing them I slipped back a little way to where the mist began, lay down and listened. They looked at Red Beard, for his shouts at me had brought them out, but he took no notice of them, only went on making a noise like a beetle in a tin can.
It is nothing,
said one of the Predikants to the other in the same tongue that these Amahagger use. But when is he to be sacrificed? Soon, I hope, for I cannot sleep because of the noise he makes.
When the edge of the sun appears, not before,
answered the other Predikant. Then the new queen will be brought out of the hut and this white man will be sacrificed to her.
I think it is a pity to wait so long,
said the first Predikant, for never shall we sleep in peace until the red-hot pot is on his head.
First the victory, then the feast,
answered the second Predikant, though he will not be so good to eat as that fat young woman who was with the new queen.
Then, Baas, they both smacked their lips and one of them went back towards the hut. But the other did not go back. No, he sat down on the ground and glowered at Baas Red-Beard upon the stone. More, he struck him on the face to make him quiet.
Now, Baas, when I saw this and remembered that they had said that they had eaten Janee whom I liked although she was such a fool, the spirit in me grew very angry and I thought that I would give this old
skellum
(i.e. rascal) of a Predikant a taste of sacrifice himself, after which I purposed to creep to the hut and see if I could get speech with the Lady Sad-Eyes, if she was there.
So I wriggled up behind the Predikant as he sat glowering over Red-Beard, and stuck my knife into his back where I thought it would kill him at once. But it didn't, Baas, for he fell on to his face and began to make a noise like a wounded hyena before I could finish him. Then I heard a sound of shouts, and to save my life was obliged to run away into the mist, without loosing Red-Beard or seeing Lady Sad-Eyes. I ran very hard, Baas, making a wide circle to the left, and so at last got back here. That's all, Baas.
And quite enough too,
I answered, though if they did not see you, the death of the Medicine-man may frighten
