Retief himself combated this view, and at last turned suddenly to me, who was listening near by, and said:
“Allan Quatermain, you are young, but you have a good judgment; also, you are one of the very few who know Dingaan and can speak his language. Tell us now, what do you think?”
Thus adjured, I answered, perhaps moved thereto more than I thought by Hans’s talk, that I, too, considered the thing dangerous, and that someone whose life was less valuable than the commandant’s should go in command.
“Why do you say so, nephew,” he said irritably, “seeing that all white men’s lives are of equal value, and I can smell no danger in the business?”
“Because, commandant, I do smell danger, though what danger I cannot say, any more than a dog or a buck can when it sniffs something in the air and barks or runs. Dingaan is a tamed tiger just now, but tigers are not house cats that one can play with them, as I know, who have felt his claws and just, only just, come out from between them.”
“What do you mean, nephew?” asked Retief in his direct fashion. “Do you believe that this _swartzel_” (that is, black creature) “means to kill us?”
“I believe that it is quite possible,” I answered.
“Then, nephew, being a reasonable man as you are, you must have some ground for your belief. Come now, out with it.”
“I have none, commandant, except that one who can set the lives of a dozen folk against a man’s skill in shooting at birds on the wing, and who can kill people to be a bait for those birds, is capable of anything. Moreover, he told me that he did not love you Boers, and why should he?”
Now, all those who were standing about seemed to be impressed with this argument. At any rate, they turned towards Retief, anxiously waiting for his reply.
“Doubtless,” answered the commandant, who, as I have said, was irritable that night, “doubtless those English missionaries have poisoned the king’s mind against us Boers. Also,” he added suspiciously, “I think you told me, Allan, that the king said he liked you and meant to spare you, even if he killed your companions, just because you also are English. Are you sure that you do not know more than you choose to tell us? Has Dingaan perhaps confided something to you—just because you are English?”