He remembered Cazi Moto squatting, undoubtedly horrified to the core.
"Cazi Moto, are you there?"
"Yes, _bwana_."
"Where has the _memsahib_ gone?"
"Into her tent, _bwana_."
"Listen well to me. She has destroyed the medicine. Now we must go back to where _Bwana_ Marefu can come to fix my eyes. We shall go with all the men as far as the people of the _sultani_. There we will leave many porters and many loads. With a few men we will go to Bwana Marefu. When he has fixed my eyes, then we will come back. I will fix a _barua_ for _Bwana_. This must be sent on ahead of us so he can come to meet us. Pick two good men for messengers. Is all that understood?"
"Yes, _bwana_."
"Tell me, then, what is to be done?"
Cazi Moto repeated the gist of what had been said. Kingozi nodded.
"That is it."
"_Bwana?_" Cazi Moto hesitated.
"Yes. Speak."
"That woman. Shall she be _kibokoed_ or killed?"
Kingozi caught back a chuckle.
"No," he said gravely. "That will wait for later. But see that she is watched; do not permit her to talk to her men; take all her guns and pistols, and bring them to me."
"And this Chake?"
"Of course." Kingozi had really forgotten the man in the concentrations of the past few hours. "Let him be brought before me an hour before sundown."
He found himself all at once overcome with sleep. Hardly was he able to stagger to his cot before he fell into a deep, refreshing slumber.
At the appointed hour Cazi Moto scratched on his tent door. Kingozi arose and walked confidently into the opening. Cazi Moto deftly indicated the location of the chair. Kingozi sat down.
Although he could not see, he visualized the scene well enough. Immediately in front of him, and ten feet away, stood the manacled Nubian, with an armed man at either elbow. Behind them, in turn, were grouped silently all the combined safaris. At his own elbows stood Cazi Moto and Simba--possibly Mali-ya-bwana.
He allowed an impressive wait to ensue. Then abruptly he began his interrogation. He had been thinking over the circumstances, off and on, since last night, and had determined on his line. Ordinarily he would have called for witnesses of various sorts, but this would have been not at all for the purpose of piling up evidence against the accused. That is the civilized fashion; and is superfluous among savages. Kingozi's witnesses would have been called solely for the purpose of furnishing information to himself. He needed only one piece of information here, and that only one witness could furnish him--the man before him.
"Why did you kill Mavrouki?" he demanded.
"I did not kill Mavrouki, _bwana_."
"That is a lie," rejoined Kingozi calmly.
Chake became voluble.
"All night I sat by my fire cooking _potio_ and meat," he protested. "This the _askaris_ will tell you. And my spear lay in the tent with the _askaris_," he went on at great length, repeating these two points, babbling, protesting, pleading. Kingozi listened to him in dead silence until he had quite run down.
"Listen," said he impressively, "all these words are lies. This is what happened: from one of the _shenzis_ you traded a spear, or a spear was given you. Your own spear you left in the tent. All day you sat in the grass and sharpened the _shenzi_ spear." This was a wild guess, based on probabilities, but by the uneasy stir in the throng Kingozi knew he had scored. "Then at night you waited, and you speared Mavrouki with the _shenzi_ spear, and you left it in his back, for you said to yourself, 'men will think a _shenzi_ has done this thing.' Then you went quietly to your fire, and cooked _potio_, and your own spear was all the time where the _askaris_ were lying."
Kingozi paused. He knew without Cazi Moto's whispered assurance that every shot had told. It was a simple bit of deduction, but to these simpler minds it seemed miraculous.
"Why did you wish to kill me?" he demanded.
The Nubian, taken completely by surprise, began to chatter with fright.
"I did not wish to kill you, _bwana_. I wished to kill Mavrouki."
"That is a lie," said Kingozi equably. "Why sho............