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THE NEW AFRICA 
threatened to kill Intuhe, when I, to keep the fun going, thrust 
a loaded gun into Intuhe’s hands, and told him in case of 
necessity we would back him; for we were all anxious to have 
a chance at the Mombokooshus, and, feeling reinforced by 
Intuhe, were prepared to join in any fray that would give us 
the opportunity of wiping off some of the old scores'. Intuhe 
took the gun quietly, and said to Libebe, ‘ You are only a child. 
Think you, if you kill Intuhe here, that he has no friends to 
look for his bones ? Go away before you are hurt.’ Rather 
disappointed that affairs had ended so quietly, we questioned 
Intuhe why, when he had spoken of fighting and killing, he 
had not at least claimed his slave. He answered with the 
same quiet dignity he always wore, ‘ There are some things 
white people don’t understand.’ 
Shortly afterwards Libebe came back with fifteen armed 
men, and proceeded to surround our camp, while Intuhe, who 
again took from me the rifle and a packet of cartridges, quietly 
watched, seated on his stool, what Libebe was doing; but not in¬ 
clined to put up with this insult, and wishing to give the Mombo¬ 
kooshus a lesson, I went up to Libebe to prevent him from com¬ 
pleting the circle round us, and thrust the end of my rifle with 
all my force into the pit of his stomach, a blow that knocked 
the wind out of him, and sent him sprawling. I could clearly 
see that Intuhe was acting under strong impulses to fight only 
on the defensive, and was waiting for some distinct aggressive act 
before proceeding to extreme measures. Libebe’s men took their 
injured master up and walked away, cursing and threatening 
all sorts of things, while Intuhe laughed quietly at his discom¬ 
fiture. We were wound up to such a pitch of resentment at the 
indignities we had suffered at the hands of Indala and his 
people, that we would have welcomed any opportunity giving an 
opening to take a little satisfaction out of them; and Ham mar 
was ominously attentive to his gun at times. Even Franz, who 
on hearing his own language spoken once more waxed valiant, 
spoke powder and lead to our boys, who, however, now they had 
got his measure, received his new-born pluck with loud derision. 
