"Why did you wish to kill me?" he repeated.
But again he sensed the fact that Chaké had taken refuge in the dull stupidity that is an acknowledgment of defeat. He knew that he would get no more replies. After waiting a few moments he went on. His voice had become weighty with authority and measured with doom.
"You will not tell. Let it be so. And now listen; and you other safari men listen also. Because you have wished to kill me, you shall have two hundred lashes with the _kiboko_; and then you shall be hanged."
A moment of horror was followed by a low murmur of comment. Not a man there but realized that the unfortunate Nubian would never live to be hanged. A punishment of twenty-five is as much as the most stoical can stand in silence; fifty as much as can be absorbed without permanent injury; seventy-five an extreme resorted to on a very few desperately rare occasions. Beyond that no experience taught the result. Kingozi's sentence was equivalent to death by torture.
He leaned forward in his chair, listening intently. He heard his victim's gasp, the mutter of the crowd. They passed him by. Then he sank back, a half smile on his lips. He had caught the rustle of silks, the indignant breathing of a woman. He knew that Bibi-ya-chui stood before him.
"But this is atrocious!" she cried. "This cannot go on!"
"It shall go on," he replied steadily. "Why not?"
"He is my man to punish when he attempts my life."
"I shall prevent this--this--oh, this outrage!"
She turned to the men and began to talk to them in Swahili, repeating emphatically what she had just said to Kingozi in English, uttering her commands. They were received in a dead silence.
"You have heard the _memsahib_ speak, you men of the _memsahib's_ safari," remarked Kingozi; then: "You, Jack, whom I made chief of _askaris_, you speak."
"What does the _bwana_ say of this?" came Jack's deep voice after a moment.
"Does any man of you think differently? Speak!"
No voice answered. Kingozi turned to where, he knew, the Leopard Woman stood.
He heard only a choked sob of rage and impotence. After waiting a minute he resumed:
"Do my command. Let three men, in turn, give the _kiboko_. You, Simba, see that they strike hard."
A faint clink of manacles indicated that the guards had laid hands on their victim.