th perplexity, perchance remembering that
the humour of kings is like the blade of a spear, having two edges, and
prone to cut both ways.

"Even as a spear, too, did the bitter derision of the King's voice cut.
Then it flashed across me that Nangeza must have been put to the torture
and questioned, for how otherwise could my ambitious dreams and
intentions have become known, since I had breathed no word of them to
any other, not even to old Masuka?

"`Behold him, ye people!' went on the King. `Behold him, my
shield-bearer, my _inceku_, my chief runner! The confidence which I
placed in him as the first has moved him to try to be greater than I;
his opportunities as the second he has used to rob the _Isigodhlo_;
while his powers as the last have enabled him to flee fast and far. As
a cow to her calf, so have I been to Untuswa, my _inceku_, yet he has
run away to seek milk elsewhere, and that not alone. Well, Untuswa?
And thy voice? Hast thou nothing to say?'

"`Nothing, O Great Great One,' I answered, standing there alone, with
the eyes of the whole nation upon me. `Nothing, for every word is the
truth. Even now I walk upon the very edge of the darkness of death, and
look forth into the blackness of its night. But let the double doom be
mine, O Elephant whose tread, rumbleth the world, and spare the other,
for I it was who beguiled her--bewitched her, if you will.'

"At this bold admission a gasp escaped from all who heard it, and men
put their hands to their mouths in wonder. But the band of _izanusi_
who scowled hard by broke into mutterings. The eyes of old Masuka,
however, began to glow with a strange and glittering light.

"`Ha! Fearest thou nothing, Untuswa?' said the King. `The death of the
hot stones, the stake of impalement, the nest of the black ants?'

"`I fear but the frown of the King,' I answered, although in truth a
sweat broke out upon me at the mention of these terrible torments, but
seldom used among us, and then only at the instigation of the _izanusi_.
`But, Father, spare the other--spare Nangeza.'

"If it were possible, I had thought I saw just such an expression pass
across the King's face as sometimes dwelt there when he was especially
pleased and good-humoured. But what mockery! As if such a thing could
be!

"`Of the girl I will talk presently. But for thyself, Untuswa--dost
thou utter no word for thine own life?'

"`No word, Great Great One; for the doer of such a deed as