l now. All that had
been said that morning connected him with this. Had he not repeatedly
taxed me with not carrying out the conditions of my challenge, so as to
justify his own act of treachery? And then his words, uttered in soft,
mocking tones: "Well, well, Untuswa. It is not always possible to carry
out conditions in their entirety, is it? Ah, ah! not always possible,"
That pointed to some breach on his part of his own conditions. And
again: "I have even harder conditions awaiting thee than the slaying of
_tagati_ beasts." It was all as clear now as the noonday sun. Yet why
should he thus have tried to excuse what he had done? At a nod from
him--one word--I had gone to join the others whose faces I had seen, dim
and horrible, in the wizard cave. And then I knew that if the son of
Matyobane, founder and first King of the Amandebeli nation, had never
made a mistake in his life, he had made one when he failed to give that
nod, to utter that word; for, so sure as he had ordered the death of
Lalusini, so sure would a new king reign over the Amandebeli, and that
speedily.

I have already told you, _Nkose_, that the love which I felt for
Lalusini was after the manner of the love which white people bear for
their women; and, indeed, I think but few, even, of them. Now, as I sat
there, realising that never again should I behold my stately and
beautiful wife, never again hear the tones of her voice--always soft
with love for me--the thoughts that hunted each other through my mind
were many and passing strange. In truth, I was bewitched. All that had
constituted the joy of living was as nothing now--my rank and influence,
my ambitions, the fierce joy of battle, the thunder of the war-march, of
rank upon rank of the splendid warriors I commanded--all this was as
nothing. And at this moment there crossed my mind the thought of that
priest-magician, the white man whom we found offering sacrifice in the
forest--of whom I told you in a former story--and who dwelt with us
long. I thought of his teaching and his mysteries, and of the God of
Peace of whom he taught, and how that, if he were here now, I would
gladly put myself through his strange water-rite, and participate in his
mysterious sacrifices, so that I might once more be reunited to Lalusini
in another world; for such seemed to me to have been his teaching--at
least, so as I remembered it. But he, too, was dead; and, though I
might sacrifice oxen at his grave