speed to my kraal, and warn the people there to flee
at once for their very lives--to flee both fast and far--for it would
not be long before the slayers were on their track.

Were my movements actuated by ambition alone, _Nkose_, then indeed my
heart might have begun to fail me. Here was I, in the dead of night,
all unbidden, within the sacred precincts of the _isigodhlo_. To be
found there was death--were I the highest in the nation--death by
impalement, or some other form of lingering torment. But now the
thoughts engendered by such knowledge availed not to daunt me. The
spirit of Lalusini, agonised and bloody, rose ever before my eyes,
beckoning me onward, and my one thought was how soon I might bury my
spear in the heart of her slayer.

But for my spear, here before me, was work already. From round one of
the huts a man appeared, so suddenly as to collide with me in the
darkness, had I not quickly stepped aside. Immediately I struck--and
struck home. The broad blade had cleft his heart, and breathing only a
soft sigh he sank motionless--being stone dead. I bent over his face,
and recognised one of the _izinceku_, or body-servants of the King. Of
these I knew there were two on watch at night. I had yet to reckon with
the other.

Now I stood motionless, and held my breath, listening. I was among the
huts of the royal women, and there, but twenty paces distant, was that
of the King. For arms, I had but a single broad-bladed assegai, the
gift of Umzilikazi himself, as I have told you, _Nkose_, in a former
tale; not even a shield, for such would but encumber me if it came to a
close hand-to-hand struggle. My own craft and quickness were to be as a
shield.

Two steps at a time, treading softer than any cat, I gained the outside
of the large hut. Peering round I saw what I expected. Right across
the door lay the body of a man. It was the other _inceku_.

He was sleeping. I could hear his soft regular breathing. But before I
could enter that door he must exchange his sleep for the sleep of death.

He was lying on his back, his face turned upward to the stars, his body
filling almost the whole width between the outside screen and the door
itself. To reach him I could hardly hope without some slight sound of a
scuffle. I flattened myself on the ground, and so crept noiselessly
along his side.

_Whau_! but again the blade went home. Right under the fifth rib it
glided, and the red blood flowed for