f a fighting enemy, but in strange fashion. And no one do
ye hold accountable for this, but return with a child-tale about ghosts
and the hoof-mark of a ghost-bull. _Hamba gahle_, Hlatusa. The
alligators are hungry. _Take him hence_!"

With these fatal words the throng of slayers sprang forward to seize
him. But Hlatusa waited not to be seized. Rising, he saluted the King;
then turning, he stalked solemnly and with dignity to his doom--down
through the serried ranks of the people, down through the further gate
of the kraal, away over the plain, keeping but two paces in front of his
guards. A dead silence fell upon all, and every face was turned his
way. We saw him stand for a moment on the brow of the cliff which
overhung the Pool of the Alligators, wherein evil-doers were cast. Then
we saw him leap; and in the dead silence it seemed we could hear the
splash--the snapping of jaws and the rush through the water of those
horrible monsters, now ever ravening for the flesh of men.

CHAPTER TWO.

"BEHOLD THE SIGN!"

The silence was broken by a long, muttering roll of thunder. Masses of
dark cloud were lying low down on the further sky, but overhead the sun
darted his beams upon us in all the brightness of his mid-day
fierceness, causing the great white shield held above the King to shine
like polished metal. To many of us it seemed that the thunder-voice,
coming as it did, was an omen. The wizard spell of the Red Death seemed
to lie heavy upon us; and now that two of ourselves had fallen to its
unseen terror, men feared, wondering lest it should stalk through the
land, laying low the very pick and flower of the nation. Murmurs--deep,
threatening, ominous--rose among the dense masses of the crowd. The
King had decreed one victim, the people demanded another; for such was
the shape which now those murmurs took.

Umzilikazi sat in gloomy silence. He liked not the sacrifice of good
and brave fighting men, and the thing that had happened had thrown him
into a dark mood indeed. Not until the murmurs became loud and
deafening did he seem to notice them. Then the _izanusi_, deeming that
their moment had come, took up the tale. Shaking their hideous
ornaments and trappings, they came howling before the King; calling out
that such dark witchcraft was within the nation as could not fail to
destroy it. But upon these the Great Great One gazed with moody eyes,
giving no sign of having heard them; and I, watchi