on a human body.

It was in a horrible state, _Nkose_, in the state of one who has been
dead eight or ten days. Yet here such could not have been the case, for
in the swollen, half-decayed features, as well as by articles of
clothing, I recognised the second of the two slaves, whom I had left
alive and well that same morning, but a very few hours before. Yet,
there it lay, beneath a tree, with upturned face, and across the
decaying ribs the rending gash left by the horn of the ghost-bull.

Now I heard a voice in salute, behind me--a voice I knew. Looking up, I
beheld my slave, Jambula.

He was looking strangely at me. Then he broke forth into extravagant
words of welcome, and it seemed to me he had been badly frightened, and
was glad enough to behold me once more. That was it, of course; so
giving no further thought to the matter at all, I bade him find food.
He had a number of speckled pigeons, which he had knocked over with his
kerries; and having kindled a fire on the flat top of a high rock for
safety's sake--_whau, Nkose_!--there was soon nothing left of those
birds. The while Jambula eyed me strangely.

Now this Jambula--although my slave--was a man I held in great favour.
He was not of any of the races we had conquered, but came of a tribe
further to the southward than even the Zulu arms had ever reached. Him
I had captured while storming the fortress of a mountain tribe, and the
King had allotted him to me: He was a tall, strong man, and knew not
fear, and was faithful and devoted to me as any dog. Now he said:

"I think _this_ night must this thing of _tagati_ be slain, my father."

"We think the same, Jambula," I answered. "But what I cannot quite
think out is _how_. But that will come."

"Nevertheless, let it be this night, father. I have a plan."

This plan he then unfolded to me, and by the time we had talked it out
and around it was nearly dark--nearly time to set it working.

Never had any spot struck upon my mind as more ghostly and even
terrifying than that haunted valley when night drew fairly down; and,
_Nkose_, what I had seen and gone through in the wizard cave that
morning seemed to have sapped my former fearlessness. A low-lying mist
wreathed around the tree-stems and bushes, thick to near the height of a
man, then thinning out dimly just enough to show out the twinkle of a
star or two. But there was light enough for our purpose.

Hard by the place where Suru, the first slav