wards the pistol hidden
beneath his coat, that Benita, with a quick movement, emerged from the
waggon in which she crouched, and stood up at his side upon the driving
box.

"_Ow!_" said the Captain. "It is the White Maiden. Now how came she
here? Surely this is great magic. Can a woman fly like a bird?" and they
stared at her amazed.

"What does it matter how I came, chief Maduna?" she answered in Zulu.
"Yet I will tell you why I came. It was to save you from dipping your
spear in the innocent blood, and bringing on your head the curse of the
innocent blood. Answer me now. Who gave you and your brother yonder your
lives within that wall when the Makalanga would have torn you limb from
limb, as hyenas tear a buck? Was it I or another?"

"Inkosi-kaas--Chieftainess," replied the great Captain, raising his
broad spear in salute. "It was you and no other."

"And what did you promise me then, Prince Maduna?"

"Maiden of high birth, I promised you your life and your goods, should
you ever fall into my power."

"Does a leader of the Amandabele, one of the royal blood, lie like a
Mashona or a Makalanga slave? Does he do worse--tell half the truth
only, like a cheat who buys and keeps back half the price?" she asked
contemptuously. "Maduna, you promised me not one life, but two, two
lives and the goods that belong to both. Ask of your brother there, who
was witness of the words."

"Great Heavens!" muttered Robert Seymour to himself, as he looked at
Benita standing with outstretched hand and flashing eyes. "Who would
have thought that a starved woman could play such a part with death on
the hazard?"

"It is as this daughter of white chiefs says," answered the man to whom
she had appealed. "When she freed us from the fangs of those dogs, you
promised her two lives, my brother, one for yours and one for mine."

"Hear him," went on Benita. "He promised me two lives, and how did this
prince of the royal blood keep his promise? When I and the old man, my
father, rode hence in peace, he loosed his spears upon us; he hunted us.
Yet it was the hunters who fell into the trap, not the hunted."

"Maiden," replied Maduna, in a shamed voice, "that was your fault, not
mine. If you had appealed to me I would have let you go. But you killed
my sentry, and then the chase began, and ere I knew who you were my
runners were out of call."

"Little time had I to ask your mercy; but so be it," said Benita. "I
accept your word, and I forgiv