its, and had enabled
him to forget many evil ones.

"I would have speech with the king."

Those who sentinelled the gate of the great kraal, Imvungayo, conferred
a moment among themselves, and immediately two men were sent to learn
the royal pleasure as to the request. Laurence Stanninghame, awaiting
their return, was taciturn and moody, and as he gazed around his one
thought was lest his scheme should miscarry. The sun had just gone below
the western peaks, and a radiant afterglow lingered upon the dazzling
snow ridges, flooding some with a roseate hue, while others seemed dyed
blood-red. Long files of women, calabash on head, were wending up from
the stream, singing as they walked, or exchanging jests and laughter,
their soft, rich voices echoing melodiously upon the evening stillness.
Even the shrill "moo" of cattle, and the deep-toned voices of
men--mellowed by distance, came not inharmoniously from the smaller
kraals which lay scattered along the hillside; and but for the shining
spearheads and tufted shields of the armed guard in the great circle of
Imvungayo, the scene was a most perfect one of pastoral simplicity and
peace. And then, as the gray, pearly lights of evening, merging into the
sombre shades of twilight, drew a deepening veil over this scene of fair
and wondrous beauty, once more the words of Lindela, in all their
unhesitating reassurance, seemed to sound in this man's ears, rekindling
the fire of hope within his soul,--perchance rekindling fire of a
different nature.

"The Great Great One awaits you, Nyonyoba."

Laurence started from his reverie, and, accompanied by two of the
guards, proceeded across the great open space in silence. At the gate of
the _isigodhlo_, an inclosure made of the finest woven grass, and
containing the royal dwellings, he deposited his rifle on the ground,
and, deliberately unbuckling the strap of his revolver holster, placed
that weapon behind the other; and thus unarmed, according to strict Zulu
etiquette, he prepared to enter. An _inceku_, or royal household
servant, received him at the gate, and the guards having saluted and
withdrawn, he was ushered by the attendant into the king's presence.

The royal house, a large, dome-shaped, circular hut, differed in no
respect from the others, save that it was of somewhat greater size.
Laurence, standing upright within it, could make out three seated
figures, the shimmer of their head-rings and the occasional shine of
eye