eird, boding presentiment of evil to come--of evil far
nearer at hand than he had hitherto deemed.

Long and hard he slept, for he was weary with wakefulness and anxiety.
And when he awoke at dusk, intending to seek an interview with the king,
he beheld that which in no wise tended to allay his fears. For as he
drew nearer to Imvungayo there issued from its gate a crowd of
figures--of black, grotesque, horrible figures, and in the midst a man,
whom they were dragging along in grim silence, even as they had hauled
Lutali to his unknown doom, and as they disappeared into the gathering
darkness, Laurence knew only too well that here was another
victim--another hideous sacrifice to the grisly and mysterious
demon-god. No wonder his blood grew chill within him. Would he be the
next?

"And you would still become one of us, Nyonyoba?"

"I would, Great Great One; and to this end have I sent much ivory, and
many things the white people prize, including three new guns and much
ammunition, to Nondwana."

"Ha! Nondwana's hand is large, and opens wide," said the king, with a
hearty chuckle. "Yet Lindela is a sprig of a mighty tree. And I think,
Nyonyoba, you yourself are sprung from such a root."

"That is no lie, Ruler of the Wise. As a man's whole height is to the
length of half his leg, so is the length of my house to that of the
kings of the Ba-gcatya, or even to that of Senzangakona[5] himself."

"Ha! That may well be. Thou hast a look that way."

This conversation befell two days after the events just described. The
king had refused him an audience on that evening, and indeed since until
now. But in the meantime, by royal orders, a great portion of the
plunder taken from the slave-hunters' camp had been restored to him,
considerably more, indeed, than he had expected. And now he and
Tyisandhlu were seated once more together in the royal dwelling, this
time alone.

"But to be sprung from an ancient tree avails a man nothing in my
country if he is poor," went on Laurence. "Rather is it a disadvantage,
and he had better have been born among the meaner sort. That is why I
have found my way hither, Ndabezita."

"That is why? And you have gained the desired riches?" said the king,
eyeing him narrowly.

"I had--nearly, when the Ba-gcatya fell upon my camp, and killed my
people and my slaves. Now, having lost all, I care not to return to my
own land."

"But could you return rich you would care so to return?"

"That i