the people.

"This is the tightest place we have been in yet," murmured Hazon. "To
tread on the superstitions of any race is to thrust one's head into the
jaws of a starved lion."

"D---- their filthy superstition," said Holmes, savagely desperate.
"Well, I did the thing, so I suppose I shall be the one to suffer."

The other said nothing. He had a shrewd suspicion that more than one
life would be required in atonement. But he and death had stared each
other in the face so frequently that once more or less did not greatly
matter.

On learning the cause of the tumult, Tyisandhlu had come forth, and now
sat, as he frequently did, to administer justice at the head of the
great central space. When the shouts of "_bonga!_" which greeted his
presence had subsided, he ordered that the two whites should be brought
forward.

This was the first time the latter had seen the king, and now, as they
beheld his stately, commanding bearing, calm and judicial, both of them,
Holmes especially, began to hope. They would explain the matter, and
offer ample apologies. The owner of that fine, intellectual countenance,
savage though he might be called, he, surely, had a soul above the
debased superstitions of his subjects. Hitherto he had spared their
lives--surely now he would not sacrifice them to the clamour of a mob.
Yet, as Hazon had said, to tread on the superstitions of any race was
the most fatal thing on earth.

"What is this that has been done?" spoke the king, when he had heard all
that the accusers had to say. "Surely no such deed has been wrought
among us since the Ba-gcatya have been a nation."

There was a sternness, a menace even, in the full, deep voice, that
dispelled all hope in the minds of the two thus under judgment. They had
committed the one unpardonable sin. In vain Hazon elaborately explained
the whole affair, diplomatically setting forth that the act being
accidental, and done by strangers and white people, in ignorance, no
ill-luck need befall the nation, as might be the case were the symbol of
its veneration offended by its own people. The voice of the king was
more stern than before--almost jeering.

"Accidental!" he repeated. "Even though it be so, accidents often bring
greater evil in their results than the most deliberate wrong-doing--for
such is the rule of life."

"That is so!" buzzed the indunas grouped on either side of the king.
"_Au!_ hear the wisdom of the Burning North Wind!"

"Well, then,