n yonder hut of mine that
you saw what you did not see--perhaps."

"But why did you mock me in this fashion, Zikali?"

"Truly, Macumazahn, you are blind as a bat in sunlight. When
your friends have told you the story, you will understand why.
Yet I admit to you that things went wrong. You should have heard
that tale _before_ Cetewayo brought you to the Vale of Bones.
But the fool-woman delayed and blundered, and when she reached
Ulundi the gates were shut against her as a spy, and not opened
till too late, so that you only found her when you returned from
the Council. I knew this, and that was why I dared to bid you
fire at that which stood upon the rock. Had you heard Kaatje's
tale you might have aimed straight, as also you would have
certainly shot straight at me, out of revenge for the deaths of
those you loved, Macumazahn, though whether you could have killed
me before all the game is played is another matter. As it was, I
was sure that you would not pierce the heart of one who _might_
be a certain white woman, sure also that you would not pierce my
heart whose death _might_ bring about her death and that of
another."

"You are very subtle, Zikali," I said in astonishment.

"So you hold because I am very simple, who understand the spirit
of man--and some other things. For the rest, had you not
believed that these two were dead, you would never have left
Zululand. You would have tried to escape to get to them and have
been killed. Is it not so?"

"Yes, I think I should have tried, Zikali. But why did you keep
them prisoner?"

"For the same reason that I still keep them--and you--to hold
them back a while from the world of ghosts. Had I sent them away
after that night of the declaration of war, they would have been
killed before they had gone an hour's journey. Oh! I am not so
bad as you think, Macumazahn, and I never break my word. Now I
have done."

"How goes the war?" I asked as he shuffled to his feet.

"As it must go, very ill for the Zulus. They have driven back
the white men who gather strength from over the Black Water and
will come on presently and wipe them out. Umnyamana would have
had Cetewayo invade Natal and sweep it clean, as of course he
should have done. But I sent him word that if he did so
Nomkubulwana, yes, she and no other, had told me that all the
spirits would be against him, and he hearkened. When next you
think me wicked, remember that, Macumazahn. Now it is but a