thickly:--

"What do you here, Noma, and wherefore have you come?"

"I come because you draw me," she answered, "and because they seek my
life below."

"Repent, repent!" he whispered, "there is yet time and Heaven is very
merciful."

She heard, and a fury seized her.

"Be silent, dog!" she cried. "Having defied your God so long, shall I
grovel to Him at the last? Having hated you so much, shall I seek your
forgiveness now? At least of one thing I am glad--it was I who brought
you here, and with me and through me you shall die."

Then, placing one foot upon his bent head as if in scorn, she leaned
forward, her long hair flying to the wind, and cursed Nodwengo and his
people, naming them renegades and apostates, and cursed the soldiers of
Hafela, naming them cowards, calling down upon them the malison of their
ancestors.

Hokosa heard and muttered:--

"For your soul's sake, woman, repent! repent, ere it be too late!"

"Repent!" she screamed, catching at his words. "Thus do I repent!"
and drawing the knife from her girdle, she leant over him and drove it
hilt-deep into his breast.

Then with a sudden movement she sprang upwards and outwards into the
air, and rushing down through a hundred feet of space, was struck dead
upon that very rock where the corpse of Hafela lay.

Now, beneath the agony of the life Hokosa lifted his head for the last
time, crying in a great voice:--

"Messenger, I come, be you my guide," and with the words his soul
passed.

"All is over and ended," said a voice. "Soldiers, salute the king with
the royal salute."

"Nay," answered Nodwengo. "Salute me not, salute the Cross and him who
hangs thereon."

So, while the rays of the setting sun shone about it, regiment by
regiment that great army rushed past the koppie, and pausing opposite to
the cross and its burden, they rendered to it the royal salute of kings.

*****

Then the night fell, and thus through the power of Faith that now, as of
old, is the only true and efficient magic, was accomplished the mission
to the Sons of Fire of the Saint and Martyr, Thomas Owen, and of his
murderer and disciple, the Wizard Hokosa.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wizard, by H. Rider Haggard

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIZARD ***

***** This file should be named 2893.txt or 2893.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/9/2893/

Pr