lost all I possessed. When you find your brother you will
perhaps think Xalasa is a poor man, and I have too many cattle in my
kraal. I will send four or five cows to the man who told me my brother
was alive."

In his heart of hearts Eustace thought how willingly he would send him a
hundred for precisely the opposite intelligence.

"Where is `The Home of the Serpents'?" he said.

"Where? Who knows? None save Ngcenika, who talks with the spirits.
None save Hlangani, who rejoices in his revenge as he sees his enemy
there, even the man who struck him, and drew the blood of the Great
Chief's herald. Who knows? Not I. Those who go there never return,"
he added impressively, conveying the idea that in his particular
instance "ignorance is bliss."

Eustace's first instinct was one of relief. If no one knew where the
place was, clearly no one could tell. Then it struck him that this
rather tended to complicate matters than to simplify them. There had
been quite enough insinuated as to himself, and though guiltless as to
his cousin's fate, yet once it got wind that the unfortunate man was
probably alive somewhere, it would devolve upon himself to leave no
stone unturned until that probability should become a certainty. Public
opinion would demand that much, and he knew the world far too well to
make the blunder of treating public opinion, in a matter of this kind,
as a negligeable quantity.

"But if you don't know where the place is, Xalasa, how am I to find it?"
he said at length. "I would give much to the man who would guide me to
it. Think! Is there no man you know of who could do so?"

But the Kafir shook his head. "There is none!" he said. "None save
Ngcenika. _Whau_, Ixeshane! Is not thy magic as powerful as hers?
Will it not aid thee to find it? Now I must go. Where the `Home of the
Serpents' is, thy brother is there. That is all I can tell thee."

He spoke hurriedly now and in an altered tone--even as a man who has
said too much and is not free from misgiving as to the consequences. He
seemed anxious to depart, and seeing that nothing more was to be got out
of him for the present, the two made no objection.

Hardly had he departed than Josane appeared. He had noted the arrival
of Xalasa, though Xalasa was under the impression that he was many miles
distant. He had waited until the _amakosi_ [Literally "chiefs." In
this connection "masters"] had finished their _indaba_ [Talk] and here
he