h intellect and a
soul--a man stamped with the image of his maker?

"He is the last, _Amakosi_," said the grave voice of Josane. "He is the
last, but not the first. There have been others before him,"
designating the skulls which lay scattered about. "Soon he will be even
as they--as I should have been had I not escaped by a quick stroke of
luck."

"Great Heaven, Josane! Who is he?" burst from the horror-stricken lips
of Shelton and Hoste simultaneously. Eustace said nothing, for at that
moment as he gazed down upon the mouldering skulls, there came back to
him vividly the witch-doctress's words, "They who look upon `The Home of
the Serpents' are seen no more in life." Well did he understand them
now.

"The man whom you seek," was the grave reply. "He whom the people call
Umlilwane."

An ejaculation of horror again greeted the Kafir's words. This awful
travesty, this wreck of humanity, that this should be Tom Carhayes! It
was scarcely credible. What a fate! Better had he met his death, even
amid torture, at the time they had supposed, than be spared for such an
end as this.

Then amid the deep silence and consternation of pity which this
lugubrious and lamentable discovery evoked, there followed an intense, a
burning desire for vengeance upon the perpetrators of this outrage; and
this feeling found its first vent in words. Josane shook his head.

"It might be done," he muttered. "It might be done. Are you prepared
to spend several days in here, _Amakosi_?"

This was introducing a new feature into the affair--the fact being that
each of the three white men was labouring under a consuming desire to
find himself outside the horrible hole once more--again beneath the
broad light of day. It was in very dubious tones, therefore, that
Shelton solicited an explanation.

"Even a maniac must eat and drink," answered Josane. "Those who keep
Umlilwane here do not wish him to die--"

"You mean that some one comes here periodically to bring him food?"

"_Ewa_."

"But it may not be the persons who put him here; only some one sent by
them," they objected.

"This place is not known to all the Gcaleka nation," said Josane.
"There are but two persons known to me who would dare to come within a
distance of it. Those are Ngcenika, the witch-doctress, and Hlangani,
who is half a witch-doctor himself."

"By lying in wait for them we might capture or shoot one or both of them
when they come to bring the poor