it
lives, life would have been extinct in her long ago. It was a horrible
scene. The almost nude body of the hag was one mass of blood, which,
coagulated over a dozen ghastly wounds, now began to well forth afresh;
the muscular, half-bent form of the grim old warrior, glistening with
perspiration, as with the blaze of unsatiated revenge burning in his
eyes he dragged her along that grisly cavern floor. Tugging, hauling,
perspiring, growling, he at length reached the brow of the pit with his
ghastly freight. Then pausing a moment, with a devilish grin on his
face, to contemplate the object of his deadly rancour, he pushed the
body over. A dull thud and a smothered groan told that it had reached
the bottom.

"_Hau_! hell cat--toad's spawn!" he cried. "How do you feel down there?
Where is the great witch-doctress of the Gcaleka nation now? Where is
Sarili's great councillor of the Spirit-world now? With those whom her
wizard arts destroyed. Men, brave fighting men all, were they--what are
they now? Bones, skulls, among which the serpents crawl in and out,"
and as if to emphasise his words, a hissing went forth from the reptiles
disturbed by this new invasion of their prison house. "Ha, ha, ha!" he
laughed. "Wise witch-doctress, thou canst `smell out' their spirits
once more in the darkness before thou diest. Thou art a great magician,
but the magic of the white men--the magic of Ixeshane--is greater than
thine, and it has delivered thee into my hand.

"Hlangani, the valiant--the fighting chief of the Ama Gcaleka--the
herald of Sarili--is dead. _Hau_!" Then raising his voice to a high
taunting pitch, he cried, "where is Maqwela, the warrior who struck the
Amanglezi in three wars? His skull is beside thee--talk to it. Where
is Mpunhla, erstwhile my friend? He, too, was condemned to `The Home of
the Serpents' by thee. He, too, is beside thee. Where is Vudana, my
kinsman? The black ants have picked his bones. This, too, was thy
work, and I, Josane, would be even as they, but that I have been
reserved to deal out vengeance to their slayer! And now when Sarili--
when the _amapakati_ of the house of Gcaleka call for their wise
witch-doctress, they will call long and loud but will get no answer, for
`The Home of the Serpents' yields not up its secrets. Fare thee well,
Ngcenika; rest peacefully. My vengeance is complete. _Hlala-gahle_!"

The weird flickering light of the dying candles danced on the figu