the land. For the children of
Zulu the sun grew black. For the children of Matyobane the moon. Lo,
the blackening of the moon is the hiding of the nation, crushed,
blackened, beneath the might of Makiwa. But the blackness does not
last; so is the foot of Makiwa removed from the neck of the people of
Matyobane. Behold!"

Every face, which has been turned towards the bark mouth of the oracle,
again looks skyward. The black disc is moving back. The outer rim of
the broad moon once more shines forth in a shaft of light. Broader and
broader does this become, the strained eyeballs of the wrought-up
savages bent upon it with concentrated stare. Then the Abantwana
'Mlimo, falling prone to the earth, once more raise the chant, and this
time the whole multitude joins, in a great rolling volume of chorus:--

"Burned is the earth, Gloom in the skies; Nation's new birth--Manhood
arise!"

In wild uncontrollable excitement the multitude watches the now fast
lightening orb; then, when the shadow has entirely left it, shining in
bright, clear radiance as before, all faces are once more turned upward
to the great granite pile, looming huge against the stars, its front a
dull grey in the moonlight. Once more is the silence dead--expectant.

"Oh, Great Great One!" cries Shiminya, standing with arms outstretched,
"we behold a nation's new birth. But the time, O Word of the Wise? The
time?"

"The time!" And now the Voice rolled from the black cavern mouth in a
very thunder roar that reverberated among the mighty granite walls in a
shock of echo that struck the entranced auditors speechless. "The time,
Children of Matyobane? The time? _Before next moon is dead_."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE PARTING OF THE WAYS.

John Ames was seated beneath the verandah at Cogill's Hotel with a blue
official document in his hand and a very disgusted look upon his face.

The former accounted for the latter inasmuch as it was the direct cause
thereof. In cold official terminology it regretted the necessity of
abridging the period of his leave, and in terse official terminology
requested that he would be good enough to return to his post with all
possible dispatch.

He looked up from his third reading of this abominable document, and his
brows were knitted in a frown. He looked at the thick plumbago hedge
opposite, spangled with its pale blue blossoms, at the smooth red stems
of the tall firs, up again at the deep blue of the cloudless