y mother,
and all his people walked away after him, so that presently Zikali the
Wise and Little and I were left alone.

"'What! have they gone?' said Zikali, lifting up his eyes from the
ground. 'Then we had better be going also, Son of Matiwane, lest he
should change his mind and come back. Live on, Son of Matiwane, that you
may avenge Matiwane.'"

"A nice tale," I said. "But what happened afterwards?"

"Zikali took me away and nurtured me at his kraal in the Black Kloof,
where he lived alone save for his servants, for in that kraal he would
suffer no woman to set foot, Macumazahn. He taught me much wisdom and
many secret things, and would have made a great doctor of me had I so
willed. But I willed it not who find spirits ill company, and there are
many of them about the Black Kloof, Macumazahn. So in the end he said:
'Go where your heart calls, and be a warrior, Saduko. But know this:
You have opened a door that can never be shut again, and across the
threshold of that door spirits will pass in and out for all your life,
whether you seek them or seek them not.'

"'It was you who opened the door, Zikali,' I answered angrily.

"'Mayhap,' said Zikali, laughing after his fashion, 'for I open when I
must and shut when I must. Indeed, in my youth, before the Zulus were a
people, they named me Opener of Doors; and now, looking through one of
those doors, I see something about you, O Son of Matiwane.'

"'What do you see, my father?' I asked.

"'I see two roads, Saduko: the Road of Medicine, that is the spirit
road, and the Road of Spears, that is the blood road. I see you
travelling on the Road of Medicine, that is my own road, Saduko, and
growing wise and great, till at last, far, far away, you vanish over the
precipice to which it leads, full of years and honour and wealth, feared
yet beloved by all men, white and black. Only that road you must travel
alone, since such wisdom may have no friends, and, above all, no woman
to share its secrets. Then I look at the Road of Spears and see you,
Saduko, travelling on that road, and your feet are red with blood, and
women wind their arms about your neck, and one by one your enemies go
down before you. You love much, and sin much for the sake of the love,
and she for whom you sin comes and goes and comes again. And the road is
short, Saduko, and near the end of it are many spirits; and though you
shut your eyes you see them, and though you fill your ears with clay you
hear