the least interested of anyone present. He tried to avoid
her glance, turning his head uneasily; but at length her eyes caught his
and held them. Then his heart began to beat quickly, his breast heaved,
and on his face there grew a look of dreamy content, even of happiness.
From that moment forward, till the end of the scene, Saduko never took
his eyes off this strange woman, though I think that, with the exception
of the dwarf, Zikali, who saw everything, and of myself, who am trained
to observation, none noted this curious by-play of the drama.

The King began to speak. "Mameena," he said, "you have heard. Have
you aught to say? For if not it would seem that you are a witch and a
murderess, and one who must die."

"Yea, a little word, O King," she answered quietly. "Nahana speaks
truth. It is true that I entered the hut of Nandie and set the medicine
there. I say it because by nature I am not one who hides the truth or
would attempt to throw discredit even upon a humble serving-woman," and
she glanced at Nahana.

"Then from between your own teeth it is finished," said Panda.

"Not altogether, O King. I have said that I set the medicine in the hut.
I have not said, and I will not say, how and why I set it there. That
tale I call upon Saduko yonder to tell to you, he who was my husband,
that I left for Umbelazi, and who, being a man, must therefore hate me.
By the words he says I will abide. If he declares that I am guilty, then
I am guilty, and prepared to pay the price of guilt. But if he declares
that I am innocent, then, O King and O Prince Cetewayo, without fear
I trust myself to your justness. Now speak, O Saduko; speak the whole
truth, whatever it may be, if that is the King's will."

"It is my will," said Panda.

"And mine also," added Cetewayo, who, I could see, like everyone else,
was much interested in this matter.

Saduko rose to his feet, the same Saduko that I had always known, and
yet so changed. All the life and fire had gone from him; his pride
in himself was no more; none could have known him for that ambitious,
confident man who, in his day of power, the Zulus named the
"Self-Eater." He was a mere mask of the old Saduko, informed by some
new, some alien, spirit. With dull, lack-lustre eyes fixed always upon
the lovely eyes of Mameena, in slow and hesitating tones he began his
tale.

"It is true, O Lion," he said, "that Mameena spread the poison upon my
child's mat. It is true that she set the