I
bear you no grudge because you told the truth at last. Farewell, Prince
Cetewayo. You will never be the man your brother would have been, and
your lot is very evil, you who are doomed to pull down a House built
by One who was great. Farewell, Saduko the fool, who threw away your
fortune for a woman's eyes, as though the world were not full of women.
Nandie the Sweet and the Forgiving will nurse you well until your
haunted end. Oh! why does Umbelazi lean over your shoulder, Saduko, and
look at me so strangely? Farewell, Panda the Shadow. Now let loose your
slayers. Oh! let them loose swiftly, lest they should be balked of my
blood!"

Panda lifted his hand and the executioners leapt forward, but ere
ever they reached her, Mameena shivered, threw wide her arms and fell
back--dead. The poisonous drug she had taken worked well and swiftly.

Such was the end of Mameena, Child of Storm.

A deep silence followed, a silence of awe and wonderment, till suddenly
it was broken by a sound of dreadful laughter. It came from the lips
of Zikali the Ancient, Zikali, the

"Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born."

CHAPTER XVI. MAMEENA--MAMEENA--MAMEENA!

That evening at sunset, just as I was about to trek, for the King had
given me leave to go, and at that time my greatest desire in life
seemed to be to bid good-bye to Zululand and the Zulus--I saw a strange,
beetle-like shape hobbling up the hill towards me, supported by two big
men. It was Zikali.

He passed me without a word, merely making a motion that I was to follow
him, which I did out of curiosity, I suppose, for Heaven knows I had
seen enough of the old wizard to last me for a lifetime. He reached a
flat stone about a hundred yards above my camp, where there was no bush
in which anyone could hide, and sat himself down, pointing to another
stone in front of him, on which I sat myself down. Then the two men
retired out of earshot, and, indeed, of sight, leaving us quite alone.

"So you are going away, O Macumazana?" he said.

"Yes, I am," I answered with energy, "who, if I could have had my will,
would have gone away long ago."

"Yes, yes, I know that; but it would have been a great pity, would it
not? If you had gone, Macumazahn, you would have missed seeing the end
of a strange little story, and you, who love to study the hearts of men
and women, would not have been so wise as you are to-day."

"No, nor as sad, Zikali. Oh! the death of that woman!" And