said, stepping back and turning to the king.
"The thing is quite simple; a mere turn of the wrist does it--thus,"--
and I illustrated my meaning by parrying an imaginary thrust. "The head
of your adversary's spear is shorn off, and he is disarmed and at your
mercy, to be slain or not, as you may choose. And that is all there is
in it. No need to fight in order to show how the sword should be used."

The king glowered at me for several seconds in silence. Then, with a
scornful laugh, he exclaimed:

"Pah! that was nothing; a boy of six years could have done as much. And
'Mfuni made no effort to slay thee, else thou wouldst not be alive now.
I begin to have my doubts of thee, white man. Dost thou desire my
death, that thou hast given me a weapon of no use in the time of
battle?"

"But it is of use," I insisted hotly. "For nearly twelve moons I, with
others, fought the Tembu, the Pondos, and the Griquas, using a similar
weapon to this, and I am alive this day."

"Then," retorted Lomalindela, with a malicious grin, "if thou art so
sure of the effectiveness of the weapon, let me see thee use it in a
real fight. Mapela, give 'Mfuni thy spear. And, hark ye, 'Mfuni, if
thou canst slay the white man, or even disable him, thou shalt choose
twenty head of cattle from mine own herd, and they shall be thine. But
if the white man proves to be the victor in the fight, and there is
still life in thee when it is over, I swear, by the bones of my royal
father, that thou shalt be given to the ants! Thou hearest?"

"I hear, O Great, Great One, Calf of the Black Bull, Elephant whose
tread shakes the earth. Bayete!" answered 'Mfuni, lifting on high the
haft of the spear from which I had shorn the head.

So I was in for it, with no ghost of a chance of escape; and the very
gift--or, rather, one item of it--upon which I had so confidently relied
to win me the favour and goodwill of the king had, through that
monarch's capricious and suspicious nature, been the instrument by means
of which I had become involved in a duel that must almost inevitably end
in a ghastly tragedy. For, after what the king had said to my
antagonist, there was no doubt that the fellow would do his utmost to
kill me; while I, in pure self-defence, and also for his sake, must do
my best to kill him. I fully understood, the meaning of the king's
horrible threat to give the poor fellow to the ants; and, rather than
see him condemned to so dreadful a fate