eward my mind was full of
her whom I had left, and I pondered much and oft about the greatness she
had hinted at, and how such was in store for myself, too, as though she
were the chieftainess of some mighty nation--and mighty indeed must it
have been were it greater than our own, as she had said it was. But
most of all I pondered as to how I should ever be able to bring her in
among ourselves so that the King's suspicions should not take the right
road.

Thus thinking, and alternately singing to myself, I got over the ground
at a swift pace, yet by the time I entered the hut of my chief wife it
was quite dark. Nangeza was seated within alone. As I entered she
looked up with a frown upon her face; and, indeed, a frown was more
often to be found there than a smile in those days.

"Welcome, great hunter," she said mockingly. "And, where is the game?"

"I have none," I answered shortly, for I was in no humour to be worried
by this woman's evil temper.

"None?" she echoed. "Yet there are blood spots about thee, Untuswa."

There were. In dragging the buck down through the hole into Lalusini's
hiding-place I had become smeared with blood, and this I had forgotten
to wash away.

"I slew but two small bucks," I said. "One I ate in the middle of the
day. The other I gave to old Masuka."

"Didst thou take it to him in the _isigodhlo_, Untuswa? For there has
the old Mosutu been since the sun was at its highest, and is there
still. Yet I saw thee from far off over the plain, and certainly thou
hast not been to the _isigodhlo_, which is far beyond this house," she
answered; and her tones were jeering, and her eyes shone with evil fire,
as those of a snake.

"Enough!" I cried. "Enough of this!" And, bending down to the side of
the hut, I took up a stick, and advanced towards her; for I was furious.
"I have never beaten thee, Nangeza, but hadst thou belonged to any
other man, I think by this time not a whole bone would remain within
thee. Now, of thine evil temper have I had more than enough; also of
thy tongue."

She retreated back as far as she could to the side of the hut--her eyes
flashing, her lips drawn back from her gums, like those of a wild beast.
But it was time to put a stop to this, or soon the second fighting
commander of the King's army would be under the command of a woman.

"Beware, Untuswa!" she snarled. "Beware! I made thee! Yea, I! And I
will unmake thee!"

"_Whau_! if any one made me