her?"

"For a strange thing. For an outward chamber in the cliff, like unto
the place of an eagle's nest."

"Ha!" I cried, staring at him wildly, my snuff-spoon in mid-air.

How his old eyes laughed; for my confusion was great. And well it might
be, for these were the very words wherewith I had taunted the chief of
the Blue Cattle on his flaming bed of death. Yet old Masuka had been
nowhere near at that time, nor had any who understood that tongue.

"And why could not the ghost of Tauane find that place, my father?" I
said. "Being a ghost, he could fly through the air until he found the
chamber in the cliff like an eagle's nest."

"Not thus would he find it, destroyer of the Bakoni," was the answer.
"`Through the darkness of the earth'--such were his words."

"Ha! Was it for good or for ill he spoke thus? Were those all the
words of Tauane's ghost my father?"

"Not so, Untuswa. Soon the ghost went winging through the air, crying
and wailing that the place like an eagle's nest was there, but that the
she-eagle had flown away. Why art thou sad of late, son of Ntelani?"

"Thy _muti_ is wonderful, father," I replied. "Will the she-eagle
return? Tell me. Will it return?"

"It will return. Ha! yonder alligators are hungry. They shall be fed.
Oh, yes, they shall be fed. The she-eagle will return."

I liked not his tones, _Nkose_, and my blood ran chill. For his speech,
though dark, could have but one meaning. Lalusini I should behold
again; but one or both of us should find death in the alligators' pool.
Well, what matter? One could but die once; and so great was the spell
cast over me by the Bakoni sorceress that it seemed, once more to behold
her, once more to have speech with her, I would gladly pay the price of
death.

"I have a black cow, well in milk, which is one too many in my herd,
father," I said. "It shall be driven forth to-morrow to the place where
thy cattle graze."

But he paid scant heed, which was strange, for he loved cattle, and
always welcomed such gifts. With his head on one side, as though
listening intently, he repeated softly to himself:

"Yonder alligators are hungry. They shall be fed; oh, yes, they shall
be fed!"

You will remember, _Nkose_, a certain pool in the river, which the King
and I had lighted upon one evening soon after arriving at our new
resting-place, and into which he had caused some calves to be driven
that the alligators might seize them. Now th