th the most deadly of poisons.

That was a scene--the wild, quavering gasp of horror that went up from
all who beheld! Nangeza, yelling, and biting like a wild beast, in the
grasp of those who had seized her; myself, immovable as a stone, still
holding the shield with the poisoned dart sticking through it--exactly
as I flung it between the Great Great One and certain death. And the
only two who were completely unconcerned were Lalusini and the King
himself.

"_Whau_!" cried Umzilikazi, having taken a pinch of snuff. "I think
that would have made me sneeze, Untuswa. See, the point was coming
straight for my face, and it was flung hard--flung hard! Yet thou hast
saved me from such a scratch, Untuswa--and it was well! Strange, too,
that thou shouldst have been the one to do it, seeing that she was thine
_inkosikazi_!"

There was suspicion in the tone--deadly suspicion--as the King sat
looking at me with half-closed eyes, speaking softly withal.

"It is not strange, Father, seeing that I was the one who alone
understood the Bakoni witch-song," I replied.

"Ha! And what said that?"

"`A coil of blue veils the serpent's breath.' Also, `Now the White
Bull's hide may the Black Bull save.' And, indeed, was it not so, Black
Bull, Whose horns gore not merely, but kill?" I said.

"This, then, was the warning thou wouldst have conveyed, thou strange
sorceress," said the King, pausing a moment, while shouts of amazement
and of _konza_ went up from all. "Verily, thy _muti_ is great. But of
this witch first. The alligators are hungry; but their teeth are not
sharp enough for such royal prey as this. The stake of impalement is a
still sharper tooth. Away with her! Yet for the alligators we will
find some meat. It seems that Untuswa's wives are of a bad
disposition--at any rate, after dwelling side by side with yonder witch,
they will have drunk in some of her evil mind. Let them, therefore, be
taken to the alligators."

Now, _Nkose_, my heart was sad, for I loved my two younger wives, who
were ever laughing and pleasant, and needed not to be told twice to do a
thing. But these, as the slayers sprang forward to drag them forth to
the terrible pool of death, flung themselves on the ground weeping.

"Spare us, Father!" howled Fumana. "She who has done evil is nothing to
us."

"We only live by the light of the King's presence," groaned Nxope.

"Spare us, Great Great One!" wept Fumana.

"We are only weak wo