, this
greatness which was held out to me in the cave like the eagle's nest is
now held out to Umzilikazi?"

"Young still--impatient ever--yet an _induna_," she said, looking at me
as she had done in the old days, when I kept her hidden away, and my
visits were stealthy, and made at the risk of my life. "This greatness
is for him who may seize it--thou who wouldst love the daughter of a
race of kings."

"That will I do, and seize upon the greatness also," I said. "Give me
but the chance, Lalusini."

"The chance shall come, but by a way of fear and blood, _induna_ of the
King, who hast but begun to live. It may be that we shall be great
together--or--shall sit down in darkness forever [Note]--yet not even
that, for the vultures and jackals will grow fat."

Now, towards the full of the moon I was sent by the King upon military
business--which was to levy drafts of young men upon certain outlying
kraals to the southward. This occupied many days, for the distances to
be traversed were great, yet so eager were all to bear arms in those
days that even the very children would beg to be enrolled, and parties
of them, flourishing sticks and singing war-songs, would march for some
distance beside the new warriors on their journey to the military kraals
whither these were consigned. Upon this service I was accompanied by my
brother, Mgwali, and four men of my own kraal. Our journeyings brought
us to a high jagged mountain range, called Inkume, beyond which lay a
wild waste country, where none of us dwelt, for it was swampy at the
time of the rains and not over-healthy, though some of us would now and
again visit it to hunt, for game abounded there.

Now, _Nkose_, I know not how it was unless that, having so much to do
with magic and sorcery, I was becoming half _isanusi_ myself, but
something moved me to penetrate beyond this range. I told myself it was
to hunt; yet it was not to hunt. I told myself the lions on that side
must be strong and large, and I would kill one or two and make for
myself some famous war adornments with the mane and tail; yet I knew
that I cared little if I found lions or not. Something within myself
seemed to urge me onward. Each jagged and fantastic point of
overhanging rock seemed to beckon me forward. In the voices of the male
baboons crying hoarsely from the crags, in the scream of the black
tufted eagle wheeling lazily in the blue heights, I seemed to hear
words--tones--calling me ever