his morning a man was found outside, not far from
the gates, with his heart cleft in twain by the stroke of a broad
_umkonto_--a broad _umkonto_, Untuswa. Ah! ah!" she jeered, letting her
eyes rest with meaning upon my royal weapon, which was seldom out of my
grasp. "Art thou not afraid, Untuswa? for the glance of Notalwa seeth
far, and his tongue is long."

"I know yet another tongue which is long, Nangeza," I answered. "Tell
me, thou fool, hast thou ever seen me afraid?"

"Once only, when I told thee thou mightest yet be King. Ah! ah!" she
mocked.

I turned as I was departing and looked her full in the face.

"A warning, Nangeza!" I said. "There is a greater than Notalwa, and a
long tongue is a worse thing than dangerous. It is wearisome. The King
is not fond of those who wag their tongues overmuch, claiming to be in
the counsels of his _izinduna_. Have a care, Nangeza!" And with these
words I left her; yet not without seeing that she was alarmed.

Now, by the time the sun was at his highest in the heavens, the great
kraal, Ekupumuleni, was packed full of people, and all were in a
brooding and breathless state of dread; for the rumours which filled the
air were as the early rumblings of a mighty storm brooding over the face
of the world. It was known that the witch-doctors were making _muti_.
It was whispered that the King's sleeping visions had so shaped that
vast and unmentionable wizardry had been at work. It was known further
that a man of the House of Ncwelo had died in blood, wandering abroad in
the night. Things looked dark for the House of Ncwelo. None doubted
but that, before the sun went down, some, if not many, should walk in
the darkness of the Great Unknown.

All the morning, from every direction, people came flocking. Ncwelo's
kraal to the number of nearly a hundred, Janisa's clan, who were in
charge of some of the cattle outposts, and the followings of many petty
chiefs. All these took up positions in the circles within circles
ranged around the inside of the great open space. But belting round the
whole, hemming in all in a ring of iron--a fence of spear blades--were
two half-moons of warriors fully armed, those of my own particular
following, and those of Kalipe. And at the high end of the kraal were
two companies of slayers, or executioners, bearing thongs and heavy
knob-sticks.

Seated among the _izinduna_ awaiting the arrival of the Great Great One
was my father Ntelani, t