a bank on the coast, where her father had an account. Whether
or not he ever did this I am unable to say, but as no one wished to stop
at Strathmuir, I could conceive no better plan because purchasers of
property in that district did not exist.

As we trekked away one fine morning I asked Inez whether she was sorry
to leave the place.

"No," she replied with energy, "my life there has been a hell and I
never wish to see it again."

Now it was after this, on the northern borders of Zululand, that
Zikali's Great Medicine, as Hans called it, really played its chief
part, for without it I think that we should have been killed, every one
of us. I do not propose to set out the business in detail; it is too
long and intricate. Suffice it to say, therefore, that it had to do with
the plots of Umslopogaas against Cetywayo, which had been betrayed by
his wife Monazi and her lover Lousta, both of whom I have mentioned
earlier in this record. The result was that a watch for him was kept on
all the frontiers, because it was guessed that sooner or later he would
return to Zululand; also it had become known that he was travelling in
my company.

So it came about that when my approach was reported by spies, a company
was gathered under the command of a man connected with the Royal House,
and by it we were surrounded. Before attacking, however, this captain
sent men to me with the message that with me the King had no quarrel,
although I was travelling in doubtful company, and that if I would
deliver over to him Umslopogaas, Chief of the People of the Axe, and his
followers, I might go whither I wished unharmed, taking my goods with
me. Otherwise we should be attacked at once and killed every one of
us, since it was not desired that any witnesses should be left of what
happened to Umslopogaas. Having delivered this ultimatum and declined
any argument as to its terms, the messengers retired, saying that they
would return for my answer within half an hour.

When they were out of hearing Umslopogaas, who had listened to their
words in grim silence, turned and spoke in such fashion as might have
been expected of him.

"Macumazahn," he said, "now I come to the end of an unlucky journey,
though mayhap it is not so evil as it seems, since I who went out to
seek the dead but to be filled by yonder White Witch with the meat of
mocking shadows, am about to find the dead in the only way in which they
can be found, namely by becoming of