them, where they dig
the gold, the gold that is turned into round money that makes them
rich--and us. _Whau_! They will do anything for money! Ha!"

An evil laugh went round among his listeners.

"Their women," echoed another. "When `the word' goes forth we shall
take their women, when the rest are dead. It will make a pleasant
change."

But the old assegai-maker went on crooning his old and appropriate
war-song--

"Nantsi 'ndaba--
Indaba yemkonto."

"That is not much change, except for the worse," said another. "Their
women. A set of hut poles!" Whereat a great laugh went up from the
gathering. "Sons of my father, I would not pay half a calf in _lobola_
for one white woman I have ever seen."

"Half a calf! _Au_! What of Izibu?" This, it will be remembered, was
Verna Halse's name.

"Izibu?" returned the first speaker. "She is for one greater than we."

A gurgle of bass laughter ran through the group.

"There are others at Ezulwini," went on the one who had worked at the
Rand. "Also at Malimati and Nongoma. It will be great to obtain wives
we have paid no _lobola_ for. White wives! Ha! That will be a change
indeed."

"You have got to get them first, my sons," said the old assegai-maker.
"I remember in the days of Dingana, when I was young, wives were
plentiful even without paying _lobola_. That king had an open hand, and
after an impi had returned from raiding the Amaswazi, or the Basutu, he
would distribute the captive women with a free hand. _Whau_! I not
only made assegais in those days, I wielded them."

"_Baba_!" [Father.]

"_Ye-bo_! Twice did Dingana send me a wife, for he said that a man who
could make assegais like mine deserved a share of what those assegais
could procure. But that is now all a thing of bygone years. It is
dead, dead and buried. We are the white man's dogs to-day, and always
shall be."

"And always shall be, _Hau_!" echoed his listeners. "And always shall
be. My father, I think not."

"I am old, my sons, and I shall end my life peacefully," answered the
assegai-maker--"shall end my life as the white man's dog. There are
those among you who will end your lives in blood."

"Ha! And what then?" cried the man who had worked at the Rand. "We
fight for our father and chief, and for--" and here he suddenly stopped.
He would name no names, but all knew what was in his mind, and the same
thought was in theirs. "I would I had lived in the time when