own
hand. Then he laughed, and again reproached me with my lack of judgment
and due cautiousness. _Au_! but he was a King indeed!

"Nangeza the while was still in her father's hands, for Gungana,
although he desired to possess the girl, was of a close-fisted nature,
and would not offer sufficient _lobola_, saying that the condescension
of an _induna_ of the King in taking a girl whose father was of no
especial rank should more than make up for the deficiency. But this her
father stoutly refused to see; on the contrary, he maintained that a man
of Gungana's rank ought to give more than one who was nobody at all. So
the negotiations hung in the air, to my great satisfaction, although
this might be short-lived, for at any moment either party might yield.

"We had not been together over-much, Nangeza and I, since the day which
had ended so fatally for my brother, Sekweni. In truth, our narrow
escape then had rather frightened us; besides, we looked upon the sad
outcome of it as a bad omen. Meanwhile, my permission to _tunga_ seemed
as far off as ever, and long before it came Nangeza might be out of my
reach. There were plenty of other girls, certainly, but I was young
then, _Nkose_, and a fool, and had not yet found out that one girl is
just as soon tired, of as another. But I have had sixteen wives since
those days, and I have found it out now--_yeh-bo_! I have found it out
now.

"`Carry out my plan; Untuswa,' she said to me once, when we were able to
speak for a few moments. `That is our only chance.'

"`_Whau_! in good truth,' I answered, `a madder scheme never yet was set
forth.'

"She shrugged her splendid shoulders, uttering a disdainful click.

"`If it is only to risk your life, son of Ntelani, do you not risk it
daily in the King's service?'

"This was true. Still, I have ever observed that the man who risks his
life in the ordinary way is prone to shrink and draw back when some
entirely new and untrodden path of death opens out before him. In my
perplexity I bethought me of Masuka.

"The old _isanusi_, who was now high in the King's favour, occupied a
hut by himself; for we were again in a temporary camp. It was said that
he passed all his days making _muti_, for men rarely saw him, and when
he did come abroad, he would creep about in a quiet, retiring way, as
though he were the most harmless and inoffensive of our aged people. Of
him, of course, our own _izanusi_ were fiercely envious, and