King, being helpless. But I was young then,
and I hated Gungana beyond describing. I thought of Nangeza, and how he
would have robbed me of her; I thought of his continual designs to
compass my ruin and death, and I knew there was not room in this world
for him and myself together, and my heart became hard and ferocious as
that of a wild beast.

"`Is it comfortable down there, _induna_ of the King?' I jeered. `Ha!
It is not much of a death for a warrior, for a brave commander of the
King's armies, to die like an ant-bear in a dark hole. Oh no, it is not
much of a death!'

"`Yet shalt thou die a worse one, O dog-whelp!' he answered. `A worse
one--forget not that!'

"`Ha-ha!' I laughed. Then I arose and went a little way, and soon
returned with some large stones. Bending over the hole, as soon as my
eyes became accustomed to the blackness of its depths, I could just make
out the shimmer of Gungana's head-ring some way down. I took the
largest of the stones in both hands, and, poising it over this, I let it
fall. There was a crunching sound, and a deep, convulsive groan; then
the noise of a heavy body rolling and sliding further and further.

"`_Hlala gahle_, Gungana!' I shouted mockingly. `_Hlala gahle_!'
[`Rest in peace.' Zulu form of farewell from a person going away.]
Then I got up to go away.

"But as I rose from the spot, I did not feel glad. The sound of the
stone as it struck Gungana's head, that quavering groan which shot
upward into outer air, seemed to awaken other feelings within me but
those of rejoicing. No, it was not well done, _Nkose_--yet it was to be
my death or his. Still--it was not well done.

"Now the night drew on, and there was a rush of stars out into the
blackness of the heavens, and I dared not move because of the holes and
pitfalls which lay around. So I crouched down beneath the rock beside
which I had first met Gungana, and shivered; for it was cold high up on
that mountain-top, and my light war-adornments were of no use against
the cold. Moreover, I was very hungry, having eaten nothing since
before the attack--that is to say, before daybreak. Then a soft wind
sprang up and wailed mournfully in the long grasses, and again I
shivered, but not only with cold, for it seemed to me that the whole of
that wild mountain-top was haunted--was peopled with the ghosts of those
who had been slain that day, crying and whispering around me in the
darkness; and ever and again I w