ome forth
and meet me! Assuredly thou art well named--as to thy sleeping powers,
that is--for to-day thou shalt sleep "for ever and ever"--but in death!'

[Njalo-njalo means "for ever and ever."]

"Most of them grinned at this, and Njalo-njalo answered:

"`You are talking like a fool, boy! Why should I fight one whose life
is forfeited to the King?'

"`Good! Then I will treat thee even as one of these miserable Baputi.'
And, quick as thought, before a hand could be lifted to prevent it, I
hurled my great knobstick at his head. It struck him fair between the
eyes, crashing with terrific force. Njalo-njalo dropped like an ox
smitten by lightning. He never moved afterward:

"`He is a coward and deserved such an end!' I cried. `I am not, and my
word stands. Take my weapons, men--I disarm.' And I threw my assegais
and shield on the ground beyond reach, and stood waiting.

"They surrounded me at once. Nangeza, who had been helping to kill the
Baputi, stood by, also cool, brave, and fearless.

"`You have made more trouble by slaying Njalo-njalo,' said Ngubu
discontentedly. `_Whau_, Untuswa! It is on us the King's wrath will
fall.'

"`The King's wrath never yet fell upon anybody who slew a coward, for he
loves not such,' I answered. `And now, Ngubu, being unarmed, I need no
bonds. I have done with hope. I care not to flee again into this
region of wizards and ghosts.'

"Herein I spoke the truth. So weighed down had my mind become by the
gloom and the solitude, and being cut off from my kind, that I welcomed
capture. So joyous a sound in my ears was that of their voices, so
cheering a sight to my eyes was that of my fellow-warriors in their
fighting array, that I even looked with calmness upon the now near
approach of my certain death; and thus walking in their midst as one of
themselves, except that I was unarmed, I journeyed back to doom.

"Indeed, when after many days we got clear of the mountains and drew
near to Ekupumuleni, my guards were even more sad of heart than myself
as they thought upon my sure fate. But so glad was I to see the great
kraal--`the resting-place,' and, as regarded myself, too surely the
last--once more, that it was like coming home; but it would be to me in
a brief space a home of darkness and of night!

"A guard of women presently met us, accompanied by an _inceku_, bringing
word from the King that Nangeza was to be handed over to them. So they
led her away in their m