I have done
hath never yet failed to find death as his reward--never since our
nation was a nation. I desire death no more than any other, yet do I
not brave it day by day in the service of the King? To ask my life
would be but a waste of words.'

"`And thou, Ntelani! Hast thou no word for the life of thy son?'

"`No word, Great Great One,' grunted my father, scowling savagely at me.
`When my other son, Sekweni, earned death for his reward, did I seek to
stay the justice of the King? I did not. Nor do I now. Let this one
taste the reward he has won.'

"Then there fell a silence--a silence that one could feel. Even the
breathing of that immense crowd seemed hushed; the bent-forward
attitude, the parted lips, the eyeballs protruding, betrayed the
intensity of the moment. All this I saw in side-glances. In front sat
the semicircle of _indunas_, their faces set in hard, pitiless
sternness. The countenance of the King as he sat gazing at me in
silence was the only face whose owner was master of his own thoughts.
The others were all carried away by the strain of the moment. For my
part, I think my head turned slightly to and fro as though in a dream.
I looked at the sun, whose setting I was not to see; I looked at the
distant mountain ranges and the plains of earth, whose brightness I was
destined to behold no more; and then the King spoke:

"`Even as thou sayest, Untuswa, son of Ntelani, thou hast done a deed
the doer of which hath never yet failed to meet with the reward of
death. The girl shall die. But for thee, Untuswa, by reason of the
great service thou hast done our nation in the past, I grant thee thy
life. But thy life only. For thou mayest no more be among my
_izinceku_; no more shalt thou take thy place in the ranks of the
warriors, or go out with them to battle, nor shalt thou ever be suffered
to _tunga_. Thy place henceforth shall be among the lowest of the
captured slaves who herd the nation's cattle, bearing no arms but a
stick only. Thus I give thee thy life.'

"From a gasp which was first a lamentation as the multitude heard this
dread sentence, there grew a great chorus of _bonga_.

"`Oh the just, the merciful One! How he pardons, how he spares! Is he
not our Father!'

"Thus all men cried aloud by reason of the clemency of the King. Only I
stood as I had stood, moving neither hand nor foot--silent.

"`Well, Untuswa, who art no more a warrior?' said the King, when the
shouting h