d entirely reckon, that man
was Jambula.

Having made sure that none could overhear us, to him now I opened the
plot. His face lighted up with joy as he listened.

"To-morrow, by this time, we shall both be ghosts in the shadow world,
or I sit in the seat of Umzilikazi, and you among the _izinduna_ of this
nation. How like you that, Jambula?"

"If you are dead, my father, I too am dead," he answered. "Not too
soon, either, is it to strike, for my eyes and ears have not been closed
in these days, nor have those of the Great Great One. It is his life or
ours. The time when this place shall awaken hemmed in by the
spear-points of the slayers is but a question of a few nights more or
less."

I believed this to be true, but even if it were not so it would have
made but little difference. The tale told me by old Gegesa had so
inflamed my blood that I could wait no longer. Vengeance, now at once--
now, before it escaped me. I could wait no more.

A little while longer did Jambula and I whisper together. Then softly
and silently we stole forth into the night.

CHAPTER NINE.

"TO SLAY THEE, SON OF MATYOBANE."

The great kraal, Kwa'zingwenya, slept. All was dark and still as we
drew near it, Jambula and I. We could make out dimly in the starlight
the immense circle of domed huts within their ringed fences, but not so
much as the spark of a distant fire showed that any within were awake.
Treading cautiously, we took our way round to the upper end of the great
circle.

At every gate bodies of armed guards were posted, yet in the darkness
two men, stealthy, silent as serpents, glided by unnoticed--no dog even
was roused to give warning of their approach. Two men, alone. Success,
and on the morrow the nation would hail a new king. Failure, and the
lives of these two, and of all their kith and kindred, would be taken
mercilessly.

Having reached our point we set to work. Twig by twig, thorn by thorn,
we began to breach the thick prickly fence; long and silently we worked
until the hole was large enough for the body of a man to creep through.
But it was done at last, and I stood within the _isigodhlo_.

Jambula was to remain outside. If all went well, that is, if he saw or
heard nothing the night through, he was to enter himself shortly before
dawn, and having stopped up the hole from the inside, was to await my
orders. If I failed--and that he would not be long in learning--he was
to return at full