th warm upon my hand. This one,
too, died without a struggle.

Pausing again, I listened. All was still inside the hut. I began to
cut the thong fastenings of the wicker door. What if Umzilikazi,
experienced warrior as he was, awakened by the small amount of noise I
had caused, were standing ready for me, waiting in the darkness with
assegai uplifted to plunge the broad blade in between my shoulders as I
crept in through the low doorway. Then the thought came to me that by
reason of his very security, hemmed around with guards, the sleep of the
King would be sound and unsuspicious. The fastenings were now cut, and
grasping the wicker door firmly, I let it down noiselessly upon the
floor of the hut.

There was another screen inside which I had forgotten. Peering around
this I saw that the interior was not in darkness. The smouldering
embers of a fire glowed in the hollow in the centre of the floor, and by
its indistinct light I could make out the King, asleep among a pile of
blankets against the thatch wall.

But in a moment he started from his sleep and sat upright.

"Ha! Who is that?" he said. Then, recognising me, he cried furiously,
"Ha, Untuswa! Thou dog, daring to invade my privacy. Are we threatened
from without, or why art thou here?"

"_Thou_ art threatened from within," I answered jeeringly. "I have come
to slay thee, son of Matyobane." And I sprang upon him.

But not so easily was my purpose of vengeance to be fulfilled.
Umzilikazi, the warrior and leader of warriors while I was yet a boy,
the founder and strong ruler of a new nation, was not so easily to be
overcome, although surprised in the midst of sleep. Avoiding the stroke
I aimed at him with my assegai, he seized my right wrist and held it in
a grasp of iron, and for a moment thus in the half darkness we grappled.
Indeed, I know not why he refrained from shouting aloud for assistance,
knowing my bodily strength and prowess as a fighter, unless it were that
his old warrior instincts moved him to add to the terror of his name by
overthrowing so formidable a foe in single strife. And then it was too
late, for with my left hand I seized his throat and gripped it until his
very eyes protruded, choking back any sound he might then fain have
uttered.

"Thy life shall pay for thy breach of faith with me," I snarled. "Ha,
ha! Where is Lalusini?" And my grasp on his throat tightened.

But then I saw another form rise from the heap of b