ted full upon him
at but a few paces distant.

"Halt--Kafir!"

The tone, the insult, the scowl on the shaggy faces which glared at him
from under their wide-brimmed hats, roused all the savage fighting blood
in Tambusa, and those who beheld him say that the great veins in his
forehead swelled until they seemed about to burst with the pressure of
his head-ring. "Kafir!" Thus these refuse whites dared to address the
chief induna of the royal race of Zulu, second only in greatness to the
King himself! But he was helpless, for, as a peace ambassador, he had
of course been obliged to lay down his arms on entering the camp.

Now he turned to the leaders of the Amabuna, who were talking with their
heads together.

"See you this?" he said, waving his hand towards the line of men who
stood threatening him with their guns. "See you this? I, a peace
messenger, am insulted and threatened. I, a peace messenger, am
detained, when I would depart as I came. In truth, it is not good to
trust to the good faith of the Amabuna."

"In truth it is not good to trust to the good faith of the Amazulu,"
answered the leader sternly. "Say, were not our people peace
messengers--our people whose bones lie outside Nkunkundhlovu--who
trusted in the good faith of that murderer, your chief?"

"Ha! But you? You are a holy people--a people of God, you told the
King. We are only poor, ignorant black people," said Tambusa, taunting
them, in his scornful wrath.

"But there is a God of justice," quickly replied the leader, "and He has
delivered you into our hands to be dealt with as one of the chief
murderers of our people. The others He will deliver to us in time. But
enough of that. This is the matter now. The treacherous and cruel
murder of our people at Nkunkundhlovu was counselled by you, Tambusa.
By you it was planned and arranged, by your orders it was carried out.
What have you to say?"

"That is not the matter about which I am here," replied the induna. "If
ye would have me answer on that matter, ye should have sent men to bring
me here, if they could have done it. It is a matter as to which now I
will say no word."

"That is perhaps as well," answered the leader, "for here we have enough
to prove your guilt over and over again." And with the words Tambusa
saw the trap into which he had walked. Mpande had denounced him to the
Amabuna--Mpande, whose death he had repeatedly counselled. He was as
good as dead. Yet he onl