ey
stabbed and stabbed; and lo! blood swirled around my feet in rivers, and
still the screaming and wailing of those beneath the spear went on.
Then I could no longer breathe. The earth itself seemed to be heaping
on high to fall on me and crush me to dust. I sank down, as it seemed,
in death.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE GHOST-BULL.

I was not dead, _Nkose_; or, indeed, how should I be here telling you my
story? Or, if I were--well, at any rate, the magic which had been
powerful enough to draw me through the abode of those who had become
ghosts was powerful enough to bring me back to life and to the world
again--and yet I know not. It is a terrible thing to look upon the
faces of those who have long been dead; and how shall a man--being a
man--do this unless he join their number? Such faces, however, had I
looked upon, for, as I opened my eyes once more to the light of the sun,
no dim recollection of one who has slept and dreamed was mine. No; the
mysterious cave, the magic fire, the fearsome sights I had beheld--all
was real--as real as the trees and rocks upon which I now looked--as
real as the sky above and the sun shining from it.

Yes; I was in the outer air once more. I rose and stood up. My limbs
were firm and strong as before, my hand still grasped the broad spear--
the white shield lay at my feet. Before me was the smooth rock wall,
there the exact spot where it had opened to receive me. But there it
might remain, closed for ever, for all I cared. I had no wish to look
further into its dark and evil mysteries. But now, again, the voice
came back to my ears, faint and far away this time, but without the
mocking mirth which had lured me before to what might have been my doom.

"Ho, Untuswa!" it cried; "wouldst thou see more of the unseen? Wouldst
thou look further into the future?"

"I think not, my father," I answered. "To those who deal in magic be
the ways of magic, to warriors the ways of war--and I am a warrior."

"And thine _inkosikazi_, Untuswa, what of her?"

"Help me to slay the ghost-bull who deals forth the Red Death, my
father!" I pleaded eagerly.

There was no answer to this for long. Then, weary of waiting, I was
about to turn away, when once more the voice spake from within the
rock--faint, as before.

"Great is the House of Matyobane; great is the House of Senzangakona;
Umzilikazi is ruler of the world to-day--but Dingane is greater. Yet
to-morrow, where now are the many n