Gerard's attention. Along the brow of the
cliff was a row of stout pegs driven firmly into the ground, and round
each was tied a _reim_, or raw-hide rope, whose other end dangled over
into space. These were what he had seen flapping overhead when he was
below. With a shuddering loathing he drew up one of them. Its end was
not a running noose as he had expected, only a loop, so small that he
could not even put his hand through it. What new horror did this
represent?

And then a quick, deep-toned ejaculation behind made him start--start so
violently in the sudden unexpectedness of the interruption in the then
state of his nerves, that he was within an ace of losing his balance and
pitching headlong over the height. Recovering himself, however, he
turned to confront a tall Zulu who stood contemplating him with an
expression of ironical mirth, and recognised the great frame and evil
countenance of Vunawayo.

"Ha, _Umlungu_!" said the latter. "So you have come to look at the
point of The Tooth?"

"Yes," answered Gerard, as composedly as possible. "But, Vunawayo, what
is that?"

"This?" said the savage, reaching up his hand to the point of the stake.
"It is the point of The Tooth--the part it eats with."

"No; that, I mean," pointing to the impaled corpse.

"_Hau_! That is--its last morsel," replied Vunawayo, with the laugh of
a demon. "When The Tooth bites, it bites hard. Wizards--and such
people. I told you it did."

"What, then, are these used for?" went on Gerard, showing the raw-hide
rope which he had drawn up.

"These? Ha! not all who come here to be eaten by The Tooth are bitten
by its point. This loop you see was tied round a man's wrists. He was
then flung over to the full end of the rope, and his arms being fastened
behind him, were broken by the jerk. He dangled there until he dropped
loose. The last to suffer in this way was a woman who had been a
captive, and was taken to wife by the chief. She killed her newborn
child, saying that she would die rather than increase the strength of
the Igazipuza. She did die--but she took a long time about it--a long,
long time."

"And who was the man who was impaled, Vunawayo? What did he die for?"

"Be not too curious, _Umlungu_," was the answer. "Have patience. There
may soon come a time when you shall attend at the `eating of The Tooth.'
Have patience."

To Gerard, in his then frame of mind, it seemed that the other's tone
was fraught wit