s so, Root of a Royal Tree. With large possessions it is indeed
a pleasant land to dwell in--with no possessions a man might often think
longingly of the restful sleep of death."

"That may well be," said Tyisandhlu thoughtfully. "The cold and the
gloom and the blackness, the fogs and the smoke--the mean and
horrible-looking people who go to make up the larger portion of its
inhabitants. _Whau_, Nyonyoba, I know more of your white people and
their country than anyone here dreams, and it is as you say. Without
that which should raise him above such horrors as this, a man might as
well be dead."

"Wherefore I prefer to live in the land of the Ba-gcatya rather than die
in my own. But whoever brought hither that description of our land told
a wonderfully true tale, Ruler of the Great."

Tyisandhlu made no reply, but reaching out his hand he took up a whistle
and blew a double note upon it. Immediately there entered an _inceku_.

"Let no man approach until this note shall again sound," said the king.
"Preserve clear a wide space around, lest the ear that opens too wide be
removed from its owner's head. Go."

The man saluted humbly and withdrew. And then for long did they sit
together and talk in a low tone, the barbarian monarch and the white
adventurer--and the subject of their talk seemed fraught with some
surprise to the latter, but with satisfaction to both.

"See now, Nyonyoba," concluded the king. "They have brought you here,
here whence no man ever returned; and you would become one of us. Well,
be it so. There is that about you I trust."

"Whence no man ever returned?" echoed Laurence.

"Surely. Ha! A white man found his way hither once, but--he was a
preacher--and I love not such. He never returned."

"But what of my two friends? You will not harm them, Ndabezita, because
they are my friends, and we have fought together many a long year,"
urged Laurence.

"I will spare them for that reason. They shall be led from the country
with their eyes covered, lest they find the way back again. But--if they
do--they likewise shall never depart from it. And now, Nyonyoba, all I
have told you is between ourselves alone. Breathe not a whisper of it or
anything about me even to your friends. For the present, farewell, and
good fortune be yours."

FOOTNOTE:

[5] Founder of the Zulu dynasty, and of course patriarchally greater
than the royal house of this Zulu-originated tribe.

CHAPTER XXV.

HIS LIFE FOR HIS