n struck off.

"Ay," she cried, "I am free! I feel it in my blood, I who have lain in
bondage, and the voice of freedom speaks in my heart and the breath of
freedom blows in my nostrils. I am free from you, O dark and accursed
man; but herein lies my triumph and revenge--_you_ are not free from me.
In obedience to that white fool whom you have murdered, you have loosed
me; but you I will not loose and could not if I would. Listen now,
Hokosa: you love me, do you not?--next to this new creed of yours, I am
most of all to you. Well, since you have divorced me, I will tell you, I
go straight to another man. Now, look your last on me; for you love me,
do you not?" and she slipped the mantle from her shoulders and except
for her girdle stood before him naked, and smiled.

"Well," she went on, resuming her robe, "the last words of those we love
are always dear to us; therefore, Hokosa, you who were my husband, I
leave mine with you. You are a coward and a traitor, and your doom shall
be that of a coward and a traitor. For my sake you betrayed Umsuka, your
king and benefactor; for your own sake you betrayed Nodwengo, who spared
you; and now, for the sake of your miserable soul, you have betrayed
Hafela to Nodwengo. Nay, I know the tale, do not answer me, but the end
of it--ah! that is yet to learn. Lie there, snake, and lick the hand
that you have bitten, but I, the bird whom you have loosed, I fly
afar--taking your heart with me!" and suddenly she turned and was gone.

Presently Hokosa spoke in a thick voice:--

"Messenger," he said, "this cross that you have given me to bear is
heavy indeed."

"Yes, Hokosa," answered Owen, "for to it your sins are nailed."

CHAPTER XVIII

THE PASSING OF OWEN

Once she was outside of Owen's house, Noma did not tarry. First she
returned to Hokosa's kraal, where she had already learnt from his head
wife, Zinti, and others the news of his betrayal of the plot of Hafela,
of his conversion to the faith of the Christians, and of the march
of the _impi_ to ambush the prince. Here she took a little spear, and
rolling up in a skin blanket as much dried meat as she could carry,
she slipped unnoticed from the kraal. Her object was to escape from the
Great Place, but this she did not try to do by any of the gates, knowing
them to be guarded. Some months ago, before she started on her embassy,
she had noted a weak spot in the fence, where dogs had torn a hole
through which they passed out to