d command to my _impi_ to let
them go unharmed. If they will not do this, I put my trust in the God I
worship and will fight this fray out to the end, knowing that if I and
my people perish, they shall perish also."

Now Nodwengo himself spoke to the herald who was waiting beyond the
wall.

"Go back to him you serve," he said, "and say that Hokosa will meet her
who was his wife upon the flat stone and talk with her in the sight of
both armies, bearing my word with him. At the sound of the blowing of a
horn shall each of them advance unarmed and alone from either camp. Say
to my brother also that it will indeed be ill for him if he attempts
treachery upon Hokosa, for the man who causes his blood to flow will
surely die, and after death shall be accursed for ever."

The herald went, and presently a horn was blown.

"Now it comes into my mind that we part for the last time," said
Nodwengo in a troubled voice as he took the hand of Hokosa.

"It may be so, King; in my heart I think that it is so; yet I do not
altogether grieve thereat, for the burden of my past sins crushes me,
and I am weary and seek for rest. Yet we do not part for the last time,
because whatever chances, in the end I shall make my report to you
yonder"--and he pointed upwards. "Reign on for long years, King--reign
well and wisely, clinging to the Faith, for thus at the last shall you
reap your reward. Farewell!"

Now again the horn blew, and in the bright moonlight the slight figure
of Noma could be seen advancing towards the stone.

Then Hokosa sprang from the wall and advanced also, till at the same
moment they climbed upon the stone.

"Greeting, Hokosa," said Noma, and she stretched out her hand to him.

By way of answer he placed his own behind his back, saying: "To your
business, woman." Yet his eyes searched her face--the face which in his
folly he still loved; and thus it came about that he never saw sundry of
the dead bodies, which lay in the shadow of the stone, begin to quicken
into life, and inch by inch to arise, first to their knees and next to
their feet. He never saw or heard them, yet, as the words left his lips,
they sprang upon him from every side, holding him so that he could not
move.

"Away with him!" cried Noma with a laugh of triumph; and at her command
he was half-dragged and half-carried across the open space and thrust
violently over a stone wall into the camp of Hafela.

Now Nodwengo and his soldiers saw what had ha