m one of those unreasoning and unaccountable outbreaks of savagery to
which all barbarian natures are more or less suddenly liable, or whether
he had misgivings on his own account as to the completeness of his
vengeance, is uncertain. But rapidly muttering: "_Au_! Ixeshane! I
have not drunk enough blood. Wait here until I return," he had seized
his assegai and disappeared in the direction of the pit again. Those
under his guidance had no alternative but to await his return, with what
patience they might.

Meanwhile Josane was speeding along the gloomy tunnel, eagerly,
fiercely, like a retriever on the track of a wounded partridge. His
head was bent forward and his hand still grasped the broad assegai,
clotted with the blood of the witch-doctress. Humming a low, ferocious
song of vengeance, he gained the brink of the now empty pit. Seizing
one of the lighted candles, which still burned--no one having thought it
worth while to put them out--he turned his steps into the lateral
gallery. A fiendish chuckle escaped him. He stopped short, threw the
light in front of him, then held it over his head and looked again.
Again he chuckled.

"_Au_!" he cried, "there is more revenge, more blood. I thirst for more
blood. Ha! The witch is not dead yet. Where art thou, Ngcenika, spawn
of a she-Fingo dog? Where art thou, that my broad _umkonto_ may drink
again of thy foul blood? Lo!"

The last ejaculation escaped him in a quick gasp. Just outside the
circle of light he beheld a shadowy object, which seemed to move. It
was the form of the wretched witch-doctress. He gathered himself
together like a tiger on the spring.

"Ho! Ngcenika," he cried, in a tone of exultation mingled with
suppressed fury. "Thou art not dead yet--toad--carrion bird!"

He was standing over the inanimate form, his assegai uplifted in his
right hand, in his left the dim and sputtering candle. He made a feint
to plunge it into her body, then as rapidly withdrew it.

"Ha! I have a better plan. Thou shalt take Umlilwane's place."

He stuck his candle on a projecting slab of rock, then bending down he
laid hold of the witch-doctress by the feet and began to drag her along
the ground. She was massive in her proportions, and he did not make
rapid headway; the more so that the wretched creature began to struggle,
though feebly, for she had lost an enormous quantity of blood, and
indeed but for the endurance of her race, which dies as hard as