and alone.

"Yet it is necessary that I should slay thee, Shiminya, for although
thou hast done this for the _inkosikazi_, I know that thou lovest me
not; and if I spare thee, how long will it be before thou art running in
front of Madula's people, and crying, `This way hath Jonemi gone'?"

And turning to Nidia, he asked her to go outside, saying that he would
join her in a moment. Then, being alone with his captive, he took up a
heavy knobkerrie.

"Now, Shiminya. Thy death is near," he said, raising the club.

But the wizard was another instance to the contrary of the cut-and-dried
idea that cruelty and cowardice are bound to go hand in hand. No
further appeal for mercy did he make. Not a word did he utter. With a
last look of hate glowing in his snaky eyes, he put forth his skull, as
though to meet the blow. But the other lowered his weapon.

"I give thee thy life, Shiminya," he said. "Should the time ever come,
remember that thy life lay within my hand and I gave it thee."

The wizard murmured assent. Of a truth he felt that the jaws of Death
had been opened very wide before him, and then closed.

"But I trust thee not, so I will leave thee here bound," went on John
Ames. "It will not be long ere thy people find thee out."

He tied his prisoner fast by the feet to the pole of the hut, and was
just leaving him, when Shiminya exclaimed--

"_'Nkose_, make, I pray thee, the door very fast. Do not only tie it.
Thrust also a stout stick through the fastenings."

"Why so?" said John Ames in amazement.

"Animals might get in. And I am helpless."

"Lupiswana, for one?"

"_Au_! Jonemi knows everything," replied the sorcerer, with a half
smile.

"I see. Yes; I will see that the door is fast. _Hlala-gahle_,
Shiminya."

"Now we must leave," he said, rejoining Nidia, and then setting to work
to bar up the wizard in his own den. Then, as they stepped forth, he
told her how he had designedly caused the latter to feel himself within
the very portal of death, in order that he might the more thoroughly
realise how entirely his life had been given him. If there was any good
in the man he would appreciate this act of clemency, explained John
Ames.

She looked at him in admiration.

"What an ingenious idea!" she said. "But there must be some good in him
or he would have killed me when I was in his power."

"There is that in his favour. Yet I wish I could think that he had no
worse object in view in