At the enunciation of this grim superstition the unfortunate prisoner
tugged at her bonds, uttering a shriek of terror. She recognised here
not the dog she had at first expected to see, but the horrid mongrel
beast held in abhorrence by the superstitious. The growlings of the
brute redoubled.

"Now, tell quickly," went on the wizard. "The news of the meeting thou
didst make known to two people only. Their names? Hesitate not, or--"

"Shall I be allowed to depart from here if I tell, child of the Umlimo?"
she gasped eagerly.

"Thou shalt be taken hence. Oh yes, thou shalt be taken hence."

"Swear it. Swear it," she cried.

"Umzilikazi!" rejoined the wizard, thus ratifying his assertion by the
sacred name of the great king, founder of the nation.

But now, seeing its master's vigilance relaxed, the wolf sprang forward,
and, with a horrid mumbling snarl, buried its fangs in the helpless
prisoner's thigh. A wild, piteous, despairing shriek rent the interior
of this fiend's den.

"Take it off! Take it off! Oh, I am devoured! Quick! I will tell!"

Seizing a pair of iron tongs, Shiminya compelled the now infuriated
brute to loose its hold, and following it with a tremendous blow on the
head, it retreated yelling to the further side of the hut.

"The names--quick--ere it seizes thee again," urged the wizard.

"Pukele," she howled, frantic with agony and terror.

"The son of thy father, who is servant to Jonemi?"

"The same. The other is Ntatu."

The words seemed squeezed from the sufferer. Her thigh, horribly
lacerated by the jaws of the savage beast, streaming with blood, was
quivering in every nerve.

"Thy sister, formerly wife of Makani?"

"The same. Now, child of the Umlimo, suffer me to depart."

"Thy thigh is not well enough, sister," replied the wizard, in a soft
purring voice, putting his head on one side, and surveying her through
half closed eyes. "Tarry till evening, then shalt thou be taken hence.
_Au_! It is not good to be seen quitting the abode of Shiminya. There
is _tagati_ in it."

Having first kicked the wolf out of the hut, the sorcerer set to work to
tend the wound of his helpless victim. She, for her part, lay and
moaned feebly. She had purchased her life, but at what a cost. Still,
even the magnificent physical organisation of a fine savage was not
proof against all she had undergone, for this was not her first taste of
the torture since being forcibly seized by t