rs or not may hereinafter appear.

"Hast thou brought what I desired of thee, Nanzicele?" said the wizard,
coming direct to the point.

Nanzicele, who had squatted himself on the ground opposite the other,
now fumbled in a skin bag which was hung around him, and produced a
packet. It was small, but solid and heavy.

"What is this?" said Shiminya, counting out ten Martini-Henry
cartridges. "Ten? Only ten! _Au_! When I promised thee vengeance it
was not for such poor reward as this."

"They are not easily obtained, my father. The men from whom I got these
will be punished to-morrow for not having them; but I care not. Be
content with a few, for few are better than none. And--this vengeance?"

"Thou knowest Pukele--the servant of Jonemi?"

"The son of Mambane?"

"The son of Mambane, who helped hoot thee out of his kraal when thou
wouldst not offer enough _lobola_ for Nompiza. He is to die."

Nanzicele leaped with delight. "When? How?" he cried. "Now will my
eyes have a feast indeed."

"At thy hand. The manner and the time are of thine own choosing. To
thee has Umlimo left it."

Nanzicele's glee was dashed. His jaw fell.

"_Au_! I have no wish to dance in the air at the end of a long rope,"
he growled; "and such would assuredly be my fate if I slew Pukele, even
as it was that of Fondosa, the son of Mbai, who was an _innyanga_ even
as thyself, my father. _Whau_! I saw it with these eyes. All
Fondosa's _muti_ did not save him there, my father, and the whites
hanged him dead the same as any rotten Maholi."

"Didst thou glance over one shoulder on the way hither, Nanzicele?
Didst thou see Lupiswana following thee, yea, even running at thy side?
I traced thy course from here. I saw thee from the time of leaving
Jonemi's. He was waiting for thee was Lupiswana. It is not good for a
man when such is the case," said Shiminya, whose _esprit de corps_
resented the sneering, contemptuous tone which the other had used in
speaking of a member of his "cloth."

For the event referred to was the execution of a Mashuna witch-doctor
for the murder of a whole family, whose death he had ordered.

The snake-like stare of Shiminya, the appeal to his superstitions, the
sinister associations of the place he was in, a stealthy, mysterious
sound even then becoming audible--all told, Nanzicele looked somewhat
cowed, remembering, too, how his return journey had to be effected alone
and by night.

Having, in vulg