ust soon grow up to
take the places of the fallen. After this the land would be quiet for a
while."

Afterwards, in the course of the morning, we had a short visit from
Ignosi, on whose brows the royal diadem was now bound. As I
contemplated him advancing with kingly dignity, an obsequious guard
following his steps, I could not help recalling to my mind the tall
Zulu who had presented himself to us at Durban some few months back,
asking to be taken into our service, and reflecting on the strange
revolutions of the wheel of fortune.

"Hail, O king!" I said, rising.

"Yes, Macumazahn. King at last, by the might of your three right
hands," was the ready answer.

All was, he said, going well; and he hoped to arrange a great feast in
two weeks' time in order to show himself to the people.

I asked him what he had settled to do with Gagool.

"She is the evil genius of the land," he answered, "and I shall kill
her, and all the witch doctors with her! She has lived so long that
none can remember when she was not very old, and she it is who has
always trained the witch-hunters, and made the land wicked in the sight
of the heavens above."

"Yet she knows much," I replied; "it is easier to destroy knowledge,
Ignosi, than to gather it."

"That is so," he said thoughtfully. "She, and she only, knows the
secret of the 'Three Witches,' yonder, whither the great road runs,
where the kings are buried, and the Silent Ones sit."

"Yes, and the diamonds are. Forget not thy promise, Ignosi; thou must
lead us to the mines, even if thou hast to spare Gagool alive to show
the way."

"I will not forget, Macumazahn, and I will think on what thou sayest."

After Ignosi's visit I went to see Good, and found him quite delirious.
The fever set up by his wound seemed to have taken a firm hold of his
system, and to be complicated with an internal injury. For four or five
days his condition was most critical; indeed, I believe firmly that had
it not been for Foulata's indefatigable nursing he must have died.

Women are women, all the world over, whatever their colour. Yet somehow
it seemed curious to watch this dusky beauty bending night and day over
the fevered man's couch, and performing all the merciful errands of a
sick-room swiftly, gently, and with as fine an instinct as that of a
trained hospital nurse. For the first night or two I tried to help her,
and so did Sir Henry as soon as his stiffness allowed him to move, but
Foulata b