be there," said Umslopogaas.

"After this meeting at the new moon, I am to be given in marriage to
Masilo," said the maid. "But should one conquer Jikiza, then he will be
chief, and can give me in marriage to whom he will."

Now Umslopogaas understood her meaning, and knew that he had found
favour in her sight; and the thought moved him a little, for women were
strange to him as yet.

"If perchance I should be there," he said, "and if perchance I should
win the iron chieftainess, the axe Groan-Maker, and rule over the
People of the Axe, you should not live far from the shadow of the axe
thenceforward, maid Zinita."

"It is well, Wolf-Man, though some might not wish to dwell in that
shadow; but first you must win the axe. Many have tried, and all have
failed."

"Yet one must succeed at last," he said, "and so, farewell!" and he
leaped into the torrent of the river, and swam it with great strokes.

Now the maid Zinita watched him till he was gone, and love of him
entered into her heart--a love that was fierce and jealous and strong.
But as he wended to the Ghost Mountain Umslopogaas thought rather of axe
Groan-Maker than of Maid Zinita; for ever, at the bottom, Umslopogaas
loved war more than women, though this has been his fate, that women
have brought sorrow on his head.

Fifteen days must pass before the day of the new moon, and during this
time Umslopogaas thought much and said little. Still, he told Galazi
something of the tale, and that he was determined to do battle with
Jikiza the Unconquered for the axe Groan-Maker. Galazi said that he
would do well to let it be, and that it was better to stay with the
wolves than to go out seeking strange weapons. He said also that even
if he won the axe, the matter might not stay there, for he must take the
girl also, and his heart boded no good of women. It had been a girl
who poisoned his father in the kraals of the Halakazi. To all of which
Umslopogaas answered nothing, for his heart was set both on the axe and
the girl, but more on the first than the last.

So the time wore on, and at length came the day of the new moon. At the
dawn of that day Umslopogaas arose and clad himself in a moocha, binding
the she-wolf's skin round his middle beneath the moocha. In his hand
he took a stout fighting-shield, which he had made of buffalo hide, and
that same light moon-shaped axe with which he had slain the captain of
Chaka.

"A poor weapon with which to kill Jikiza the Unc