hem.

Suddenly the thunder and lightning ceased for a minute, everything grew
black, and, except for the rain, silent.

"It is over one way or the other, chief," I called out into the
darkness.

"Wait, white man, wait!" answered the chief, in a voice thick with
anxiety and fear.

Hardly were the words out of his mouth when the heavens were lit up
again till they literally seemed to flame. There were the men, not ten
paces apart. A great flash fell between them, I saw them stagger beneath
the shock. Indaba-zimbi recovered himself first--at any rate when the
next flash came he was standing bolt upright, pointing with his assegai
towards his enemy. The chief's son was still on his legs, but he was
staggering like a drunken man, and the assegai had fallen from his hand.

Darkness! then again a flash, more fearful, if possible, than any that
had gone before. To me it seemed to come from the east, right over the
head of Indaba-zimbi. At that instant I saw the chief's son wrapped,
as it were, in the heart of it. Then the thunder pealed, the rain burst
over us like a torrent, and I saw no more.

The worst of the storm was done, but for a while the darkness was so
dense that we could not move, nor, indeed, was I inclined to leave the
safety of the hillside where the lightning was never known to strike,
and venture down to the iron-stone. Occasionally there still came
flashes, but, search as we would, we could see no trace of either of
the wizards. For my part, I believed that they were both dead. Now the
clouds slowly rolled away down the course of the river, and with them
went the rain; and now the stars shone in their wake.

"Let us go and see," said the old chief, rising and shaking the water
from his hair. "The fire-fight is ended, let us go and see who has
conquered."

I rose and followed him, dripping as though I had swum a hundred yards
with my clothes on, and after me came all the people of the kraal.

We reached the spot; even in that light I could see where the iron-stone
had been split and fused by the thunderbolts. While I was staring about
me, I suddenly heard the chief, who was on my right, give a low moan,
and saw the people cluster round him. I went up and looked. There, on
the ground, lay the body of his son. It was a dreadful sight. The hair
was burnt off his head, the copper rings upon his arms were fused, the
assegai handle which lay near was literally shivered into threads, and,
when I took hold o