that I was not one to speak twice.

"Come with me, father," he said. "But--come alone."

We threaded our way through many a noisy and boisterous group who jeered
and threatened the man in front of me, reckoning him one of the Bakoni.
But I restrained them, giving an order here, and a word of advice there,
in my capacity of second in command. All thought I was going on a round
of inspection, and then thought no more about anything at all. The
while Maroane had been craftily leading me the complete circle of the
mountain-top, and now we had gained the rocky cone which arose from the
further end. Then, as we passed behind it, and the people were lost to
view, Maroane bent down suddenly in the grass and dragged out by the
heels the dead body of a man. Another, too, he dragged forth, then
turned panting to me.

"In here, leader of the King's might," he said.

I looked in amazement. Under the bodies which he had removed was a hole
slanting downwards into the earth, partly hidden in the long grass. The
slave explained that these two had been purposely killed by their own
people, in order to conceal this opening with their bodies.

Now, I had already known what it is to walk in darkness through the
heart of the earth, as you will remember, _Nkose_, when I followed
Gungana into the cave of the _Izimu_, or Eaters-of-Men. But for such
places I have no liking, wherefore I growled:

"And what will I find, dog, when I have left the light of day?"

The fellow's eyes shone with excitement.

"The Queen of the _muti_ of the Bakoni, father. She is beautiful," he
whispered. "And, indeed, my life is well worth this secret."

"Ha! lead on, dog," I said. "But beware that thou beholdest not the end
of this spear-point through thy chest."

I trod in Maroane's footsteps in almost complete darkness for a little
way, and while I did so I pondered. What was going to be revealed? I
was ever eager to look into strange mysteries--a longing implanted in
me, I think, by old Mazuka. And now I heard a wild, sweet voice
singing, and it seemed to me the words were in the Zulu tongue.

Now it grew light, and in a moment we walked out from the darkness of
the underground passage, and stood in the light of day.

It was a marvellous place, like an enormous bowl hollowed out in the
face of the cliff. The rock sloped gradually outward, and above it a
narrow belt of blue sky, but overhead the vaulted roof of the cliff.
The floor of thi