o would willingly die, so strong was the
witchery of the spell which this sorceress of Zulu blood had woven
around me. I called her by name, first softly, then louder, for I
thought she might be doing this to try me, and, even then, might be
watching me from somewhere, and laughing to herself at my discomfiture.
Still, no answer.

Then a hideous thought took possession of my mind. That great lion I
had slain! Had not Lalusini herself made mention of having heard its
voice rolling upon the mountain at night? Had she not expressed some
fear lest the beast might find its way in through the tunnel? As a man
who has gone mad, I sprang to the hole and examined the ground for
traces. But there were none--none such as would have been left by a
lion forcing his way in, and returning, dragging a heavy body. So the
possession of my senses returned, and I fell to making an investigation
of the place. Ha! The mystery was a mystery no longer. Lalusini had,
indeed, gone, but she had departed of her own free will, for most of the
articles necessary to her comfort, such as clothing, cooking utensils,
and so forth, had disappeared.

Yes, _Nkose_; my heart was sore within me. Whither had she gone? Was
it to return once more to that great, yet distant, people, among whom
she had promised to make me great? Wearied with the length of time I
had been forced to leave her unvisited--in the light of my hesitation to
agree to throw in my lot with hers under such mad circumstances of peril
and hazard--had she decided to leave me altogether? It seemed like it.
Yet, I would track her--would find her. And then I laughed at myself
for a fool, for how knew I, after all this time, which way to turn to
seek her? She might be far away by that time.

Sore at heart, I went up into the outer day again, and there upon the
summit of the mountain I sought long and hard for footprints. But I
sought in vain. There were none. Lalusini might have vanished like a
bird into the air.

All that day I searched. There might be other hiding-places upon the
mountain, even more secret than the one which was known only to me and
to her. But if this was so I know not. I only know that, search as I
would, no trace could I find of such.

Then I went down again into the rock hollow to pass the night, thinking
she might chance to return. But when I lay down to sleep, sleep would
not come, or if it did, only so lightly as to be more wakefulness than
sl