kraal--happy that they could go back well and strong in the flesh,
and not as weeping ghosts whose bodies were dead moaning over the ashes
of their former home. But for my part I chose to remain at
Kwa'zingwenya for a space, for I feared lest Lalusini should escape me
again. Yet was I as powerless with regard to her as the lowest of our
Amaholi; for was not her life the property of the King, even as the
lives of all of us? Truly within the nation I was great. Yet did my
will cross that of the King and--_Au_! where is the smoke of yesterday's
fire?

Thinking such thoughts, I was wandering at eventide between the great
kraal and the river when I came upon old Masuka gathering herbs.

"Greeting, thou holder of the royal spear and the royal shield," said
the old man, looking at me sideways, like a bird, out of his bright
eyes. Again I felt uneasy, for his words were exactly those which the
King had uttered--his tone mocking and ill-omened.

"Greeting, my father," I answered, trying to seem unconcerned. "Now we
have yet another magician among us--this time a female one."

"That is so, Untuswa. Ah, ah! what was my `word' to thee? `The
she-eagle will return and--the alligators shall be fed.' Did I lie in
that?"

"Not so, my father. Truth was there in the word, for it has been shown
this day."

"Your black cow has given good milk, my son. _Whau_, Untuswa! You
should be an _isanusi_ yourself, who did so readily read the way of the
Bakoni witch-song. But now great things are to come upon us--upon you:
yes--strange things."

"What is the strangest thing which is to come upon me, my father?" I
said, again seeking to pry into the future.

"Ha! The place of the Three Rifts," he answered, darkly.

"But I know not such a place, my father."

"Thou wilt know it, Untuswa; thou wilt know it--one day."

No more would the old man tell, and so I left him, pondering greatly
over these things as I went. And it seemed to me that the air was dark
with sorcery and magic, and that snares lay spread all around, lurking
for the steps of him who should tread unwarily; and, indeed, this was
so, for the old Mosutu's foresight was no mere empty frothing, but of
portentous weight, as, indeed, were all his utterances.

While these things were in progress, _Nkose_, the white priest was
absent from Kwa'zingwenya; for since the day of his interference at the
Pool of the Alligators, the King chose, when possible, to find some
pre