ini, thou who art of that house thyself?"

"Revenge!"

"Revenge? For the death of the Black One who begat thee?" said
Umzilikazi.

"Revenge!--and one other thing, and this the King will not refuse?"

"And that is--?"

"The time to declare it is not yet, Great Great One."

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

"THE PLACE OF THE THREE RIFTS."

Now, in the days which followed upon the revelation of Lalusini's birth
and parentage, and the prospects and possibilities at which she more
than hinted, the mind of the King seemed to contain but one thought, and
that was the greatness which might be his by boldly risking all to seize
it, by judgment in choosing the right time. To this end he would
converse with her for a whole day at a time, and, in some wise at least,
every day. Indeed, the predictions and influence of the beautiful
sorceress seemed to thrust those of old Masuka quite into the
background, and seldom now were his divinations required. Yet, _Nkose_,
that astonishing old bag of bones seemed in nowise to resent this waning
of the royal favour. His bright, keen eyes would flash forth a laugh
when he met or passed Lalusini, but in his greetings of her there was no
tone of envy or of ill-will. Even the white priest the King seldom
conversed with in those days; nor was this strange, for with such an
immense undertaking before our eyes, involving war, and bloodshed, such
as, perhaps, the Zulu nation--and certainly our own--had never seen,
Umzilikazi had little desire for the conversation of one whose preaching
was all of peace. _Whau_! What had we to do with peace, we who sought
the overthrow of mighty Kings? But the white man cared little for this
neglect. As long as he was allowed to go about the country striving to
win men to his teaching, he was happy.

Now, in these conversations I also took part, I alone being in the
secret, for Umzilikazi ordered that no word as to Lalusini's birth or
his own schemes should leak out. Moreover, now I found opportunities of
talking alone with her, such as I had dared not before seek.

"Well, Untuswa?" she said, mockingly, one day, when we two talked alone.
"So, when the eagle's nest was empty and the she-eagle had gone, your
first thought was that the lion you had then slain had robbed the nest?"

"Who says I slew a lion that day, Lalusini, for I searched the whole
mountain, yet upon it was none, save only myself?"

"Ah, ah! son of Ntelani," she laughed. "Thou who, with