Part 24 (1/2)

Then I woke U Inkosi-kaas round his head

'It is well,' he said 'I feel as a young th has come back to me, ay, even as a laood fight; the wine and the sleep have put a new heart into me

'Macumazahn, I have dreaether on a star, and looked down on the world, and thou wast as a spirit, Macuh thy flesh, but I could not see as the fashi+on of mine own face The hour has come for us, old hunter So be it: we have had our tihts as yesterday's

'Let them bury me after the fashi+on of my people, Macumazahn, and set my eyes towards Zululand;' and he tookfoe

Just then, to my astonishment, the Zu-Vendi officer Kara clambered over our improvised wall in his quiet, deter his sword as he did so

'What, cohed out the old warrior 'Welcome--a welcome to thee, brave heart! Ow! for the rip and the ringing of steel Oe are ready We wet our beaks like eagles, our spears flash in the sun; we shake our assegais, and are hungry to fight Who co to the Chieftainess [Inkosi-kaas]? Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit is death? I, the Woodpecker, I, the Slaughterer, I the Swiftfooted! I, Uaas, of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of Aiaas, the son of Indabazimbi, the son of Arpi the son of Mosilikaatze, I of the royal blood of T'Chaka, I of the King's House, I the Ringed Man, I the Induna, I call to thee them, I await them Ow! it is thou, it is thou!'

As he spake, or rather chanted, his ar-song, the arnized both Nasta and Agon, ca fellow, armed with a heavy spear, dashed up the ten sereat Zulu with the spear Us, so that the blow h headpiece, hair and skull, and thedown the steps As he dropped, his round hippopotamus-hide shi+eld fell from his hand on to the marble, and the Zulu stooped down and seized it, still chanting as he did so

In another second the sturdy Kara had also slain a an a scene the like of which has not been known to me

Up rushed the assailants, one, two, three at a time, and as fast as they ca, and down they rolled again, dead or dying And ever as the fight thickened, the old Zulu's eye seeer He shouted out his war-cries and the names of chiefs whoht and true, shearing through everything they fell on

There was none of the scientific ht of his; he had no tith, and at every stroke adown the marble steps

They hacked and hewed at hi him in a dozen places till he streamed red with blood; but the shi+eld protected his head and the chain-shi+rt his vitals, and for allant Zu-Vendi, he still held the stair

At last Kara's sword broke, and he grappled with a foe, and they rolled down together, and he was cut to pieces, dying like the brave aas was alone now, but he never blenched or turned Shouting out some wild Zulu battle-cry, he beat down a foe, ay, and another, and another, till at last they drew back from the slippery blood-stained steps, and stared at hi that he was no mortal h now, and hope rose in , and ground le I could do no more for I had lost aas, he leaned too on his good axe, and, faint as he ounds, he rand old warrior, standing there one against so ainst hion, who, to do hi that the ould soon be built and his plans defeated, shook the great spear he held, and rushed up the dripping steps

'Ah, ah!' shouted the Zulu, as he recognized the priest's flohite beard, 'it is thou, old ”witch-finder”! Come on! I await thee, white ”medicine man”; come on! come on! I have sworn to slay thee, and I ever keephi spear with such force at Uh shi+eld and pierced him in the neck The Zulu cast down the transfixed shi+eld, and that on's last, for before he could free his spear and strike again, with a shout of '_There's for thee, Rain-ripped Inkosi-kaas with both hands and whirled on high and drave her right on to his venerable head, so that Agon rolled down dead a the corpses of his fellow-ether And even as he fell, a great cry rose froh the portion of the doorway that was yet unclosed,ar up to the rescue, and called an answer to their shouts Then the would-be st who nowhere to go, were butchered as they fled Only one reat lord Nasta, Nyleptha's suitor, and the father of the plot For aon his long sword as though in despair, and then, with a dreadful shout, he too rushed up at the Zulu, and, swinging the glittering sword around his head, dealt hiuard, that the keen steel of the heavy blade bit right through the chain ar hiain, Nasta sprang forward to make an end of him, but little he knew his foe With a shake and a yell of fury, the Zulu gathered hiht at Nasta's throat, as I have so He struck hi arether struggling furiously Nasta was a strong est th was as the strength of a bull In a er to his feet--ay, and saw hi Nasta and with a shout of triue, to be crushed to powder on the rocks two hundred feet below

The succour which had been suirl who had passed down the stair before the assassins passed up was at hand, and the loud shouts which reached us froates told us that the toas also aroused, and theto be admitted

Soht-shi+fts and with their long hair strea down their backs, just as they had been aroused from rest, went off to admit them at the side entrance, whilst others, assisted by the rescuing party outside, pushed and pulled down the marble blocks they had placed there with so h the doorway, followed by a crowd of rescuers, staggered old Uure The lance at his wild eye toldupon his head was severed in two places by sword-cuts, one just over the curious hole in his skull, and the blood poured down his face froht side of his neck was a stab froon; there was a deep cut on his left arm just belohere the ht side of his body the arhty sword had bitten through it and deep into its wearer's vitals

On, axe in hand, he staggered, that dreadful-looking, splendid savage, and the ladies forgot to turn faint at the scene of blood, and cheered hiht, but he never stayed or heeded With outstretched arait he pursued his way, followed by us all along the broad shell-strealk that ran through the courtyard, past the spot where the blocks of h the round arched doorway and the thick curtains that hung within it, down the short passage and into the great hall, which was now filling with hastily-arht up the hall he went, leaving behind him a track of blood on the marble pavement, till at last he reached the sacred stone, which stood in the centre of it, and here his strength seemed to fail him, for he stopped and leaned upon his axe Then suddenly he lifted up his voice and cried aloud--

'I die, I die--but it was a kingly fray Where are they who careat stair? I see theone before to wait for o? The blood blinds me--the place turns round--I hear the voice of waters'

Next, as though a new thought had struck him, he lifted the red axe and kissed the blade

'Farewell, Inkosi-kaas,' he cried 'Nay, nay, ill go together; we cannot part, thou and I We have lived too long one with another, thou and I

'One ht stroke! a strong stroke!' and, drawing hi shout, he with both hands began to whirl the axe round his head till it looked like a circle of flaht it down straight on to the crown of the mass of sacred stone A shower of sparks flew up, and such was the alth of the blow, that thesound into a score of pieces, whilst of Inkosi-kaas there rements of steel and a fibrous rope of shattered horn that had been the handle Doith a crash on to the pavements of the holy stone, and doith a crash on to the the knob of Inkosi-kaas, fell the brave old Zulu--_dead_

And thus the hero died

A gasp of wonder and astonishht, and then somebody cried, '_The prophecy! the prophecy!_ He has shattered the sacred stone!' and at once aarose