Part 13 (2/2)
I exah to ad on his hands and knees This hole Lalusini used to stop at night by rolling a stone against its mouth, yet the stone did not fill up the entire hole, but only enough to render it too se body
”It is safe,” I said, testing the weight ”Nothing large enough to be harmful could force an entrance, yet I must try and slay that lion And now, Lalusini, I must return, for it will be dark by the time I arrive, and our people like not those ander overht-time”
We took an affectionate leave of each other, yet Lalusini would not at that ti of her own tale, and I made my way back to the top of the mountain And all the way homeward my mind was full of her whoreatness she had hinted at, and how such was in store for hty nation--and reater than our own, as she had said it was But most of all I pondered as to how I should ever be able to bring her in a's suspicions should not take the right road
Thus thinking, and alternately singing to round at a swift pace, yet by the tieza was seated within alone As I entered she looked up with a frown upon her face; and, indeed, a froas more often to be found there than a sreat hunter,” she said ame?”
”I have none,” I answered shortly, for I was in no humour to be worried by this woman's evil temper
”None?” she echoed ”Yet there are blood spots about thee, Untuswa”
There were In dragging the buck down through the hole into Lalusini's hiding-place I had becootten to wash away
”I slew but two small bucks,” I said ”One I ate in the ave to old Masuka”
”Didst thou take it to him in the _isiGodhlo_, Untuswa? For there has the old Mosutu been since the sun was at its highest, and is there still Yet I saw thee from far off over the plain, and certainly thou hast not been to the _isiGodhlo_, which is far beyond this house,” she answered; and her tones were jeering, and her eyes shone with evil fire, as those of a snake
”Enough!” I cried ”Enough of this!” And, bending down to the side of the hut, I took up a stick, and advanced towards her; for I was furious
”I have never beaten thee, Nangeza, but hadst thou belonged to any other man, I think by this time not a whole bone would remain within thee Now, of thine evil teue”
She retreated back as far as she could to the side of the hut--her eyes flashi+ng, her lips drawn back froums, like those of a wild beast
But it was ti co's army would be under the command of a woman
”Beware, Untuswa!” she snarled ”Beware! I made thee! Yea, I! And I will unmake thee!”
”_Whau_! if any one , and old Masuka, perhaps” And then, as I saw her looking around for a weapon, I--well, I gave her no opportunity of either finding one or losing one; and, I think, _Nkose_, h she had been rolled down the rocky side of a very high mountain; while I went to the huts of ht in singing, and jests, and laughter But the fault lay with Nangeza's evil and inquisitive teh I were the wo Wherefore, froht the coht cheer and alad to do
Now, on theas to the punishht have spared herself the trouble, for U her that she was fortunate indeed in having to deal with me, and that warriors were not to be ruled by women, but the other way round Then he bade them drive her froh with eza hatedhatred, and set herself to work to bring about h it should cost her her life
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
”THE PLACE OF THE ALLIGATORS”
During this while, since we had ”eaten up” the Bakoni, we had been living in hastily run up huts Many, indeed, had not even these, but lived and slept in the open But now the King gave orders that we should ree kraal
The site of this was a pleasant open plain, well grassed, and sprinkled with ood-sized river
The slaves and woreat circles were marked out, and in a few days there stood a noble kraal, built on the Zulu plan; the great open space ringed in by a double thorn-fence as high as a man's head, bethich stood the rows of round-topped huts, and the _isiGodhlo_, or royal enclosure, at the upper end, partitioned off by a fence of fine woven grass This kraal was of greater size than Ekupus far pleasanter, for there was abundance of grass, atered by strea plains and dark forest belts were swaraators, which last the King would not allow any man to kill; so that they soon increased in nu extent; indeed, from this it was that our new kraal took its naators” And when it was cohter of cattle and general feasting, for here we intended totime to come