Part 42 (1/2)

”I am that Slaughterer, O Dingaan, no more a king, whom thou didst send Slayers many and fierce to eat up at the kraal of the People of the Axe.

Where are thy Slayers now, O Dingaan? Before all is done thou shalt look upon them.”

”Kill me and make an end; it is your hour,” said Dingaan.

”Not yet awhile, O son of Senzangacona,” answered Umslopogaas, ”and not here. There lived a certain woman and she was named Nada the Lily. I was her husband, O Dingaan, and Mopo here, he was her father. But, alas!

she died, and sadly--she lingered three days and nights before she died.

Thou shalt see the spot and hear the tale, O Dingaan. It will wring thy heart, which was ever tender. There lived certain children, born of another woman named Zinita, little children, sweet and loving. I was their father, O Elephant in a pit, and one Dingaan slew them. Of them thou shalt hear also. Now away, for the path is far!”

Two days went by, my father, and Dingaan sat bound and alone in the cave on Ghost Mountain. We had dragged him slowly up the mountain, for he was heavy as an ox. Three men pus.h.i.+ng at him and three others pulling on a cord about his middle, we dragged him up, staying now and again to show him the bones of those whom he had sent out to kill us, and telling him the tale of that fight.

Now at length we were in the cave, and I sent away those who were with us, for we wished to be alone with Dingaan at the last. He sat down on the floor of the cave, and I told him that beneath the earth on which he sat lay the bones of that Nada whom he had murdered and the bones of Galazi the Wolf.

On the third day before the dawn we came again and looked upon him.

”Slay me,” he said, ”for the Ghosts torment me!”

”No longer art thou great, O shadow of a king,” I said, ”who now dost tremble before two Ghosts out of all the thousands that thou hast made.

Say, then, how shall it fare with thee presently when thou art of their number?”

Now Dingaan prayed for mercy.