“Nangeza the while was still in her father’s hands, for Gungana, although he desired to possess the girl, was of a close-fisted nature, and would not offer sufficient lobola, saying that the condescension of an induna of the King in taking a girl whose father was of no especial rank should more than make up for the deficiency. But this her father stoutly refused to see; on the contrary, he maintained that a man of Gungana’s rank ought to give more than one who was nobody at all. So the negotiations hung in the air, to my great satisfaction, although this might be short-lived, for at any moment either party might yield.
“We had not been together over-much, Nangeza and I, since the day which had ended so fatally for my brother, Sekweni. In truth, our narrow escape then had rather frightened us; besides, we looked upon the sad outcome of it as a bad omen. Meanwhile, my permission to tunga seemed as far off as ever, and long before it came Nangeza might be out of my reach. There were plenty of other girls, certainly, but I was young then, Nkose, and a fool, and had not yet found out that one girl is just as soon tired, of as another. But I have had sixteen wives since those days, and I have found it out now—yeh-bo! I have found it out now.
“‘Carry out my plan; Untúswa,’ she said to me once, when we were able to speak for a few moments. ‘That is our only chance.’
“‘Whau! in good truth,’ I answered, ‘a madder scheme never yet was set forth.’
“She shrugged her splendid shoulders, uttering a disdainful click.
“‘If it is only to risk your life, son of Ntelani, do you not risk it daily in the King’s service?’
“This was true. Still, I have ever observed that the man who risks his life in the ordinary way is prone to shrink and draw back when some entirely new and untrodden path of death opens out before him. In my perplexity I bethought me of Masuka.
“The old isanusi, who was now high in the King’s favour, occupied a hut by himself; for we were again in a temporary camp. It was said that he passed all his days making múti, for men rarely saw him, and when he did come abroad, he would creep about in a quiet, retiring way, as though he were the most harmless and inoffensive of our aged people. Of him, of course, our own izanusi were fiercely envious, and plotted darkly his undoing. Yet he enjoyed the King’s favour, wherefore none dare lift hand or tongue against him.
“I found the old man seated outside his hut staring blankly into space. In front of him was a small bowl containing a black, sticky substance.
“‘Greeting, Father of the Fire-Spirit!’ I said.