“Even as a spear, too, did the bitter derision of the King’s voice cut. Then it flashed across me that Nangeza must have been put to the torture and questioned, for how otherwise could my ambitious dreams and intentions have become known, since I had breathed no word of them to any other, not even to old Masuka?
“‘Behold him, ye people!’ went on the King. ‘Behold him, my shield-bearer, my inceku, my chief runner! The confidence which I placed in him as the first has moved him to try to be greater than I; his opportunities as the second he has used to rob the Isigodhlo; while his powers as the last have enabled him to flee fast and far. As a cow to her calf, so have I been to Untúswa, my inceku, yet he has run away to seek milk elsewhere, and that not alone. Well, Untúswa? And thy voice? Hast thou nothing to say?’
“‘Nothing, O Great Great One,’ I answered, standing there alone, with the eyes of the whole nation upon me. ‘Nothing, for every word is the truth. Even now I walk upon the very edge of the darkness of death, and look forth into the blackness of its night. But let the double doom be mine, O Elephant whose tread, rumbleth the world, and spare the other, for I it was who beguiled her—bewitched her, if you will.’
“At this bold admission a gasp escaped from all who heard it, and men put their hands to their mouths in wonder. But the band of izanusi who scowled hard by broke into mutterings. The eyes of old Masuka, however, began to glow with a strange and glittering light.
“‘Ha! Fearest thou nothing, Untúswa?’ said the King. ‘The death of the hot stones, the stake of impalement, the nest of the black ants?’
“‘I fear but the frown of the King,’ I answered, although in truth a sweat broke out upon me at the mention of these terrible torments, but seldom used among us, and then only at the instigation of the izanusi. ‘But, Father, spare the other—spare Nangeza.’
“If it were possible, I had thought I saw just such an expression pass across the King’s face as sometimes dwelt there when he was especially pleased and good-humoured. But what mockery! As if such a thing could be!
“‘Of the girl I will talk presently. But for thyself, Untúswa—dost thou utter no word for thine own life?’
“‘No word, Great Great One; for the doer of such a deed as I have done hath never yet failed to find death as his reward—never since our nation was a nation. I desire death no more than any other, yet do I not brave it day by day in the service of the King? To ask my life would be but a waste of words.’
“‘And thou, Ntelani! Hast thou no word for the life of thy son?’