with Umbelazi, who has helped him in his plots, she will be killed if she is caught.  Macumazahn, hearken to me.  I will tell you the truth.  My heart is still on fire for that woman.  She has bewitched me; her eyes haunt my sleep and I hear her voice in the wind.  She is more to me than all the earth and all the sky, and although she has wronged me I do not wish that harm should come to her.  Macumazahn, I pray you if I die, do your best to befriend her, even though it be only as a servant in your house, for I think that she cares more for you than for anyone, who only ran away with him”—­and he pointed in the direction that Umbelazi had taken—­“because he is a prince, who, in her folly, she believes will be a king.  At least take her to Natal, Macumazahn, where, if you wish to be free of her, she can marry whom she will and will live safe until night comes.  Panda loves you much, and, whoever conquers in the war, will give you her life if you ask it of him.”

Then this strange man drew the back of his hand across his eyes, from which I saw the tears were running, and, muttering, “If you would have good fortune remember my prayer,” turned and left me before I could answer a single word.

As for me, I sat down upon an ant-heap and whistled a whole hymn tune that my mother had taught me before I could think at all.  To be left the guardian of Mameena!  Talk of a “damnosa hereditas,” a terrible and mischievous inheritance—­why, this was the worst that ever I heard of.  A servant in my house indeed, knowing what I did about her!  Why, I had sooner share the “good fortune” which Umbelazi anticipated beneath the sod.  However, that was not in the question, and without it the alternative of acting as her guardian was bad enough, though I comforted myself with the reflection that the circumstances in which this would become necessary might never arise.  For, alas!  I was sure that if they did arise I should have to live up to them.  True, I had made no promise to Saduko with my lips, but I felt, as I knew he felt, that this promise had passed from my heart to his.

“That thief Umbelazi!” Strange words to be uttered by a great vassal of his lord, and both of them about to enter upon a desperate enterprise.  “A prince whom in her folly she believes will be a king.”  Stranger words still.  Then Saduko did not believe that he would be a king!  And yet he was about to share the fortunes of his fight for the throne, he who said that his heart was still on fire for the woman whom “Umbelazi the thief” had stolen.  Well, if I were Umbelazi, thought I to myself, I would rather that Saduko were not my chief councillor and general.  But, thank Heaven!  I was not Umbelazi, or Saduko, or any of them!  And, thank Heaven still more, I was going to begin my trek from Zululand on the morrow!

Man proposes but God disposes.  I did not trek from Zululand for many a long day.  When I got back to my wagons it was to find that my oxen had mysteriously disappeared from the veld on which they were accustomed to graze.  They were lost; or perhaps they had felt the urgent need of trekking from Zululand back to a more peaceful country.  I sent all the hunters I had with me to look for them, only Scowl and I remaining at the wagons, which in those disturbed times I did not like to leave unguarded.