“It may be so,” said Cetewayo sullenly, “yet it was no spirit iron that cut my thigh, but what do I know of the ways of Spirits?  Wizard, I would speak with you in your hut alone where no ear can hear us.”

“My hut is the King’s,” answered Zikali, “yet let the King remember that those Spirits of which he does not know the ways, can always hear, yes, even the thoughts of men, and on them do judgment.”

“Fear not,” said Cetewayo, “amongst many other things I remember this also.”

Then Zikali turned and crept into the hut, whispering as he passed me—­

“Lie silent for your life.”  And Cetewayo having bidden his retinue to depart outside the fence and await him there, followed after him.

They sat them down on either side of the smouldering fire and stared at each other through the thin smoke there in the gloom of the hut.  By turning my head that the foot of the king had brushed as he passed, I could watch them both.  Cetewayo spoke the first in a hoarse, slow voice, saying—­

“Wizard, I am in danger of my life and I have come to you who know all the secrets of this land, that you may tell me in what place I may hide where the white men cannot find me.  It must be told into my ear alone, since I dare not trust the matter to any other, at any rate until I must.  They are traitors every man of them, yes, even those who seem to be most faithful.  The fallen man has no friends, least of all if he chances to be a king.  Only the dead will keep his counsel.  Tell me of the place I need.”

“Dingaan, who was before you, once asked this same thing of me, O King, when he was flying from Panda your father, and the Boers.  I gave him advice that he did not take, but sought a refuge of his own upon a certain Ghost-mountain.  What happened to him there that Mopo, of whom you spoke a while ago, can tell you if he still lives."*

[*—­See Nada the Lily.—­EDITOR.]

“Surely you are an ill-omened night-bird who thus croak to me continually of the death of kings,” broke in Cetewayo with suppressed rage.  Then calming himself with an effort added, “Tell me now, where shall I hide?”

“Would you know, King?  Then hearken.  On the south slope of the Ingome Range west of the Ibululwana River, on the outskirts of the great forest, there is a kloof whereof the entrance, which only one man can pass at a time, is covered by a thicket of thorns and marked by a black rock shaped like a great toad with an open mouth, or, as some say, like myself, ‘The-Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born.’  Near to this rock dwells an old woman, blind of one eye and lacking a hand, which the Black One cut off shortly before his death, because when he killed her father, she saw the future and prophesied a like death to him, although then she was but a child.  This woman is of our company, being a witch-doctoress.  I will send a Spirit to her, if you so will it, to warn her to watch for you and your company, O King, and show you the mouth of the kloof, where are some old huts and water.  There you will never be found unless you are betrayed.”