Nombe slid past us.  She threw off the kaross she wore and for the first time appeared naked except for the mucha about her middle and her ornaments.  Down she went on her hands and knees and in this humble posture crept towards Zikali.  Arriving in front of him she touched the ground with her forehead, then lifting her right arm, gave the salute of Makosi, to which as a great wizard he was entitled, being supposed to be the home of many spirits.  So far as I could see he took no notice of her.  Presently she moved and squatted herself down on his right hand, while two of his attendants appeared from behind the hut and took their stand between him and its doorway, holding their spears raised.  About a minute later Nombe beckoned to us to approach, and we went forward across the courtyard, I a little ahead of the others.  As we drew near Zikali opened his mouth and uttered a loud and terrifying laugh.  How well I remembered that laugh which I had first heard at Dingaan’s kraal as a boy after the murder of Retief and the Boers.*

[*—­See the book called Marie, by H. Rider Haggard.]

“I begin to think that you are right and that this old gentleman must be the devil,” said Anscombe to Heda, then lapsed into silence.

As I was determined not to speak first I took the opportunity to fill my pipe.  Zikali, who was watching me, although all the while he seemed to be staring at the setting sun, made a sign.  One of the servants dashed away and immediately returned, bearing a flaming brand which he proffered to me as a pipe-lighter.  Then he departed again to bring three carved stools of red wood which he placed for us.  I looked at mine and knew it again by the carvings.  It was the same on which I had sat when first I met Zikali.  At length he spoke in his deep, slow voice.

“Many years have gone by, Macumazahn, since you made use of that stool.  They are cut in notches upon the leg you hold and you may count them if you will.”

I examined the leg.  There were the notches, twenty-two or three of them.  On the other legs were more notches too numerous to reckon.

“Do not look at those, Macumazahn, for they have nothing to do with you.  They tell the years since the first of the House of Senzangacona sat upon that stool, since Chaka sat upon it, since Dingaan and others sat upon it, one Mameena among them.  Well, much has happened since it served you for a rest.  You have wandered far and seen strange things and lived where others would have died because it was your lot to live, of all of which we will talk afterwards.  And now when you are grey you have come back here, as the Opener of Roads told you you would do, bringing with you new companions, you who have the art of making friends even when you are old, which is one given to few men.  Where are those with whom you used to company, Macumazahn?  Where are Saduko and Mameena and the rest?  All gone except the Thing-who-should-never-have-been-born,” and again he laughed loudly.