*****

Late that night, just as Hadden was beginning to prepare himself for sleep, he heard a gentle tapping at the board which closed the entrance to his hut.

“Enter,” he said, unfastening the door, and presently by the light of the little lantern that he had with him, he saw Nanea creep into the hut, followed by the great form of Nahoon.

“Inkoos,” she said in a whisper when the door was closed again, “I have pleaded with Nahoon, and he has consented to fly; moreover, my father will come also.”

“Is it so, Nahoon?” asked Hadden.

“It is so,” answered the Zulu, looking down shamefacedly; “to save this girl from the king, and because the love of her eats out my heart, I have bartered away my honour.  But I tell you, Nanea, and you, White Man, as I told Umgona just now, that I think no good will come of this flight, and if we are caught or betrayed, we shall be killed every one of us.”

“Caught we can scarcely be,” broke in Nanea anxiously, “for who could betray us, except the Inkoos here——­”

“Which he is not likely to do,” said Hadden quietly, “seeing that he desires to escape with you, and that his life is also at stake.”

“That is so, Black Heart,” said Nahoon, “otherwise I tell you that I should not have trusted you.”

Hadden took no notice of this outspoken saying, but until very late that night they sat there together making their plans.

*****

On the following morning Hadden was awakened by sounds of violent altercation.  Going out of his hut he found that the disputants were Umgona and a fat and evil-looking Kaffir chief who had arrived at the kraal on a pony.  This chief, he soon discovered, was named Maputa, being none other than the man who had sought Nanea in marriage and brought about Nahoon’s and Umgona’s unfortunate appeal to the king.  At present he was engaged in abusing Umgona furiously, charging him with having stolen certain of his oxen and bewitched his cows so that they would not give milk.  The alleged theft it was comparatively easy to disprove, but the wizardry remained a matter of argument.

“You are a dog, and a son of a dog,” shouted Maputa, shaking his fat fist in the face of the trembling but indignant Umgona.  “You promised me your daughter in marriage, then having vowed her to that umfagozan—­that low lout of a soldier, Nahoon, the son of Zomba—­you went, the two of you, and poisoned the king’s ear against me, bringing me into trouble with the king, and now you have bewitched my cattle.  Well, wait, I will be even with you, Wizard; wait till you wake up in the cold morning to find your fence red with fire, and the slayers standing outside your gates to eat up you and yours with spears——­”

At this juncture Nahoon, who till now had been listening in silence, intervened with effect.

“Good,” he said, “we will wait, but not in your company, Chief Maputa. Hamba! (go)——­” and seizing the fat old ruffian by the scruff of his neck, he flung him backwards with such violence that he rolled over and over down the little slope.