“Indeed.  Wherefore then are your faces set towards the south.  Does the Black One live in the south?  Well, you will journey to another kraal presently,” answered the jovial-looking captain of the party with a callous laugh.

“I do not understand,” stammered Umgona.

“Then I will explain while you rest,” said the captain.  “The Chief Maputa yonder sent word to the Black One at Ulundi that he had learned of your intended flight to Natal from the lips of this white man, who had warned him of it.  The Black One was angry, and despatched us to catch you and make an end of you.  That is all.  Come on now, quietly, and let us finish the matter.  As the Doom Pool is near, your deaths will be easy.”

Nahoon heard the words, and sprang straight at the throat of Hadden; but he did not reach it, for the soldiers pulled him down.  Nanea heard them also, and turning, looked the traitor in the eyes; she said nothing, she only looked, but he could never forget that look.  The white man for his part was filled with a fiery indignation against Maputa.

“You wicked villain,” he gasped, whereat the chief smiled in a sickly fashion, and turned away.

Then they were marched along the banks of the stream till they reached the waterfall that fell into the Pool of Doom.

Hadden was a brave man after his fashion, but his heart quailed as he gazed into that abyss.

“Are you going to throw me in there?” he asked of the Zulu captain in a thick voice.

“You, White Man?” replied the soldier unconcernedly.  “No, our orders are to take you to the king, but what he will do with you I do not know.  There is to be war between your people and ours, so perhaps he means to pound you into medicine for the use of the witch-doctors, or to peg you over an ant-heap as a warning to other white men.”

Hadden received this information in silence, but its effect upon his brain was bracing, for instantly he began to search out some means of escape.

By now the party had halted near the two thorn trees that hung over the waters of the pool.

“Who dives first,” asked the captain of the Chief Maputa.

“The old wizard,” he replied, nodding at Umgona; “then his daughter after him, and last of all this fellow,” and he struck Nahoon in the face with his open hand.

“Come on, Wizard,” said the captain, grasping Umgona by the arm, “and let us see how you can swim.”

At the words of doom Umgona seemed to recover his self-command, after the fashion of his race.

“No need to lead me, soldier,” he said, shaking himself loose, “who am old and ready to die.”  Then he kissed his daughter at his side, wrung Nahoon by the hand, and turning from Hadden with a gesture of contempt walked out upon the platform that joined the two thorn trunks.  Here he stood for a moment looking at the setting sun, then suddenly, and without a sound, he hurled himself into the abyss below and vanished.