We passed out of the _isigodhlo_ by a secret way; known to and used by
the King alone. The night was not a dark one, for the stars were
shining bright and clear, and a waning moon hung low down in the
heavens. As we stepped rapidly forth across the open plain we could
make out the dim outline of the great kraal lying silent and slumbrous.
Suddenly the figure of a man rose up, right across our path.
Now we were facing the setting moon, and the man was advancing
stealthily in the direction of the kraal, wherefore we met. His face
was in darkness. Not so ours, however, and as he recognised the lion
countenance of the Great Great One, thus walking abroad by night, he was
seized with a mighty fear, and, uttering the _Bayete_, he crouched low--
hiding his face that we might pass him. And he had looked on the things
of this world for the last time, for the words of the Black Elephant
were fresh in my ears. This man had recognised the King--had spoken the
royal greeting--wherefore, as he crouched, the blade of my broad
_umkonto_ drove through between his shoulders, coming out far through
his breast. So he died there in the night, uttering no further sound.
"That was well done, Untuswa," whispered the King. "I have but one
word, and now there is one _umtagati_ the less. Proceed!"
So we stepped forward again, leaving the slain man lying there; and as
we held on our way, I leading, and gripping my spear, all on the alert
lest we should meet others prompt to recognise the King, we heard before
and around us the howling of hyenas and the yelping of jackals, with now
and again the thunder roar of a lion at no very great distance, also a
strange and unearthly wail, which could come from no beast--but only, it
might be, from the sad ghosts of those slain, who were weeping over
their own shattered bones above the place of slaughter.
"This is a night for _abatagati_ indeed," growled the King. "Yet there
will be more ghosts to weep, Untuswa, after our visit to Ncwelo's pool."
"_Gahle, Nkulu 'nkulu_," I whispered. [Gently, Great Great One.]
"Yonder is Ncwelo's kraal. If his dogs hear us, will not their tongues
be swift to put the conspirators to flight? Yonder by the shade of the
trees must we pass, for they whom we seek will have eyes watching the
plain in all directions."
"Lead on, Untuswa," whispered the King.
Some distance round, under the shade of the trees, had we to travel, for
we dared not cross the open, though to do so were far more direct.
_Au_! it was black where the light of the moon and the stars could not
pierce, and we had to writhe our way as silently as serpents--indeed
more silently, for twice the rustle of some great serpent uncoiling
himself to withdraw slowly from our path, and his shrill angry hiss at
being disturbed, caused us to pause in order to allow him to retreat.
At length I, who was leading, halted and held up a hand. It was not a
sound that I had heard in front through the black gloom, but there had
floated to my nostrils on the clear air of the night an odour. It was
the smell of a horse. Now of horses among us there were but few--all
belonging to the King--and at Ncwelo's kraal were none. The Great Great
One perceived it too, for just then a shaft of moonlight between the
tree-tops revealed his face, and upon it was the eager, smiling,
terrible expression I had seen there more than once, but usually when
leading us into the very thickest of the battle. Yet neither of us
spake, and we resumed our way, though tenfold more cautiously than
before.
Again I held up my hand. We were now where the ground ended. Before
were several jagged pinnacles of rock; in front of these--air. We had
made our way by a circuit to the high ground overlooking the back of
Ncwelo's pool.
There it lay, the pool--its surface glistening in the moonlight,
reflecting the stars--lying beneath us at a depth, it might be, of eight
or ten times the length of a man; and the murmur of voices rose to our
ears, together with the occasional stamp of a horse and the sound as of
the shaking of a saddle. The grasp of the King's hand tightened on my
shoulder, as we drew ourselves yet nearer to the brink of the rocks and
peered cautiously forth.
"Listen, Untuswa," he breathed into my ear. "Mark well the voices, lest
the darkness prevent us from seeing the speakers. Ha!" he added, "that,
at any rate, is a voice thou shouldst know."
And there in truth, _Nkose_, Umzilikazi spoke no lie; for the voice was
that of Ntelani, my father.
It was raised in reproof. Someone at that moment was striking a light--
with the stone fire-makers the white men used at that time--and there
arose to our nostrils the odour of tobacco being smoked in a pipe. But
while this light still flamed we made out with the greatest plainness
the faces of six men.
Yes, in that flash we saw them all, for they were immediately below us.
Two were white men, with rough faces covered with thick shaggy beards.
They wore large hats and clothing made of dressed leather, and were
armed with knives and long guns. They were tall, big men, but slow and
heavy of speech and aspect. We knew them in a moment for Amabuna
[Boers].
The other four were our own people: Tyuyumane, an influential _induna_
and a relation of the King; Notalwa, the head of our witch doctors;
Senkonya, another _induna_, and my father Ntelani. The latter was
speaking:
"I fear lest the odour of _gwai_ thus burned spread far into the
stillness of the night, for none of us Amazulu use our _gwai_ in such
wise. Wherefore it will be known that white men are about."
But that Ibuna answered roughly that he cared nothing if it reached the
nostrils of Umzilikazi himself, save that he uttered the King's name
"Selekas," so badly did that people speak with our tongue.
The other, however, reproved him, which was well, for our people,
traitors though they were, liked not to listen to that sort of talk.
"And now, Ntelani," went on this man, speaking softly and pleasantly,
"if we help you in the matter, how do you propose to carry out the
change?"
"Thus," replied my father, having paused awhile to take snuff and think.
"Umzilikazi is great--he is a lion--a buffalo bull--an elephant. The
young men are with him. The young men are all his dogs, for he gives
them plenty of fighting and abundance of spoil. Moreover, he allows
them to _tunga_ while yet children, and exalts them to be _izinduna_
over the heads of their fathers. Their fathers are to be their dogs.
He loves not old men as _izinduna_. He creates _izinduna_ out of
children like himself."
[Note: Tunga means "Sew"--the head-ring--i.e. marry.]
Now the King pushed me as we lay and listened, for both of us understood
this speech, which was not even dark. Then my father went on:--
"Here is my plan, leader of the Amabuna. We must have a King, but when
the Elephant who now trumpets is henceforth trumpeting in black night
the warriors will demand a leader, and no man is there who holds their
hearts like one, a lion-cub which I have bred, for he is fearless in
war, and him they will have to reign over them. This wish they must
have granted, if only to accustom them to the change. He shall be
King--King for a day--ah! ah!"
And my father chuckled with malice as he took more snuff.
"But what if he will not? What if he remains faithful to Umzilikazi?"
said the leader of the Amabuna; for that people talks plain, and
understands not our way of dark speaking.
"_Au_! Will he not?" sneered my father. "I tell thee, Ibuna, that he
would slay the King with his own hand but to sit in his seat, if only
for a day."
Now, _Nkose_, my fury well-nigh got the mastery over me. Such dangerous
and fatal words uttered by my father in the hearing of the Great Great
One struck dismay into my heart, for the minds of Kings are ever
suspicious, and had not I been brought there half under suspicion
myself? Besides, they were not true; for even were the chance to offer,
I would not sit in the seat of Umzilikazi in his lifetime. For he had
made me great, and, in reality, second only to himself. No thought of
treason was in my heart, nor had there ever been since the time when, as
a hot-headed and foolish boy, I had all but thrown away my life for the
sake of a girl; but since then--_au_! had the whole nation turned
against the King, I, even if the only one, would have kept faithful to
him, would have given my life for his. Further, my father's intended
treachery towards myself--towards the King and the nation--made my blood
flow hot; for no promises of advantage on the part of these lying
Amabuna would ever have deceived me, even could I see of what advantage
they could be to us. I began to "see red." It was all I could do not
to plunge down the rocks and slay Ntelani where he sat, even though he
were my own father. And something of this must have shown itself--I
know not how--for again that grasp of iron was upon my shoulder,
pressing me down, and the King's voice breathed into my ear--
"_Gahle, gahle_, Untuswa. Hast thou not even yet learned sound
judgment, thou who art no more a boy, but a _kehla_, and the leader of
warriors in battle? Give ear now while these creeping scorpions advance
even further and further into the black jaws of death."
So we lay and listened, and presently we knew all there was to know,
and, in truth, the news was great, for many things had been hatching
within the womb of Time. We learned that Tshaka, the Mighty One, the
Lion of Zulu, was no more, and that Dingane, a brother of that Elephant,
had reddened his spear in the Great One's blood, and now sat as King in
Zululand. We learned that the Amabuna were coming up out of the west--
advancing in great numbers, with guns and horses, desiring the land
which lay between the Tugela and the sea--and to obtain this, their
leaders sought the aid of our nation, promising to set up as King in
Zululand he who should aid them the most in their war against Dingane.
But before this should happen, Umzilikazi must be sent to join his
father, for great as he might have reason to dread the power of Dingane,
these plotters knew that he hated that of the Amabuna still more, and
that by no inducement whatever could he be brought to listen to their
promises, still less to trust in them.
All this we drank in as we lay there among the rocks, listening to that
dark midnight plot--all this and more: how the old men were
dissatisfied, because of the favour shown to the younger ones--yet this
was necessary, _Nkose_, for ours was a young nation, which had to carve
out its own place with the arms and assegais of its warriors, most of
whom were young. So we lay in the black midnight stillness, listening
to these _abatagati_ squatted around by the rock-hung pool, and the
dismal howling of beasts far and near seemed to re-echo their foul and
evil plotting. But at the last we learned something more. Should I,
the son of Ntelani, refuse to be made King--for a day--ah! yes, only for
a day--the _induna_ Tyuyumane was to reign. And with this understanding
the Amabuna rose to depart. As they swung themselves into their saddles
the one who had spoken more pleasantly said:
"The day after the new moon then, Ntelani, an Elephant will fall into
the staked pit from which there is no escape. Our people, with guns and
horses, will be at hand. Is that so?"
"That is so, leader of the Amabuna," grunted my father. "_Au_! from the
spear of a pitfall there is no escape, even for the Elephant." And the
others laughed deeply as they assented.
"My father," I whispered, as the Amabuna rode off, "shall I not go down
and slay yonder four?"
"Not so, Untuswa," whispered the King in reply.
"Shall I not then go and call forth an _impi_ to eat up those dirty
white jackals, O Elephant for whom no pit shall be laid?"
"Not so, Untuswa. Ha! It is the whole nest of foul birds that shall be
destroyed--not two only, that the remainder may take alarm and escape."
After the Amabuna had gone, those four traitors sat there in the
darkness and talked more freely, and in the course of this _indaba_ it
was arranged that Tyuyumane should sit in the seat of the Great Great
ONE. But, first of all, on the day after the new moon, when the Amabuna
should be at hand with their horses and guns, it was settled that I was
to reign for a little while, only to accustom the younger warriors to
the change; then I was to be sent to travel the road of Umzilikazi. All
this these four fools talked over among themselves, little thinking what
ears were drinking in their words--little dreaming what a sharp and
fiery throne awaited Tyuyumane--and, indeed, all of them. Then the moon
sank down, and darkness lay upon the face of that wizard pool, and
silently the conspirators rose and were gone.
"Ha! Untuswa," whispered the King in mockery, "soon will the nation cry
thee the _Bayete_. How now? Dost thou not feel already great?"
"Mock me not, Black Elephant," I pleaded; "mock me not that I am
begotten of Ntelani, who is the very chief of fools. If the fooleries,
which we have just heard seem to the mind of the Great Great One true,
then let him slay me as I stand. If not, suffer that I slay their
utterers."
And, dropping my assegai--the King's Assegai--I turned my breast to the
Black Elephant, even as on that day when I stood expecting the
death-stroke in the sight of all the nation.
"Not yet, Untuswa, not yet," was the answer, uttered softly. "Lead on
now, that we may return before these _abatagati_ smell that the Lion has
been on their track."
Now, as we took our way beneath the blackness of the forest shades, it
seemed to me, _Nkose_, that I was standing with one foot upon the point
of an exceedingly lofty pinnacle, which point pierced more and more my
foot, and yet on each and every side was the dizzy height of death. For
now came back to me those plotting and foolish dreams of the days when
my principal wife, Nangeza, and myself were making love without
permission, and breaking daily the stern law of our nation. Then we had
talked over the possibility which lay before every man who knew not
fear, and who dared stake everything on fate, and how no man was more
fitted to aspire to the rule of a warrior race than such a born warrior
as myself; and, although now I had come to see the foolishness of such
dreams--for I loved Umzilikazi as a dog does his master--and, further,
was happy enough in my position as second fighting _induna_--yet it
might be that Nangeza, who was ill-disposed to me now by reason of her
evil and over-reaching temper, had whispered abroad such old tales--
adding insidiously to them, as the manner is with women--and these might
have reached the ears of the King--as what indeed did not?--and, taken
with what he had just heard, might mean my downfall. Yet I could do
nothing, save to trust in my steady and faithful services to the King,
and the weight and general soundness of my counsel; for, young as I was,
the Great Great One took counsel of me oft, though secretly--oftener,
indeed, than of older _izinduna_, such as my father Ntelani, or even
Mcumbete, who of all his counsellors was the most trusted.
Suddenly the King's hand fell upon my shoulder again, pressing me down
gently but firmly to the very earth. Not a moment too soon, for as we
lay crouching there, over us passed the four conspirators--right over
us, so that had they trodden but a foot's breadth to one side they had
touched us. They were now upon the edge of the brush, and we could see
their forms clearly outlined against the stars. Moreover, each held his
broad assegai in his right hand, for the man who wanders at night does
well to be prepared for peril at every step. As for me, I desired
nothing better than to have at them then and there; but that restraining
grasp relaxed not on my shoulder, and the will of the Great Great One
was sufficient. So we let those traitors go for the moment, but better
had it been for them had we stricken them down in the darkness as they
walked.
We regained the _isigodhlo_ by the same secret way, and perceived of
none. But before dismissing me for the night the King whispered a few
orders. And then I knew that the morrow would witness terrible things--
that, for some at least, it should bring forth that which might well
make them wish they had never been born.