For several days I went about as usual, to the eyes of men showing no
difference in my converse and behaviour. At first all would watch me
furtively, as though to observe what effect my loss would have on me, if
any; but this soon ceased as they saw no difference, and indeed this was
not strange, for it is not our custom to allow ourselves to be affected
by the loss of a woman, more or less. There were plenty more women in
the nation, and I, Untuswa, the second commander of the King's hosts,
could take as many wives as I chose. The King had given me this
particular wife, and if he chose to take her from me, openly or
secretly, who might run his will against the will of the Great Great
One, at whose word we held our lives?
So men looked at it, but I--well, I looked at it from another point of
view. That the King's hand moved behind the matter I could see by the
uniform silence with which it was treated, nor could I even overhear so
much as the "darkest" of talking among any of the people. But I was
awaiting my time, and to allay suspicion I took a new wife. She was
young and good-tempered, and was a daughter of Xulawayo, an induna of
rank, and a commander of high standing in the army, by reason of which
he demanded much cattle in _lobola_ for her, all of which I paid him
without objection. This astonished him greatly, nor could he sleep for
three nights for wishing he had demanded more. But I had an object in
view, which was to bind so influential a leader as Xulawayo more closely
to me against the time for striking my blow.
Now of this I never lost sight for a moment. Carefully I sounded my own
followers, and lost no opportunity of rendering myself popular among the
army at large. Yet the game was a terribly risky one, and I felt as a
man might who attempts to walk on a ridge of rock no wider than an
assegai blade, with the depth of a whole mountain on either side. But
the game was worth the risk, for I was playing for a throne and for
revenge.
Now and again the King would rally me.
"Taking new wives at last, Untuswa?" he would say. "_Whau_! but you
have been long content with old ones. How often have I told you that
women are like a bowl of _tywala_: delightful and stimulating when
fresh; but, when stale, sour and injurious, and the sooner thrown away
the better."
And I would laugh pleasantly at the royal wit, and send _lobola_ for yet
another girl, this one, as before, the daughter of an influential
fighting induna; but, for all that, the loss of Lalusini was none the
less present in my mind, and the desire for my projected vengeance grew,
the longer that vengeance was delayed.
Two things, however, I observed, and these did not look well for my
plot. One was that never now would Umzilikazi commune with me alone as
in the old friendly manner of former days; the other that he never
appeared without a strong body-guard in attendance, fully armed, and
composed of young warriors chosen from houses whose fidelity to the
House of Matyobane was beyond suspicion, they being themselves of that
House. But my time was coming, and that I knew, for the very
desperation and assurance of a man who values not his own life.
There were times when, looking upon the _muti_ bag--Lalusini's last gift
to me, which I ever wore--I felt moved to open it. But her words were
explicit. It was only to be opened in the very last extremity, and such
extremity I felt had not yet been reached. So I forebore.
And now, _Nkose_, there befell one of those occurrences which will
befall even the wisest and coolest and most experienced of any of us
when least we look for it, which are destined to alter all our most
carefully laid plans, for there is ever some moment in life when the
wisest and most carefully thinking man is no better than a fool. And
this is how it came about.
One evening I was walking back, along the river bank, to my kraal,
alone--thinking, as ever, upon my now fast ripening scheme--when I heard
my name called out in a quavering croak. Turning, I beheld the
shrivelled figure of an old crone, perched upon a point of rock
overhanging a long deep reach. Beside her was a bundle of sticks she
had been gathering.
"Give me snuff, Untuswa, O Great Fighter," she cried, stretching out a
bony claw. "Give me snuff from that pretty box stuck in your ear, for I
have none."
I stepped aside, and, taking the horn tube from the lobe of my ear,
poured half its contents into her skinny old hand, and as I did so I
recognised in the old witch one who had an evil repute among us for
_Umtagati_; indeed, it was reported that she had been "smelt out" and
killed in the time of Tshaka, but had somehow managed to come to life
again, and had not been interfered with since because of our custom
under which no one can be killed twice.
She was very, very old--so old that beyond a wisp or two of white wool
her scalp was entirely bald. Her limbs were mere bits of stick, to
which even her few rags of clothing would hardly cling. Looking at her
squatting there, I thought she would make an exact mate for old Gasitye,
as I had seen him in the _tagati_ cave, squatting in like fashion; and I
must have laughed at the thought, for she said, with some show of fire:
"Laugh, Untuswa, laugh, I am old and shrivelled, am I not? But that is
a complaint you will never suffer from. Oh, no! Oh, no!"
"What mean you, mother?" I said, pausing as I was about to continue on
my way, for there was that in her words which fitted not well in with my
thoughts just then. "I am a fighting man, and such may reasonably not
live to grow old."
"Ah, ah! A fighting man. Thou art more. He who would sit in the seat
of the mighty is hardly likely to die of old age," she answered slowly,
poking her head forward with a meaning chuckle.
"Now," I thought, "this old witch knows too much. I will just drop her
over into the river and make _her_ safe."
But before I could do so, she again croaked out:
"What will you give to know something, Untuswa? What will you give me
if I tell you that which you would most like to learn?"
The blood seemed to stand still within me at the words. "That which I
would most like to learn"--the secret of Lalusini's disappearance, of
course. I strove to restrain all semblance of anxiety, but the dim eyes
of the old hag seemed to pierce my thoughts through and through.
"If it is indeed something I would like to learn, mother, then will I
give anything--not too great--you may choose to ask. But, beware of
fooling me with old women's tales."
"Ha, ha! And the fate of the Daughter of the Great--is that an old
woman's tale?"
"Tell me of that, if you know it, mother," I said.
"Ah, ah! If I know it. See now, Untuswa, I am old--so old that I am as
they of another world. And the other world moves about at night--and
I--often I steal out at night and talk with those of another world."