[*--Published under the title of "Marie."--EDITOR.]

"All that there is to know, I think, Macumazahn, seeing that I was at
the bottom of it, and that Dingaan killed those Boers on my advice--just
as he killed Chaka and Umhlangana."

"You cold-blooded old murderer--" I began, but he interrupted me at
once.

"Why do you throw evil names at me, Macumazahn, as I threw the stone of
your fate at you just now? Why am I a murderer because I brought about
the death of some white men that chanced to be your friends, who had
come here to cheat us black folk of our country?"

"Was it for _this_ reason that you brought about their deaths, Zikali?"
I asked, staring him in the face, for I felt that he was lying to me.

"Not altogether, Macumazahn," he answered, letting his eyes, those
strange eyes that could look at the sun without blinking, fall before my
gaze. "Have I not told you that I hate the House of Senzangakona? And
when Retief and his companions were killed, did not the spilling of
their blood mean war to the end between the Zulus and the White Men?
Did it not mean the death of Dingaan and of thousands of his people,
which is but a beginning of deaths? Now do you understand?"

"I understand that you are a very wicked man," I answered with
indignation.

"At least _you_ should not say so, Macumazahn," he replied in a new
voice, one with the ring of truth in it.