in war. White Heart, what is death? In death life lives, and among the
dead you shall find the life you lost, for there awaits you she whom
kings and waters cannot harm."

As the Bee spoke, by degrees her voice sank lower and lower till it was
almost inaudible. Then it ceased altogether and she seemed to pass from
trance to sleep. Hadden, who had been listening to her with an amused
and cynical smile, now laughed aloud.

"Why do you laugh, White Man?" asked Nahoon angrily.

"I laugh at my own folly in wasting time listening to the nonsense of
that lying fraud."

"It is no nonsense, White Man."

"Indeed? Then will you tell me what it means?"

"I cannot tell you what it means yet, but her words have to do with a
woman and a leopard, and with your fate and my fate."

Hadden shrugged his shoulders, not thinking the matter worth further
argument, and at that moment the Bee woke up shivering, drew the red
snake from her head-dress and coiling it about her throat wrapped
herself again in the greasy kaross.

"Are you satisfied with my wisdom, _Inkoos_?" she asked of Hadden.

"I am satisfied that you are one of the cleverest cheats in Zululand,
mother," he answered coolly. "Now, what is there to pay?"