He has the magic, not the girl. Kill the father, and
his house, and take the daughter whom your heart desires, and be happy.'
"So spoke Hishmel, and Dingaan thought his counsel good, and paid him for
it with the teeth of elephants, and certain women for whom he asked. Now
my father foreboded ill, and I also, for both of us had dreamed a dream.
Still we did not fly until the slayers were almost at the gates, because
of his other wives and his children. Nor, save for them would he have fled
then, or I either, but would have died after the fashion of his people, as
he did at last."
"The White Death?" queried Rachel.
"Yes, Lady, the White Death. Still in the end we fled, thinking to gain
the protection of the white men down yonder. I went first to escape the
king's men who had orders to take me alive and bring me to him, that is
why we were not together at the end. Lady, you know the rest. Hishmel
doubtless had seen you, and thinking that the Impi would kill you, came to
warn you. Then we met just as I was about to die, though perhaps not by
that soldier's spear, as you thought. I have spoken."
"What message came to you when you knelt down before your dead father?"
asked Rachel for the second time, since on this point she was intensely
curious.
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