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Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider), 1856-1925

"The Ghost Kings"

Look here, Rachel, you know I have loved you for a long
while, and though you treat me so badly I love you more than ever now.
Will you marry me?"
"I told you last night that you would be dead in a few days. Do not waste
your time in talking of marriage. Sit in the dust and repent your sins
before you go down into the dust."
"All right, Rachel, I know you are a good prophet----"
"Noie, too, is a good prophet," she broke in reflectively. "You used the
Zulus to kill _her_ father and mother also, did you not? Do you remember a
message that she gave you from Seyapi one evening, down by the sea, before
you kidnapped her to be a bait to trap me in Zululand?"
"Remember!" he answered, scowling. "Am I likely to forget her devilries?
If you are the witch, she is the familiar, the black _ehlose_ (spirit) who
whispers in your ears. Had she not gone I should never have caught you."
"But she will come back--although I fear not in time to bid you farewell."
"You tell me that I shall soon be dead," he exclaimed, ignoring this talk
of Noie. "Well, I am not frightened. I don't believe you know anything
about it, but if you are right the more reason I should live while I can.
According to you, Rachel, we have no time to waste in a long engagement.


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