"Now,Sir Henry,"said I,"do you shoot.I want to show this ruffian that I am not the only magician of the party."Sir Henry accordingly took the "express,"and made ready.
"I hope I shall make a good shot,"he groaned.
"You must,"I answered."If you miss with the first barrel,let him have the second.Sight for one hundred and fifty yards,and wait till the beast turns broadside on."Then came a pause,till presently we caught sight of an ox running straight for the kraal gate.It came on through the gate,and then,catching sight of the vast concourse of people,stopped stupidly,turned round,and bellowed.
"Now's your time,"I whispered.
Up went the rifle.
Bang!thud!and the ox was kicking on his back,shot in the ribs:
The semi-hollow bullet had done its work well,and a sigh of astonishment went up from the assembled thousands.
I turned coolly round -
"Have I lied,O king?"
"Nay,white man,it is a truth,"was the somewhat awed answer.
"Listen,Twala,"I went on."Thou hast seen.Now know we come in peace,not in war.See here"(and I held up the Winchester repeater);"here is a hollow staff that shall enable you to kill even as we kill,only this charm I lay upon it,thou shalt kill no man with it.If thou liftest it against a man,it shall kill thee.Stay,I will show thee.Bid a man step forty paces and place the shaft of a spear.in the ground so that the flat blade looks towards us."In a few seconds it was done.
"Now,see,I will break the spear."
Taking a careful sight,I fired.The bullet struck the flat of the spear and broke the blade into fragments.
Again the sigh of astonishment went up.
"Now,Twala"(handing him the rifle),"this magic tube we give to thee,and by and by I will show thee how to use it;but beware how thou usest the magic of the stars against a man of earth,"and I handed him the rifle.He took it very gingerly,and hid it down at his feet.As he did so I observed the wizened,monkey-like figure creeping up from the shadow of the hut.It crept on all fours,but when it reached the place where the king sat it rose upon its feet,and,throwing the furry covering off its face,revealed a most extraordinary and weird countenance.It was (apparently)that of a woman of great age,so shrunken that in size it was no larger than that of a year-old child,and was made up of a collection of deep,yellow wrinkles.Set in the wrinkles was a sunken slit that represented the mouth,beneath which the chin curved outward to a point.There was no nose to speak of;indeed,the whole countenance might have been taken for that of a sun-dried corpse had it not been for a pair of large black eyes,still full of fire and intelligence,which gleamed and played under the snow-white eyebrows and the projecting parchment-colored skull,like jewels in a charnel-house.As for the skull itself,it was perfectly bare,and yellow in hue,while its wrinkled scalp moved and contracted like the hood of a cobra.
The figure to whom this fearful countenance,which caused a shiver of fear to pass through us as we gazed on it,belonged stood still for a moment,and then suddenly projected a skinny claw armed with nails nearly an inch long,and laid it on the shoulder of Twala,the king,and began to speak in a thin,piercing voice:
