BLACK HEART AND WHITE HEART.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7737, 17 April 1896, Page 4

BLACK HEART AND WHITE HEART.

|.BY H. RIDER HAGGARD.]

A 2ULIJ IDYL

OHAFTJBR VI

When jtfanoa leaped from the dizzy platform that overhung the pool of doom a strange fortune befell her. Close in to the precipice were many jagged rooke, and on these the watera of the fall fell and thundered, bounding from them in sprouts of spray into the troubled depths of the foss beyond. It was on tbeee stones that the life waa dashed oac o£ tiie bodies bi the wretched victims who were hurled from above, but Nanes, it will bo remembered, litifl not waited to ba treated thus, ana, no it chanced, the atroug epriug with which she leaped to death oarried her clear of the rocks. By a very little she miased the edge of them, and, striking too deep water head first, liko some practiced diver, sha Bank down and down, till ake thought that she would never rise again. Yet she did nee at ths end of the pool, in the mouth of the rapid, along which she sped swiftly, carried down by the rush of tha water, Fortunately there were no rocka heee, and, mnce she was a skillful swimmer, she eaoaptd ihe clanger of being throv/n against the banks. For a long distance she was borco thus till at length she saw that sb.9 was in a forest, for treea cut off. tho light from tho water, and their drooping branohes swept its Burfaee. One ol these Itfanea caught with her hand, and by the help of it she dragged herself from the rives of death, whence none had esoaped before. Now the stood npon the bank gasping, but quite unharmed ; there was not a soratoh on her body; even her white garment waa etillfast about her neck.

But though ehe had Buffered no hurt in her terrible voyage, so exhansted was Jwanea that she could soatcely stand. Here the gloom was that oi night, and, shivering with cold, she looked around helplessly to find some refugo. Close to the water's edge grew an enormous yellow wood tree, and to this she staggered, thinking to olimb it and peek shelter in its boughs, where, as she hoped, she would be safe from wild beasts. Again fortune befriended her. for at a distance of a few feet from the ground there was a great hole in the tree, wnioh she discovered was hollow. Into this hole she crept, taking her chance of its being the home of snatess or other evil oreatures, to find that the interior was wide and warm. It was dry, also, for at the bottom of the cavity lay a foot or more of rotten tincler and moea brought thore by rats and birds. Upon this tinder she icy down, and, covering herseli with the moss and leaves, coon sank into sleep, or stupor.

How long Kanea slept she did not know, but at length she was awakened by a 6ound of guttural human voices talking in a language that she could not understand Rising to her knesa ehe peered out of the hole in the tree. It was night, but the stare shone brilliantly and their light fell upon an open circle of ground olose by the edge o! the river. In this oircle there burned a great fire, and at a, little distance from the fire were gathered eight or ten horrible-looking beings, who appeared io be rejoicing over something that lay on the ground. They were small in stature, men and women together, but no children, and all of them were nearly naked. Their hair was long and thia, growing gown almost to the eyas, their jaws and teeth protruded, and the girth of their blaok bodies was out of all proportions to their height, in their hands' they held their sticks with sharp stones lashed onto them, or rude hatchetlike knives oi the same material.

Now Nanea's heart aank within her and she nearly fuiuted with tear, for ehe knew that she was in the haunted forest, and without a doubt these were the Ssoinkofu, the evil t;hosta that dwelt in it. Yes, that was what they were, and jet she could not take her eyes off them. The sighs of them held her with a horribJe fascination: But if they W6re ghosts, why did they sing and danoe like men ? Why did thay wave those sharp Btonee aloft and quarrel and strike each otht r ? And why did they make a fire, p.s men do when they wish to cook food ? More, what was it they were rejoicing over — thiit long, darir thing, which lay so quist upen the ground ? It did not look like a head of game, and it could scarcely be a crocodile. Yet clearly it was food of some sort, for they wero sharpoaiog the stone kmves, in order to cut it up.

Whilst she wondered thus one of the dretdiul-lookmg little creatures advanced to the fire, and taking from it a burniag bough, held it over the thing that lay upon the ground, to give light to a companion, who was about to do something to it with the stone knife. "Kext in&tant ilanea drew back her head from the hole, a stifled shriek upon her lipa. Bhe saw what it, waa now —it was the body of o man. Yes, and theee were no ghoste; they were cannibals, of whom, whon she was little, her mother had told her tales to keep her from wandering away from home. a

But who was the man they were about to eat? It could aot be ona of themselves, for his stature was much gro&ter. Oh ! now she knew. It must be Nahoon, who had been killed up yonder, and whose dead body the waters had brought down to the haunted forest es they had brought her alive. Yes, it must be Nnhoon, and she would bo forced to see her husband devoured before her eyee. The thought of it overwhelmed her. That he should die by order of the King was natural, but that he should be buried thus ! Yei what could sho do to prevent it? Well, if it coat her her life, aho would prevent ft. At the worst they coald only kill aud eat her also, and, now that Gaboon and her father were gone, she was not greatly poncerned to keep her own breath in her.

Slipping through the hole in the tree Nsnoft walked quietly toward the cannibals, not knowing in the least what she would do when ehe reached them. As she bed arrived in line with the fire thia lack of programme cams home to her mind forcibly and she paused to reflect. Just then one of tho oannibals looked up to sbo a ta\l stately figure wrapped in a white geiment, which, as tho flame-light flickered on it, seemed now to edvanco from the doneo baoKground of shadow and now to recede into it. The poor savage wretch was holding a stone knife in his teeth when he beheld her, but it did not remain there long, for, opening his great ja.we, he uttered the most terrified and piercing yeil that Nanea had ever heard. Then the others saw her also, and presently the forest wus ringiug with ehriekH of fear. For a few eecondw the outcasts stood and gazed; then they were gono this way and that, bursting their path through the undergrowth like fctartlad jacbala. The iCsembofu of Zulu tradition had been routed in their own haunted home by what they took to be a spirit.

Poor Whemkofu ! They wete but miserable tind starving bnshmen, who, driven into that place of ill omen many years ago, had adopted thid means, the only one open to them, to keep thti iife in their wretohed bodies. Mere at kast they were unmolested, and, as there was little other food to be found in that wilderncas of trees, they took what Jlie liver brought them. When executions were few in the pool of doom times wero hard for them indeed, for thou they wero driven to eat caoh other.

/.is tho iimrtioulatu cry died away in iha distance, iv r anea ran forward to look at the body that lay on the ground, and staggered baok with v, nigh of reliof. It way not Kahoon, but uhe recognised the faca as that of one o{ iho purty oi executioners. How did he ooino here ? Had Nahoon killed him ? Hud Hahaoa escaped ? fiho could nut teli, unci at tho best, it was improbable, but etill tho eight o'c this doswl soldier lit her heart with, ii fnint ray of hopo, tor how did ho ooiqo to b:: dead if JKaho:.-a had no hand in it S" fciho could lioS , . itiavo him lying ao ue.sr h.iv hiding place, howovof, thureforo, with no toil, fcibu roilod iho back iuto tho wiuw, which curried xt swiftly uv/i'.y '.I h-ri rha returned to the troo, h.'iviin( iirat i'«.pl> uiahfcd tho iiro, uad uwaited tho light

At last \i cbUio, :>,h much of it, an ewv penetrated thin (iiiriwoaio ilou, and Uiasicin, bucomiug !iv/aro that sho was hungry, deeo'jndcd ir<«u thu trot) to neuron for food All <\a\ !oag ahe suarehtdj finding nothing, tilt toward tiuniiel;, fiho remembered that on tho outskirts of tho forest; Shore wan a flat rock whore it wuu the custom of ihono who hfitt boon itj mi any way ufllictr-d, or who couiiiuei'ed theimioived cc tiiou* belongings to bewitche;', to plaooprupitiaLoryofforinga of food wherowith tho i-eoinkofu and the iiwiiiijihoet wero tupposou to satisfy their spiritual cravings by tho pinch of Htarvatiou, to thia spot aho joumnyed rapidly, and found b.) her joy, that eomo neighboring knml hud ovidoaly been in rcoont troubla, for tho rock of offering was ludeD with uoba of com, gourds of milk, porridge, and even meat, .helping herself to mm lruoh as oho could curry, who rotnrm>d t<l iior luir, wluro klio drunk of the , milk and li'iclittd ly-iatt titjd menlism nt tbo fire. 'Jihen fa.'ift ijivp', b.-ii-.ic iuto tlio iroo uiid Mloyt. i'o.r Diii-.£iy Uvo iiiou!.lu- i'Junt.'i lived thua in tho lort.-.t, t'.iiw. ■Iμ) tiweXi not vsnturo oat of it, ftrt;:hi<; .<j-i : .=. ;-tio fiiiuukl bo H.-iaod and for a iii,,,. (.!,,,!,, ,-,£ (.}„» jud/rtvicsil of tJ«o iw: t.oriM . t ,, y ~n i \.: : Ciovo', nut did f.!>n yivj. !.i:.:: I'urtiiM Iroilblc. Cncn ur twice klj.iphvv' virgin, but ozuiiioh uyr-naion ibey ll'j(S fihi'ioumi?- 'i-oiu 3'scr preflenoo, acckini;-Bunio di«;<!iß zeirunt v/iiero they hid ihoiuKoivua or pwithed. Kor did thy fo»d full hor, for, iiudiug that it whs takuu, the

pious Riveri brought it in plenty to the rock of offering. But, oh ! the life was droadi'di, and the gloom and loneliness, coupled with her sorrows, at times drove her almostto insanity. Still she lived on, \hough she often desired to die, for the oorpso she had found was not the corpse of Nahoon, and in her heart there still shone that eparfe of hope; yet whst she hoped for she could not tell. When Philip Hadd'en redcied the civilised regions ho found that war was about to bi uoC!-!-? botween the Queen and Oetywayo, King of the AmazWu; a«J, that in the provailing excitement his little adventure with the Utrecht storekeeper had been overlooked or forgotten. He woe the owner of two good bnok wagons, with spans of salted oxonj aad at that time the vehiolea were much in request to carry military scores for the columns which were to advance into Eululand. Indeed, the transport authorities were glad to pay £90 a month for the hire of eacii wcrog and to guarantee the owners against all loss of oattfe; A!sho%hhe was not desirous of returning to Zalulanc!,' ttie bait proved too much for Hadden, who, aocordingly, leased out his wagons to the commissariat, together with his own services as conduotor and interpreter. He was attached to Eo. 3 oolumn of the inruding , force, whioh, it may be remembered, was unuei tSo' immediate command of Lord Chelmsford, and on the 22st of 1879, he marched with it by the road that runs i?C. m Worke'e Drift to the Indeni forest, and encamped $b a t night beneath tho.shadow of the steep and desolate mountain known as Isandhlwana. [To be continued.)