WAR! RED WAR! Telling Umslopogaas to wait, I tumbled into my clothes and went off with him to Sir Henry's room, where the Zulu repeated his story word for word.

It was a sight to watch Curtis' face as he heard it.
'Great Heavens!' he said: 'here have I been sleeping away while Nyleptha was nearly murdered -- and all through me, too.

What a fiend that Sorais must be! It would have served her well if Umslopogaas had cut her down in the act.' 'Ay,' said the Zulu.

'Fear not; I should have slain her ere she struck.

I was but waiting the moment.' I said nothing, but I could not help thinking that many a thousand doomed lives would have been saved if he had meted out to Sorais the fate she meant for her sister.