Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-07-24
NV loneliness. and this place is grim

nothing came except the silence. Then
she spoke again, and her voice echoed
in the hollow cave. "Now l will be
bold; will fear nothing. I will push
aside the stone and go out and find him.
l know we'll he does but linger to tend
some who are wounded, perchance Ga
iazi. Doubtless Galazi is wounded. l
must go and tend him, though he never
loved me, and l love him not overmuch
who would stand between me and my
husband. He is foe to women, this
wild wolf man, and most Of all foe TO
me; vet will be kind to him. Come,
will 60 at once" and she rose and
pushed at the rock.
Why, what was this? 1t did not stir.
Then she remembered that she had
pulled it beyond the socket because OF
her fear of the wolf, and that the rock
had slipped little way down the neck
of the cave.
Now in her fear she shrieked aloud,
calling on the name of Umslopogaas.
The walls OF the cave answered, "Um-
slopogaas! Umslopogaas" and that was
ALL
Thereafter madness came upon NADIA,
my daughter, and she lay in the cave
for days and nights. And with her mad
ness came visions.
And 10! her madness left her, and she
awoke to know that she was dying and
that voice she loved spoke without the
hole, saying in hollow accents:
NADIA! Do you yet live, Nada?"
"Yes," she answered hoarsely. "Wa-
| ter! Give me water!"
Then came a sound as Of green snake
dragging itself along painfully. Awhile
passed, then trembling hand thrust a
J little gourd of water through the hole
| She drank and now she could speak,
| though the water seemed to flow through
her veins like fire.
SIS it indeed you, Umslopogaas?" she
said, "or are you dead and do dream
of you?"
ut is I, NADIA" said the voice.
"Hearken! Have you drawn the rock
home?"
"Alas, yes" she answered. "Per-
chance if the two of US strive at it it
will move"
cave, if our strength were what it
was, but now! Still, let US try"
So they strove with the rock, but the
two of them together had not the
strength of girl, and it would not
move.
"Glve over, UmslopoGaas, " said NADIA,
"We do but waste the time that Is lett
to rue. Let us talk"
For awhile there was no answer. for
! Umslopogaas had tainted, and NADIA
beat her breasts, thinking that he was
dead.
Presently he spoke, however, saying:
at may not be. We must perish here,
one on either side of the stone, not see
sng each others face, for my might is as
water, nor can stand upon my feet TO
go seek food"
Are you wounded, Umslopogaas?"
asked NADIA.
aye, NADIA; I am pierced to the brain
with the point Of an ax-no fair stroke
the captain of Dingaan hurled it at
me when l thought him dead, and l
fell. know not how long l have lain
wonder under the shadow of the rock,
! but it must be long, for my limbs are
wasted and those who fell in the fray
are picked clean by the vultures-all
except Galazi, for the old wolf Death
grip lies on his breast dying, bat not
! dead, licking my brothers wounds and
soaring the fowls away. II was the beak
! Of a vulture who had smelled me out at
last that woke me from my sleep be-
meath the stone, NADIA, and crept hith-
| err. Would that he had not Weakened me-;
would that 1 had died as / lay rather
than lived little while till you perish
thus, like a trapped fox, NADIA, and pres
emily follow you.
1T Is hard to die so, Umslopogaas,
she answered. 81 who am yet young
and fair, who loved you and hoped to
give you children. But so it has come
about and it may not be put away. |
am well nigh sped, husband. Horror
and fear haye slain me; my strength
fails, but l suffer little. Let us talk no
more Of death; let us rather talk OF our
| childhood, when we wandered hand in
hand; let us talk also of our love and Of
the happy hours We have spent since
the great AK rang upon the rock in the
! Halakazi caves and my fear told you the
secret of my womanheod. See, thrust
my hand through the hole; can you not
kiss it, Umslopogaas?'
Now Umslopogaas stopped his shat
tered head and kissed the Lily's little
| hand. Then he held it in his own, rest
! ing his back against the rock; she with
| in, lying on her side, her arm stretched
through the little hole. They spoke OF
their love and tried 10 forget their sor-
row in it, He told her also OF the fray
that had been and how it went.
"Ah," she said, that was Zinita's
work: Zinita, who hated me, and justly.
Doubtless she set Dingaan on this
! path"
"a little while gone" quoth Umslop-
ogaas, and hoped that your last breath
and mine might pass together, NADIA,
and that together we might go to seek
great Galazi, my brother, where he is.
Now hope that help may find me and
that may live little while because of
a certain vengeance | would wreck"
Speak not of vengeance, love-" she
answered. Il would die with love and
| love only in my heart, aud your name
and yours only on my lips, Sc that il
anywhere we live again ii shall be
ready to spring forth to greet you. Yet,
| husband, IL is in my heart that you shall
not die with me; that you shall live on
to die the greatest OF deaths far away
| from here. 1t seems that l saw It as
lay in the dark of this csve-you, UNI
slopogaas, a great man gaunt and gray,
stricken TO the death, and the ak Groan-
maker wavering aloft, and many a man
dead upon a white and shining way,
and about you the fair faces OF white
women. And you had hole in your
| forehead husband, and on the left side. 7"
That is like to be true, if live" he
answered, "for the bone Of my temple
is shattered.
Now NADIA ceased speaking and fer a