The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-23
THE LADY OF THE HEAVENS.
Copyright, 1908, by H. Rider Haggard
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 l Well, brother, if you are sure, WI
 had better be starting back, lest there should be trouble with the white peo l pie. Dingaan will be satisfied Wher
 we show him the moocha, and sleep ir
 peace henceforth. She must really have been tagati (uncanny), that lit. l tie Noie, for otherwise, although it is true she was pretty, why should Din
 gaan who has all Zululand to choose
 from, have fallen in love with her, an6 why should she have refused to enter 1 his house, and persuaded all her kraa
 to run away? For my part, I don't
 believe that she is dead now, notwith- 1 standing the moocha. I think that she is a witch, and has changed into something else-a bird or a snake, per- 1 haps Well, the rest of them will never change into anything, except l killed every one: all the common peo- l pie. the mother of Noie, the dwarf wizard Seyapi her father, and her other mothers, four of them, and her
 brothers and sisters, twelve in all. At these words Noie again trembled | beneath her Sseaweed, so that the water shook all about her.
 "There is fish there," said the first Kaffir "I saw it rise. It is a small pool, shall we try to catch it?'' sNo, brother" answered the other,
 s'only coast people eat fish. am hungry, but I will wait forA mans food. Take that, fish!" and he threw stone into the pool which struck Rachel on the side, and caused her fair hair to float about among the yellow sea- weed.
 Then the two of them got up and went away, walking arm in arm like friends and amiaible men, as they were in their own fashion.
 For a long time the girls remained
 beneath their seaweed, fearing lest the
 men or others should return, until at
 length they could bear the cold of the
 water no longer, and crept out of it
 to the brink of the little pool. where,
 still wreathed in seaweed, they sat
 and warmed themselves in the hot
 sunlight. Now Noie seemed to be half
 dead; indeed Rachel thought that she
 would die.
 Awake she said, life is still be- fore you"
 would that it were behind me, Lady, moaned the poor girl. ''You understand our tongue-ddd you not hear? My father, my own mother, sisters, all killed, all killed for my sake, and I left living. Oh! you meant kindly, but why did you not let Bonaba pass his spear through me? It would have been quickly over, and now should sleep with the rest
 Rachel made no answer, for she saw that talking was useless in such case Only she took Noie's hand and pressed it in silent sympathy until at length the poor girl, utterly outworn with agony and the fatigue of her long flight, fell asleep, there in the sum- shine. Rachel let her sleep, knowing that she would take no harm in that warmth. Quietly she sat at her side for hour after hour while the fierce with seaweed, dried her garments. At length the shadows told her that nlire day was past, and the sea water which began to trickle over the surrounding rocks that the tide was approaching in full. They could stop there no longer unless they wished to be drowned.
 Come she said to Noie, "the Zulus have gone, and the sea is here. We must swim to the shore and go back to my fathers camp.'
 What place have I in your kraal, Lady?" asked the girl when her senses had returned to her.
 TT will find you a place." Rachel an- swered; you are mine nOw.'
 Yes, Lady, that is true,' said Noie { heavily, II am yours and no one eise's,'' and taking Rachel's hand she i pressed it to her forehead.
 Then together once more they swam the pool and not too soon, for the tide was pouring into it. Reaching the shore in safety. no easy task for Ra- above her head, Noie tied Rachel's towel about her middle to take the place of her moocha, and very cau- tiousIy they crept up the kloof, fearing | lest some of the Zulus might still be lurking in the neighborhood.
 At length they came to the pool into 1 which they had thrown the soldier Bomba, and saw two crocodiles, doubt | less those that had eaten him lying | asleep in the sun upon flat rocks at it's edge. Here they were obliged to leave the kloof, both because they feared to pass the crocodiles, and for the reason that their road to the camp | ran another way. So they climbed up the cliff and looked about, but could ng down under tree and one eating grass quite close to it's Q1ate.
 aFThe ZuluS have gone Ur there would | De no buck lhere," said Rachel. Come, now, hold the shield before you and the spear in your hand, to hide that you Ire a woman, and let us go on boldly.
 So they went till they reached the crest of the next rise and then sprang pack behind it, for lying here and there hey saw people who seemed to be asleep.
 saThe zulus resting." exclaimed Ra- ,hel.
 Nay answered the girl with sigh. My people, dead! See the vul- ures gather round them
 Rachel looked again, and saw that was so. Without a word they walked forward and as they passed each body Noie gave it it's name. Here ay brother, there a sister, wonder our folk of her fathers kraa1. They anne to a tall and handsome woman if middle age, and she shivered as she lad done in the pool and said in an cy voice:
 ''The mother who bore mel
 A few more steps and in a patch of ligh grass that grew round an ant leap, they found two Zulu soldiers, ,ach pierced through with 8 spear. Seated against the ant-heap also, as hough he were but resting, was a fight -coloured man, a dwarf in stature pare of frame, and with sharp fea- ures. His dress. if he wore any. eemed to have been removed from i'm, for he was almost naked, and Rachel noticed that no wound could be . cen on him.
 Behold my father!' said Noie in { he same icy voice. g
 ''But," whispered Rachel, "he only leeps No spear has touached him."
 Not so, he is dead, dead by the { White Death after the fashion of his {