But now, seeing its master's vigilance relaxed, the wolf sprang forward, and, with a horrid mumbling snarl, buried its fangs in the helpless prisoner's thigh. A wild, piteous, despairing shriek rent the interior of this fiend's den. "Take it off! Take it off! Oh, I am devoured! Quick! I will tell!" Seizing a pair of iron tongs, Shiminya compelled the now infuriated brute to loose its hold, and following it with a tremendous blow on the head, it retreated yelling to the further side of the hut. "The names--quick--ere it seizes thee again," urged the wizard. "Pukele," she howled, frantic with agony and terror. "The son of thy father, who is servant to Jonemi?" "The same. The other is Ntatu." The words seemed squeezed from the sufferer. Her thigh, horribly lacerated by the jaws of the savage beast, streaming with blood, was quivering in every nerve. "Thy sister, formerly wife of Makani?" "The same. Now, child of the Umlimo, suffer me to depart." "Thy thigh is not well enough, sister," replied the wizard, in a soft purring voice, putting his head on one side, and surveying her through half closed eyes. "Tarry till evening, then shalt thou be taken hence. _Au_! It is not good to be seen quitting the abode of Shiminya. There is _tagati_ in it." Having first kicked the wolf out of the hut, the sorcerer set to work to tend the wound of his helpless victim. She, for her part, lay and moaned feebly. She had purchased her life, but at what a cost. Still, even the magnificent physical organisation of a fine savage was not proof against all she had undergone, for this was not her first taste of the torture since being forcibly seized by the satellites of Shiminya and brought hither. Now, moaning in her pain, Nompiza lay and reflected. She had betrayed two of her father's children, had marked them out for the vengeance of not only the Abantwana 'Mlimo, but of the disaffected chiefs. This, however, might be remedied. Once out of this she would go straight to Jonemi--which was the name by which John Ames was known to the natives, being a corruption of his own--and claim protection for herself and them, perhaps even procure the arrest of Shiminya. This thought came as a ray of light to the savage girl as she lay there. The white men would protect and avenge her. Yet--poor simpleton! "Of what art thou thinking, Nompiza?" said the wizard, softly, as he refrained from his seeming work of mercy. "_Au_! Shall I tell thee? It is that thou wilt reveal to Jonemi all thou knowest of the gathering at the Home of the Umlimo when the moon was full. So shalt thou save thyself and Pukele and Ntatu, the children of thy father." A cry of terror escaped the sufferer. How should she have forgotten that this dreadful sorcerer could read the thoughts of men? "Not so, my father, not so," she prayed. "I ask for nothing but to be allowed to go home."