"Sekosini, chief Witch Doctor, and you Mapela, Amakosa, N'Ampata, and Sekukuni, chiefs of the Makolo, stand forward and listen to your doom. Out of your own mouths have ye been convicted of conspiracy against me and the peace of the nation. You, Sekosini, Mapela, N'Ampata, and Amakosa, yesterday boldly and defiantly acknowledged your guilt, and had nothing to plead in extenuation of it; but you, Sekukuni, in addition to being a conspirator, have proved yourself liar [and] coward; for at your public trial, in the presence of those now assembled, you declared yourself to be, like Ingona, Lambati, and Moroosi, the victim of Sekosini's wiles and serpent tongue; whereas afterward, when you were brought before me privately, and compelled by the Healer's magic to speak the truth, you acknowledged that your former statement was false, made only in the hope of mitigation of your punishment, and that in your foul, guilty heart you thought as Sekosini, and would have fought against me to your last man in the attempt to overthrow and destroy me. To satisfy your unlawful ambition and greed of gain, you five men, all holding positions of high authority and trust, would have set callously tribe against tribe, regiment against regiment, and man against man, until the people had fallen and strewed the ground like leaves of autumn and the land was drenched in their blood. It is enough; you are a menace and danger to the nation, and you must die. In the old days of the reign of M'Bongwele--those days which you were so anxious to restore--your dying would have been a lingering, long-drawn-out, excruciating torment; but under the teaching of those who put me on this throne I have learned to be merciful, and my sentence is that you be led forth and hanged by the neck from the bough of the tree that ended M'Bongwele's cruel and iniquitous life, and there left as an example and a warning to all who think such evil thoughts as yours. Bind them and take them away." In an instant the guards who had charge of the doomed men seized them, and proceeded to bind their hands behind them with thongs of hide, prior to leading them away to the place of execution. With one exception they submitted silently and without protest; Sekosini, however, the Witch Doctor, seemed determined not to go without firing a Parthian shot, for, fixing his eyes on Dick, he shouted in a high, piercing voice: