estion the invincible magic of Eyes-in-the-hands. But to
Bakahenzie the reaction was slightly different, for his elemental reason
took him a little farther than Yabolo by pointing out that in all his wide
experience never had spirits taken demons' shape, so that the suspicion
that they had been due to Moonspirit became more plausible, and was
supported by the recollection of Marufa's unexplained absence and sudden
reappearance on familiar terms with the spirits.

The longer he pondered on the strange actions of Marufa the more he was
persuaded that that wily colleague was acting upon sound information, and
the tangle of his affairs made him so desperate that he decided to gamble
upon that assumption: for magician Bakahenzie began to realize that Marufa
had somehow scored a point and that now was approaching the crux which
would determine whether he won back or lost for ever that which was the
essence of life to him.

Meanwhile the two puzzled plotters sat motionless and silent as if
mutually agreeing that no question regarding each other's late movements
had better be asked.

Accordingly to the depth of his superstition returned each witch-doctor.
When they were come, without one word of explanation, Bakahenzie lifted
his voice in a high falsetto, bidding the lay warriors to return to hear
the voice of the elders. Reassured by this command which carried far on
the still air, they began to emerge from hut and undergrowth. The first to
arrive was MYalu, angry to find the whole assembly of wizards apparently
sitting as if they had never moved, engaged in mystic incantations. MYalu
had not fled far and from his cranny had seen the flight of Bakahenzie and
the departure of Zalu Zako, but he dared not betray the doctors. He
squatted sullenly and waited while the remainder of the warriors, of whom
many had also seen the general stampede, filed to their places.

When all were assembled Bakahenzie looked up from his spell and bade them
to listen to what message the faculty--for obvious policy's sake he
included the whole of the ghosts--had received from ghostland by the three
spirits, emphasising the vision of the magicians as proof positive of the
terrible power of the craft. By reason of the sin committed by one who had
broken the magic circle, as they all knew, said Bakahenzie, had this wrath
of the Unmentionable One come upon them, permitting the incarnation of a
demon, Eyes-in-the-hands, to work his will upon them and to