great stick in the
ground?"

"This," said Sanders, "is for him who injures M'fosa your son; upon this
will I hang him. And if there be more men than one who take to the work
of slaughter, behold! I will have yet another tree cut and hauled, and
put in a place and upon that will I hang the other man. All men shall
know this sign, the high stick as my fetish; and it shall watch the evil
hearts and carry me all thoughts, good and evil. And then I tell you,
that such is its magic, that if needs be, it shall draw me from the end
of the world to punish wrong."

This is the story of the fetish stick of the Akasava and of how it came
to be in its place.

None did hurt to M'fosa, and he grew to be a man, and as he grew and his
father became first counsellor, then petty chief, and, at last,
paramount chief of the nation, M'fosa developed in hauteur and
bitterness, for this high pole rainwashed, and sun-burnt, was a
reminder, not of the strong hand that had been stretched out to save
him, but of his own infirmity.

And he came to hate it, and by some curious perversion to hate the man
who had set it up.

Most curious of all to certain minds, he was the first of those who
condemned, and secretly slew, the unfortunates, who either came into the
world hampered by disfigurement, or who, by accident, were unfitted for
the great battle.

He it was who drowned Kibusi the woodman, who lost three fingers by the
slipping of the axe; he was the leader of the young men who fell upon
the boy Sandilo-M'goma, who was crippled by fire; and though the fetish
stood a menace to all, reading thoughts and clothed with authority, yet
M'fosa defied spirits and went about his work reckless of consequence.

When Sanders had gone home, and it seemed that law had ceased to be,
N'gori (as I have shown) became of a sudden a bold and fearless man,
furbished up his ancient grievances and might have brought trouble to
the land, but for a watchful Bosambo.

This is certain, however, that N'gori himself was a good-enough man at
heart, and if there was evil in his actions be sure that behind him
prompting, whispering, subtly threatening him, was his malignant son, a
sinister figure with one eye half closed, and a figure that went limping
through the city with a twisted smile.

An envoy came to the Ochori country bearing green branches of the Isisi
palm, which signifies peace, and at the head of the mission--for mission
it was--came M'fosa.

"Lord Bos