e or property. You will get all
this by taking a walk and holding your tongue. You see this man here,
he is Fahni, king of a great tribe, the Ogula. He wants you to carry a
message for him, and by and by he will marry you, won't you, Fahni?"

"Oh! yes, yes," said Fahni; "I will do anything she likes. No one shall
be so rich and honoured in my country, and for her sake we will never
eat another old woman, whereas if she stays here she will be driven to
the mountains to starve in a week."

"Set out the matter," said the mother of Jeekie, who was by no means so
foolish as she seemed.

So they told her what she must do, namely, travel down to the Ogula and
tell them of the plight of their chief, bidding them muster all their
fighting men and when the swamps were dry enough, advance as near as
they dared to the Asiki country and, if they could not attack it, wait
till they had further news.

The end of it was that the mother of Jeekie, who knew her case to be
desperate at home, where she was in no good repute, promised to attempt
the journey in consideration of advantages to be received. Since she
was to be turned adrift to meet her fate with as much food as she could
carry, this she could do without exciting any suspicion, for who would
trouble about the movements of a useless old thief? Meanwhile Jeekie
gave her one of the robes which the Asika had provided for Alan, also
various articles which she desired and, having learned Fahni's message
by heart and announced that she considered herself his affianced bride,
the gaunt old creature departed happy enough after exchanging embraces
with her long lost son.

"She will tell somebody all about it and we shall only get our throats
cut," said Alan wearily, for the whole thing seemed to him a foolish
farce.

"No, no, Major. I make her swear not split on ghosts of all her husbands
and by Big Bonsa hisself. She sit tight as wax, because she think they
haunt her if she don't and I too by and by when I dead. P'raps she get
to Ogula country and p'raps not. If she don't, can't help it and no
harm done. Break my heart, but only one old woman less. Anyhow she hold
tongue, that main point, and I really very glad find my ma, who never
hoped to see again. Heaven very kind to Jeekie, give him back to family
bosom," he added, unctuously.

That day there were no excitements, and to Alan's intense relief he saw
nothing of the Asika. After its orgy of witchcraft and bloodshed on the
pre