break of dawn, after a couple of hours of silence,
the plot they had formed was put into shape.

"Ngonyama!"

Mr. Hume stepped out on to the platform. "Who calls?"

"It is I, the Inkosikase."

She was standing at the very parapet where he himself had leant when
he saw the light borne by Dick on the spot where he now stood. She
stood up boldly on the canon side of the great cavity, about fifty
yards away.

"Your life was forfeit, Ngonyama, but I spared you--I spared you."

"I hear."

"You are but a mouse in these earth runs, Indhlovu."

The Hunter laughed, and the unseen creatures took up the laugh,
flinging it back till the hollow places rang with the wild noise.

"Hear, and take heed. Take heed lest they fall on you. Wow! Ye have
seen my power and the strength of my medicine in the stilling of the
waters."

"It was Hassan who stilled the waters. Say on."

"Yoh!" The woman paused, taken aback. "See, my medicine tells me you
came here to search for the shining canoe. Maybe I can tell you
where it is hid by the wizards."

"I know, wise woman. Say on."

"Wow! But," she said triumphantly, "ye do not know the way out, and
ye are helpless till I tell you."

"I know."

"Then why do you stay here?"

"Enough! I know the way out. What is your message to me?"

His confidence staggered her, and it was some moments before she
could speak.

"But there is the young chief. Ye would save him. I will make a
bargain with you for his life."

"He is here, woman."

Dick stepped out from the shadows, and she threw up her arms with a
wail.

"Say what you have to say," said Mr. Hume, sternly, "for I see you
would have some service of me, and had hoped to buy me with news I
have no want for."

"Ngonyama, great white one, I am but a woman, and ye are too strong
for me."

Mr. Hume nodded.

"I am a woman; only a woman."

"Was it a woman's task to set those ravens upon me and the young
chief?"

"I am a mother, Indhlovu, and a mother's heart is strong for her
child. I feared you because of my son. You were strong, and he
trusted you. He was away, and you were left to do as you wished--to
take his place, to destroy him. It is the way of men to use power
for themselves."

"It is not my way."

"O great white one, give me counsel. The Arab thief has truly
stopped the river, and the waters rise in the valley--rise among the
gardens; and when Muata returns he will see water where there was
grass."

"Ay, Muata