e of the ghost of a
dead man, who perchance, having entered it, will abide there, leaving
my spirit houseless, or perchance will shut up the doors of my heart in
such fashion that they never can be opened. Can it not be done by trance
as aforetime? Tell me, Hokosa, how often have you thus talked with the
dead?"

"Thrice, Noma."

"And what chanced to them through whom you talked?"

"Two lived and took no harm; the third died, because the awakening
medicine lacked power. Yet fear nothing; that which I have with me is of
the best. Noma, you know my plight: I must win wisdom or fall for ever,
and you alone can help me; for under this new rule, I can no longer buy
a youth or maid for purposes of witchcraft, even if one could be found
fitted to the work. Choose then: shall we go back or forward? Here
trance will not help us; for those entranced cannot read the future, nor
can they hold communion with the dead, being but asleep. Choose, Noma."

"I have chosen," she answered. "Never yet have I turned my back upon a
venture, nor will I do so now. Come life, come death, I will submit me
to your wish, though there are few women who would dare as much for any
man. Nor in truth do I do this for you, Hokosa; I do it because I seek
power, and thus only can we win it who are fallen. Also I love all
things strange, and desire to commune with the dead and to know that,
if for some few minutes only, at least my woman's breast has held the
spirit of a king. Yet, I warn you, make no fault in your magic; for
should I die beneath it, then I, who desire to live on and to be great,
will haunt you and be avenged upon you!"

"Oh! Noma," he said, "if I believed that there was any danger for you,
should I ask you to suffer this thing?--I, who love you more even than
you love power, more than my life, more than anything that is or ever
can be."

"I know it, and it is to that I trust," the woman answered. "Now begin,
before my courage leaves me."

"Good," he said. "Seat yourself there upon the mound, resting your head
against the stone."

She obeyed; and taking thongs of hide which he had made ready, Hokosa
bound her wrists and ankles, as these people bind the wrists and ankles
of corpses. Then he knelt before her, staring into her face with his
solemn eyes and muttering: "Obey and sleep."

Presently her limbs relaxed, and her head fell forward.

"Do you sleep?" he asked.

"I sleep. Whither shall I go? It is the true sleep--test me."