rocess he repeated four times on each of
the fruits, replacing them one by one in the basket. So deftly did he
work upon them, that however closely they were scanned none could guess
that they had been tampered with.

"Will it kill at once?" asked Noma.

"No, indeed; but he who eats these fruits will be seized on the third
day with dysentery and fever, and these will cling to him till within
seven weeks--or if he is very strong, three months--he dies. This is the
best of poisons, for it works through nature and can be traced by none."

"Except, perchance, by that Spirit Whom the white man worships, and Who
also works through nature, as you learned, Hokosa, when He rolled the
lightning back upon your head, shattering your god and beating down your
company."

Then of a sudden terror seized the wizard, and springing to his feet, he
cursed his wife till she trembled before him.

"Vile woman, and double-faced!" he said, "why do you push me forward
with one hand and with the other drag me back? Why do you whisper evil
counsel into one ear and into the other prophesy of misfortunes to come?
Had it not been for you, I should have let this business lie; I should
have taken my fate and been content. But day by day you have taunted me
with my fall and grieved over the greatness that you have lost, till
at length you have driven me to this. Why cannot you be all good or all
wicked, or at the least, through righteousness and sin, faithful to my
interest and your own?"

"Because I hate you, Hokosa, and yet can strike you only through my
tongue and your mad love for me. I am fast in your power, but thus at
least I can make you feel something of my own pain. Hark! I hear that
woman at the gate. Will you give her back the basket, or will you not?
Whatever you may choose to do, do not say in after days that I urged you
to the deed."

"Truly you are great-hearted!" he answered, with cold contempt; "one for
whom I did well to enter into treachery and sin! So be it: having gone
so far upon it, come what may, I will not turn back from this journey.
Let in that fool!"

Presently the woman stood before them, bearing with her another basket
of fruit.

"These are what you seek, Master," she said, "though I was forced to win
them by theft. Now give me my own and the medicine and let me go."

He gave her the basket, and with it, wrapped in a piece of kidskin, some
of the same powder with which he had doctored the fruits.

"What shall