these two rules of life was the right rule?
Which of them should a man follow to satisfy his conscience and to
secure his abiding welfare? Apart from the motives that swayed him, as a
mere matter of ethics, this problem interested Hokosa not a little, and
he went homewards determined to solve it if he might. That could be done
in one way only--by a close examination of both systems. The first he
knew well; he had practised it for nearly forty years. Of the second
he had but an inkling. Also, if he would learn more of it he must make
haste, seeing that its exponent in some short while would cease to be in
a position to set it out.

"I trust that you will come again," said Owen to Hokosa as they left the
chapel.

"Yes, indeed, Messenger," answered the wizard; "I will come every day,
and if you permit it, I will attend your private teachings also, for I
accept nothing without examination, and I greatly desire to study this
new doctrine of yours, root and flower and fruit."

*****

On the morrow Noma started upon her journey. As the matrons who
accompanied her gave out with a somewhat suspicious persistency, its
ostensible object was to visit the Mount of Purification, and there by
fastings and solitude to purge herself of the sin of having given birth
to a stillborn child. For amongst savage peoples such an accident is
apt to be looked upon as little short of a crime, or, at the least, as
indicating that the woman concerned is the object of the indignation
of spirits who need to be appeased. To this Mount, Noma went, and there
performed the customary rites.

"Little wonder," she thought to herself, "that the spirits were angry
with her, seeing that yonder in the burying-ground of kings she had
dared to break in upon their rest."

From the Place of Purification she travelled on ten days' journey with
her companions till they reached the mountain fastness where Hafela had
established himself. The town and its surroundings were of extraordinary
strength, and so well guarded that it was only after considerable
difficulty and delay that the women were admitted. Hearing of her
arrival and that she had words for him, Hafela sent for Noma at once,
receiving her by night and alone in his principal hut. She came and
stood before him, and he looked at her beauty with admiring eyes, for he
could not forget the woman whom the cunning of Hokosa had forced him to
put away.

"Whence come you, pretty one?" he asked, "and wherefore