e general of the armies; he shall be captain of the council
and head of the doctors, and to him shall be given half the cattle of
Nodwengo. Also, into his hand I will deliver all those who cling to this
faith of the Christians, and, if it pleases him, he shall offer them as
a sacrifice to his god. This I swear, and you, Noma, are witness to the
oath. Yet it may chance that after he, Hokosa, has gathered up all
this pomp and greatness, he himself shall be gathered up by Death, that
harvest-man whom soon or late will garner every ear;" and he looked at
her meaningly.

"It may be so, Prince," she answered.

"It may be so," he repeated, "and when----"

"When it is so, then, Prince, we will talk together, but not till then.
Nay, touch me not, for were he to command me, Hokosa has this power over
me that I must show him all that you have done, keeping nothing back.
Let me go now to the place that is made ready for me, and afterwards you
shall tell me again and more fully the words that I must say to Hokosa
my husband."

*****

On the morrow Hafela held a secret council of his great men, and the
next day an embassy departed to Nodwengo the king, taking to him that
message which Hokosa, through Noma his wife, had put into the lips
of the prince. Twenty days later the embassy returned saying that it
pleased the king to grant the prayer of his brother Hafela, and bringing
with it the tidings that the white man, Messenger, had fallen sick, and
it was thought that he would die.

So in due course the women and children of the people of Hafela started
upon their journey towards the new land where it was given out that they
should live, and with them went Noma, purposing to leave them as they
drew near the gates of the Great Place of the king. A while after,
Hafela and his _impis_ followed with carriers bearing their fighting
shields in bundles, and having their stabbing spears rolled up in mats.

CHAPTER XVI

THE REPENTANCE OF HOKOSA

Hokosa kept his promise. On the morrow of his first attendance there he
was again to be seen in the chapel, and after the service was over he
waited on Owen at his house and listened to his private teaching. Day
by day he appeared thus, till at length he became master of the whole
doctrine of Christianity, and discovered that that which at first had
struck him as childish and even monstrous, now presented itself to him
in a new and very different light. The conversion of Hokosa came upon