w Hokosa looked at the dust at his feet, then he gazed upwards
searching the heavens, and answered:--

"Did not I tell you yesterday? I think that this will happen. I
think--but who can be quite sure of the future, Hafela?--that you and
the most of your army by this hour to-morrow night will be lying fast
asleep about this place, with jackals for your bedfellows."

The prince heard and trembled at his words, for he believed that if he
willed it, Hokosa could prophesy the truth.

"Accursed dog!" he said. "I am minded to be guided by your saying; but
be sure of this, that if I follow it, you shall stay here to sleep with
jackals, yes, this very night."

Then Noma broke in.

"Be not mad, Hafela!" she said. "Will you listen to the lies that this
renegade tells to work upon your fears? Will you abandon victory when it
lies within your grasp, and in place of a great king become a fugitive
whom all men mock at, an outcast to be hunted down at leisure by that
brother against whom you dared to rebel, but on whom you did not dare
to shut your hand when he lay in its hollow? Silence the tongue of this
captive rogue for ever and become a man again, with the heart of a man."

"Now," said Hokosa gently; "many would find it hard to believe that I
reared this woman from childhood, nursing her with my own hands when
she was sick and giving her of the best I had; that afterwards, when
you stole her from me, Prince, I sinned deeply to win her back. That
I married her and sinned yet more deeply to give her the greatness she
desired; and at last, of my own will, I loosed the bonds by which I held
her, although I could not thrust her memory from my heart. Yet I have
earned it all, for I made her the tool of my witchcraft, and therefore
it is just that she should turn and rend me. Well, if you like it, take
her counsel, Prince, and let mine go, for I care nothing which you take;
only, forgive me if I prophesy once more and for the last time--I am
sure that Nodwengo yonder spoke truth when he bade your herald tell
me that he who causes my blood to flow shall surely die and for it be
called to a strict account. Prince, I am a Christian now, and believe
me, whatever you may do, I seek no revenge upon you; having been myself
forgiven so much, in my turn I have learned to forgive. Yet it may be
ill for that man who causes my blood to flow."

"Let him be strangled," said a captain who stood near by, "and then
there will be no blood in the ma