The second was
shorter and rather stout, also much younger. He had a genial, smiling
face, small, beady-black eyes, and was clean-shaven. They were very
light in colour; indeed I have seen Italians who are much darker; and
there was about their whole aspect a certain air of power.

Instantly I remembered the story that Miss Holmes had told me at dinner
and looked at her covertly, to see that she had turned quite pale and
was trembling a little. I do not think that anyone else noticed this,
however, as all were staring at the strangers. Moreover she recovered
herself in a moment, and, catching my eye, laid her finger on her lips
in token of silence.

The men were clothed in thick, fur-lined cloaks, which they took off
and, folding them neatly, laid upon the floor, standing revealed in
robes of a beautiful whiteness and in large plain turbans, also white.

"High-class Somali Arabs," thought I to myself, noting the while that as
they arranged the robes they were taking in every one of us with their
quick eyes. One of them shut the door, leaving Savage on this side of
it as though they meant him to be present. Then they walked towards
us, each of them carrying an ornamental basket made apparently of split
reeds, that contained doubtless their conjuring outfit and probably the
snake which Savage had found in his pocket. To my surprise they came
straight to me, and, having set down the baskets, lifted their hands
above their heads, as a person about to dive might do, and bowed till
the points of their fingers touched the floor. Next they spoke, not in
Arabic as I had expected that they would, but in Bantu, which of course
I understood perfectly well.

"I, Harut, head priest and doctor of the White Kendah People, greet you,
O Macumazana," said the elder man.

"I, Marut, a priest and doctor of the People of the White Kendah, greet
you, O Watcher-by-night, whom we have travelled far to find," said the
younger man. Then together,

"We both greet you, O Lord, who seem small but are great, O Chief with
a troubled past and with a mighty future, O Beloved of Mameena who has
'gone down' but still speaks from beneath, Mameena who was and is of our
company."

At this point it was my turn to shiver and become pale, as any may guess
who may have chanced to read the history of Mameena, and the turn of
Miss Holmes to watch _me_ with animated interest.

"O Slayer of evil men and beasts!" they went on, in their rich-voiced,
monotono