nce it is not given to
me to read the future, but only the past, and sometimes the things that
happen in the present though they be far away."

"Will you send to search for him, O Ayesha?" I asked anxiously.

"Nay, it is useless, for he is already distant. Moreover those who went
might be taken by the outposts of Rezu, as perchance has happened to
your companion wandering in his madness. Do you know what he went to
seek?"

"More or less," I answered and translated to her the letter that
Robertson had left for me.

"It may be as the man writes," she commented, "since the mad often see
well in their dreams, though these are not sent by a god as he imagines.
The mind in its secret places knows all things, O Allan, although it
seems to know little or nothing, and when the breath of vision or the
fury of a soul distraught blows away the veils or burns through the
gates of distance, then for a while it sees and learns, since, whatever
fools may think, often madness is true wisdom. Now follow me with the
little yellow man and the Warrior of the Axe. Stay, let me look upon
that axe."

I interpreted her wish to Umslopogaas who held it out to her but refused
to loose it from his wrist to which it was attached by the leathern
thong.

"Does the Black One think that I shall cut him down with his own weapon,
I who am so weak and gentle?" she asked, laughing.

"Nay, Ayesha, but it is his law not to part with this Drinker of Lives,
which he names 'Chieftainess and Groan-maker,' and clings to closer by
day and night than a man does to his wife."

"There he is wise, Allan, since a savage captain may get more wives but
never such another axe. The thing is ancient," she added musingly after
examining its every detail, "and who knows? It may be that whereof the
legend tells which is fated to bring Rezu to the dust. Now ask this
fierce-eyed Slayer whether, armed with his axe he can find courage to
face the most terrible of all men and the strongest, one who is a wizard
also, of whom it is prophesied that only by such an axe as this can he
be made to bite the dust."

I obeyed. Umslopogaas laughed grimly and answered,

"Say to the White Witch that there is no man living upon the earth whom
I would not face in war, I who have never been conquered in fair fight,
though once a chance blow brought me to the doors of death," and he
touched the great hole in his forehead. "Say to her also that I have no
fear of defeat, I from whom doom