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 matter.”

“Friend,” answered Hokosa, “you should have been not a soldier but a pleader of causes.  True it is then that the prince will only cause my life to fly, but whether that is a smaller sin I leave you to judge.”

“Keep him prisoner,” said another, “till we learn how these matters end.”

“Nay,” answered Hafela, “for then he will surely outwit us and escape.  Noma, what shall we do with this man who was your husband?  Tell us, for you should know best how to deal with him.”

“Let me think,” she answered, and she looked first at the ground beneath her, next around her, then upwards toward the skies.

Now they stood at the foot of the koppie, on the flat top of which grew the great Tree of Doom, that for generations had served the People of Fire as a place of execution of their criminals, or of those who fell under the ban of the king or of the witch-doctors.  Among and above the finger-like fronds of this strange and dreadful-looking tree towered that white dead limb shaped like a cross, which Owen had pointed out to his disciple John, taking it to be a sign and a promise.  This cross stood out clear against the sinking moon.  It caught Noma’s eye, and a devilish thought entered into her heart.