“Ay,” said Hafela, “and that I have poisoned him!”

“Why, Prince?  Few know what is in your father’s mind, and with those, being king, you will be able to deal.  Also this is the virtue of the poison which I choose, that it is swift, yet the symptoms of it are the symptoms of a natural sickness.  But that your safety and mine may be assured, I have made yet another plan, though of this there will be little need.  You were present two days since when a runner came from the white man who sojourns beyond our border, he who seeks to teach us, the Children of Fire, a new faith, and gives out that he is the messenger of the King of heaven.  This runner asked leave for the white man to visit the Great Place, and, speaking in the king’s name, I gave him leave.  But I warned his servant that if his master came, a sign should be required of him to show that he was a true man, and had of the wisdom of the King of Heaven; and that if he failed therein, then that he should die as that white liar died who visited us in bygone years.

“Now I have so ordered that this white man, passing through the Valley of Death yonder, shall reach the Great Place not long before the king drinks of the cup of the first-fruits.  Then if any think that something out of nature has happened to the king, they will surely think also that this strange prayer-doctor has wrought the evil.  Then also I will call for a sign from the white man, praying of him to recover the king of his sickness; and when he fails, he shall be slain as a worker of spells and the false prophet of a false god, and so we shall be rid of him and his new faith, and you shall be cleared of doubt.  Is not the plan good, Prince?”

“It is very good, Hokosa—­save for one thing only.”

“For what thing?”

“This:  the white man who is named Messenger might chance to be a true prophet of a true God, and to recover the king.”

“Oho, let him do it, if he can; but to do it, first he must know the poison and its antidote.  There is but one, and it is known to me only of all men in this land.  When he has done that, then I, yes, even I, Hokosa, will begin to inquire concerning this God of his, who shows Himself so mighty in person of His messenger.”  And he laughed low and scornfully.

“Prince, farewell!  I go forth alone, whither you dare not follow at this hour, to seek that which we shall need.  One word—­think not to play me false, or to cheat me of my price; for whate’er betides, be sure of this, that hour shall be the hour of your dooming.  Hail to you, Son of the King!  Hail! and farewell.”  Then, removing the door-board, the wizard passed from the hut and was gone.

*****

The vision changed.  Now there appeared a valley walled in on either side with sloping cliffs of granite; a desolate place, sandy and, save for a single spring, without water, strewn with boulders of rock, some of them piled fantastically one upon the other.  At a certain spot this valley widened out, and in the mouth of the space thus formed, midway between the curved lines of the receding cliffs, stood a little hill or koppie, also built up of boulders.  It was a place of death; for all around the hill, and piled in hundreds between the crevices of its stones, lay the white bones of men.