Hokosa heard and shivered.

“Who set those words between your lips, Messenger?” he whispered.

“Who set them, Hokosa?  Nay, I know not—­or rather, I know well.  He set them Who teaches us to speak all things that are good.”

“It must be so, indeed,” replied Hokosa.  “Yet I have heard them before; I have heard them from the lips of the dead, and with them went this command:  that when they fell upon my ears again I should ’take them for a sign, and let my heart be turned.’”

“Tell me that tale,” said Owen.

So he told him, and this time it was the white man who trembled.

“Horrible has been your witchcraft, O Son of Darkness!” said Owen, when he had finished; “yet it would seem that it was permitted to you to find truth in the pit of sorcery.  Obey, obey, and let your heart be turned.  The dead told you that you should be set high above the nation and its king, and that saying I cannot read, though it may be fulfilled in some fashion of which to-day you do not think.  At the least, the other saying is true, that in the end comes judgment, and that there shall the sin and the atonement strive together; therefore for judgment prepare yourself.  And now depart, for I must talk with the king as to this matter of the onslaught of Hafela.”

“Then, that will be the signal for my death, for what king can forgive one who has plotted such treachery against him?” said Hokosa.

“Fear not,” answered Owen, “I will soften his heart.  Go you into the church and pray, for there you shall be less tempted; but before you go, swear to me that you will work no evil on yourself.”

“I swear it, Messenger, since now I desire to live, if only for awhile, seeing that death shuts every door.”

Then he went to the church and waited there.  An hour later he was summoned, and found the king seated with Owen.

“Man,” said Nodwengo, “I am told by the Messenger here that you have knowledge of a plot which my brother the Prince Hafela has made to fall treacherously upon me and put me and my people to the spear.  How you come to be acquainted with the plot, and what part you have played in it, I will not now inquire, for so much have I promised to the Messenger.  Yet I warn you it will be well that you should tell me all you know, and that should you lie to me or attempt to deceive me, then you shall surely die.”

“King, hear all the truth,” answered Hokosa in a voice of desperate calm.  “I have knowledge of the plot, for it was I who wove it; but whether or not Hafela will carry it out altogether I cannot say, for as yet no word has reached me from him.  King, this was the plan that I made.”  And he told him everything.