come you? Are
you weary of your husband, that you fly back to me? If so, you are
welcome indeed; for know, Noma, that I still love you."

"Ay, Prince, I am weary of my husband sure enough; but I do not fly to
you, for he holds me fast to him with bonds that you cannot understand,
and fast to him while he lives I must remain."

"What hinders, Noma, that having got you here I should keep you here?
The cunning and magic of Hokosa may be great, but they will need to be
still greater to win you from my arms."

"This hinders, Prince, that you are playing for a higher stake than that
of a woman's love, and if you deal thus by me and my husband, then of a
surety you will lose the game."

"What stake, Noma?"

"The stake of the crown of the People of Fire."

"And why should I lose if I take you as a wife?"

"Because Hokosa, seeing that I do not return and learning from his spies
why I do not return, will warn the king, and by many means bring all
your plans to nothing. Listen now to the words of Hokosa that he has
set between my lips to deliver to you"--and she repeated to him all the
message without fault or fail.

"Say it again," he said, and she obeyed.

Then he answered:--

"Truly the skill of Hokosa is great, and well he knows how to set a
snare; but I think that if by his counsel I should springe the bird, he
will be too clever a man to keep upon the threshold of my throne. He
who sets one snare may set twain, and he who sits by the threshold may
desire to enter the house of kings wherein there is no space for two to
dwell."

"Is this the answer that I am to take back to Hokosa?" asked Noma. "It
will scarcely bind him to your cause, Prince, and I wonder that you dare
to speak it to me who am his wife."

"I dare to speak it to you, Noma, because, although you be his wife, all
wives do not love their lords; and I think that, perchance in days to
come, you would choose rather to hold the hand of a young king than that
of a witch-doctor sinking into eld. Thus shall you answer Hokosa: You
shall say to him that I have heard his words and that I find them very
good, and will walk along the path which he has made. Here before you I
swear by the oath that may not be broken--the sacred oath, calling down
ruin upon my head should I break one word of it--that if by his aid I
succeed in this great venture, I will pay him the price he asks. After
myself, the king, he shall be the greatest man among the people; he
shall b