will march onward to
your succour, you can deal with yonder army."

"A great scheme truly," said Hafela in admiration; "but how do I know
whether all this tale is true, or whether you do but set a snare for
me?"

"Bid scouts go out and creep into yonder gully," answered Noma, "and you
will see whether or no I have spoken falsely. For the rest, I am in your
hands, and if I lie you can take my life in payment."

"If I march upon the Great Place, it must be at midnight when none see
me go," said Hafela, "and what will you do then, Noma, who are too weary
to travel again so soon?"

"I will be borne in a litter till my strength comes back to me," she
answered. "And now give me to eat and let me rest while I may."

*****

Five hours later, Hafela with the most of his army, a force of something
over twenty thousand men, was journeying swiftly but by a circuitous
route towards the Great Place of the king. On the crest of the hill
facing the gorge, as Noma had suggested, he left six regiments with
instructions to fly before Nodwengo's generals, and when they had led
them far enough, to follow him as swiftly as they were able. These
orders, or rather the first part of them, they carried out, for as it
chanced after two days' flight, the king's soldiers got behind them by
a night march, and falling on them at dawn, killed half of them and
dispersed the rest. Then it was that Nodwengo's generals learned for
the first time that they were following one wing of Hafela's army only,
while the main body was striking at the heart of the kingdom, and turned
their faces homewards in fear and haste.

*****

On the morning after the flight of Noma, Owen passed into the last stage
of his sickness, and it became evident, both to himself and to those
who watched him, that at the most he could not live for more than a few
days. For his part, he accepted his doom joyfully, spending the time
which was left to him in writing letters that were to be forwarded to
England whenever an opportunity should arise. Also he set down on paper
a statement of the principal events of his strange mission, and other
information for the guidance of his white successors, who by now should
be drawing near to the land of the Amasuka. In the intervals of these
last labours, from time to time he summoned the king and the wisest and
trustiest of them whom he had baptised to his bedside, teaching them
what they should do when he was gone, and exhorting them to cl