the branches he halted, and removed the
handkerchief from his mouth.

"Be of good cheer," he said to John, "and if it should chance that I am
called away before my words come true, yet remember my words. I tell
you that this Tree of Death shall become the Tree of Life for all the
children of your people. Look! there above you is its sign and promise."

John lifted his eyes, following the line of Owen's outstretched hand,
and saw this. High up upon the tree, and standing clear of all the other
branches, was one straight, dead limb, and from this dead limb two
arms projected at right angles, also dead and snapped off short. Had a
carpenter fashioned a cross of wood and set it there, its proportions
could not have been more proper and exact. It was very strange to find
this symbol of the Christian hope towering above that place of human
terror, and stranger still was the purpose which it must serve in a day
to come.

Owen and John returned to the guard in silence, and presently they set
forward on their journey. At length, passing beneath a natural arch of
rock, they were out of the Valley of Death, and before them, not five
hundred paces away, appeared the fence of the Great Place.

This Great Place stood upon a high plateau, in the lap of the
surrounding hills, all of which were strongly fortified with schanses,
pitfalls, and rough walls of stone. That plateau may have measured
fifteen miles in circumference, and the fence of the town itself was
about four miles in circumference. Within the fence and following its
curve, for it was round, stood thousands of dome-shaped huts carefully
set out in streets. Within these again was a stout stockade of timber,
enclosing a vast arena of trodden earth, large enough to contain all
the cattle of the People of Fire in times of danger, and to serve as a
review ground for their _impis_ in times of peace or festival.

At the outer gate of the kraal there was a halt, while the keepers of
the gate despatched a messenger to their king to announce the advent of
the white man. Of this pause Owen took advantage to array himself in the
surplice and hood which he had brought with him in readiness for that
hour. Then he gave the mule to John to lead behind him.

"What do you, Messenger?" asked the leader of the guard, astonished.

"I clothe myself in my war-dress," he answered.

"Where then is your spear, Messenger?"

"Here," said Owen, presenting to his eyes a crucifix of ivory, most