ather is dead!" Presently with it were mingled other and angrier shouts
of "The king is murdered!" and "He is bewitched, the white wizard
has bewitched the king! He prophesied evil upon him, and now he has
bewitched him!"

Meanwhile the captains and councillors formed a ring about Umsuka, and
Hokosa bending over him examined him.

"Princes and Councillors," he said presently, "your father yet lives,
but his life is like the life of a dying fire and soon he must be dead.
This is sure, that one of two things has befallen him: either the heat
has caused the blood to boil in his veins and he is smitten with a
stroke from heaven, such as men who are fat and heavy sometimes die of;
or he has been bewitched by a wicked wizard. Yonder stands one," and he
pointed to Owen, "who not an hour ago prophesied that before the sun was
down great evil should overtake the king. The sun is not yet down, and
great evil has overtaken him. Perchance, Princes and Councillors, this
white prophet can tell us of the matter."

"Perchance I can," answered Owen calmly.

"He admits it!" cried some. "Away with him!"

"Peace!" said Owen, holding the crucifix towards those whose spears
threatened his life.

They shrank back, for this symbol of a dying man terrified them who
could not guess its significance.

"Peace," went on Owen, "and listen. Be sure of this, Councillors, that
if I die, your king will die; whereas if I live, your king may live. You
ask me of this matter. Where shall I begin? Shall I begin with the tale
of two men seated together some nights ago in a hut so dark that no eyes
could see in it, save perchance the eyes of a wizard? What did they talk
of in that hut, and who were those men? They talked, I think, of the
death of a king and of the crowning of a king. They talked of a price
to be paid for a certain medicine; and one of them had a royal air, and
one----"

"Will ye hearken to this wild babbler while your king lies dying before
your eyes?" broke in Hokosa, in a shrill, unnatural voice; for almost
palsied with fear as he was at Owen's mysterious words, he still
retained his presence of mind. "Listen now: what is he, and what did he
say? He is one who comes hither to preach a new faith to us; he comes,
he says, on an embassy from the King of Heaven, who has power over
all things, and who, so these white men preach, can give power to His
servants. Well, let this one cease prating and show us his strength,
as he has been war