med: "Well, I never!" and
Thomas looked first puzzled, then angry, then suspicious.

"Does the Teacher think that the Floweret and the old doctor have made
a plot together?" asked Menzi. "Can a sweet Flower make plots and tell
lies like the old doctor? Well, well, it is nothing. Now let us try
something better. My bags, my bags."

Thomas made as though he would go away, but Menzi stopped him, saying:

"No, doubters must stay to see the end of their doubts. What shall I do?
Ah! I have it."

Then from one of the bags he drew out a number of crooked black sticks
that looked like bent ebony rulers, and built them up criss-cross in a
little pile upon the ground. Next he found some bundles of fine dried
grass, which he thrust into the interstices between the sticks, as he
did so bidding one of his servants to run to the nearest hut and bring a
coal of fire upon a sherd.

"A match will not do," he said. "White men have touched it."

Presently the burning ember arrived, and muttering something, Menzi blew
upon it as though to keep it alight.

"Now, White Teacher," he said in a voice that had suddenly become
commanding, "think of something. Think of what you will, and I will show
it to you."

"Indeed," said Thomas with a smile. "I have thought of something; now
make good your words."

Menzi thrust the ember into the haylike fibres and blew. They caught and
blazed up fiercely, making an extraordinarily large flame considering
the small amount of the kindling. The ebony-like sticks also began to
blaze. Menzi grew excited.

"My Spirit, come to me; my Spirit, come to me!" he cried. "O my Spirit,
show this White Teacher Tombool that I am not a cheat!"

He ran round and round the fire; he leapt into the air, then suddenly
shouted: "My Spirit has entered into me; my Snake is in my breast!"

All his excitement went; he grew quite calm, almost cataleptic. Holding
his thin hands over the fire, slowly he let them fall, and as he did so
the fierce flames died down.

"It's going out," said Tabitha.

Menzi smiled at her and lifted his hands again. Lo! the fire that seemed
to be dead leapt up after them in a fierce blaze. Again he dropped his
hands and the fire died away. Then he moved his arms to and fro and it
came back, following the motions of his arms as though he drew it by a
string.

"Have you thought, White Teacher? Have you thought?" he asked. "Good!
Arise, smoke!"

Behold, instead of the clear flame appeared a fa