ing yonder in the shadow, hoping to behold
some wonder, may see me with you, and, though they might not recognise
me, disguised as I am, I would rather that no man should know that you
have been secretly visited this night."

"Right!" answered Dick in English. "I see your point, old chap, and out
goes the `glim'." And so saying he took down the lamp, opened, and
extinguished it.

"It is well," approved the king, with a sigh of relief. "Now can I talk
without fear of discovery." He paused for a moment, considering how he
should begin, then said: "As we talked to-day, O Healer of
Sicknesses!"--the native word for this expression (soon abbreviated to
"Healer") forthwith became Dick's name among the Makolo from that
moment--"you said that you knew what happened to M'Bongwele, the king
who ruled before me, and also how I came to be made king in his stead.
Know you also the story of Seketulo, whom the Four Spirits made king in
M'Bongwele's stead when they first came among the Makolo?"

"Yes, we know," answered Dick. "We know that M'Bongwele was dethroned
and banished by the four Spirits because of his barbarous and iniquitous
rule, and that Seketulo was made king in his stead. We know also that,
after a time, M'Bongwele secretly returned from exile, and, aided by
certain powerful chiefs, slew Seketulo and reinstated himself as King of
the Makolo. And, finally, we know that when the four Spirits revisited
this country in their great glittering ship that flies through the air,
they again deposed M'Bongwele and hanged him and his chief witch doctor
from the bough of a tree, because, despite their previous warning, they
persisted in their evil-doing. And in M'Bongwele's place they made you,
Lobelalatutu, King of the Makolo."

"It is even so, O Healer!" assented the king. "The tale, as you tell
it, is the truth; and now I know of a verity that, possessing this
knowledge, you are like unto the Spirits themselves, to be trusted, even
as they were; therefore will I, without fear, unfold to you the tale of
my present trouble. It was the dissatisfaction of certain chiefs with
Seketulo's system of government, as prescribed to him by the four
Spirits, that made M'Bongwele's secret return and his resumption of the
throne possible. Seketulo was instructed to govern the Makolo justly
and humanely, to put a stop to the oppression of the people by the
chiefs, and, above all, not to make war upon the neighbouring nations
save in