embered; but
it in nowise troubled him, for it was being exercised in his behalf.
He, however, allowed time for the effect to sink into and take good hold
of the minds of the spectators, for he was shrewd enough to recognise
that the possession of such an ally must materially strengthen his own
position; and at length, when he believed that the incident had produced
its full effect, he sprang a new surprise upon his audience by saying,
in a loud voice:

"Stand forth, O Sekosini! and tell us what you know concerning the
sickness of the chief, 'Nkuni, and the deaths of those other six who
have recently travelled along the Dark Path!"

Then, to the unutterable confusion and dismay of his fellow
conspirators, the chief witch doctor, speaking in a loud, clear voice,
proceeded clearly and succinctly to unfold detail after detail of the
plot for the overthrow of the king, and the means whereby it had been
hoped to accomplish it, including the murder of the six chiefs who, it
was believed, were powerful enough to render the scheme abortive. As
the full, cold-blooded atrocity of the conspiracy became revealed,
murmurs of anger and detestation, low at first, but louder as the story
proceeded, began to run round the line of chiefs, while those who sat
next the parties implicated edged away from them on either side as far
as possible, until they crouched, isolated, crestfallen, and self-
condemned by their guilty countenances, a target for all eyes. At
length Sekosini's story came to an end, and for a few tense moments a
profound silence ensued. There was not an individual present who did
not realise the vital importance to the entire nation of the issues that
had been raised by the witch doctor's confession, and the manner in
which those issues would be dealt with by the king. Disaffection,
secretly fomented and carefully nurtured, had grown so strong that it
now threatened to disintegrate the whole nation, and unless it were
firmly dealt with would probably split up the Makolo into a number of
petty tribes, at enmity with each other, and an easy prey to those other
nations who surrounded them. Would the king have the courage boldly to
seize the hydra-headed menace and choke the life out of it, or would he
resort to a policy of temporising and concession? Everybody present
awaited the king's action in breathless suspense, while some were
already grimly counting the number of spears upon which they might
reckon to back them