"This man is a snake whom few can nurse with safety.""He will not murder me," said Owen smiling, "because his heart is turned from evil to good; also, there is little need to murder a dying man.""Nay, speak not so," said the king hastily; "and as for this man, be it as you will.Come, I must take counsel with my captains, for our danger is near and great."So it came about that Hokosa stayed in the house of Owen.
On the morrow the Great Place was full of the bustle of preparation, and by dawn of the following day an /impi/ of some seventeen thousand spears had started to ambush Hafela and his force in a certain wooded defile through which he must pass on his way to the mountain pass where his women and children were gathered.The army was not large, at least in the eyes of the People of Fire who, before the death of Umsuka and the break up of the nation, counted their warriors by tens of thousands.But after those events the most of the regiments had deserted to Hafela, leaving to Nodwengo not more than two-and-twenty thousand spears upon which he could rely.Of these he kept less than a third to defend the Great Place against possible attacks, and all the rest he sent to fall upon Hafela far away, hoping there to make an end of him once and for all.This counsel the king took against the better judgment of many of his captains, and as the issue proved, it was mistaken.
When Owen told Hokosa of it, that old general shrugged his shoulders.
"The king would have done better to keep his regiments at home," he said, "and fight it out with Hafela here, where he is well prepared.
Yonder the country is very wide, and broken, and it may well chance that the /impi/ will miss that of Hafela, and then how can the king defend this place with a handful, should the prince burst upon him at the head of forty thousand men? But who am I that I should give counsel for which none seek?""As God wills, so shall it befall," answered Owen wearily; "but oh!
the thought of all this bloodshed breaks my heart.I trust that its beatings may be stilled before my eyes behold the evil hour."On the evening of that day Hokosa was baptised.The ceremony took place, not in the church, for Owen was too weak to go there, but in the largest room of his house and before some few witnesses chosen from the congregation.Even as he was being signed with the sign of the cross, a strange and familiar attraction caused the convert to look up, and behold, before him, watching all with mocking eyes, stood Noma his wife.At length the rite was finished, and the little audience melted away, all save Noma, who stood silent and beautiful as a statue, the light of mockery still gleaming in her eyes.Then she spoke, saying:--"I greet you, Husband.I have returned from doing your business afar, and if this foolishness is finished, and the white man can spare you, I would talk with you alone.""I greet you, Wife," answered Hokosa."Say out your say, for none are present save us three, and from the Messenger here I have no secrets.""What, Husband, none? Do you ever talk to him of certain fruit that you ripened in a garden yonder?""From the Messenger I have no secrets," repeated Hokosa in a heavy voice.
"Then his heart must be full of them indeed, and it is little wonder that he seems sick," replied Noma, gibing."Tell me, Hokosa, is it true that you have become a Christian, or would you but fool the white man and his following?""It is true."
At the words her graceful shape was shaken with a little gust of silent laughter.
