I am not all a cheat, Lord. Visions come to me, as they did to my fathers; moreover, I have looked upon the face of Engoi, and he who has seen the Engoi partakes of her wisdom. Lord, in a vision, I have been warned to seek your help.”

“Is that why you blocked my road by raising that Lake tribe against me, and otherwise, Kaneke, so that I was forced to come to your town?”

“Yes, Lord, though I do not know who betrayed me to you. Some of the women, perhaps, or that little yellow man of yours, who hears in his sleep like a mere-cat—yes, even when he seems to be drunk—and is quick as a snake at pairing-time. Because of the vision, I did bring you here.”

“What do you want me to do?” I repeated, growing impatient. “I am tired of talk. Out with it that I may hear and judge, Kaneke.”

He rose from his seat, and, stepping to the edge of the verandah, stared at the evening star as though he sought an omen. Then he returned and answered:

“You are a wanderer, athirst for knowledge, a seeker for new things, Lord Macumazahn. You have heard of the holy hidden lake called Mone, on which no white man has looked, and desire to solve its mysteries, and what I have told you of it has whetted your appetite. Without a guide you can never reach that lake. I, who am of the people of its guardians, alone can guide you. Will you take me with you on your journey?”

“Hold hard, my friend,” I said. “You are putting the tail of the ox before the horns. I may wish to find that place, or I may not, but it seems that you MUST find it, I don’t know why, and that you cannot do so without me.”

“It is so,” he answered with something like a groan. “I will open the doors of my heart to you. I must seek that lake, for those upon whom the Shadow has fallen must follow the Shadow even though its shape be changed; and it has come to me in a dream, thrice repeated, that if I try to do so without your help, Lord, I shall be killed. Therefore, I pray you, give me that help.”

Now my business instincts awoke, for though some do not think so, I am really a very sharp business man, even hard at times, I fear.

“Look here, friend Kaneke,” I said, “I came to this country because I have heard that beyond it is a land full of elephants and other game, and you know I am a hunter by trade. I did not come to search for a mysterious lake, though I should be glad enough to see one if it lay in my path. So the point is this: if I were to consent to undertake a journey which according to your own account is most dangerous and difficult, I should require to be paid for it. Yes, to be largely paid,” and I looked at him as fiercely as I suppose a usurer does at a minor who requires a loan.

“I understand. Indeed, it is natural. Listen, Lord, I have a hundred sovereigns in English gold that I have saved up coin by coin. When we get to the lake they shall be yours.”

I sprang from my chair.

“A hundred sovereigns! When we get to the lake, which probably we shall never do! Man, I see that you wish to insult me. Good night, indeed good-bye, for tomorrow I leave this place,” and I lifted my foot to step off the verandah.

“Lord,” he said, catching at my coat, “be not offended with your slave. Everything I have is yours.”

“That’s better,” I said. “What have you?”

“Lord, I deal in ivory, of which I have a good store buried.”

“How much?”

“Lord, I think about a hundred bull-tusks, which I proposed to send away at next new moon. If you would accept some of them—”

“Some?” I said. “You mean all of them, with the one hundred pounds for immediate expenses.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed, then answered:

“Well, if it must be so, so be it. Tomorrow you shall see the ivory.”

Next he went into the house and returned presently with a canvas bag, of which he opened the mouth to show me that it was full of gold.

“Take this on account, Lord,” he said.

Again my business instincts came to my help. Remembering that if I touched a single coin I should be striking a bargain, whatever the ivory might prove to be worth, I waved the bag away.

“When I have seen the tusks, we will talk,” I said; “not before.