for they are devils and I am their servant. But there is more than that,
there is good also which I have won for myself. I knew you would come
even before I had seen your face, I knew you would come," she went
on passionately, "and that is why I was yours already. But what would
befall after you came, that I neither knew, nor know, because I will not
seek, who could learn it all."

He looked at her and she saw the doubt in his eyes.

"You do not believe me, Vernoon. Very well, this night you shall see,
you and that black dog of yours, that you may know I do not trick you,
and he shall tell me what you see, for he being but a low-born pig will
speak the truth, not minding if it hurts me, whereas you are gentle and
might spare, and myself I have sworn not to search the future by an oath
that I may not break."

"What of the past?" asked Alan.

"We will not waste time on it, for I know it all. Vernoon, have you no
memories of Asiki-land? Do you think you never visited it before?"

"Never," said Alan; "it was my uncle who came and ran away with Little
Bonsa on his head."

"That is news indeed," she replied mockingly. "Did you then think that I
believed it to be you, though it is true that she who went before, or
my spirit that was in her, fell into error for an hour, and thought that
fool-uncle of yours was _the Man_. When she found her mistake she
let him go, and bade the god go with him that it might bring back the
appointed Man, as it has done; yes, that Little Bonsa, who knew him of