"Must I then put your thoughts in words?" said this man in a clear
quick whisper. "Well, so be it; for I weary of sitting here in the dark
waiting for water that will not flow. Listen, Prince; you come to talk
to me of the death of a king--is it not so? Nay do not start. Why are
you affrighted when you hear upon the lips of another the plot that
these many months has been familiar to your breast?"

"Truly, Hokosa, you are the best of wizards, or the worst," answered
the great man huskily. "Yet this once you are mistaken," he added with a
change of voice. "I came but to ask you for a charm to turn my father's
heart----"

"To dust? Prince, if I am mistaken, why am I the best of wizards, or the
worst, and why did your jaw drop and your face change at my words, and
why do you even now touch your dry lips with your tongue? Yes, I know
that it is dark here, yet some can see in it, and I am one of them. Ay,
Prince, and I can see your mind also. You would be rid of your father:
he has lived too long. Moreover his love turns to Nodwengo, the good and
gentle; and perhaps--who can say?--it is even in his thought, when all
his regiments are about him two days hence, to declare that you, Prince,
are deposed, and that your brother, Nodwengo, shall be king in your
stead. Now, Nodwengo you cannot kill; he is too well loved and too well
guarded. If he died suddenly, his dead lips would call out 'Murder!' in
the ears of all men; and, Prince, all eyes would turn to you, who alone
could profit by his end. But if the king should chance to die--why he is
old, is he not? and such things happen to the old. Also he grows feeble,
and will not suffer the regiments to be doctored for war, although day
by day they clamour to be led to battle; for he seeks to end his years
in peace."