Himself so mighty in person of His messenger." And he laughed low and
scornfully.

"Prince, farewell! I go forth alone, whither you dare not follow at this
hour, to seek that which we shall need. One word--think not to play
me false, or to cheat me of my price; for whate'er betides, be sure of
this, that hour shall be the hour of your dooming. Hail to you, Son of
the King! Hail! and farewell." Then, removing the door-board, the wizard
passed from the hut and was gone.

*****

The vision changed. Now there appeared a valley walled in on either side
with sloping cliffs of granite; a desolate place, sandy and, save for a
single spring, without water, strewn with boulders of rock, some of them
piled fantastically one upon the other. At a certain spot this valley
widened out, and in the mouth of the space thus formed, midway between
the curved lines of the receding cliffs, stood a little hill or koppie,
also built up of boulders. It was a place of death; for all around the
hill, and piled in hundreds between the crevices of its stones, lay the
white bones of men.

Nor was this all. Its summit was flat, and in the midst of it stood
a huge tree. Even had it not been for the fruit which hung from its
branches, the aspect of that tree must have struck the beholder as
uncanny, even as horrible. The bark on its great bole was leprous white;
and from its gaunt and spreading rungs rose branches that subdivided
themselves again and again, till at last they terminated in round green
fingers, springing from grey, flat slabs of bark, in shape not unlike
that of a human palm. Indeed, from a little distance this tree,