faith had been reproved--truly he also had been "warned of God in a
dream,"--truly "his ears had been opened and his instruction sealed."
His soul had been "kept back from the pit," and his life from "perishing
by the sword;" and the way of the wicked had been made clear to him "in
a dream, in a vision of the night when deep sleep falleth upon men."

Not for nothing had he endured that agony, and not for nothing had he
struggled in the grip of doubt.



CHAPTER V

THE FEAST OF THE FIRST-FRUITS

On the third morning from this night whereof the strange events have
been described, an ox-waggon might have been seen outspanned on the
hither side of those ranges of hills that were visible from the river.
These mountains, which although not high are very steep, form the outer
barrier and defence of the kingdom of the Amasuka. Within five hundred
yards of where the waggon stood, however, a sheer cliffed gorge,
fire-riven and water-hewn, pierced the range, and looking on it, Owen
knew it for the gorge of his dream. Night and day the mouth of it was
guarded by a company of armed soldiers, whose huts were built high on
outlook places in the mountains, whence their keen eyes could scan the
vast expanses of plain. A full day before it reached them, they had seen
the white-capped waggon crawling across the veldt, and swift runners had
reported its advent to the king at his Great Place.

Back came the word of the king that the white man, with the waggon and