warns off those who would follow in his footsteps."

"Then he might have spared himself the pains in your case, Bes, or in
my own for that matter, since we shall never come so high."

"No, Master, and I am glad to have his leave to stay lower down, since
that hot place of dead bulls is not one which I wish to inhabit in my
age, making use of a maiden to stare into a pot of water, and there
read marvels, which I could invent better for myself after a jug or
two of wine. Oh! the holy Tanofir is quite right. If these things are
going to happen let them happen, for we cannot change them by knowing
of them beforehand. Who wishes to know, Master, if his throat will be
cut?"

"Or that he will be married," I suggested.

"Just so, Master, seeing that such prophecies end in becoming truths
because we make them true, feeling that we must. Thus, now I must
marry yonder Karema if she will marry me for fear lest I should prove
the holy Tanofir to be what he called me--a liar."

I laughed and then asked Bes if he had taken note of what the seeress
said of our flight south and our return thence with a great army of
black men armed with bows.

"Yes, Master," he answered gravely, "and I think this army can be none
other than that of the Ethiopians of whom by right I am the King. This
very night I send messengers to tell those who rule in my place that I
still live and am changing my mind on the matter of marriage. Also
that if I do change it I may return to them, the wisest man who ever