Robin Hood

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vision. It was the vision of anative town, having a great bare space in the centre of it encircledby hundreds or thousands of huts. But there was no one stirring aboutthe huts, for it was night--not this his night of trial indeed, sin

e could see its every detail: the polished floor,the skin rugs, the beer gourds, the shields and spears, the roof-treeof red wood, and the dried lizard hanging from the thatch, a charm toward off evil. In this hut, seated face to

ed all white; and his fingersplayed nervously with the handle of a spear that he carried in hisright hand. His companion was of a different stamp; a person of morethan fifty years, he was tall and spare in figure, with delicatelyshaped hands and feet. His hair and little beard were tinged withgrey, his face wa

s once you are mistaken," he added witha change of voice. "I came but to ask you for a charm to turn myfather's heart----""To dust? Prince, if I am mistaken, why am I the best of wizards, orthe 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, Iknow that it is dark here, yet some can see in it, and I am one ofthem. Ay, Prince, and I can see your mind also. You would be rid ofyour father: he has lived too long.

s feeble, and will notsuffer the regiments to be doctored for war, although day by day theyclamour to be led to

rn of the king, who in a dayto come shall carry the shield of Nodwengo; for he is good and gentle,and will spare

ince! Nay; what have you to offer me in return forsuch a deed as this? Have I not grown up in Umsuka's shadow, and shallI cut down the tree that shades me?""What have I to offer you? This: that next to myself you shall be thegreatest in the land, Hokosa.""That I am already, and whoever rules it, that I must always be. I,who am the chief of wizards; I, the reader of men's hearts; I, thehearer of men's thoughts! I, the lord of the air and the lightning; I,the invulnerable. If you would m

ere that I can offer you, who have everything except the throne,whereon you

sently his form straighteneditself, and wi

great war with the tribes of thenorth. She was my ward: she was more; for through her--ah! you knownot how--I held my converse with the things of earth and air, the veryspirits that watch us now in this darkness, Hafela. Thus it happened,that before ever she was a woman, her mind grew greater than the mindof any other woman, and her thought became my thought, and my thoughtb

he Royal Women, there to abide till this feast ofthe first-fruits, when she shall be given

turned, but toolate; for she was sealed to you of the

after her spirit would sit withme till I died also, it was not enough, since I who have conqueredall, yet cannot conquer the fire that wastes my heart, nor cease tolong by night and day for a woman who is lost to me. Then it was,Hafela, that I plott

I will undo all that I have done, and Iwill find you a means, Hafela, to carry out your will. Ay, before sixsuns have set, the regiments rushing past you shall hail you King ofthe Nation of the Amasuka, Lord of the ancient House of Fi

whoseglance can shrivel the hearts of men, shall give you to drink of yourown medicine; ay, she shall dog you to the death, and mock you whileyou perish by an end of shame!""What," laughed the wizard, "have I a rival in my own arts? Nay,Hafela, if you would learn the trade, pay me well and I will give youlessons. Yet I counsel yo

ck to the care of my household. You yourself shallbring her to where I stand, and as I take her from you I will put intoyour hand a certain powder. Then you shall return to the side of theking, and after our fashion s

be six hours, it may be twelve--he shall lieinsensible, and then a cry will arise that the king is dead!""Ay," said Hafela, "and that I have poisoned him!""Why, Prince? Few know what is in your father's mind, and with those,being king, you will be able to deal. Also this is the virtue of thepoison which I choose, that it is swift, yet the symptoms of it arethe symptoms of a natural sickness. But that your safety and mine maybe assured, I have made yet another plan, though of this there will belittle need. You were present two days since when a runner

of him torecover the king of his sickness; and when he fails, he shall be slainas a worker of spells and the false prophet of a false god, and so weshall be rid of him and his new faith, and you shall be cleared ofdoubt. Is not the plan good, Prince?""It is very good, Hokosa--save for one thing only.""For what thing?""This: the white man who is named Messenger might chance to be a trueproph

not toplay me false, or to cheat me of my price; for whate'er betides, besure of this, that hour shall be the hour of your doomi

ers of rock, someof them piled fantastically one upon the other. At a certain spot thisvalley widened out, and in the mouth of the space thus formed, midwaybetween the curved lines of the receding

k on its great bole was leprouswhite; and from its gaunt and spreading rungs rose branches thatsubdivided themselves again and again, till at last they terminated inround green fingers, springing from grey, flat slabs of bark, in shapen

r his captains, or by the decree of the company ofwizards, whereof Hokosa was the chief. There on the Hill of Deathstood the Tree of Death; and that in its

it wascalled. It was Hokosa the wizard. Outside the circle of the tree hehalted, and drawing a tanned skin from a bundle of medicine

in he halted; thistime it was to gaze at the body of

s reach. Resting his back against abough, one by one he broke off several of them, and averting his faceso that the fumes of it might not reach him, he caused the thick milk-white juice that they contained to trickle into the mouth of a littlegourd which was hung about his neck by a string. When he had collectedenough of the poison and carefully

ather some ofthis juice also? No; for then I might repent and save him, rememberingthat he has loved me, and thus lose her I seek, her whom I must winback or be withered. Let the messenger of

dow-place. The night before him wasas black as it had been, and behind him the little American clock wasstil

ened 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 madeclear to him