"Most of them do, and so would this one when he's plying his trade in earnest. Yet he's about the biggest witch doctor along this border, and his fame extends to Zululand as well." "Ah!" as an idea struck her. "Now here's a chance for him to keep up his reputation. I wonder if he could find my coin." As we both knew where it was--or indeed in any case--the opportunity seemed not a bad one. But I said: "You must remember, Miss Sewin, that native doctors, like white ones, don't practice for nothing, and often on the same terms. What if this one should ask as the price of his services--no--professional attendance, shouldn't it be?--a great deal more than the lost article's worth?" "Don't let him. But in any case I don't believe he has the ghost of a chance of finding it." "Don't you be too sure," I said. And then, before I could open upon him on the subject Ukozi opened on me on another. "Nyamaki is not home again, Iqalaqala?" I was beginning to get sick of the disappearing Hensley by that time, so I answered shortly: "Not yet." "Ha! The Queen cannot do everything, then. You did not go home that night, Iqalaqala?" "I did not. Your _muti_ is great, Ukozi--great enough to stop a horse." "_Muti_! Who talks of _muti_? I did but foresee. And Umsindo? He, too, did not reach Nyamaki's house that night?" "No." "What is in the water yonder?" he went on, bending over to look into the pool, for he had squatted himself very near its brink. "It moves." Both of us followed his gaze, instinctively, eagerly. And by Jove! as we looked, there arose the same disturbance, the same unwinding of what seemed like a shining sinuous coil, yet taking no definite shape. Again it sank, as it had risen, and a hiss of seething bubbles, and the circling rings radiating to the sides, alone bore witness to what had happened. "I declare it's rather uncanny," said my companion. "Does he know what it is? Ask him." I put it to Ukozi. We had swum there several times, dived deep down too, nearly to the bottom, deep as it was, yet we had never been disturbed by anything. Only to-day, before his arrival, had we seen this thing for the first time--and that only once. He echoed my words, or part of them. "Nearly to the bottom! But this place has no bottom." "Now you forget, father of mystery," I said, knowingly. "It has, for we have sounded it, with a piece of lead at the end of a line." He looked amused, shaking his head softly. "Yet, it is as I say," he answered. "It has no bottom." Rapidly I gave Miss Sewin the burden of our conversation, and she looked puzzled. The while, Arlo, crouching a few yards off, was eyeing the witch doctor strangely, uttering low growls which deepened every time he made a movement, and still, beneath the sound I could always detect that same note of fear. "What is in the water down there, Ukozi?" I said. "Not a crocodile. What then?" He was in no hurry to reply. He took snuff.