Bosambo had sent away the guard and accompanied his guest to the end of the village. M'gani, with only a cloak of leopard skin about him, twirling two long spears as he walked, was silent till he came to the edge of the city where he was to take farewell of his host. "Tell me this, Bosambo, where are Sandi's spies that I may avoid them?" And Bosambo, without hesitation, told him. "M'gani," said he, at parting, "where do you go now? tell me that I may send cunning men to guard you, for there is a bad spirit in this land, especially amongst the people of Lombobo, because I have offended B'limi Saka, the chief." "No soldiers do I need, O Bosambo," said the other. "Yet I tell you this that I go to quiet places to learn that which will be best for my people." He turned to go. "M'gani," said Bosambo, "in the day when you shall see our lord Sandi, speak to him for me saying that I am faithful, for it seems to me, so high a man are you that he will listen to your word when he will listen to none other." "I hear," said M'gani gravely, and slipped into the shadows of the forest. Bosambo stood for a long time staring in the direction which M'gani had taken, then walked slowly back to his hut. In the morning came the chief of his councillors for a hut palaver. "Bosambo," said he, in a tone of mystery, "the Walker-of-the-Night has been with us." "Who says this?" asked Bosambo. "Fibini, the fisherman," said the councillor, "for this he says, that having toothache, he sat in the shadow of his hut near the warm fire and saw the Walker pass through the village and with him, lord, one who was like a devil, being big and very ugly." "Go to Fibini," said a justly annoyed Bosambo, "and beat him on the feet till he cries--for he is a liar and a spreader of alarm." Yet Fibini had done his worst before the bastinado (an innovation of Bosambo's) had performed its silencing mission, and Ochori mothers shepherded their little flocks with greater care when the sun went down that night, for this new terror which had come to the land, this black ghost with the wildfire fame was reputed especially devilish. In a week he had become famous--so swift does news carry in the territories. Men had seen him passing through forest paths, or speeding with incredible swiftness along the silent river. Some said that he had no boat and walked the waters, others that he flew like a bat with millions of bats behind him. One had met him face to face and had sunk to the ground before eyes "that were very hot and red and thrusting out little lightnings." He had been seen in many places in the Ochori, in the N'gombi city, in the villages of the Akasava, but mainly his hunting ground was the narrow strip of territory which is called Lombobo.