All the Lombobo people, the warriors and the hunters, the wives and the maidens, and even the children of tender years, lined the steep slopes of the Cup of Sacrifice. For Lamalana, deaf and blind to reason, knew that her hour was short, and that with the sun would come a man terrible in his anger ... and the soldiers who eat up opposition with fire. "O people!" she cried. She was stripped to the waist, stood behind the Stone of Death as though it were a counter, and the two squirming infants under her hands were so much saleable stock: "Here we bring terror to all who hate us, for one of these is the heart of Bosambo and the other is more than the heart of the-man-who-stands-for-Sandi----" "O woman!" The intruder had passed unnoticed, almost it seemed by magic, through the throng, and now he stood in the clear space of sacrifice. And there was not one in the throng who had not heard of him with his leopard skin and his belt of brass. He was as black as the strange Ethiopians who came sometimes to the land with the Arabi traders, his muscular arms and legs were dull in their blackness. There was a whisper of terror--"The Walker of the Night!--" and the people fell back ... a woman screamed and fell into a fit. "O woman," said M'gani, "deliver to me these little children who have done no evil." Open-mouthed the half-demented daughter of B'limi Saka stared at him. He walked forward, lifted the children in his two arms and went slowly through the people, who parted in terror at his coming. He turned at the top of the basin to speak. "Do no wickedness," said he; then he gently stooped to put the children on the ground, for mouthing and bellowing senseless sounds Lamalana came furiously after him, her long, crooked knife in her hand. He thrust his hand into the leopard skin as for a weapon, but before he could withdraw it, a man of Lombobo, half in terror, fell upon and threw his arms about M'gani. "Bo'ma!" boomed the woman, and drew back her knife for the stroke.... Bones, from the edge of the clearing, jerked up the rifle he carried and fired. * * * * * "What man is this?" asked Bones. Bosambo looked at the stranger. "This is M'gani," he said, "he who walks in the night." "The dooce it is!" said Bones, and fixing his monocle glared at the stranger. "From whence do you come?" he asked. "Lord, I come from the Coast," said the man, "by many strange ways, desiring to arrive at this land secretly that I might learn the heart of these people and understand." Then, in perfect English, "I don't think we've ever met before, Mr. Tibbetts--my name is Sanders." CHAPTER VIII A RIGHT OF WAY The Borders of Territories may be fixed by treaty, by certain mathematical calculations, or by arbitrary proclamation. In the territories over which Sanders ruled they were governed as between tribe and tribe by custom and such natural lines of demarkation as a river or a creek supplied.