“No, he did not, because I told him that if he tried it on I would not give him his bundle of _mouti_ that we cut from the Tree of Illusions and carried safely all that way. So as he was very keen on the medicine, he made me a present of the oxen. Also I found my own there grown fat and strong again. It was a curious thing, but the old scoundrel seemed to know most of what had happened to us before ever I told him a word. Perhaps he learned it all from one of those acolytes of Heu-Heu who fled with us because they feared that they would be murdered if they stayed in their own land. I forgot to tell you that these men—most uncommunicative persons—melted away upon our homeward journey. Suddenly they were missing. I presume that they departed to set up as witch doctors on their own account. If so, very possibly one or more of them may have come into touch with Zikali, the head of the craft in that part of Africa, and before I reached the Black Kloof. “The first thing he asked me was: ‘Why did you not bring any gold and diamonds away with you? Had you done so, you might have become rich who now remain poor, Macumazahn.’ “‘Because I forgot to ask for them,’ I said. “‘Yes, I know you forgot to ask for them. You were thinking so much of the pain of saying good-bye to that beautiful lady whose name I have not learned that you forgot to ask for them. It is just like you, Macumazahn. _Oho!_ _Oho!_ it is just like you.’ “Then he stared at his fire for a while, in front of which, as usual, he was sitting, and added: ‘Yet somehow I think that diamonds will make you rich one day, when there is no woman left to say good-bye to, Macumazahn.’ “It was a good shot of his, for, as you fellows know, that came about at King Solomon’s mines, didn’t it? when there was ‘no woman left to say good-bye to.’” Here Good turned his head away, and Allan went on hurriedly, I think because he remembered Foulata, and saw that his thoughtless remark had given pain. “Zikali was very interested in all our story and made me stop at the Black Kloof for some days to tell him every detail.