For a full minute he stood, mute and motionless, waiting for his eyes to accustom themselves to the change; then the various objects of the interior gradually began to reveal themselves to him with increasing distinctness, and he found himself face to face with a thin, wizened, shrunken creature of apparently incredible age, without a particle of hair on head or face, but with a pair of eyes that glowed like carbuncles within their cavernous sockets. He was seated cross-legged upon the floor, was absolutely naked, save for a necklace of snake skin, and was toying with an enormous green _mamba_--one of the most deadly of South African snakes--that lay coiled between his legs with its cruel, vindictive eyes fixed immovably upon the visitor. Beside Sekosini stood Ingona, apparently impassive, but his quick, irregular breathing betrayed the fact that he was labouring under a considerable amount of excitement. As for the witch doctor, his face wore a smile of concentrated malice, as though he anticipated something in the nature of a conflict with this audacious white _mfana_ and was already exulting in the prospect of a quick and overwhelming victory. Suddenly he fixed his eyes intently upon Dick's, and said, in soft, sibilant tones: "Well, _'mlungu_, what want ye with Sekosini?" It was the moment and the opportunity for which Dick had been waiting. Gazing intently into the eyes of the savage, in the peculiar manner that he had learned from Humphreys, the young doctor suddenly concentrated his will upon the effort to bring his foe--for as such he intuitively recognised Sekosini--under subjugation. For a moment the strangely contrasted pair gazed at each other, and then some strange sensation experienced by the witch doctor seemed to warn him of what was happening. But it was too late; Dick had caught him unawares, and so absolutely instantaneous was the hypnotic method which Humphreys had taught his pupil that before Sekosini could offer any effective resistance his will had completely succumbed to Dick's, and he was in the latter's power. In response to Dick's unspoken thought he said: "Ask what you will, and I will answer." "You hear?" demanded Dick, turning his gaze for a moment upon Ingona.