With a murmur of acknowledgment, Laurence subsided upon the grass mat which had been placed for him by the _inceku_, who had followed him in. Then there was silence for a few moments, while a couple of women entered, bearing large clay bowls of _tywala_, or native beer; and the liquor having been apportioned out according to etiquette, the attendants withdrew, leaving Laurence alone with the king and the two indunas. "And the hunt, has it been propitious?" began Tyisandhlu presently. "It has. Ten tusks of ivory are even now being brought in," replied Laurence. "Also an unusually fine leopard skin which fell to my bullet, and which I would beg the king to accept." "You are a great hunter, Nyonyoba--a very great one. _Whau!_ The Ba-gcatya will become too rich if you tarry long among us," said Tyisandhlu quizzically, but evidently pleased at the news. "We shall soon be able to arm the whole nation with the fire-weapons, now that we have so much ivory to trade with the northern peoples." Something in the words struck Laurence. "If you tarry long among us," the king had said. Even these were ominous, and made in favour of the sinister design he had so accidentally discovered. Yet could this courtly hospitality, of which he was the object, indeed cover such a horrible purpose? Well, he dare not bolster himself up with any hope to the contrary, for now many and many an incident returned to his mind, little understood at the time, but, in the light of the conversation he had overheard, as clear as noonday. The fear, the anxiety, too, which had flashed over the face of Lindela at his significant words, proved that the ordeal through which it was designed to pass him was a real and a terrible one. Through her, and her only, lay his chance of escaping it. "I am glad the king is pleased," he went on, "for I would fain tarry among the Ba-gcatya forever. And, becoming one of that people, shall not all my efforts turn towards rendering it a great people?" A hum of astonishment escaped the two indunas, and Laurence thought to detect the same significant look on both their faces. Then he added: "And those whom I have already taught in the use of the fire-weapon, they are strong in it, and reliable?" "That is so," assented Tyisandhlu. "And I have taught many the ways of the chase, no less than the more skilled ways of war--that too is true, O Burning Wind?" "That too is true," repeated the king. "Good. And now I would crave a boon. While the People of the Spider have become more formidable in war, while the ivory comes pouring into the king's treasury, faster than ever it did before, so that soon there will be enough to buy fire-weapons for the whole nation, I who brought all this to pass remain poor--am the poorest in the nation--and--the daughters of the Ba-gcatya are fair--exceeding fair."