Then suddenly appeared out of the ground, as It seemed, a tall, lank figure right in her path. She stopped a moment, and the man sprang at her and lifted her without an effort. Ussuf raised his rifle and covered them, but he dare not shoot.
There was another interested spectator. King N'raki, a vengeful man, and agile despite his years, had followed as eagerly as the youngest of his warriors, and now stood in the midst of his counsellors, watching the scene upon the hill.
"What man is that?" he asked. "For I see he is not of our people."
Before the messengers he would have dispatched could be instructed, the tall man, running lightly with his burden, came towards him, and laid a dead woman almost at the king's feet.
"Man," he said insolently, "I bring you this woman, whom I have killed, because a devil put it into my heart to do so."
"Who are you?" asked N'raki. "For I see you are a stranger."
"I am a king," said O'Fasa, the Long Man; "greater than all kings, for I have behind me the armies of white men."
The humour of this twisted truth struck him of a sudden, for he burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
"You have the armies of the white men behind you?" repeated N'raki slowly, and looked nervously from side to side.
"Behold!" said O'Fasa, stretching out his hand.