Mr. Hume stepped out on to the platform. "Who calls?"
"It is I, the Inkosikase."
She was standing at the very parapet where he himself had leant when he saw the light borne by Dick on the spot where he now stood. She stood up boldly on the canon side of the great cavity, about fifty yards away.
"Your life was forfeit, Ngonyama, but I spared you—I spared you."
"I hear."
"You are but a mouse in these earth runs, Indhlovu."
The Hunter laughed, and the unseen creatures took up the laugh, flinging it back till the hollow places rang with the wild noise.
"Hear, and take heed. Take heed lest they fall on you. Wow! Ye have seen my power and the strength of my medicine in the stilling of the waters."
"It was Hassan who stilled the waters. Say on."
"Yoh!" The woman paused, taken aback. "See, my medicine tells me you came here to search for the shining canoe. Maybe I can tell you where it is hid by the wizards."