“Then,” demanded Dick, “do I understand that under Lobelalatutu’s rule you have not a sufficiency to meet all your wants?”
“I have a sufficiency, yes,” answered Sekosini; “but I would have much more than that. I would have wealth, great wealth, and, above all, power, the power that the witch doctors wielded in M’Bongwele’s time. True, I have much power even now; but it is as nothing to the power that was wielded by Mtusa, the chief witch doctor whom the accursed Spirits of the Winds sent along the Dark Path with M’Bongwele, the king.”
“I see,” said Dick meditatively. “And are there any others concerned with you in this precious scheme of yours to remove Lobelalatutu?”
“Yes,” answered Sekosini, “there are Ingona, Lambati, Mapela, Moroosi, Amakosa, N’Ampata, and Sekukuni, all chiefs.”
“Quite a formidable little crowd,” mused Dick, as he drew forth his pocket book to make a few notes. “Just repeat those names again—slowly, if you please,” he commanded.
Sekosini did so, and Dick noted down the names very carefully, so that there should be no mistake, for some of the native names are quite embarrassingly similar in sound.
“Now,” resumed Dick, when he had done this, “to return to ’Nkuni. What is the poison that you have been administering to him?”
“It is a decoction of the leaves of the plant that hangs immediately over your head,” answered Sekosini.
Dick reached up and touched a thick branch depending from the roof of the hut. “This?” he asked.
Sekosini assented, and Dick took down the branch and examined it. It seemed quite an ordinary shrub to all appearance. He handed it over to Mafuta for safekeeping.