But what of this message of yours ?" "It came at the end of a long story, O Bulalio.

But since you seek to know, these were the words of it, so nearly as I can remember them." Then sentence by sentence I repeated to him all that Zikali had said to me when he called me back after bidding me farewell, which doubtless he did because he wished to cut his message more deeply into the tablets of my mind.
Umslopogaas listened to every syllable with a curious intentness, and then asked me to repeat it all again, which I did.
"Lousta! Monazi!" he said slowly.

"Well, you heard those names to-day, did you not, White Man?
And you heard certain things from the lips of this Monazi who was angry, that give colour to that talk of the Opener-of-Roads.

It seems to me," he added, glancing about him and speaking in a low voice, "that what I suspected is true and that without doubt I am betrayed." "I do not understand," I replied indifferently.

"All this talk is dark to me, as is the message of the Opener-of-Roads, or rather its meaning.
By whom and about what are you betrayed ?" "Let that snake sleep.