She fancied that she heard him in conversation with this girl, confiding in her little by little, just as Zashue used, before he and she became man and wife.

But what could Okoya tell after all that might prove of harm to her?
He was a mere child as yet.

At this stage of her reasoning, a cloud rose within her bosom and spread like wildfire.
Was it not strange that the discovery of the owl's feathers, the betrayal of that dread secret, almost coincided with Okoya's open relations with the daughter of the man who, she felt sure, was at the bottom of the accusation against her?
A ghastly suspicion flashed up and soon became so vivid that no doubt could arise,--her own son must accidentally have discovered the fatal feathers; he himself without intending any harm must have mentioned them to the girl, perhaps even in the presence of her mother.
Say became satisfied that she held the key to her betrayal.

The riddle was solved.

That solution dissipated all hopes of salvation, for if her own son was to be witness against her in the dreaded hour when the tribal council had to determine for or against her guilt, there could be no doubting his testimony.