CHAPTER XII.
THE MESSAGE OF HOKOSA The weeks passed by, and Hokosa sat in his kraal weaving a great plot.
None suspected him any more, for though he did not belong to it, he was heard to speak well of the new faith, and to acknowledge that the god of fire which he had worshipped was a false god.

He was humble also towards the king, but he craved to withdraw himself from all matters of the State, saying that now he had but one desire--to tend his herds and garden, and to grow old in peace with the new wife whom he had chosen and whom he loved.

Owen, too, he greeted courteously when he met him, sending him gifts of corn and cattle for the service of his church.
Moreover, when a messenger came from Hafela, making proposals to him, he drove him away and laid the matter before the council of the king.

Yet that messenger, who was hunted from the kraal, took back a secret word for Hafela's ear.
"It is not always winter," was the word, "and it may chance that in the springtime you shall hear from me." And again, "Say to the Prince Hafela, that though my face towards him is like a storm, yet behind the clouds the sun shines ever." At length there came a day when Noma, his wife, was brought to bed.
Hokosa, her husband, tended her alone, and when the child was born he groaned aloud and would not suffer her to look upon its face.

Yet, lifting herself, she saw.
"Did I not tell you it was accursed ?" she wailed.