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He pointed to the darkening forest path down which they had come. "Many have been sacrificed and none heard them," he said, "this I know now. Let there be an end to killing, for I am M'gani, the Walker of the Night, and very terrible." "Wa!" screamed Lamalana, and leapt at him with clawing hands and her white teeth agrin.
There was a whisper of terror "The Walker of the Night! " and the people fell back ... a woman screamed and fell into a fit. "O woman," said M'gani, "deliver to me these little children who have done no evil." Open-mouthed the half-demented daughter of B'limi Saka stared at him.
"I am M'gani of the Night," said the voice with authoritative hauteur, "of me you have heard, for I am known only to chiefs; and am so high that chiefs obey and even devils go quickly from my path." "O, M'gani, I hear you," whispered Bosambo, "how may I serve you?"
"M'gani," said Bosambo, "in the day when you shall see our lord Sandi, speak to him for me saying that I am faithful, for it seems to me, so high a man are you that he will listen to your word when he will listen to none other." "I hear," said M'gani gravely, and slipped into the shadows of the forest.
Bosambo stood for a long time staring in the direction which M'gani had taken, then walked slowly back to his hut. In the morning came the chief of his councillors for a hut palaver. "Bosambo," said he, in a tone of mystery, "the Walker-of-the-Night has been with us." "Who says this?" asked Bosambo.
In ten minutes the fighting regiments of the Ochori were sweeping through the forest, trackers going ahead to pick up the trail. "Let all gods hear me," sobbed Bosambo, as he ran, "and send M'gani swiftly to M'sambo my son." "Now this is very wonderful," said Lamalana, "and it seems, O my father, no matter for a small killing, but for a sacrifice such as all men may see."
"Get me food," said the imperious stranger, "after, you shall make a bed for me in your inner room, and sit before this house that none may disturb me, for it is to my high purpose that no word shall go to M'ilitani that I stay in your territory." "M'gani, I am your dog," said Bosambo, and stole forth from the hut like a thief to obey.
All that day he sat before his hut and even sent away the wife of his heart and the child M'sambo, that the rest of M'gani of the N'gombi should not be disturbed. That night when darkness had come and the glowing red of hut fires grew dimmer, M'gani came from the hut. Bosambo had sent away the guard and accompanied his guest to the end of the village.
He thrust his hand into the leopard skin as for a weapon, but before he could withdraw it, a man of Lombobo, half in terror, fell upon and threw his arms about M'gani. "Bo'ma!" boomed the woman, and drew back her knife for the stroke.... Bones, from the edge of the clearing, jerked up the rifle he carried and fired. "What man is this?" asked Bones. Bosambo looked at the stranger.
"This is M'gani," he said, "he who walks in the night." "The dooce it is!" said Bones, and fixing his monocle glared at the stranger. "From whence do you come?" he asked. "Lord, I come from the Coast," said the man, "by many strange ways, desiring to arrive at this land secretly that I might learn the heart of these people and understand."
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