Hokosa advanced to the verandah and bowed to the white man with gravedignity.

　　"Be seated," said Owen. "Will you not eat? though I have nothing tooffer you but these," and he pushed the basket of fruits towards him,adding, "The best of them, I fear, are already gone.""I thank you, no, Messenger; such fruits are not always wholesome atthis season of the year. I have known them to breed dysentery.""Indeed," said Owen. "If so, I trust that I may escape. I havesuffered from that sickness, and I think that another bout of it wouldkill me. In future I will avoid them. But what do you seek with me,Hokosa? Enter and tell me," and he led the way into a little sitting-room.

　　"Messenger," said the wizard, with deep humility, "I am a proud man; Ihave been a great man, and it is no light thing to me to humble myselfbefore the face of my conqueror. Yet I am come to this. To-day when Iwas in audience with the king, craving a small boon of hisgraciousness, he spoke to me sharp and bitter words. He told me thathe had been minded to put me on trial for my life because of variousmisdoings which are alleged against me in the past, but that you hadpleaded for me and that for this cause he spared me. I come to thankyou for your gentleness, Messenger, for I think that had I been inyour place I should have whispered otherwise in the ear of the king.""Say no more of it, friend," said Owen kindly, "We are all of ussinners, and it is my place to push back your ancient sins, not todrag them into the light of day and clamour for their punishment. Itis true I know that you plotted with the Prince Hafela to poisonUmsuka the King, for it was revealed to me. It chanced, however, thatI was able to recover Umsuka from his sickness, and Hafela is fled, sowhy should I bring up the deed against you? It is true that you stillpractise witchcraft, and that you hate and strive against the holyFaith which I preach; but you were brought up to wizardry and havebeen the priest of another creed, and these things plead for you.

　　"Also, Hokosa, I can see the good and evil struggling in your soul,and I pray and I believe that in the end the good will master theevil; that you who have been pre-eminent in sin will come to be pre-eminent in righteousness. Oh! be not stubborn, but listen with yourear, and let your heart be softened. The gate stands open, and I amthe guide appointed to show you the way without reward or fee. Followthem ere it be too late, that in time to come when my voice is stilledyou also may be able to direct the feet of wanderers into the paths ofpeace. It is the hour of prayer; come with me, I beg of you, andlisten to some few words of the message of my lips, and let yourspirit be nurtured with them, and the Sun of Truth arise upon itsdarkness."Hokosa heard, and before this simple eloquence his wisdom sankconfounded. More, his intelligence was stirred, and a desire came uponhim to investigate and examine the canons of a creed that couldproduce such men as this. He made no answer, but waiting while Owenrobed himself, he followed him to the chapel. It was full of new-madeChristians who crowded even the doorways, but they gave place to him,wondering. Then the service began--a short and simple service. FirstOwen offered up some prayer for the welfare of the infant Church, forthe conversion of the unbelieving, for the safety of the king and thehappiness of the people. Then John, the Messenger's first disciple,read aloud from a manuscript a portion of the Scripture which hismaster had translated. It was St. Paul's exposition of theresurrection from the dead, and the grandeur of its thoughts andlanguage were by no means lost upon Hokosa, who, savage and heathenthough he might be, was also a man of intellect.

　　The reading over, Owen addressed the congregation, taking for histext, "Thy sin shall find thee out." Being now a master of thelanguage, he preached very well and earnestly, and indeed the subjectwas not difficult to deal with in the presence of an audience many ofwhose pasts had been stepped in iniquities of no common kind. As hetalked of judgment to come for the unrepentant, some of his hearersgroaned and even wept; and when, changing his note, he dwelt upon theblessed future state of those who earned forgiveness, their faces werelighted up with joy.

　　But perhaps among all those gathered before him there were none moredeeply interested than Hokosa and one other, that woman to whom he hadsold the poison, and who, as it chanced, sat next to him. Hokosa,watching her face as he was skilled to do, saw the thrusts of thepreacher go home, and grew sure that already in her jealous haste shehad found opportunity to sprinkle the medicine upon her rival's food.

　　She believed it to be but a charm indeed, yet knowing that in usingsuch charms she had done wickedly, she trembled beneath the words ofdenunciation, and rising at length, crept from the chapel.

　　"Truly, her sin will find her out," thought Hokosa to himself, andthen in a strange half-impersonal fashion he turned his thoughts tothe consideration of his own case. Would /his/ sin find him out? hewondered. Before he could answer that question, it was necessary firstto determine whether or no he had committed a sin. The man before him--that gentle and yet impassioned man--bore in his vitals the seed ofdeath which he, Hokosa, had planted there. Was it wrong to have donethis? It depended by which standard the deed was judged. According tohis own code, the code on which he had been educated and whichhitherto he had followed with exactness, it was not wrong. That codetaught the necessity of self-aggrandisement, or at least and at allcosts the necessity of self-preservation. This white preacher stood inhis path; he had humiliated him, Hokosa, and in the end, either ofhimself or through his influences, it was probable that he woulddestroy him. Therefore he must strike before in his own person hereceived a mortal blow, and having no other means at his command, hestruck through treachery and poison.

　　That was his law which for many generations had been followed andrespected by his class with the tacit assent of the nation. Accordingto this law, then, he had done no wrong. But now the victim by thealtar, who did not know that already he was bound upon the altar,preached a new and a very different doctrine under which, were it tobe believed, he, Hokosa, was one of the worst of sinners. The matter,then, resolved itself to this: which of these two rules of life wasthe right rule? Which of them should a man follow to satisfy hisconscience and to secure his abiding welfare? Apart from the motivesthat swayed him, as a mere matter of ethics, this problem intere............