kindness that can now avail him, and I, Lobelalatutu, will do it for
him, even as I would pray him to do the like for me, were I as he is!"

And ere von Schalckenberg could intervene, the savage, with a quick
movement, raised the spear he held in his hand and, with unerring aim,
drove it deep through the heart of his friend! Siswani's disfigured
body responded to the stroke with a scarcely perceptible shudder; a
faint sigh escaped the distorted lips; and the victim's sufferings were
at an end.

"The _coup-de-grace_! the stroke of mercy; the act of a friend indeed,"
remarked von Schalckenberg, as he rose to his feet and turned to meet
Sir Reginald, whose exclamation of horror was the first intimation of
his contiguity to the other two. "Look at that poor mutilated and
disfigured remnant of what, a few hours ago, was a man, in the prime of
life, and in the full enjoyment of perfect health and strength; consider
what the future must have been to such a man, so mutilated--even had it
been possible to retain the life in him, which I gravely doubt--and then
say whether this man, his friend, has not done the best that it was
possible to do. Yet, would you, my friend, hampered with the
sentimentality of your civilisation, have had the moral courage to do
the like?"

"How long do you think he would have lived, but for that stroke of the
spear?" asked Sir Reginald.

Von Schalckenberg shrugged his shoulders.

"Who can say?" he retorted. "Had he been left alone, he would perhaps
have lingered in indescribable agony until sunset, when the poison in
his system would have done its work, and he would have died. On the
other hand, had I employed my utmost skill, and been free to give my
undivided attention to him for, say, a month, I might, perhaps, have
been so far successful as to have prolonged his life to the extent of
two or three years; during which--deaf, dumb, blind, utterly helpless,
and every movement a torture to him--he would have been dependent upon
others for the necessities of life."

"Then," said Sir Reginald, "if I could know that the condition which you
have described was the best that the future held in store for him, I
would have put my sentimentality in my pocket and--"

"Quite so," assented the professor, with a nod; "and, in my opinion,
your act would have been a meritorious one. Well, we were hours too
late to be of any use to the poor fellow; but it may be that we shall
still be in time to punish