me to look suddenly round at the latest victim of the
Dagombas' thirst for vengeance, and I beheld in the clutches of
half-a-dozen savages, a young woman, dragged as the others had been by
her fair, unbound hair towards the spot where each had, in turn, been
murdered. She was dressed in a rich, beautiful robe of bright yellow
silk, embroidered with pale pink flowers, but her garments were
bedraggled with water and blood, and her bleeding wrists and fingers
showed with what heartless brutality her jewels had been torn from her
by her pitiless captors. She struggled frantically to free herself, but
without avail, and one of the savages, noticing a magnificent diamond
bangle upon her ankle, bent, and tried to force it off.

Just at that moment, in endeavouring to twist herself free from their
clutches, her fair face became turned towards me and her deep blue,
terrified eyes for an instant met mine.

Next second I uttered a cry of recognition. Yes, there was no mistake
about that flawless complexion, those handsome features or those wondrous
eyes, the mysterious depths of which had enthralled me, as they had done
Omar.

It was Liola!

With a bound I sprang forward, tearing at the knot of savages and
shouting to them to release her. At first they only grinned hideously, no
doubt thinking that I desired her as a slave, and as they had decided
that all should die without exception, in order that their conquest
should be rendered the more complete, they were in no way disposed to
obey my command. At last I succeeded in arresting their progress, when
the man who had attempted to wrench from her ankle the diamond ornament
shook his long, keen knife threateningly at me, while the others yelled
all kinds of imprecations. Not liking his fierce attitude, and knowing
that in the heat of victory they were capable of turning upon friends who
attempted to thwart them, I drew back, and as I did so he flung himself
upon one knee and raised his knife over Liola's foot.

Instantly I saw his intention. He meant to hack off her foot in order to
secure the bangle, a horrible proceeding that had been carried out more
than once before my eyes within the past hour. There was, I knew, but one
way to save her, therefore without hesitating I drew my revolver and
fired at him point blank.

The ball pierced his breast. With an agonized cry he clutched for a
moment wildly at the air, then fell back dead.

My action, as I fully expected it would,