re acting the part of real
philanthropists. Do you catch on?"

"What of those we kill? Those Wangoni brutes are never happy unless
killing."

"That is inevitable and is the law of life, which is always hard. And,
as Lutali would say, who may fight against his destiny? Not that I mean
to say we embarked in this business from motives of philanthropy, friend
Holmes; I only cite the argument as one to quiet that singularly
inconvenient conscience of yours. We did so, Stanninghame and I, at any
rate, to make money--quickly, and plenty of it; and I'm not sure
Stanninghame doesn't need it more than you and I put together."

"By-the-by, I wonder what on earth has become of Stanninghame all this
time?" said Holmes, apparently glad to quit an unprofitable subject.

"So do I. He ought to have joined us by now. He is just a trifle
foolhardy, is Stanninghame, in knocking about so far afield alone," and
a shade of anxiety steals over the speaker's face.

Holmes makes no reply, and for a while lies back on his rug, puffing
away at his pipe and busy with his thoughts. These are not altogether
pleasant. The process which had transformed the fine, open-natured,
wholesome-hearted young Englishman into a slave-hunter, the confederate
of ruthless cut-throats and desperadoes, had, in truth, been such as to
engender the reverse of pleasant thoughts. Yet, that he had come to this
was rather the fault of circumstances than the fault of Holmes. He had
enjoyed the big game shooting and the ivory trading of the earlier stage
of the trip, the more so from the consciousness that there was profit in
both; and when a large caravan of the above and other legitimate
merchandise had been run down to the coast, he had steadfastly refused
to take the opportunity of parting company with the others. Then when
they had pushed farther into the equatorial regions, and, joining with
Lutali, had embarked on their present enterprise, all opportunity of
withdrawing had gone. The precise point at which he had cast in his lot
with this, Holmes could not with certainty define. Yet there were times
when he thought he could. He had relieved his conscience with indignant,
passionate protest, when first his eyes became fairly opened to the real
nature of the enterprise; and then had supervened that terrible bout of
malarial fever, his tardy recovery from which he owed entirely to the
care and nursing of both Hazon and Stanninghame. But it left him for a
long time wea