d, fastened down the canvas, and
crawled into his blankets.

The following morning he was awakened by the excited voice of Mohammed
Beyd's slave calling to him at the entrance of his tent.

"Quick! Quick!" cried the black in a frightened tone. "Come!
Mohammed Beyd is dead in his tent--dead by his own hand."

Werper sat up quickly in his blankets at the first alarm, a startled
expression upon his countenance; but at the last words of the black a
sigh of relief escaped his lips and a slight smile replaced the tense
lines upon his face.

"I come," he called to the slave, and drawing on his boots, rose and
went out of his tent.

Excited Arabs and blacks were running from all parts of the camp toward
the silken tent of Mohammed Beyd, and when Werper entered he found a
number of the raiders crowded about the corpse, now cold and stiff.

Shouldering his way among them, the Belgian halted beside the dead body
of the raider. He looked down in silence for a moment upon the still
face, then he wheeled upon the Arabs.

"Who has done this thing?" he cried. His tone was both menacing and
accusing. "Who has murdered Mohammed Beyd?"

A sudden chorus of voices arose in tumultuous protest.

"Mohammed Beyd was not murdered," they cried. "He died by his own
hand. This, and Allah, are our witnesses," and they pointed to a
revolver in the dead man's hand.

For a time Werper pretended to be skeptical; but at last permitted
himself to be convinced that Mohammed Beyd had indeed killed himself in
remorse for the death of the white woman he had, all unknown to his
followers, loved so devotedly.

Werper himself wrapped the blankets of the dead man about the corpse,
taking care to fold inward the scorched and bullet-torn fabric that had
muffled the report of the weapon he had fired the night before. Then
six husky blacks carried the body out into the clearing where the camp
stood, and deposited it in a shallow grave. As the loose earth fell
upon the silent form beneath the tell-tale blankets, Albert Werper
heaved another sigh of relief--his plan had worked out even better than
he had dared hope.

With Achmet Zek and Mohammed Beyd both dead, the raiders were without a
leader, and after a brief conference they decided to return into the
north on visits to the various tribes to which they belonged, Werper,
after learning the direction they intended taking, announced that for
his part, he was going east to the coast, and as they