tale was brief.
Soon after dark, Ormond entered the harem with loaded pistol, in
search of Fatimah and Esther; but the wretch was so stupefied by
liquor and rage, that the women had little trouble to elude his grasp
and escape from Bangalang. Hardly had I bestowed them for the night,
when another alarm brought the watchman once more to my chamber, with
the news of Ormond's death. He had shot himself through the heart!

I was in no mood for sleep after this, and the first streak of dawn
found me at Bangalang. There lay the Mongo as he fell. No one
disturbed his limbs or approached him till I arrived. He never stirred
after the death-wound.

It seems he must have forgotten that the bottle had been specially
medicated for me, as it was found nearly drained; but the last thing
distinctly known of him by the people, was his murderous entrance into
the harem to despatch Esther and Fatimah. Soon after this the crack of
a pistol was heard in the garden; and there, stretched among the
cassava plants, with a loaded pistol grasped in his left, and a
discharged one at a short distance from his right hand, laid Jack
Ormond, the mulatto! His left breast was pierced by a ball, the wad of
which still clung to the bloody orifice.

Bad as this man was, I could not avoid a sigh for his death. He had
been my first friend in Africa, and I had forfeited his regard through
no fault of mine. Besides this, there are so few on the coast of
Africa in these lonely settlements among the mangrove swamps, who have
tasted European civilization, and can converse like human beings, that
the loss even of the worst is a dire calamity. Ormond and myself had
held each other for a long time at a wary distance; yet business
forced us together now and then, and during the truce, we had many a
pleasant chat and joyous hour that would henceforth be lost for ever.

It is customary in this part of Africa to make the burial of a _Mongo_
the occasion of a _colungee_, or festival, when all the neighboring
chiefs and relations send gifts of food and beverage for the orgies of
death. Messengers had been despatched for Ormond's brothers and
kinsfolk, so that the native ceremony of interment was postponed till
the third day; and, in the interval, I was desired to make all the
preparations in a style befitting the suicide's station. Accordingly,
I issued the needful orders; directed a deep grave to be dug under a
noble cotton-wood tree, aloof from the village; gave th