groans, seemed to show that the shot had been effective.

"Downed him! Hooray!" yelled Hoste, still squirming under the smart of
the assegai prick in his calf. "Charge of _loepers_ that time--must
have knocked daylight through him!"

Taking advantage of this diversion, a tall, gaunt Kafir, rising
noiselessly amid a mass of tangled creepers, was deliberately aiming at
somebody. So silent had been his movements, so occupied were the other
whites, that he was entirely unperceived. His eye went down to the
breech. He seemed to require a long and careful aim.

But just then he was perceived by one, and instinctively Eustace brought
his piece to bear. But he did not fire. For like a flash he noted that
the savage was aiming _full at Carhayes' back_.

The latter, sublimely unconscious of his deadly peril, was keenly alert
on the look out for an enemy in the other direction. Eustace felt his
heart going like a hammer, and he turned white and cold. There in the
wild bush, surrounded by ruthless enemies, the sweet face of Eanswyth
passed before him, amid the smoke of powder and the crash of volleys.
She was his now--his at last. The life which had stood between them now
stood no more.

With a frightful fascination, he crouched motionless. Carhayes was
still unconscious of his imminent peril--his broad back turned full to
the deadly tube of the savage. The distance was barely fifteen yards.
The latter could not miss.

It all passed like lightning--the awful, the scathing temptation. He
could not do it. And with the thought, his finger pressed ever so
lightly on the trigger, and the Kafir crashed heavily backward, shot
through the brain--while the ball from his gun, which, with a supreme
effort he had discharged in his death throes, hummed perilously near his
intended victim's head.

"Hallo, Milne! You got in that shot just right," cried one of the men,
who had turned in time to take in the situation--not the whole of it,
luckily.

Eustace said nothing. His better nature had triumphed. Still, as he
slipped a fresh cartridge into his smoking piece, there was a feeling of
desolation upon him, as though the intoxicating sense of possessing the
whole world had been within his grasp, and as suddenly reft from it
again. The extremely critical position in which he--in which the whole
party--stood, passed unheeded. "Fool!" whispered the tempting, gibing
fiend. "You had your opportunity and you threw it away. Y