give it to the flames. Then they
will retire, and as they go we shall fall upon them and cut them to
pieces. You need not think that they will find you here. You are a
marked man, and, at the last, when the advance still takes place, the
Ashantis will offer you to their fetish in the hope that your sacrifice
will arrest the enemy. It would have been better for you, Dick
Stapleton, had you never interfered with me."

"And by the look of you, it would have been easier for you had you
hanged yourself weeks ago," answered our hero, calmly, and with a smile
which made his captor writhe. "You look as though you were haunted, and
I think that you must have had a very miserable time since you left the
coast. You are a traitor and a murderer, and you are bound to be caught
and punished."

"Not if I rejoin the British. What if I set you and the other Europeans
free! Would you obtain a pardon?"

Dick emphatically shook his head, for he mistrusted this man. More than
that, he was wise enough to know that even though James Langdon might
desire to do as he said, the Ashantis would never permit such action. A
glance at the face of the half-caste was sufficient to show that he was
ill at ease. Matters were beginning to look serious for King Koffee and
his people, and the very sight of this half-caste, who had urged them to
action and to resistance, angered them. They had lost faith in him, and
James Langdon knew that at any time the King's favour might be withdrawn
and he himself fall a victim. He turned away with an oath. Then he
called for the guard which kept watch over the house, and gave an order.
At once Dick was bound and led off down the street, and having reached
a wide open space, close to the horrible fetish grove, he was brought to
a halt within a few paces of the enormous sacrificial bowl, with its
legs in the form of crouching lions, on the edge of which the Ashantis
were wont to slay their victims. Never in all his life had he seen such
a hideous sight.

"Terrible! terrible!" he murmured. "To think that men could be such
brutes! It is horrible!"

He closed his eyes for a little while, and then opened them again as
there was a commotion. Then, indeed, he gave a start, for four white
men were slowly led into the arena, all strangers to him, and all
miserable prisoners like himself. They looked at him sharply, and one
of them called out a greeting.

"Sorry to see you here," he said, with a foreign