ud shriek was heard coming
from the direction of the shrubbery, and the missionary left the
dining-room and walked quickly down the passage to the front door,
which Stood wide open. There he met Martha Kawa, whose demeanour showed
signs of the most frantic terror. Her face was of a dull, ash colour;
her mouth hung open and her eyes were dilated. She gasped for breath,
pointed towards the visitors' house, and then sank senseless to the
ground. The missionary returned to the dining-room, seized a candle,
and walked quickly down the shrubbery path, the flame of the candle
hardly flickering in the breathless night air. There was the body, a
huddled mass, lying on its face, with the arms stretched out at right
angles, and the palms of the bands turned upwards. A trickle of blood
ran down the slope for a few inches, and then formed a pool. The poor
old man stood for a few moments transfixed with horror, and then
staggered back to the house.

Shortly afterwards the shrubbery was full of blanched faces, rendered
doubly ghastly by the faint glimmer of the lanterns and candles. Samuel
was there, taciturn as usual, and the most self-possessed person
present. He came direct from his room when the alarm was given. Miss
Blake was led by Mrs. Schultz into the house. Then hands, tremulous
with terror and pity, lifted tenderly what had so recently been a human
being brimming with youthful, healthy life, and exalted with
anticipation of the crown of happy love, and laid it on the little
white bed. Later, when the officials came to view the body, they opened
the door softly and shrinkingly, and the drip, drip, drip on the clay
floor sounded on their tense brains like strokes from the hammer of
doom.

When Martha Kawa had sufficiently recovered to be capable of answering
questions, she told a strange story. She had heard, so she said, a
voice raised as though in anger, but had been unable to distinguish the
words, and just afterwards a dull thud. She then walked quickly towards
where these sounds had come from, and was just able to distinguish two
men running away. This was all that could be elicited from her.

Suspicion at once fell upon Samuel. In his room was found a large
knobbed stick, such as might have caused the wound, with the knob still
damp, apparently from recent washing. Foot-marks corresponding with
his were found in suspicious localities in the shrubbery. He was
arrested and tried for the crime, but was acquitted on the