should be taken from off his body. I am going to take it now.
Wilt thou come?"

The instant these words were suggested all feeling of soreness vanished,
and the boy sprang up and was about to shout his gladness, when the big
hand of Simba was placed over his mouth, and he whispered:

"Nay, not a word, not a breath, as thou dost value our lives. Our
friends are behind that tree; they are waiting for us. Thou must obey
me now, if success is what thou dost hope for."

Kalulu clasped his hand, and understood at once what was necessary, and
followed Simba, who was preceded by Niani, without further remark.

When near Tifum Byah's hut Niani, who was as cunning as the nature of
the mammal from whom he derived his name, stopped, and pointed silently
to the hut, which stood alone and removed a good distance from any other
that was inhabited.

Simba turned to Kalulu, and, handing him the knife which he had received
from Niani, whispered to him: "Stay here silent as a dead tree, until
thou dost hear my signal," to which a nod of the head only was given for
reply.

"Now, Tifum the Wicked," whispered the resolute mind of Simba to itself,
"it is either I or thou; I think thou. Selim's stripes have to be paid
for with thy blood; if not Selim's, then Kalulu's wrongs. But how can I
ever pay thee for all? Sheikh Amer, my master; poor Isa; little
Mussoud;" and the busy mind fanned itself into a white heat of anger,
and churned the deep hate into a white foam of fury; and the Nemesis, in
the form of this mighty, big-muscled man, stood over him, Tifum the
Wicked. The great form bent, and suddenly drooped, with two great bony,
sinewy hands clutching the sleeping man's throat, crushing, compressing
bone, gristle, sinew, and vein into a soft, yielding, pulpy mass, until
there was no breath of life nor power of motion left in him.

All had been done so quietly--the deed of stern vengeance so quickly,
coolly executed, that Kalulu started with surprise as he heard the
signal; he could hardly believe it to have been consummated, yet he
advanced determinedly, as if his help was to be needed. Think of Simba
needing help for such an ordinary creature as Tifum.

"Cut it off!" said Simba, and Kalulu, nothing loth, bent down and
severed the head off without one remorseful pang, and the body of Tifum
was headless; and the prediction of Soltali had become thus soon
verified.

Simba and Kalulu were about to move off, when Niani stepped u