n Blitz
that they are widows."

There was a dead silence. The three women stared up at him,
uncomprehending.

"Yes," he went on solemnly, "Jacob is no more. He was found guilty by
his judges and executed with commendable haste and precision. I will say
this for your lamented husband: he met his fate like a man and a
German--without a quiver. He took his medicine bravely--twelve leaden
pills administered by as many skilful surgeons. It is perhaps just as
well for you that you are widows. If he had lived long enough he would
have made a widower of himself." The three wives of Von Blitz hugged
themselves and cried out in their joy! "But it is yet too early to
congratulate yourselves on your freedom. Rasula has promised to kill all
of us, whether we deserve it or not, so I daresay we'd better postpone
the celebration until we're entirely out of the woods."

"They shot him?" demanded Deppingham, when he had finished.

"Admirably. By Jove, those fellows _can_ shoot! They accepted my word
against his--which is most gratifying to my pride. One other man
testified against him--a chap who saw him with the Boers not ten minutes
before the attempt was made to rob the vaults. Rasula appeared as
counsel for the defence. Merely a matter of form. He _knew_ that he was
guilty. There was no talk of a new trial; no appeal to the supreme
court, Britt; no expense to the community."

He was as unconcerned about it as if discussing the most trivial
happening of the day. Five ancient men had sat with the venerable Cadi
as judges in the market-place. There were no frills, no disputes, no
summing up of the case by state or defendant. The judges weighed the
evidence; they used their own judgment as to the law and the penalty.
They found him guilty. Von Blitz lived not ten minutes after sentence
was passed.

"As to their intentions toward us," said Chase, "they are firm in their
determination that no one shall leave the chateau alive. Rasula was
quite frank with me. He is a cool devil. He calmly notified me that we
will all be dead inside of two weeks. No ships will put in here so long
as the plague exists. It has been cleverly managed. I asked him how we
were to die and he smiled as though he was holding something back as a
surprise for us. He came as near to laughing as I've ever seen him when
I asked him if he'd forgotten my warships. 'Why don't you have them
here?' he asked. 'We're not ready,' said I. 'The six months are not up
for nin