snap shot, just as simultaneously Archie started at the brushing by his
cheek of a spear which came through the window with a low trajectory and
stuck with a soft _thud_ into something at the far end of the room.

"Missed him!" said Peter in an angry, impatient way. "No, I ain't. It
was only chance it, though. Ah! Would you?" For another spear flashed
through the window, making one of the young men duck down, while the
other started aside.

Then their eyes met in a curious look of horror, and for a few minutes
neither spoke.

"Think of that, now, Mister Archie!" said Peter, as his trembling
fingers were playing about the breech of his rifle.

"Horrible!" said Archie, as he recalled the confession to which he had
listened.

"Yes, sir; 'orrid, ain't it? And that was a chance shot, too, though he
meant it for you. I say, sir, he won't blow up no more magazines;" and
Peter made a great smudge across his moist forehead with his
powder-blackened hand. For the second spear had found its billet in the
chest of the Frenchman, whose sufferings were at an end.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

THE DOCTOR'S CARTRIDGES.

The position of the beleaguered occupants of the Residency grew worse
and worse. There had been three different brief despatches from the
detachments, but the information conveyed was very small. In each case
the commander announced that he was in full pursuit of the Rajah, who
had thrown off the mask and taken to the jungle; and after reading the
despatches over to the Resident the Major had uttered a grunt and said:

"One would think there were three Rajahs instead of one."

He had sent replies by native runners, urging upon his subordinates the
necessity for an immediate return, so as to strengthen the position of
the Residency, and stating that, from news that had come in, it was
evident that Rajah Hamet had also thrown off the mask and was waiting,
undoubtedly to make an attack in conjunction with Rajah Suleiman.

"We shall be hard pressed," he said emphatically, "and I must call upon
you to rally at once. Sir Charles is sending a despatch to Singapore,
telling of the uneasy state of the native princes, and the sore straits
in which we find ourselves; but it will be some time before a messenger
can reach the Governor, and Suleiman's men are pressing me hard. As you
well know, it must be many days before a gunboat can reach us here."

No reply reached headquarters, for, however wanting in gen