Part 26 (2/2)

I had but lately avowed my disbelief in instincts, yet here I know not what instinct of dread and repulsion calance over limpse of the face of my companion, possibly with the intent to ascertain whether the sa her But as I did so a sudden and violent start on the part of , the brute swerved and backed; and co thus into collision with Beryl's steed it took both of us some moments to soothe and quiet the aniliround, and my heart stood still within me and every drop of blood in my syste the nature of that So The inanimate human form is possessed of an eloquence all its own Dark upon the shi+ upward to the sky, the face of poor little George Matterson And the sah us both as we slid from our saddles, that it was a dead face

Never, if I were to live a thousand years, could I forget the whirl of rage and horror and grief that convulsedover it No cry had escaped her, only a quick, half-stifled gasp In ataken the precaution to secure both our horses

”Dead!” she uttered, having raised the head, with infinite tenderness of touch ”Dead Murdered!”

I don't knohich feeling was uppermost within my mind at that e, unnatural cal situation I bent down over the poor remains A noosed _reihtly Not this, however, had been the cause of death The grass around and beneath the body glistened with a dark wet stain On the dead boy's clothing above the heart was a clean cut fro He had been stabbed--stabbed with an assegai

We stood staring into each other's faces, ashy white in the ht

It seemed as if our lips refused to fra in a harsh, gasping whisper, Beryl said--

”What of--father?”

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

”WALK, KULISO!”

”Two lives were taken, and these are two lives”

The words of old Duh my brain, as I bent over the dead boy in quest of spoor Such was plain and abundant, and showed that he had not been slain here, but had been deposited after death on the spot where we had found him But that we should find Septimus Matterson alive neither of us ever for a mo the spoor by that clear light The savage ed their victinificant that no thought of personal danger was in ourapprehension of ere, at anyfor revenge by reason of e had already found Thesein wait for us Every bushfoe, yet for our own safety we had no thought More than once in the course of my experiences I have found s on such occasions have been nothing to the awful boding suspense of that search, through the still, unearthly ht silence

Suddenly our horses, which we had been leading as we followed the spoor, snorted, and rucked back, nearly wrenching the bridles frorasp

Instinctively we both drew our revolvers; instinctively, too, we knew that it was not the living that had startled the animals, but the dead

Our quest was at an end Septiht, but even before Beryl had rushed forward and thrown herself beside him, we knew that there was no more life here than in the poor little rereat distance away

Yet, what had slain him? The attitude was calh asleep No trace of wound or bloas upon hie showed every onised contortion of his face

But Septiured Then I remembered what Beryl had told me about her father's life

”He has not been killed,” I whispered ”His heart has failed”

She nodded, but did not speak; and at that edy which the silent riuarded against before it was too late The two had been waylaid and set upon suddenly when returning froe had been the eance of the murderers the sudden shock of the surprise had stricken his father dead through heart failure That the body of the latter had suffered no violence after death ht have been due to the respect in which he had been held while living, whereas the noosed ram which had been placed around the neck of the boy seenificance to old Dumela's words, ”'_Justice--the white man's justice--has not been done,'

they say_”

Beryl's expression of countenance was unfatho her dead father's head, tenderly stroking back the hair fro the cold, marble face with her white handkerchief

And I, as I stood there gazing down upon the man who had been to ain hear his voice, never again see those kindly eyes light up with nition, that his presence was removed from our midst for ever, I believe I should have broken down and burst out blubbering like a schoolboy but for what next occurred

Beryl, having gently lowered the inanilistened in her eyes They were dry and hard with the terrible intensity of the strain No cry, no burst of agony escaped her breast; but as she stood there, her tall forht, the look upon her face was so awful, so blasting in its fury of hate and despair and rief and horror I alrief in its reactionie? If so, it seeive way

”Co to the side of her horse