Part 43 (1/2)

There was a chair by the table At sight of the coeants made their victim use that as a step by which tohis oppressors as cal the crowd A number of natives called to hiaze

”They're sayin' good-by to hi hiet hi on head and naked shoulders swiftly reduced the crowd to silence Then the commandant faced them all, and made a speech with that ash-can voice of his--first in Gerue Will translated to us sentence by sentence, the doctor standing on the top step behind us s approval He seemed to think ould be benefited by the lecture just asthat the coarbed in paternal phrases, and interlarded with bunco happiness to subject peoples

”Above all,” he repeated again and again, ”the law ood, sound, Geroverns all alike!”

When he had finished he turned to the culprit

”Now,” he deed?”

There was ato know in advance that so The man on the table with his hands behind hinity, looked down on the coh, almost falsetto note, that in the silence carried all across the square

”I aht! My eneirl I killed hier gathers fruit in this land!”

”Ah-h-h-h!” the crowd sighed in unison

”Good man!” exploded Fred, and the doctor tried to kick hih to call his attention to the proprieties

His toe struck rily he tried to pretend he was not aware of what he had done

Under the trees the coe such I have seldom seen Each land has a teer varies in inverse ratio with his nearness to the equator But furor teutonicus transplanted is the least controllable, least dignified, least admirable that there is And that man's passion was the apex of its kind

His beard spread, as a peacock spreads its tail His eyes blazed His eyebrows disappeared under the brim of his white helloves He half-drew his saber--thought better of that, and returned it There was an askari standing near with kiboko in hand to drive back the crowd should any press too closely He snatched the whip and struck the condereat welt across his bare stomach The man neither winced nor complained

”For those words,” the commandant screamed at him in German, ”you shall not die in coood!”

Then he calmed hiue, explaining to the crowd that Gernity should be upheld at all costs

”Fetch hi on the table and knocked the condemned man off it with a blow of his fist With hands bound behind hih he juravel The commandant pro him!” he ordered ”Two hundred lashes!”

It was done in silence, except for the corporal's labored breathing and the commandant's incessant sharp coeant stood by counting The crack of the whip divided up the silence into periods of agony

When the count was done the victied him to his feet, and hauled hieants and two natives--passed a rope round the table legs Schubert lifted the victih the noose, and when that was accomplished the man had to stand on tiptoe on the soap-box in order to breathe at all

”All ready!” announced Schubert, and juh, his white tunic bloody from contact with the victim's tortured back

”Los!” roared the commandant

Theaway, and the victi round, and round, and round--slower and slower and slower--then back the other way round faster and faster

They say hanging is a merciful death--that the pressure of rope on two arteries produces anesthesia, but few are reported to have come back to tell of the experience At any rate, as is not the case with shooting, it is easy to knohen the victim is really dead