e
seen it inflicted!" And he shuddered and turned sick at the memory.
"Do you know where the place of punishment is?" demanded the professor,
sharply.

"Yes, I know it," answered Lobelalatutu. "It is that much beyond the
village on its far side." And, pointing to the sun, he described with
his finger a small arc representing the apparent travel of that luminary
across the sky during a quarter of an hour.

The professor turned to the pilot-house, through one of the windows of
which the baronet was seen looking out, with his hands on the
controlling levers, waiting the conclusion of the conference between his
friend and the savage.

"Quick, Elphinstone!" he exclaimed, "make for the village at once, but
do not stop there. Pass on about a mile beyond it, to a spot which
Lobelalatutu will point out to us. If we are quick we may be in time to
save a man's life!"

Sir Reginald needed no second bidding. With one hand he threw back the
levers controlling the grip-anchors that held the ship to the ground,
while with the other he opened the valve that admitted vapour into the
air-chambers and created a vacuum sufficient to raise the ship about a
thousand feet into the air, from which elevation a wide extent of
country became visible. Then he sent the engines ahead at a speed of
about twenty-knots, and put the helm over to turn the ship's head in the
direction of the distant village, now in clear sight from the deck.
Meanwhile the professor beckoned to Mildmay, and said--

"My friend, I think you had better persuade the ladies to go below for a
few minutes, for the chances are that we shall presently behold a sight
that would haunt them for ever, should they happen to see it."

Then he turned to Lobelalatutu and said--

"Now, if you can see the place of punishment, point it out to me."

"Behold, it is there," answered the savage, pointing. "You may see the
guard that has been stationed round about the prisoner."

And, indeed, as von Schalckenberg looked ahead, a small dark blotch
beneath a group of thorn-trees resolved itself into a body of some fifty
fully-armed warriors grouped in a circle round something else that lay
stretched out upon the ground.

"Do you see that party of savages ahead, Elphinstone?" demanded the
professor. "Make straight for them."

"Right! I see them," answered Sir Reginald. And, as he spoke, the
ladies, escorted by Mildmay, vanished within the pilot-house on their
way below.

A m