not shrive you," answered the priest shuddering, "but I will pray
for you."

Then the hungry-eyed natives pounced upon Pereira to drag him thence,
but Leonard broke through them saying:

"I will have none of your savage cruelties here. Let the man be shot if
you will, but no more."

As it chanced, however, Pereira was not destined to die by the hand of
man, for even as Otter gripped him he turned livid, threw up his arms,
groaned, and fell to the earth.

Leonard looked at him; he was dead, dead through the fear of death, for
terror had stopped the beating of his wicked heart.

"The Shepherdess prophesied truly," cried Otter presently, "for the
Heavens above have robbed us of our vengeance. _Wow!_ it is hard, but at
least this one shall work no more evil."

"Carry it away," said Leonard with a shudder, for the dead man's face
was ghastly to behold. Then turning to him as if nothing had happened,
he added:

"Otter, take these men and loose the rest of the slaves; then get the
ammunition, rifles, and stores from the arms-house and bring them to the
water-gate. We must clear out of this place at once, or we shall have
the escaped slavers and the crews of the dhows down upon us."

Thus then did fate at last find out Antonio Pereira, the Yellow Devil.

CHAPTER XV

DISILLUSION

Once more it was morning, and the travellers were encamped by that reedy
point where they had left the big boats which they cut loose from the
island. From the earliest dawn Leonard had been superintending the
transport across the river of the hundreds of slaves whom they had
released. They there were put on shore by the Settlement men, provided
with a store of meal, and left to shift for themselves, it being found
utterly impossible to take them any further.

"There, they are gone," said Otter, as the last boat-load set out under
the charge of Peter. "Well, let them go, the silly sheep. So much the
less trouble for us, who, although we have a Shepherdess, can scarcely
lead so large a flock. Well, we have pulled the Missie yonder out of the
Slave Nest, and the Yellow Devil--ah! we have talked with him and all
his crew. And now are we to go on to win the gold--the real Yellow
Devil, Baas?"

"I suppose so, Otter," answered Leonard--"that is, if Soa keeps her
word. But it isn't gold, it is rubies. At any rate we must make for the
Settlement below Sena, to take these men back and see if we can hear
anything of Mavoom."

"So," said Ott