exiled him--his captain and
immediate superior.

This officer was a cold, taciturn man, inspiring little love in those
directly beneath him, yet respected and feared by the black soldiers of
his little command.

Werper was accustomed to sit for hours glaring at his superior as the
two sat upon the veranda of their common quarters, smoking their
evening cigarets in a silence which neither seemed desirous of
breaking. The senseless hatred of the lieutenant grew at last into a
form of mania. The captain's natural taciturnity he distorted into a
studied attempt to insult him because of his past shortcomings. He
imagined that his superior held him in contempt, and so he chafed and
fumed inwardly until one evening his madness became suddenly homicidal.
He fingered the butt of the revolver at his hip, his eyes narrowed and
his brows contracted. At last he spoke.

"You have insulted me for the last time!" he cried, springing to his
feet. "I am an officer and a gentleman, and I shall put up with it no
longer without an accounting from you, you pig."

The captain, an expression of surprise upon his features, turned toward
his junior. He had seen men before with the jungle madness upon
them--the madness of solitude and unrestrained brooding, and perhaps a
touch of fever.

He rose and extended his hand to lay it upon the other's shoulder.
Quiet words of counsel were upon his lips; but they were never spoken.
Werper construed his superior's action into an attempt to close with
him. His revolver was on a level with the captain's heart, and the
latter had taken but a step when Werper pulled the trigger. Without a
moan the man sank to the rough planking of the veranda, and as he fell
the mists that had clouded Werper's brain lifted, so that he saw
himself and the deed that he had done in the same light that those who
must judge him would see them.

He heard excited exclamations from the quarters of the soldiers and he
heard men running in his direction. They would seize him, and if they
didn't kill him they would take him down the Congo to a point where a
properly ordered military tribunal would do so just as effectively,
though in a more regular manner.

Werper had no desire to die. Never before had he so yearned for life
as in this moment that he had so effectively forfeited his right to
live. The men were nearing him. What was he to do? He glanced about
as though searching for the tangible form of a legitimate