course been necessary to tell both mothers of the loss of
their sons. Mrs. Cochrane and Trixy had gone immediately to the
Orbans' house as more central for obtaining news.

Mr. Orban dispatched one coolie from the plantation for the doctor,
who lived fifteen miles away. Another man he sent up the hill as
fast as he could go with a note preparing his wife for their
arrival, and the whole white-faced party was out waiting for it as
the slow procession--Bob on a stretcher in the midst--wound its way
to the house.

The joy of the meeting was lost sight of in the anxiety, for Bob
was by this time delirious with pain, Eustace so weak that he was
nearly fainting.

For the next ten days the house was no better than a hospital--its
central interest the condition of the two patients within its
walls; but the first day Bob and Eustace were brought out on to the
veranda--two white-faced shadows of themselves--Bob laughingly
called it the convalescent home.

Up to that point everything was, as Nesta expressed it, horrid; but
when Bob was about again, even if his voice was weaker, his laugh a
ghost of itself, matters at once began to improve.

They were all sitting together enjoying the cool of the evening.

"What I can't understand," said Nesta meditatively, breaking a long
pause, "is why the black-fellows wouldn't let Eustace answer
father's coo-ee."

"It is quite simple," said Mr. Orban. "The chief had evidently
given strict orders he was not to be allowed to go in his absence,
and they were afraid we should come and take him away. Then the
chief would have got no reward."

"What I can't understand," said Peter, who never remained long in
the background, "is why the black-fellows didn't cut Bob down. It
was wicked of them."

"That's what I think," said Nesta. "If they left him because they
thought it funny, I wish they could be tortured."

"Nesta, Nesta, my darling!" said Mrs. Orban warningly.

"I suppose," said Miss Chase softly, "the poor things have no
knowledge of mercy."

"None," said Mr. Cochrane, who was over spending the evening; "and
they wouldn't understand it if you showed them any, either."

"No heathens ever do," said Mrs. Orban, "and how should they? They
have no Great Example to follow as we have. It is the people who
have the chance of knowing better, and still are cruel and
heartless, that I would have tortured--if any one."

Mr. Orban gave a soft laugh.

"If any one, indeed, wife," he said. "