thirty-seven survivors, for one had died on the
journey up and two had been murdered--were brought. They were peaceful,
timorous men, whose manhood seemed to have been crushed out of them; and
slowly, word by word, their grim story was got out of them. Joseph knew
a little of their language, and one of the head fighting men knew a
little more, and spoke a dialect known to Oscard. They were slaves they
said at once, but only on Oscard's promise that Durnovo should not
be allowed to shoot them. They had been brought from the north by a
victorious chief, who in turn had handed them over to Victor Durnovo in
payment of an outstanding debt for ammunition supplied.

The great African moon rose into the heavens and shone her yellow light
upon this group of men. Overhead all was peace: on earth there was
no peace. And yet it was one of Heaven's laws that Victor Durnovo had
broken.

Guy Oscard went patiently through to the end of it. He found out all
that there was to find; and he found out something which surprised him.
No one seemed to be horror-struck. The free men stood stolidly looking
on, as did the slaves. And this was Africa--the heart of Africa, where,
as Victor Durnovo said, no one knows what is going on. Oscard knew
that he could apply no law to Victor Durnovo except the great law of
humanity. There was nothing to be done, for one individual may not
execute the laws of humanity. All were assembled before him--the whole
of the great Simiacine Expedition except the leader, whose influence lay
over one and all only second to his presence.

"I leave this place at sunrise to-morrow," said Guy Oscard to them all.
"I never want to see it again. I will not touch one penny of the money
that has been made. I speak for Mr. Meredith and myself--"

"Likewise me--damn it!" put in Joseph.

"I speak as Mr. Meredith himself would have spoken. There is the
Simiacine--you can have it. I won't touch it. And now who is going with
me--who leaves with me to-morrow morning?"

He moved away from Durnovo.

"And who stays with me?" cried the half-breed, "to share and share alike
in the Simiacine?"

Joseph followed Oscard, and with him a certain number of the blacks, but
some stayed. Some went over to Durnovo and stood beside him. The slaves
spoke among themselves, and then they all went over to Durnovo.

So that which the placid moon shone down upon was the break-up of the
great Simiacine scheme. Victor Durnovo had not come off so ba