did not look long. A third bullet, fired from
a dozen yards away, drilled a hole in his forehead. He fell back dead,
and the ivory box, which lay on his lap, tilted forward on the ground.

I had no weapon of any kind, and I did not want the fourth bullet for
myself. Henriques was too pretty a shot to trifle with. I waited
quietly on the edge of the shade till the Portugoose came out of the
thicket. I saw him running forward with a rifle in his hand. A whinny
from a horse told me that somewhere near his beast was tied up. It was
all but dark, but it seemed to me that I could see the lust of greed in
his eyes as he rushed to the litter.

Very softly I stole behind him. He tore off the lid of the box, and
pulled out the great necklace. For a second it hung in his hands, but
only for a second. So absorbed was he that he did not notice me
standing full before him. Nay, he lifted his head, and gave me the
finest chance of my life. I was something of a boxer, and all my
accumulated fury went into the blow. It caught him on the point of the
chin, and his neck cricked like the bolt of a rifle. He fell limply on
the ground and the jewels dropped from his hand.

I picked them up and stuffed them into my breeches pocket.

Then I pulled the pistol out of his belt. It was six-chambered, and I
knew that only three had been emptied. I remembered feeling
extraordinarily cool and composed, and yet my wits must have been
wandering or I would have never taken the course I did.

The right thing to do--on Arcoll's instructions--was to make for the
river and swim across to my friends. But Laputa was coming back, and I
dreaded meeting him. Laputa seemed to my heated fancy omnipresent. I
thought of him as covering the whole bank of the river, whereas I might
easily have crossed a little farther down, and made my way up the other
bank to my friends. It was plain that Laputa intended to evade the
patrol, not to capture it, and there, consequently, I should be safe.
The next best thing was to find Arcoll's Kaffir, who was not twenty
yards away, get some sort of horse, and break for the bush. Long
before morning we should have been over the Berg and in safety. Nay,
if I wanted a mount, there was Henriques' whinnying a few paces off.

Instead I did the craziest thing of all. With the jewels in one
pocket, and the Portugoose's pistol in the other, I started running
back the road we had come.

CHAPTER XIV

I CARRY