eld his mimic court.

"A burning thirst began to parch his lips and throat; he hastened to the
carafe in which the water for his use was usually held.

"It was empty.

"'Ah!' the prince groaned aloud; the veins of his forehead knotted; a
sharp, strained look appeared in his eyes, and he shivered with a mortal
chill.

"A stinging, sharp surge attracted his attention to his right wrist.

"It was swollen beyond its usual size, and a bluish discoloration
surrounded the livid line where the dagger point had penetrated.

"He placed his hands together and noted their disproportion, considered
the wounded arm, and then--he remembered.

"'The dagger!' he gasped, and a new horror charged his bloodshot eyes as
he recalled the devilish craft employed by the natives to envenom their
weapons.

"'Poisoned! and by Lal Lu!'

"At this thought the malignant light of a fearful determination illumed
his features and revealed their frightful distortion.

"'I shall not--go--alone!' he sighed, and repossessing himself of the
fatal dagger, which he had cast upon the table on entering the room, he
rose from the chair, looked with fearful purpose upon the curtains which
disguised the entrance to the secret passageway from which he had
emerged but a short time before, took one step forward, and then fell
inertly on to the couch from which he had risen in the excitement of his
malignant impulse.

"'Ha!' The faint sound of an alien air smote his ears.

"'The bagpipes!' he muttered; 'the Scots, the hellish Highlanders.'

"Nearer and nearer the lively air was borne to him.

"His raging pulse thrummed through his palpitating veins a rhythmic,
mocking accompaniment to the swelling music.

"His frame stiffened and stretched as though subjected to the distortion
of the ancient rack.

"The agony was unendurable. With a final conscious effort he reached for
the poisoned weapon to bring his sufferings to a summary conclusion, but
his failing will could no longer vitalize his palsied arm, and with a
gasp that seemed to rend his tortured body, to the weird orchestration
of that refrain which was destined in the near future to herald such joy
at Lucknow, 'The Campbells Are Coming, Hi-ay, Hi-ay!' the spirit of
Prince Otondo returned to Him who gave it, to be put into what repair
was possible for such a proposition.

"As the last writhing rigor ceased to convulse his frame, the prince
lurched forward, and his body collapsed into an attitude n