last hour had in very truth arrived.

"Well, well, who'd ha' thowt it would ever come to this?" he sighed,
shaking his head mournfully as he came in sight of the place of
execution. "But, after all, ye richly desarve it, John Molloy, for
you've bin a bad lot the greater part o' your life!"

Again he looked on either side of him, for hope was strongly enshrined
in his broad bosom, but not a friendly or even pitiful face could he see
among all the hundreds that surrounded him.

Arrived at the place, he glanced up at the beam over his head, and for
one moment thought of trying, like Samson, to burst the bonds that held
him; but it was only for a moment. The impossibility of freeing himself
was too obvious. He meekly bowed his head. Another instant and the
rope tightened round his neck, and he felt himself swinging in the air.

Before his senses had quite left him, however, he felt his feet again
touch the ground. The choking sensation passed away, and he found
himself supported by two men. A burst of mocking laughter then proved
to the wretched man that his tormentors had practised on him the refined
cruelty of half-hanging him. If he had had any doubt on this subject,
the remark of the interpreter, as he afterwards left him in his cell to
recover as best he might, would have dispelled it--

"We will 'ang you _dead_ de nex' time!"

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

CRUEL TREATMENT--DESPAIR FOLLOWED BY HOPE AND A JOYFUL DISCOVERY.

After the rough treatment he had received, the Mahdi, as we may well
believe, did not feel more amiably disposed towards his prisoners.

Of course he had no reason for blaming Miles for what had occurred,
nevertheless he vented his wrath against white men in general on him, by
keeping him constantly on the move, and enforcing prolonged and unusual
speed while running, besides subjecting him publicly to many insults.

It was a strange school in which to learn self-restraint and humility.
But our hero profited by the schooling. Necessity is a stern teacher,
and she was the head-mistress of that school. Among other things she
taught Miles to reason extensively--not very profoundly, perhaps, nor
always correctly, but at all events in a way that he never reasoned
before. The best way to convey to the reader the state of his mind will
be to let him speak for himself. As he had a habit of thinking aloud--
for sociability, as it were--in the dark cell to which he had been
relegated, we have