oil. Then, removing the lamp from the frame in which it
hung, I proceeded forthwith to explore.

Now that I had a light, and could plainly distinguish my surroundings,
my worst forebodings were confirmed, for everything in the place was
disarranged, the weapons were all gone, as well as the skin rugs which
usually covered the floor and several valuable karosses with which the
chairs and sofa were wont to be draped, while the various hunting
trophies had been torn from the walls, and some were gone. Fearing now,
and indeed quite expecting, the worst, after casting a hurried glance
about the hall I made my way straight to Mr Lestrange's bedroom; and
there, just inside the wide-open door, lay the poor fellow, clad only in
his sleeping garb, with three ghastly assagai wounds in his body, and
one through his throat which had severed the jugular vein. This room,
too, was in a terrible state of disorder, having evidently been
subjected to a thorough search for anything that might appeal to the
fancy of a savage. But there had been no fight, that was perfectly
clear; the surprise had been complete, and the savages had contrived to
gain entrance to the house in time to massacre the inmates before they
had a chance to defend themselves.

The inmates! There were none but Mr Lestrange--who was a widower--and
Nell; and where was she? I was sufficiently intimate with the
arrangements of the house to know which was Nell's room, and my next
dash was thither. The door of the room was wide-open, but I paused in
the opening when I reached it, with the feeling strong upon me that I
should commit something very like sacrilege by entering. A single
glance, however, sufficed to reveal that the shrine of innocent girlhood
had already been violated, for it, too, like Mr Lestrange's, had been
turned topsy-turvy by the savages. But Nell--where was she?
Instinctively I scanned the floor of the room in search of her dead
body, but it was not there; furthermore, I could not find the slightest
trace of a bloodstain to indicate that the tragedy had been a double
one; only the bed was stripped of its coverings, and when I came to
investigate more closely I found her night robe flung carelessly upon
the floor, but none of her day garments lying about. And the conclusion
to which I was finally driven was that the poor child, instead of having
been slain in cold blood, like her father, had been surprised in her
sleep, compelled to dress, and b