shot from the storm overhead, which had now
nearly passed away, one of those awful flashes that sometimes end an
African tempest. It lit up the scene with a light vivid as that of day,
and in the white heart of it Muller saw his two companions in crime and
their horses as the great king saw the men in the furnace. They were
about forty paces from him on the crest of the bank. He saw them, one
moment erect; the next--men and horses falling this way and that prone
to the earth. Then it was dark again.

Muller staggered with the shock, and when it had passed he rushed to the
spot, calling the men by name; but no answer came except the echo of
his voice. He was there alone now, and the moonlight began to struggle
faintly through the rain. Its pale beams lit upon two outstretched
forms--one lying on its back, its distorted features gazing up to
heaven, the other on its face. By them, the legs of the nearer sticking
straight into the air, lay the horses. They had all gone to their
account. The lightning had killed them, as it kills many a man in
Africa.

Frank Muller looked; then, forgetting about the warrant and everything
else in the horror of what he took to be a visible judgment, he rushed
to his horse and galloped wildly away, pursued by all the terrors of
hell.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE SHADOW OF DEATH

The firing from the bank had ceased, and John, who still kept his head,
being a rather phlegmatic specimen of the Anglo-Saxon race, knew that,
for the moment at any rate, all danger from this source was ended. Jess
lay perfectly still in his arms, her head upon his breast. A horrible
idea struck him that she might be shot, perhaps already dead!

"Jess, Jess," he shouted, through the turmoil of the storm, "are you
hit?"

She lifted her head an inch or two--"I think not," she said. "What is
going on?"

"God only knows, I don't. Sit still, it will be all right."

But in his heart he knew it was not "all right," and that they stood in
imminent danger of death by drowning. They were whirling down a raging
river in a cart. In a few moments it was probable that the cart would
upset, and then----

Presently the wheel bumped against something, the cart gave a great
lurch, and scraped along a little.

"Now for it," thought John, for the water was pouring over the flooring.
Then came a check, and the cart leant still farther to one side.

_Crack!_ The pole had gone, and the cart swung round bows, or rather
box, on to