give trouble!"

"Handcuffs! Ha, ha!" cried Senos the Peruvian, laughing and snapping his
brown fingers in the prisoner's face. "It is my triumph now. Senos has
avenged the death of his poor, good master!"

"A moment," exclaimed the prisoner. "I may at least be permitted to
secure my papers before I leave here, and hand them over to you? They
will, perhaps, interest you," he said quite coolly. Then he took from his
watch-chain a small key, and with it opened a little cupboard in the
wall, from whence he took a small, square deed-box of japanned tin, which
he placed upon the table before us.

With another and smaller key, and with a slight grin upon his face, he
opened the lid, but a cry of dismay escaped us, for next second we saw
that he held in his hand a small, black object, sinuous and writhing--a
small, thin, but highly venomous black snake!

It was over in an instant, ere we could realise the truth. Upon his white
wrist I saw a tiny bead of blood, where the reptile had struck and bitten
him, and as he flung it back into the box and banged down the lid he
turned upon us in defiance, and said:

"Now take me! I am ready," he cried, uttering a peal of fiendish
laughter. "Carry me where you will, for in a few moments I shall be dead.
Ah! yes, my good friends! I have played the great game--and lost. Yet
I've cheated you all, as I always declared that I would."

The two men sprang forward to slip the metal gyves upon his wrists, but
Fremy, noticing the instant change in the assassin's countenance,
motioned them off.

The culprit's face grew ashen grey, his thin jaws were fixed. He tried to
utter some further words, but no sound came from him, only a low gurgle.

We stood by and watched. He placed both his palms to his brow and stood
for a few seconds in the centre of the room. Then a paroxysm of pain
seemed to double him completely up, and he fell to the carpet writhing in
most fearful agony. It was horrible to witness, and Phrida, with a cry,
turned away.

Then suddenly he lay stiff, and stretched his limbs to such an extent
that we could hear the bones crack. His back became arched, and then he
expired with horrible convulsions, which held his limbs stiffened and
extended to their utmost limits--truly, the most awful and agonising of
deaths, and a torture in the last moments that must have been
excruciating--a punishment worse, indeed, than any that man-made law
might allow.

* * *