aid down their
lives at the behest of a man who knows not the meaning of mercy? Let
those among you who are willing to surrender throw up their hands." The
officer turned and looked behind him: every man under his command had
thrown his hands above his head! It was enough; his humiliation was
complete. Drawing his sword from its scabbard, he placed the point on
the ground; then, bending the blade into the form of a bow, he gave the
hilt a sudden, peculiar thrusting jerk, and the blade snapped in twain.
Then, tossing the hilt from him, he exclaimed, in a tone of concentrated
bitterness, "I surrender!" and burst into tears of anger and
mortification.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

THE END OF THE STRUGGLE.

The prisoners, about a hundred in number, many of whom were less than
half-dressed, were now allowed five minutes wherein to retire to their
tents and assume their clothing; after which they were formed up four
deep, and marched off in the direction from which Jack and his party had
come, a young, swift-footed negro having been dispatched on ahead with a
note from Singleton for Carlos, informing the latter of the capture of
the camp and its occupants, and suggesting that he should bring his
prisoners down to the compound adjoining the warehouses.

With the arrival of the prisoners and their armed escort within half a
mile of the spot where the bamboo bridge crossed the river, they began
to come upon the first evidences of the recent fight, in the shape,
first, of widely scattered units, and then of little groups of two or
three dead or wounded. The first they were obliged to leave, for the
moment; but the wounded were, by Jack's orders, now sought for and
succoured, so far as succour was possible by unskilled hands, by being,
in the first instance, borne closer to the river, and having their fiery
thirst temporarily assuaged, and, later on, by having their wounds
dressed, so far as the conveniences available permitted. With so large
a number of wounded, this labour of mercy necessarily occupied a
considerable amount of time, so that it was broad daylight when at
length Jack conducted his prisoners into the compound and marched them
into an empty and partially ruined storehouse which Carlos had already
caused to be prepared for their reception, the prisoners which the young
Cuban had brought down from the defile having already been lodged in an
adjoining building. Then came the question of feeding the hungry--a
very f