In his own state of terrible weakness he felt that it was impossible to go on with his task of holding Berande plantation tight- gripped in his fist.

Then the will of him flamed up again, and he directed the blacks to lay the stretcher beside him on the floor.

Hughie Drummond, whom he had last seen in health, was an emaciated skeleton.

His closed eyes were deep-sunken.

The shrivelled lips had fallen away from the teeth, and the cheek-bones seemed bursting through the skin.