If it had been one of the soldiers, someone--anyone--who understood marksmanship and was not likely to be in a nervous quake over the circumstances, the thing could not have happened, although the fugitive was careering along in a direct line with my precious little one.

But, with Ferralt--Oh, Mr.Cleek, can you imagine my horror when I saw the flash of that shot, heard a shrill cry of pain, and saw my child drop to the ground ?" "Good heaven!" exclaimed Cleek, agitated in spite of himself.

"Then the blunderer shot the child instead of the native ?" "Yes; and was so horrified by the mishap that, without waiting to learn the result, he rushed blindly to the brink of a deep ravine, and threw himself headlong to death.

But the injury to Cedric was only a trifling one after all.

The bullet seemed merely to have grazed him in passing, and, beyond a ragged gash in the fleshy part of the thigh, he was not harmed at all.