“Look,” he said in a whisper.

* * * * *

Within a few inches of a wavering line of spray from the fountain, purposely diverted so as to fall upon the grass, lay what appeared at first sight to be a round bundle tied up in a buffalo hide.  A black swarm of flies buzzed and buzzed over and around it.

“Draw near and look,” said the harsh voice of the officer who commanded the grim, silent guard, as he stepped up to the strange-looking bundle, and waved his fan quickly to and fro over a protuberance in the centre.

A black cloud of flies arose, and revealed a sight that will haunt Carpenter to his dying day—­the purpled, distorted face of a living man.  The eyelids had been cut off, and only two dreadful, bloodied, glaring things of horror appealed mutely to God.  The victim’s knees had been drawn up to his chin, and only his head was visible; for the fresh buffalo hide in which his body had been sewn, fitted tightly around his neck.

Shuddering with horror, and yet fascinated with the dreadful spectacle, Carpenter asked the officer how long the prisoner had been tortured.

“Four days,” was the reply.

For the buffalo, the hide of which was to be the prisoner’s death-wrap, was in readiness the moment the steamer arrived, and ten minutes after the signal was hoisted, the creature was killed, the hide stripped off, and the prisoner sewn up in it, only his head being left free.

Then he was carried to a heated room, so that the hide should contract quickly.  From there he was taken to the fountain, where his eyelids were cut off, and then he was laid upon the ground, his mouth just within a few inches of a spray from the fountain.

And the Viceroy came, saw, approved, and smiled, and assigned to Kwang the honoured post of watching his hated enemy die under slow and agonising torture.  To attract the flies, honeyed water was applied to the prisoner’s shaven head and face.  And the guards, now and then as his thirst increased, offered him brine to drink.

“He is still alive,” the brutal-faced Tartar officer said genially, as he touched one of the dreadful eyeballs, and the poor, tortured creature’s lips moved slightly.

Sick at heart and almost overcome with horror, Captain Carpenter, with quickened footsteps, passed through the cordon of guards, and followed his guide from the dreadful spot.

In a few minutes he was without the wall, and a sigh of relief broke from him as he set out towards the river.

A CRUISE IN THE SOUTH SEAS

(HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS)

A Cruise in the South Seas

(HINTS TO INTENDING TRAVELLERS)