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And though he could catch no sound in that rising, falling, ever-roaring tuue and distant reion of the world, was striving to pray

Stern's eyes ed with a rough band of fabric which cruelly cut her beautiful, her tender ht of her humiliation and her pain, the ainst his bonds till the veins swelled, and with eyes of terrible rage and hate stared at Kaaze was now fixed insolently upon Beatrice She, as she stood there, stripped even of her revolver and cartridge-belt, hands bound behind her, hair disheveled, had caught his barbarous fancy And now in his look Stern saw the kindling of a savage passion so ardent, so consu, that the man's heart turned sick within hiht he, racked at the thought of what le minute now! One shot for Ka would !"

Came a disturbance in the Folk Heads craned; a , but with his head held proudly up, both hands outstretched, had stepped into the circle And now, advancing toward Kaestured at the engineer, raised his hand on high, bowed and stepped back

And all at once a wild, harsh, swelling chorus of cries arose; every face turned toward Stern; the engineer, amazed, knew not what all this ed his fighting-blood to one last, bitter struggle

Silence again

Kareat hands rested on his knees; but a thin, venoineer, who gave the stare back with redoubled hate Tense grew the expectation of the Folk

"What the devil now?" thought Stern, tautening event muscle for the expected attack

But attack there came none Instead the patriarch asked a question of those who stood near hiuided the old , bound

"O friend; O son!" exclaimed the old man when he had come close "Now hearken! For, verily, this is the only way!

"It is an ancient custom of the Merucaans that any e our chief, whosoever he be, to the death-combat If the chief wins, he remains chief If he loses, the victor takes his place Many hundreds of years, I know not how long, this has been our way Andour people