FATAL RESULT. 101 



c From the right to the left hand Boyle un- 

 hurriedly changed his weapon. The time it took 

 to do so was but a moment, but in that moment 

 he received another shot. He still stood braced 

 and firm, and, slowly raising the weapon to the 

 level, he took what I knew was a deadly aim, 

 for the movement, the attitude, and the hand 

 were exactly similar to what I had seen him use 

 when making practice I never saw excelled. During 

 the short pause, how I prayed for the report ! I 

 feared the foe would fire before he pressed the 

 trigger. At length came the report, and with it 

 a yell full of vindictive hate from the unfortunate 

 victim as he sprang into the air and fell lifeless 

 upon the ground. The bullet had entered the left 

 corner of his right eye, ranging upwards. 



Boyle leant against a friend, and glouts of blood 

 came from his lips, for he had been shot through the 

 lungs at the first fire, and through the arm at the 

 second. The dead was removed into the house into 

 the same room where ten minutes before he had 

 sat a living man ; while Boyle was taken forthwith 

 on board ship, that he might immediately receive 

 medical attention. 



'And among all the passengers not one had 

 spoken to the wife of the dead man. There she 

 sat in the refreshment-room, and ate her lunch, 

 and drank her glass of wine. I hovered round the 

 door, hoping, trusting, almost praying that some 

 one would reveal to her the circumstances that 



