CHAPTER XXXVII. 



"GOOD-BY, SWEETHEART." 



tHE wild man rose higher than before, straightening up until his body was 

 visible to the waist. The act showed that he was armed with a javelin and 

 was gathering himself to throw it. 



The fire was not burning as brightly as before, though the savage would not 

 have stood so nearly erect but for the necessity of balancing himself to hurl his 

 missile. 



The opportunity must have been a tempting one to the African, for the only two 

 sentinels who made a pretense of attending to their duties were still tramping back 

 and forth without suspicion of his presence. The white man was sitting cross- 

 legged on the ground, smoking his pipe, and apparently gazing into the fire in a 

 dreamy reverie, though I need hardly say that he was giving far more attention to 

 the sneaking native just then than to anything else. 



As he afterward said, it seemed to him that Jack Harvey was altogether too 

 deliberate in his movements, and, in fact, matters were getting into too fine a shape 

 for him to feel comfortable, knowing, as he did, that the delay of the skulking Afri- 

 can was solely that he might make his aim unerring. 



Strange that the continued absence of the second white man from the camp had 

 not awakened the suspicion of the native. 



Jack Harvey allowed the scamp to raise the javelin over his head, with his arm 

 drawn slightly back, when he let fly with his rawhide. The whirr of the lasso 

 alarmed the African, who quickly turned. At the sight of the Texan his alarm 

 became a wild fright, and he dropped the javelin and ran at full speed. The 

 noose was true to its aim, however, and in less time than it takes to tell it, the 

 savage was ensnared so tightly that he almost strangled. 



The violent pull brought him over on his back with a force that fairly made him 

 bounce. Before he could help himself, or utter more than a few gurgling sounds, 

 the Texan was upon him, angry enough to crush his head under his heel. 



" You're a scamp from Scamptown," he exclaimed, catching the bare arm and 

 jerking him to his feet; " the best use I can put you to is to practice on you with 

 my revolver." 



The wretch was so terrified that he could not offer any resistance. As his 

 captor locsened the noose he would have gone down in a heap but for the sturdy 

 Texan, who yanked him to his feet as a pedagogue would handle a snarling 

 school -boy. 



''Stand up, confound you ! " called Jack, giving his ears a smart cuff; "if you 

 don't know how to walk, I'll teach you." 



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