398 



CAPTAIN SPEKE'S DEATH. 



looked at eacli other of course without signs of 

 recognition. Some one beckoned to him from 

 the bottom of the halL At 1.30 p. m. he arose, 

 and ejaculating, ' I can't stand this any longer ! ' 

 he left the room. Three hours afterwards he 

 was a corpse. 



Early in the forenoon fixed for what silly 

 tongues called the ' Nile Duel ' I found a large 

 assembly in the rooms of section E. A note was 

 handed round in silence. Presently my friend 

 Mr Eindlay broke the tidings to me. Capt. 

 Speke had lost his life on the yesterday, at 

 4 P.M., whilst shooting over a cousin's grounds. 

 He had been missed in the field, and his kins- 

 man found him lying upon the earth, shot 

 through the body close to the heart. He lived 



onlv a few minutes, and his last words were a 

 V 



request not to be moved. The calamity had 

 been the more unexpected as he was ever re- 

 markable for the caution with which he handled 

 his weapon. I ever make a point of ascertaining 

 a fellow-traveller's habits in that matter, and I 

 observed that even when our canoe was shaken 

 and upthrown by the hippopotamus he never 

 allowed his gun to look at him or at others. 



Thus perished, in the flower of his years, at 

 the early age of 87, by the merest and most 



