It was as if a sudden revelation had flashed across his brain, and loosening his fierce grip of the young man's arm, he staggered back into a chair, and sat gazing wildly up at Burns.

'No, no!' he panted; it is too horrible. It is impossible.'

'Yes,' cried Burns; the thought is too horrible. It is impossible.'

'He thinks the same he thinks the same,' muttered Greville; and he let his face drop down into his hands, as, in rapid review, he ran over the incidents of the love matters of the young people, of the pangs of jealousy and hatred, and of there being the strain of the vindictive black blood in certain veins. Then he thought of the people on his plantation, their secret meetings, their dabblings in witchcraft so called, and poison; and he recalled the different cases of death which had occurred in the island, several of which could be traced to poison.

'No, no!' he gasped, as he raised his head again, and saw Burns gazing at him with a look full of agony and despair. 'It is impossible. But you-you are thinking the same still.-You believe it-you suspect her.'

'No,' cried Burns fiercely. I do not suspect her. Do you think I could suspect the woman I love of such a horror!'

Greville stood with his brow deeply lined, gazing straight before him, and as he remained there fixed, the glass rattled against the porous vessel, for the floor vibrated with the hurried tread of some one walking to and fro in the next room, and once more the eyes of the two men met in a penetrating gaze.

'Not in a sane moment,' said Greville at last aloud, but as if speaking to himself; but perhaps in a mad fit of jealous passion.-Come with me.' 'No,' cried Burns fiercely, as he barred the way. 'Where are you going?'

To see my patient,' said Greville, with a bitter smile.

Burns gave way, and followed his host into the chamber, where the situation remained the same. Manton was in agonising torture, but one arm was about Renée's neck.

He opened his eyes as they entered, and Greville crossed over to him and laid his hand upon his brow.

'Don't-don't let me die-now,' he whispered. Then his face contracted again, and Greville shrank away, signing to Burns to follow.

It is too hard to bear,' he whispered. 'Poor lad!-poor lad!'

'a doctor.'

He led the way to his own room again, and now Burns caught his arm. 'A doctor,' he said 'There is not one upon the island,' replied Greville. 'If there were a hundred, they could do no more than has been done.'

He stopped, listening to the rapid pace to and fro in the dining-room, and, with his face contracting more and more, he whispered the one word 'Come!'

'No,' said Burns again fiercely. 'You shall not go there. It is a cruel insult. It is madI tell you it is impossible.'

ness.

And yet in your heart you believe it,' said Greville sternly, or you would not try to stop me.

Come.'

'You shall not go,' cried Burns.

'Silence, boy. I stand to her in the place of her father. Recollect, too, that you are as weak as a child. I will be just, but I must have this cleared up and at once.'

He grasped the young man's wrist in a tremendous grip, and Burns was constrained to accompany him as he led the way into the diningroom, where, with her long black hair dishevelled and her face wild with horror, Josephine was walking rapidly to and fro, caged in by the horrible thoughts from which she was trying vainly to escape.

CHAPTER XII.

The girl did not hear them enter, and walked on with her eyes fixed, like one walking in her sleep, till she was close upon Greville, when she started excitedly, caught at his arm, and thrust her face close to his.

'John Manton?' she said in a husky tone of voice. How is he? Is he better?'

'No,' said Greville, gazing down at her fiercely. 'What is the matter with him?' she cried imperiously.

You know,' said Greville coldly.

'I? No! Oh no! I do not know,' she said rapidly; and she laid her hand upon her breast, as if to stay its throbbings.

"Then I will tell you,' said Greville in a slow, hard, magisterial tone.

'No, no,' cried Burns. Captain Greville, it is an outrage.-Josephine, go to your room. You shall not hear his words.'

She darted a grateful look at him; and then faced the captain, as he said sternly: Silence, boy! That poor fellow-my guest-the man to whom my child has given her heart-lies above us, foully-treacherously poisoned.'

6

Ah! cried Josephine, uttering a wild cry. 'No, no, no; it is impossible.'

'It is possible, for it has been done.'

'No, no,' cried Josephine wildly, as she threw herself upon her knees at the captain's feet. Don't say that. Father!—my more than father, don't say that.'

'I do say it; I will say it; and it has been done by the accursed hand of one who was wildly jealous of him-mad that he had fixed his affections elsewhere.-Josephine, I took you to my heart as a child; I have been as your father, and now you have stricken at me through himthrough them.'

'What!' she cried, shrinking back so that she half crouched upon the floor, supporting herself by one hand.

'I say you have stricken at me through

them.'

'No, no; it is not true,' she cried hysterically.

'No other hand could have done the cruel deed; no other could have had access to the room above and drugged the water with manchineel.'

Manchineel?' cried Josephine, gazing wildly before her. Ah, yes; it must have been manchineel.'

'Your words almost convict you, girl. You have always loved to consort with the wretched women who practise upon their fellow-slaves. You know of the powers of these drugs.'

Jan. 23, 1892.]

'I? No,' she cried hurriedly; 'very little.' Enough for the purpose. Answer me you placed that poison where he would drink of

it ?'

trivance was carried in the left hand, leaving the right free for a dagger; and the identical tigerclaw' wherewith Sivaji, founder of the Mahratta kingdom, murdered the Mogul's general, is now in the Indian Museum. But in actual war the bagh'nakh would have been only an

encum

'No,' she cried, rising slowly, and shaking back her hair from her face; 'no; I do not deny that I did suffer, as I am suffering now.'

'Captain Greville, you hear. Have some

mercy.'

'Yes, I will have mercy if she will confess.' 'That I poisoned John Manton!' said Josephine proudly. 'No; I cannot confess. I would sooner have poisoned myself and been at rest.' 'I'd give the rest of my poor life to know that this was true,' cried Greville.

'But you believe me guilty,' said the girl, drawing herself up. 'Well, I am little better than a black slave. I have lived upon your charity all these years; now send me back amongst your slaves; punish me, if you will. I could not be more wretched than I am. What will you doflog me? Well, I have nothing to confess.'

เ

Josephine, my child!' cried Greville wildly, 'it was in a fit of madness.'

'Ah!' she cried, as his appealing tones rang through her, and she threw herself at his feet. 'Now then-the truth-the truth?'

She rose and shrank away. 'I have told you the truth,' she said coldly, and you do not believe. I would have died sooner than injure him and break poor Renée's heart.-And you,' she said, turning sharply upon Burns and speaking with a curiously naive innocency of manner. 'I am not blind: you always liked me from the first. Do you, too, believe I could be the wretch he thinks?'

'No,' cried Burns excitedly, as he caught her hands and held them firmly. I do not believe it, dear; and I'll fight your battle against the whole world. Now, Captain Greville, what have you to say?'

The captain turned upon him slowly as Josephine drooped over the hands which held hers, kissed them both, and then sank down weeping hysterically.

CURIOUS WEAPONS.

In these days, the appliances of war have been elaborated to such a degree that it is questionable whether they are not rather too scientific to be used by excited men in so rough a business as actual fighting. But on this subject invention has never stood still, and there is hardly any race so barbarous or low in the scale as not to have some ingenious 'slaughter-weapon' to show. Perhaps a too practical acquaintance with the claws of wild beasts led some races to copy their The best-known instance of this is the Indian 'bagh'nakh,' or tiger's claw, consisting of from three to five steel claws about two inches long, connected together, and furnished with rings in which to insert the fingers. This horrid con

use.

Some of the White Nile tribes use an iron ring on the right wrist, with diverging blades four or five inches long. The Samoans, without the feline race to copy, invented the 'fighting glove,' a sort of mat of coco fibre, tied to the hand by strings, and thickly set with rows of sharks' teeth.

The boomerang (literally, 'kangaroo-stick ') is too well known to need description; but it may be said that there are two varieties, one of which, the war boomerang, was not intended to return to the thrower. It is much less curved and heavier than

the other or circling' weapon. Boomerangs of this sort were in common use in Southern India, made of wood, iron, and even ivory; but the returning boomerang is solely Australian. The best performers were the blacks of the Riverina plains, and marvellous some of their feats were ; but few of them are left, and before long, boomerang-throwing will be a lost art.

The chakra,' or quoit, of India is a very ancient weapon. It was much affected by the 'akalis,' or champions, of the Sikhs, and is still in use in the Punjab. The akali wore a conical cap some two feet high, formed of plaited cane, covered with blue cotton cloth, surrounding which, hoop-fashion, were sometimes as many as nine quoits, from a foot to four inches diameter, of light thin steel, and sharpened outwardly to a knife-edge. When the warrior desired to use them, he passed his forefinger through the uppermost to lift it off, gave it a rapid spin on the finger overhead, and launched it horizontally at his enemy's face. Some of these men were said to have made good practice at eighty yards. But its use was resorted to only when hard pressed, as the quoits were often valuable articles, inlaid with gold, and the chances of recovery after a melée would be small.

Another odd missile weapon is the Central African trombash.' This is a species of knife, but of the most eccentric shape, no two specimens being alike, and resembling old English capital letters in outline. They are formidable weapons when used by practised hands; but it is quite evident in examining them that a good deal of labour has been wasted on them, for many of the blades and projections are so placed as to have a weakness for unnecessary detail in their be perfectly useless. Africans in general seem to weapons. Some of them spend a vast amount of labour and skill in forging the most atrociouslooking arrow and spear heads, bristling with barbs till they look like awns of barley imitated in iron. Some of them go so far as to make the barbs point in opposite directions, so that the arrow may neither be drawn out nor pushed through. It is strange that no African race seems to have any idea of making a really effective sword or dagger. All those illustrated in books of travel or exhibited in collections are curiously unpractical instruments. The same peculiarity

or greenstone; the New Britain savage makes a hole through a granite pebble by dropping water on it while hot, and thus forms the head of his club; the Fijian found ready to his hand a tree, whose evenly radiating roots he trimmed into an exact likeness of the medieval 'morgenstern,' wherewith the Swiss battered down the Austrian ranks at Sempach. The mace of the Persian horseman was of steel, with a head formed of six or more radiating blades or ridges, and had often a basket hilt like a sword. The terrible Mahmud of Ghazni, like the knight of Border song, 'at his saddle-girth had a good steel sperthe, full ten pound weight and more,' and it was with this that he shattered the idol of Somnauth before the eyes of the horrified priests, strewing the temple floor with the jewels hidden within.

The bow as used by Asiatic horsemen assumes a curious shape. They were made of horn, generally buffalo horn, in two pieces, joined by a wooden centre, and when unstrung, had the form of a capital C, which enabled them to be hung over the arm on horseback. When strung -a difficult feat to those unused to them-they took the double curve of the antique bow as seen in the representation of Cupid. This was the 'Tatar's bow,' used by the Scythians, Parthians, and Persians, and, up to quite recent times, in India. It was drawn by the thumb alone, on which the archer wore a broad thick ring of horn, ivory, or cornelian, on whose edge the bowstring rested. The long-bow was also much in use among Indian infantry of the middle ages; but neither they nor any other Asiatics appear to have done such execution as the English archers of the same period. Bernier says, describing a battle between Aurungzebe and his brother Dara: They draw their arrows with a marvellous swiftness, one man being able to draw six of them before a musketeer can discharge twice; but, to say truth, their arrows do but little execution; more of them are lost in the air or broken on the ground, than hit.' The bow, in fact, requires more than any other weapon_constant practice from childhood; and strong Englishmen of the present day are quite unable to use the bows of the half-human Mincopies of the Andamans. There is a curious example of a repeating crossbow in the United Service Museum, taken from the Taku forts, at which place the Chinese archers caused us heavy loss on the first occasion of the attack.

The many strange machines known as catapults, balistas, &c., had their counterparts all over Asia. It may be mentioned that the last instance of the use of the catapult in Europe was at the great siege of Gibraltar, where one was built, by order of General Eliott, to 'lob' shells into a part of the Spanish works too close to allow the guns to depress enough. But when cannon and muskets had once come into use, they were soon adopted everywhere. The great gun of Bijapur was cast in 1549 at Ahmednagar. It is twentyeight inches in diameter of bore, and weighs over forty tons; and as the two places are distant nearly two hundred miles as the crow flies, it would be interesting to know how it was transported. It was used in several battles by the Mogul emperors, sacks of copper coins being fired from it. It was named Malik-i-Maidan, or 'the monarch of the field.' There was a gun at Dacca

thirty-six feet long, and weighing some thirty tons, made of wrought-iron bars laid together like the staves of a cask, and hooped with iron rings. Its bore was about fifteen inches. This gun was worshipped by the natives of Dacca; but about 1780, the island on which it lay was washed away, and it disappeared in the Ganges. The celebrated fort of Asirgarh had a gun of about the same calibre, which the natives believed capable of pitching a four-hundred-pound ball fourteen miles. It was a common practice with Eastern armies to cast their cannon before the place besieged, so as to avoid the difficulties of transport. In 1838, at the siege of Herat by the Persians, Mahmoud Shah had a heavy bronze gun cast in his camp; and when the siege was raised, the gun was sawn to pieces, and taken back to Teheran. The most celebrated guns of this sort are the 'kemaliks' of the Dardanelles, huge bronze howitzers, some of them over two feet in calibre. At the passage of the Dardanelles by Sir J. Duckworth's fleet in 1806, the ships suffered heavily from these seemingly antiquated monsters, the range being short. One shot killed and wounded twenty-five men, and an eighty-gun ship was all but sunk by an eight hundred pound stone ball. At the siege of Rhodes, the Turks constructed mortars by hollowing out cavities in the solid rock at the proper angle; and in the arsenal at Malta is a trophy of the long and glorious defence of Valetta, in a Turkish gun, about a sixpounder, composed of a copper tube, coiled over with strong rope, and jacketed' with raw hide. In the same collection are some antique 'quickfirers,' breech-loaders, with small bores and immensely long barrels, like punt guns. The Malay pirates put great trust in the long brass swivel guns called 'lela;' and in Borneo, these lelas were used as a kind of currency, large sums being estimated in guns. The Chinese cast excellent bronze guns (there is a fine specimen of them in Devonport Dockyard); but so little did they understand gunnery, that in the so-called 'Opium War,' the forts of the Bocca Tigris, defending the Canton river, had the guns built immovably into the walls. The Sikh gunners opposed to us in the two Punjab wars, though they loaded with amazing recklessness, shovelling in the powder from open boxes, stuck to their guns to the last. The blood of the first man killed was smeared on the gun, and the whole detachment died beside it, sooner than retreat.

to

Eastern muskets and matchlocks are remarkable for their great length of barrel, which is necessary to consume the large charge of weak, slowburning powder. The 'Damascus' or 'laminated steel' twist barrels were brought to a high state of perfection in the East long before our gunmakers adopted the plan. The same gorgeous ornamentation was applied to firearms as swords, 'armes de luxe' being made for chiefs, in which even the bands attaching the barrel to the stock were of massive gold, and the muzzle cased in gold and set with jewels, the foresight being sometimes a diamond, in anticipation of a recent patent. Skilful marksmanship has always been highly valued in India. Akbar the Great was a noted shot, proving the muskets with his own hands, so that it may be guessed that there was not much 'scamping' done in the royal workshops. Bernier, however, says of Aurung