HEY have killed the first bullock. And now they are flaying it. Later, and in a little while, they will take out its liver. Then the doctor will chop the liver very finely and place it as a poultice around the naked body of the corporal. After which he will wrap the corporal in the raw hide. This the doctor has told to me.

To-morrow they will kill another bullock. They will take off its hide, they will take out its liver. And midst the fresh liver, inside the new hide, they will place the corporal, after that they have. drawn him from the bloody poultice of today.

The doctor is very clever, he has cured many men. But the corporal will die.

The doctor has said, "The poultices will draw out the bad blood, will drive in fresh life."

But I, Achilles, I say "No." I say that the corporal will surely die. Listen, and you will agree with me, that though the corporal is strong, though his doctor is very clever, the corporal will die.

It was noon and three days ago that I stood in the shed where the waggons of the Afendi are kept. I was standing by the sousta, whose sides are painted red. In one hand I held a hammer, in the other I held some wooden pegs. Ach! but the waggon was old- very old; and I was mending it here, I was mending it there.

Of a sudden I heard the sound of stepping hoofs upon the roadway outside the shed. I stooped and looked through the wheels of the waggon. I saw Baba Demetri.

The Baba was leading a donkey. He came close to the shed. He stopped in front of it. He looked among the waggons, but he did not see me. "I am here," I said; and I rose, I walked to his side.

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The Baba looked about him very carefully. I said, Bah! but that is a new donkey you have there."

"Yes," he answered, "I bought it yesterday." Then his voice sank to a whisper. "Achilles," he said, looking still more carefully about him.

"Hun?" I ejaculated encouragingly.

"I want a piece of rope for a new bridle ; this donkey is stronger than my old one."

I understood. "Wait!" I answered; and I went to the back of the shed, I drew forth a piece of new cord from

box.

I held it up before the Baba. He nodded his head and handed me some pence. It was so, that I sold some of the Afendi's rope to the Baba, and placed the money in my own pocket.

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The Baba was old, his hands trembled. 'Make haste," I said; but still he fumbled and could not place the rope around his donkey's jaw. "Ach!" I urged; "give it to me." I was fearful lest the Afendi might pass.

The donkey was very strong, was very restless. He curled his lips, he threw up his head, he stamped and strove with his hoofs. "But it is a devil you have bought, Baba," I laughed, when at length I had noosed the cord around its chin; and I

looked at the donkey, whose eyes were wicked and wild-very wicked and wild. The Baba did not reply. He began to clamber into the wooden saddle. "Pou 'pas (Where are you going)?" I asked curiously.

"I am going to the sea-shore to fetch a basket of sand for the Afendi," he answered briskly. It was a four hours' journey by mule.

I would have asked him how many lepta the Afendi was going to give him for the work, but just then there passed by us that blue-coated corporal who is groaning yonder upon his back. "Good-morning, corporal," I said civilly. "Good-morning, corporal," said the Baba; but his eyes shivered from the soldier's like the away eyes of a woman will shiver away from a raw wound.

The corporal looked at the old man-it was a quick glance. Then he looked at

And though he gave greeting to us, it was to me that he spoke. A few words, and he continued his way.

The Baba felt for the rope-stirrups with his heels. Presently he looked at the back of the corporal, who was growing smaller in the distance. And he swore by the Virgin that he would kill that corporal, whose father he wished that the devil might take.

I smiled, for the Baba was not brave. And I had heard him swear many times that he would kill the corporal. It was the oath of a weak old man, and again I smiled, as, continuing to swear very bitterly against the corporal, the Baba took the road to the sea-shore, and away from the corporal.

Further and further apart travelled the Baba and the corporal. And as I idly gazed, sometimes at the one, and sometimes at the other, I was telling myself this history of that which had come between the old man and the soldier:

"Once the old man had a son, who was strong and tall, but a thief-a stealer of

sheep. Between this son and the corporal, who was then a private, there was bad blood. But why? The world did not know.

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'One day the old man's son was stupid. He allowed suspicion to grow into proof. And he left a neighbour's sheep-the throat of which he had cut—in his father's cottage, whilst he went to drink at the inn of our village.

"One ran to the corporal, who was then a private. Gladly the soldier took his rifle, and went to the inn where sat alone the old man's son.

"Soon a rifle spoke loudly. After which there was a little silence, till many men ran with clattering shoes to the door of the inn, from which was wreathing a thin blue smoke.

"The men entered with a rush, with eagerly open eyes. The old man's son lay upon his back; his legs were widely apart, so were his arms, with their twitching fingers. 'What does it mean?' asked the men of the soldier, as he stood by, and jerked a used cartridge carelessly from the breech of his rifle.

"He was about to draw his pistol upon me, and I shot him through the heart,' said the soldier.

"There was a silence. The fingers of the old man's son ceased to twitch. A voice said, 'He is dead.'

Presently the old man came wildly to them. His face was very pale. Which is the murderer? Who has killed my son?' he shouted.

"He was about to draw his pistol upon me, and I shot him through the heart,' said the soldier; but he did not look at the old man, as he walked towards the door.

"It is a lie!' said the old man desperately, and the soldier left the inn very quietly.

"The crowd murmured. They grew busy about the dead man. 'He is a liar and a murderer, that soldier,' sobbed the

D

old man many times to them. But they -they did not know. They only thought that it was very possible. It was then that the old man first swore that he would kill the corporal."

This history, it amused me to think of it, for the corporal was still alive, and but a little while ago the old man had given him civil greeting. Bah! though the old man had afterwards sworn bitterly, I did not think

that the corporal would

soon lie groaning upon his

back. No,

surely! I watched the

old man, and I watched the corporal, until

they passed from sight; then I went to work again at the waggon

of

the Afendi. I was bus

ily hammering when a

man came to me with

a message

(Here, Afendi)," I answered; and I stepped outside of the shed. I ran to him with my mouth full of bread, as he stood talking to the corporal.

"Put the mules to the red waggon," he said to me sternly, "and go to Lamata by the sea."

"Directly," I answered hastily, for his face was very stern.

"The corporal will go with you," he said.

from the Afendi. I was to take one of the light carts, and fetch things (pragmata) from the town. It was a work that ate up the rest of the day.

The next morning after that I had fed the mules, an order came that I was to cart lime from the kiln, for the use of the masons who were repairing the big house. I had finished this work by noon. Then I wanted food, and I began to eat bread under the waggon-shed. Presently I heard the voice of the Afendi. "Achilles, Achilles," he was shouting. "Edo, Afendi

"Let it be so," I answered.

"You and the corporal will bring home the body of Demetri, in the

red waggon," he or dered.

"Bah!" I said, for I was greatly surprised,

"but is the Baba dead

then ? "

"Yes!" answered

the Afendi.

"The news

has just come that

"Ela (Come)!" I shouted fiercely to the sulky ones; and I put them quickly to the waggon; I was ready. The Afendi had seen my cleverness, I was pleased.

I cracked my whip, the mules lent forward, the muscles of their haunches strained and gathered. So-the corporal and I started to bring back the body of the dead Baba. And upon creaking axles, over a rugged roadway, the mules slowly drew us from the village into the open country.

I wished that the corporal should tell me how the accident happened to the Baba. "I know nothing about it," said he, "save what the Afendi has told to you. I go to make enquiries, I go to see that it is truly a donkey which has killed the Baba, and not a man. That is my duty." The corporal told me this, then he blew out his cheeks with windy pride. It annoyed me to see him so, the cuckold. And I pricked him, I said, "The Baba swore many times that he would kill you."

The corporal laughed, but so uneasily that I looked at him. He said, with a quick shiver, "The Baba was afraid of me, and now he is dead."

"And now he is dead," I repeated dreamily, for it was strange how I could hear the oaths of the Baba striking distinctly in my ears, how I could see the hatred of his face hungering cruelly before my eyes.

The wheels of the waggon rolled heavily onwards. Suddenly they ceased to crunch rough stones under their iron tires; and they forced their sticky way through a crust of damp red earth, which the winter rains had swept across the roadway. My ears rested. I looked about us at the rain-beaten fields, upon whose smooth mud, amongst whose blackly-stained stub ble, lay glistening pools of water. Afterwards I gazed upwards at the heavens, across whose azure, fleecy clouds were drifting slowly and lazily. "Spring will soon be here," I said to the corporal.

He started. He raised his chin from

his breast. "Yes!" he answered; and he looked around. But he did not wish to talk, he wished to think, or he was sleepy.

I checked the waggon. Then ground harshly o'er another bed of stones. And now the road ran from the sodden fields amidst green woods, and turned and twisted up hills that grew great, and greater. My mules sobbed as they lowered their heads.

A while, and torrents roared dully below us. Birds flew downwards and very deeply by the side of the narrow road, which, now here, now there, had been eaten away by the winter rains. The Virgin but I drove my mules carefully along that crumbling road, as it clung to a side of upright rock.

Thus, with a few words between the corporal and me, the mules drew the waggon to the head of the pass. And the waggon ran level till it ran down and adown midst a wood towards the sea. Then again I spoke of the dead Baba to the corporal, and I wondered how that his donkey might have killed, him. "Soon we shall see," said the corporal, but his voice was low.

The firs of the wood about us grew thinly and more thinly apart. The waggon rolled more slowly down a long and gentle slope. And soon the road ran forth upon a stone-sprinkled plain. I nudged the corporal as he sat by my side. I pointed with my finger. "We shall soon be there," I said.

He gazed gloomily in the line of my pointing finger; he shivered, but he did not speak. 'Twas the sea that lay before us. It was heavy with purple colour. And the white clouds in furthest distance bent coldly to the sleeping passion of its bosom. And the grey olives that fringed its shore stood still as the heart of the dead man who was waiting till the waggon should come to his side.

With the first pale shadows of night we entered the hamlet of Lamata, whose

houses stand smally upon the yellow shore of the great sea. And I called to a man who stood near to the door of a cottage, I said, "Where lies the body of Baba Demetri?"

shore to the village here. The Baba who lies there was some distance ahead of me ; he was leading a donkey.

"Very suddenly I saw the donkey to rear. Then it struck at the Baba with

"Yes," I answered.

"He lies in that cottage, yonder," he said; and he pointed.

"Mpros, 'mpros (Gee up, gee up)," I said impatiently to my mules. And they drew the grumbling waggon nearer to its door.

The corporal slowly descended from the waggon. I followed faster. I was about to knock, when the door of the cottage opened, and a man whom I knew, said, "I heard the waggon. Enter! He lies within."

We entered. He closed the door behind us. He shut out the noise of the beating sea. And we stood in a silence by the side of the dead man.

"Ach!" I said, as my skin turned cold and crept. "But how did it happen? And why is the cheek of the Baba torn all redly raw?"

"I will tell you what I know," he answered.

But that was not enough for the corporal, who wished to show courage in the presence of his dead enemy. He said proudly, "It will be my care that you tell us all of that which you know."

The man looked strangely at the corporal. He pointed to the dead man. "He was an enemy of yours," he said to the corporal.

The face of the corporal turned pale, a sudden gloom crept over it. "But he is dead!" he said, enquiringly. " said the man, and

"And yet

hesitated.

"And yet

What?" asked the cor

poral, with an anxiety in his voice.

The man shuddered. Then he drew

himself up. He began :

"I gave a great shout, and ran forward to drive off the donkey. But the sand was heavy; it clung to my feet. And even while I was running, the donkey was tearing with its teeth at the Baba's cheek, was trampling him deeper and deeper into the soft sand. Ach! but the Virgin is my witness that it was a dreadful sight.

"I ran closer; my own shouts were awful to my ears. The savage one left its prey, and lashing with its tail, kicking furiously, backed and backed. Then, with a deep-bellied neigh, which widely cleft the air, it sprang, it sprang again, and dashed madly away into the gathering shades of night.

Alone, I knelt by the side of the dying Baba. I raised his head. I looked towards the village for help; but though its houses were there, I could see none of its men.

"He was dying very quickly. Soon he would be dead. I will run to the village for help,' I said to him. But even as I spoke a grey shadow grew upon his face, and he raised himself with a great effort. He swore that he would kill you, corporal. And that was the speech of his last breath. He fell back dead."

The corporal said not a word when the man had finished his history of the Baba's death. I, Achilles, I looked fearfully at the Baba. There was that in his face which seemed to listen. claimed to those others. is alive."

"God!" I ex"Look! but he