"
In an instant the thing was done! At the man's words about Benita,
Meyer, who had been listening to his threats and bombast unconcerned,
suddenly seemed to awake. His dark eyes flashed, his pale face turned
cruel. Snatching the revolver from his belt he seemed to point and fire
it with one movement, and down--dead or dying--went the Matabele.
Men did not stir, they only stared. Accustomed as they were to death in
that wild land, the suddenness of this deed surprised them. The contrast
between the splendid, brutal savage who had stood before them a moment
ago, and the limp, black thing going to sleep upon the ground, was
strange enough to move their imaginations. There he lay, and there, over
him, the smoking pistol in his hand, Meyer stood and laughed.
Benita felt that the act was just, and the awful punishment deserved.
Yet that laugh of Jacob's jarred upon her, for in it she thought she
heard the man's heart speaking; and oh, its voice was merciless! Surely
Justice should not laugh when her sword falls!
"Behold, now," said the Molimo in his still voice, pointing at the dead
Matabele with his finger; "do I speak lies, or is it true that this
man shall not look more upon his king's face? Well, as it was with
the servant, so it shall be with the lord, only more slowly.
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