"I am, Mr. Howard. I—I——"
Jack Howard's companions were forced to turn their heads.
The emotion the young Englishman displayed was something awful.
He had frequently spoken of Masie Langford as the only girl he had ever met who would suit him for a wife, and now she lay, dying in his arms.
What Howard whispered to the dying girl will never be known, but whatever it was it caused her face to light up with a heavenly smile, then the lips of the two met, and Masie Langford, alias Joe, fell back dead.
The discharge of Van's rifle had caused a large crowd to gather, and when the city officer's friends saw him lying dead upon the ground murmurs of rage went up from their lips.
But as no assault was made upon them, our friends did not notice them much.
Poppet, who had been with the party since they started out to examine the city, and who was an eye-witness of all that had taken place in the past few minutes, dispatched a couple of men for a litter.
The necessary article was procured in a very few minutes, and the body of the slain girl being placed on it, the party set out for the president's house.
But few words were exchanged on the way, and when they reached the house, a gloom seemed to have settled upon all hands.