He was found, next day, in the midst of a heap of the bodies of those who had rallied round him to the last—
“His back to the field, and his feet to the foe.”
In his hand he still clasped the spear he would never use again.
“Reckless of life, he’d desperate fought,
And fallen on the plain;
And well in death his trusty brand,
Firm clenched within his manly hand,
Beseemed the monarch slain.”
Book Four—Chapter Six.
The Mystery Explained—After the Battle—Death of Somali Jack.
Before we can understand the seeming mystery that clings to the end of the last chapter of this tale, we must go a little way back, both as regards time and space.
All the men Harry had with him in the unfortunate scuttled dhow at the time she was beached were taken, along with little Raggy, by the so-called brother of Mahmoud into the far interior of Africa, and there sold or bartered away as slaves, and, as we already know, Suliemon made what dealers term “a pretty penny” out of the nefarious transaction.