The leader., 1901-09-18

there was more trouble for the fakir.
The boy appeared very well satisfied
with the roosting place he had found
and the old man was no more success
full in getting him back to earth than
he had been with the ball of Irvine.
Then we did have a sample of splendid
rage.
"The old rascal worked himself up
into q perfect fury. He yelled and
danced and gesticulated and gave the
best exhibition of human demon that
/ ever saw. By way of frightening the
effect and increasing our interest in
the show, be dropped into broken but
ineligible English, the substance of
which was:
"'Am I to be made an idiot of by
a ball of string and fool by chokera
(small boy)7 Allah forbid! l will
them both teach that they may not
trifie with one so old and so wise
Then rushing to the filthy old bag
that had been lying all this time on the
ground, he thrust an arm into il and
drew forth the most murderous-look-
ing knife ever saw. 1t had curved
blade about nine inches long, about
three inches across at the hilt and ta-
pering to a fine point. Placing the
knife between his teeth and grasping
the Irvine in both hands tho old boy,
showing marvellous agility for cue of
his apparent age. went up the cord as
the boy had, and in less time than it
takes to tell 1t he, too, had disappeared
from view.
"He had us all going by this time.
and we just sat there gaping up into
the air like a lot of precious idiots.
There was a seconds absolute silence,
and then an agonizing yell, so piercing
that it sunk into ones very bones. An
other second, which seemed like an
age, and then we saw a dark object
come hurting down from the sky.
Down and down it>came until it landed
only a few feet from us with sicken-
ing sort of tbud.
Looking to see what II was, we saw
the head of the boy who had climbed
the cord lying there, severed from the
body at about the middle of the neck.
A closer examination showed that the
face wore a horrible expression, while
the scarlet blood poured from the d.
vided arteries and the dark venous
blood from the veins. The twitching
of the newly-cut muscles and the wind
pipe, and the cleanly-severed joints OF
| two of the cervical vertebrate were
quite plain to the army surgeon and
to the rest of us, all of whom knew
| little of anatomy from the field hos
| pitfalls.
1--WE hadn't by any means got over
the shivery feeling we experienced at
seeing the head of the late urchin,
when down came an arm, cut OF
through the shoulder joint and giving
1 all the anat omical relations in that
part quite plainly. A moment later
the other arm dropped at our feet
| and an examination showed that it
had been cut off in exactly the same
way. The doctor said the old rascal
carved cleverly enough to have been
a surgeon at the Royal college.
eve were about ready for anything
after that, and so were not particular
| ly surprised when a leg, severed at
the hip joint and exposing the head Of
| femur, the muscles twitching just as
you may have seen them twitch in a
freshly-killed animal came along. The
other leg followed in due time, and
| then came the trunk.
| "a moment later. the old man was
seen coming down the string, and,
when he dropped to the ground from
the end of it, he was literally covered
with gore from head to foot. The
knife, still held between his teeth, was
fairly dripping with blood. His eyes
appeared wilder than ever, his fea.
lures drawn, and he paced back and
forth for few seconds like chained
tiger.
| "Then he collected the head, limbs