Then we went through a very grim little pantomime.

Proceeding to the centre of the arena-like space, I lifted the gun, and appeared to dash out Hans' brains with its butt.
He fell upon his back, kicked about a little, and lay still.

This finished Act 1.
Act 2 was that, capering like a brute of a Zulu executioner, I retired from my victim and hid myself in a bush on the edge of the plateau at a distance of forty yards.

After this there was a pause.

The place was intensely bright with sunshine and intensely silent; as silent as the skeletons of the murdered men about me; as silent as Hans, who lay there looking so very small and dead in that big theatre where no grass grew.
It was an eerie wait in such surroundings, but at length the curtain rang up for Act 3.
In the infinite arch of blue above me I perceived a speck, no larger than a mote of dust.