The corpse was of course frozen and none could say whether it had lain there for days or for months. The examining physician pronounced death due to strangulation. Deep scratches down one side of the head showed conclusively that the body had been dragged along the ground. It seemed only too clear that the practice of leading a captive by means of a rope about his neck had been the immediate cause of.the death of the hapless priest.
Weakened by exposure and lack of nourishment, the unfortunate captive would have been forced to stumble along behind the horse of the captor to whose saddle was stoutly fastened the other end of the rope which encircled the captive's neck.
From the experiences of Father Burns who spent so long in the hands of bandits we know how difficult it was for the outlaws, hunted on every side, to secure provisions. So we can readily picture the half-starved Father dragging his faltering feet down the mountainside till his last and fatal fall. Some yards further his lifeless body catching against an obstruction would bring the horse and rider to a sudden halt.
Neither shouts nor blows would rouse the captive, and when the kidnappers found that instead of a foreigner, whose government and friends eagerly sought to rescue him and whose presence might deter their Japanese pursuers from the use of artillery or aeroplane bombs against them, they possessed one lifeless corpse not only of no value to them,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.