Among the Arab slave raiders
| Title | Among the Arab slave raiders |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Adventure stories -- Periodicals |
| Dime novels -- Periodicals | |
| Detectives -- Fiction | |
| Keith, Gordon (Fictitious character) -- Fiction | |
| Popular literature -- United States -- 20th century -- Periodicals | |
| Source | Nickel weeklies collection; Browne Popular Culture Library; University Libraries; Bowling Green State University |
| Publisher | New York : Street & Smith, [19--] |
| Date | 1908-04-18 |
| Author | White, Lawrence, Jr. |
| Rights |
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| Series Title | Brave and bold weekly |
| Format | Published works |
| application/pdf | |
| Language | EN-US |
| Volume/Number | No. 278 |
| https://digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/12984 | |
| Alternative Title | Gordon Keith in the wilds of Africa |
| Spatial Coverage | Africa |
| Temporal Coverage | 1908 |
| Type | Text |
| Text | Issued Weekly. NEW YORK, April 18, 1908. No. 278. -------------------------------------------:-~ Among the Arab Slave=raiders OR, GORDON KEITH IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. by Lawrence WHITE, Jr. • AN UNE.'(PECTEI> ATTACK. A rifle coughed venomously from behind the roots of a thorn-bush, ancl a yellow-robed figure. a third of a mile away, flung up its arms. and collapsed on the sand, where it lay, a motionless, huddlecl heap beneath the glaring sun. Click, click, went the ejector-bolt, and yet nnother shining, empty brass case joined the pile close by. "Bully boy!" said a voice from a neighboring bush. "I've had three goes at that beggar. and missed him clean e,·cry time. This heat haze plays the ,·ery deuce with fine sight- in~_,, ''Bacl workmen.' Spots, old man-you know the rest. You'll find seven hundred yards, and eight inches to the left for windagc, answer beautifully. "Jo,•e ! but it is hot, though! Ah!'' The voice broke off short, and the rifle coughed aga111: and again a yellow-robed form which had emerged for a moment from h<'hind a hig stone toppled over, and measure<\ its length on the sand. "That's two up to me. I suppose the heggnrs will try and rush us when they reach that line of rocks." Sir Richard Lo~cby, the big man who had ~poken first. rolled over on one elbow, laying down his rifle, and calmly lighted a pipe. "S'po~e so," he grunted between the puff,. "but I'll be hanged ii l don't have a whiff or two of decent baccy before the ~real trouble begms. \\'here's that young beggar Check ers. Keith?" . The two ml·n were quite invisible to one another. and some half-dozen yards apart, each crouching close to cover, and keeping a watchful eye on the s:mdy stretch of ground before them, and on the mouth of the r:t\'inc which opened up a couple of miles away. But so still was the superheated African air, that they were able to "peak in low whispers. Far out in the glaring sun lay the dead bodies of the two Arab raiders, and undrr shelter of a rnlgc of houhlcr'-a ~core or so of very live a1id acti\'e ones were approaching stealthily and cnutiously, preparing to c·nd matters with a quick, dashing rush. They were an angry crowcl, those same Arabs. Dchonch ing onto the plain two hours before, their scouts had spotted a small party of four men, with a c\ozen or so hL'arers, and they decide,! to add the party to their bag, or rather to their chain-gang of slaves. ln spite of this del"ision. however. nnd in spite oi the fact that they outnumhcrcd the party by so111cthi11g like six to one, they hacl so far wasted a lot of time. lost two oi their leaders, and had had l>ix more men put 0111 of al"tion. at a range at which their own rifles were hopelessly i11effi• cicnt. Gordon Keith, the famous cktcctive, wiped the pl'rspira tion from his face with the back of his ha\d an<l sli<l the baeksight down from the seven-hundred to tll'I: livc-h11nclrcd yard mark. The ground dipped a little between these ranges: and the Arabs would not Le visible again. he iudgcd. till their leaders brought them to the point marked by a b'\g brown rock, after which thcv would ha\'l' to aoss a hunclrecl var<ls or so of sand, destitute oi :ill co,·er, and would be certaio to try and cross it at top gpccd. "Checkers," he !:aid, "is nwav out ~omewhere on mv leit. At least, some one let off :i rifle from that dirc,·tion :, iew m111utes back, so either he or my old Zulu chief and friend, BR \ VE \ND BOJ D \\ EEKL\. :Z clo I ush u , J hall brcal as many o• them as n at re ti em o c1 I ti e m ttc.r th{ 1 a I ther ." ,1o n e sp k al t 11 !tan u I) from , y o 1 the left, ,vhcre Keith had i11t1111ntctl that l hc<.kcr ,ms Iymg m r c r. n a r cd Iii e o urr mg fi re~ ne da I mg fon1ard ere , t 1e o n, utin , )dh , 1 pmg, some llnng as they nn, more l>r,111dish111g their weapons aloft One man dr pped m hi track , anoth r hel I on for a dozen stride,. tlwn h1 knee gave under him, he lurched, s11 1 k 11 , t re I a i I coll p I 'Great Scott, S11ot , aid Kc th, ld .Lotan u ha manage 1 to hit something 1 \\ onder what he aimed at, any, ay?, "Herc they comer Pump 1t into them!• The \r bs' fire incr cd in volume, but not in accuracy, f r they h d n 11n 11 im at x a I , I ro en fnngc of dusty gra) $re-en cml ; while from ome11 I ere m that scrub four invt iblc r Hes were spoutin , ,t.::ath into tr rank , i h m t di erti pr 1 10n To 1 cate th <' rifle. "as beyond the po11er of even an Aral-scouts keen eye. For t'1 men \ ho v I th m kn , t e art of t k·ng co,er, aml the mokclc s po1Hler tol<l no t le. \ filmy ,1az • in, i thlc six f ct a,1ay, Y. th· lihtit of h trayal Mor over p ncrl I p.. , rt It,id am 1 no s b:1ckgrou11d of gl,1ri11g arid, \fricnn heat haze. I ch r ·ng Arab un hie to face th t , i I• ring fire o t d out :is th ) r n. But , en , t lo t n m r of their 1111111hcr before they crossed the op1.:n spacC', and tltvl I f r he helter f ti b uldcr lik ra it be' n~ to their h 1'11cy had gaim·d a couple of hundred yards, IJ1tt they had I tie f ri d h I TO\\ I t I d into the open t • P a . gh theirs. it \\' . dearly that they could t pr in hu To h ta c as nn ,1ttad 1 tlct I r a ut 1 I ut he i dca 1 far from their n to 0 they mi"ht h:i A at ,,a ti e th 111, and they Kei . m re mtlcci n p.1ntc shelter. The) n cde<I ti of t le 1 t , behind the mlg ti.tr, I ,~hist er • \nd o a I) Ihe silence was nh-0lt1re, exec t for the laz clrollc of the mvri e • dt k, , vullu h'g <l • nd ti t whr.;rt• tht: fit 1te b c lp high rn1allc1 an , 11 T e t ec t 0 ri IB the , i th e I ushc , and ti e t.\ r r It wa that 111 vcd h d a cl hunter or a ,1 Id anunal o Sir R hard Lo en rican provinc, of ?-.Iu ard mt r I road in proportion and 1\ithout n f en I 1 an ,,her the k 1 gr l'yes g ean11ng i;c11n ly enough but 11 1th stern gravit), and i 1d l I I rkmg in their depth . rt I d n t un overnorlikc out, , le k fl so he tt in a rannd hirt open at the n ck, rc>ll g ovc the dho\\, a pair of thorn-t I re hag, and ,~ith '} thc I "I )OU ed 1th 11 cc a pith hcl111ct hapel<: • r in~ K 1 1 ! ' I sai I in a t up to?" i )OU id a of nic it \ ou 1 e \I n ) you've got nughty queer tastes, ' Gord n Keith c cd Th l\rn , re old fc and had had d e · I eri nc s 111 fric So 1, hen Keit holid ) by I i c! hootmg and th naturally (I The lttt rl their old d, Lobangu, wit a le , . • n 'The) I ,~ er(' By th , Sir R " t r I pt ho I A ncan tr Rtcha ir R ha 1chard s compan) o c \ 11 r ackmg fr m a from having been heerj IIhi r. ' \\ hat a qu' t holiday 1 \ I m to you e<l to tak a to b g and equ I ti I 1 ra had come into u -party. ," id K ith. ' If th 1 c r ho1 . c lolted?" rt Ar b t ur g :ir is I • y ' s t n BRAVE AND BOLD WEEKLY. him, though seemingly taking little notice. to run his sharp eyes OYer them for concealed weapons in case of a ruse, and to calculate his chances should they try to spring on him. He would much have preferred half a dozen paces, instead of two, as the interval between them, but to go back a step himself was out of the question. Besides his right hand rested unostentatiously on his open revolver-holster. They were spare, well-knit men, and, though not pure-bred Arabs, there was a certain dignity about their fierce, hawk-like faces. "Effendi!'' at last said the tallest of them, constituting himself spokesman. ''You have my leave to speak," replied Keith curtly. The man's eyes flashed. He had fancied that. seeing the white man's party was only four in number, he would han: been able to drive a hard bargain, perhaps even to dictate terms. But. in the face of Keith's uncompromising attitude, and stern glance. he realized, with a trader's quickness, that he had made a misUike. ''Effend~. you han~, shot 1\Jany of our men : two of our leaders are down, and. though of a surety in the end we must prevail, yet we ha\·e far to go. and many slaves to guard. Therefore, we would call a true~. and withdraw. :Yet. seeing that there is blood between tis;, and blood may not be shed without payment, we would take for each man killed fifty cartridges of brass, ancl for the two chiefs, a rifle apiece, and so make an end of this game we play.·· As the man spoke his shifty eyes had been glancing this way and that along the bush-fringe, trying to locate the rest of the party. and hii; slim brown hand had been gliding slowly to the breast of his robe. Keith's revoh·er was out in a flash. '·Dog, and son of a dog," he said, coYering him, ''does the cur say to his master thus it shall be, and thus? Does he not rather get driven into obedience by lash and staff? Take thy hand from thy breast, and hold it out open with the fingers splayed-so. For the cur that would snap at its master the payment is death." The Arab's eyes glittered, but he moved his hand sharply. Just then there came a warning whistle from behind Keith. He kne\.\" better than to turn, and he had already noticed the reason of the warning-several Arabs from behind the ridge, having seen the revolver in his hand, had come sidling out of cover in the hopes of shooting him down and making a treacherous rush. But Keith, throughout the inten·iew, had been careful to keep the messengers between himself and their friends, so that the latter dare not fire. "Call to those of your fellows who lurk yonder among the stones, and bid them keep to cover as they value their lives,'' he. said sternly, "and do you others raise your hands over your heads. If a man's arm drops below the level of his shoulder, all four die." The men scowled, but there was no help for it-the allcompelling black ring oi the reyoll·er-muzzle was too potent an argument. ''Now, listen," said Keith, eying them., "You complain that certain of your number are dead. That is true. You attacked us, and you are beaten. Forward you dare not move, for then you also would die. Backward you dare not move, for betwixt cover and cover stretches an open space where our bullets would find you out. even as they did a little \Yhile back. You have few cartridges, or you would not seek to burden yourselves with the weight of more. "These, then, are the terms. One of you shall return to your fellows yonder and bear them this message : "They shall be allowed to retire in peace to the ravine where are the slaves to the number of one hundred and seventy and five, as I ha\'e seen with my own eyes through the glasses which make all things clear. "There they shall set free the slaves, ancl bid them fear nothing, but come to me here. "Then when they are come even +o the last one, ye three who remain as a hostage shall have my leave to go even as ye came, empty-handed, and with treachery in your hearts. • "But if t'!,_ere be so much as a single small slave wanting, the three who stay shall be shot against the big cypress-tree yonder, and I myself will see to their passing. "These be the only terms. "Refuse, and not one nor three, but all shall suffer the fate of those who dare to meddle with the effendi. "Now do thou"-pointing to a small, middle-aged Arab on the left-"do thou go swiftly back again to thy fellows, bearing my words and speaking them fairly so that they may understand and make their choice.'' The man chosen, an evil-visaged brute with a grizzled beard, turned swiftly and left them. They saw him disappear behind the ridge, and an anxious quarter of an hour of keen suspense followed. Once the sound of scuffling and a pistol-shot reached those waiting. In the end, however, the whole body of men were seen marching away across the sandy desert, picking up their dead as they went. 1 \\'hen they were a mile away, the bush-fringe parted, and out stalked Sir :B,ichard, rifle in hand and pipe in mouth, while from a little farther away came Lobangu's huge form swinging along with his broad-bladed spear slung behind him, and with him Checkers and Pedro. Keith lowered his revolver-hand. "Sit down." he said harshly to the three men. "Dogs ye are, and a dog who is bigger and stronger than ye shall watch over ye." He whistled, and Pedro came bounding up. Keith patted his head, pointed to the men, and, with a low-spoken order, turned away satisfied that he had left them in good hands. Pedro growled warningly, and mounted guard. CHAPTER II. THE MYSTERIOUS WHITE TRAVELER. The slaves came limping over the desert by twos and threes, but not until the last straggler came in did Keith allow the three hostages to move hand or foot. Indeed, they were glad enough to keep quiet, with Pedro·s menacing growl in their ears. . Then, with a curt word of dismissal, he sent them to join their now vanished fellows, and he, Sir Richard, and Checkers turned their attention to the slaves who .came cringing round them. They were a poor, weedy Iot for the most part-dreadfully emaciated and travel-worn, with horrible sores on their ~eeks where the cruel slave-collars had gored them. Sir Richard and Gordon Keith looked at the;i pityingly, and the latter signed to them to gather round, as he wished to speak to them. "You are free," he said shortly-"free to go where you will, and make the best of your way to your homes. Many of you are ill and starving. A little of the white man's medicines I have here for the worst of your wounds, and a little food there will be shortly, sufficient for one meal for each man. Afterward get you gone quickly, for we can do no more. vVater is scarce, and may be the Arabs wil return again in greater numbers-wherefore, having fed. get you gone into the shelter of the forests. But first we will see to those of you who are sick." The words were barely out of his mouth when there came a series of agonized howls from the scrub. The slaves shivered and cringed, and even Sir Richard looked not a little perplexed. Suddenly he burst into a shout of laughter. "It's old Lobangu !" he cried. , "He's rounding up our lion-hearted bearers, and explainin~ matters with a heavy BR,\VE .\XIJ BOLD \:VEEKLY. -+ ,; •It fist and a lieavy and scicnti~cally lai l on spear-·haft. I hope to goodness all the loads arc safe." Frorri far hock among the undergrowth came a fresh out V-1 r t of howltng. aud across the ~till air the thwack-thwack f hard, tough wood on naked i;houlders. accompanied by a \'Olley of stringent remarks in h.-ilf a dozen dialects. Then, with much crashing of hrmiche!; and snapping of ti\ig~, the hr..arcrs came stampeding into the open by twos •n,l threes, carr)ing their loads just as they had ,i:•iatchcd •hem up, and carefull) shepherded by Lobangu and Pcd(o, x,:. ccmed to regard this new form of hunting as fine fun. But the "retched bearers' troubles were by no mean~ ov~r, ,,r ,Keith rated them soundlv for their cowardly desertion, tu-d l de them set to and cook food for the slave-, portion ing out their own store of rice and mealies as far as it \\.:ll11d go. I Sir Richard wns still busy doctoring with the aid of Checkers, when he paused before one man of very different build from the rest. Ile stood a good,six feet, with massive broad shoulders, skll(lcr-hippt>cl, straight as an arrow, and with an erect, defoint carriage of the lwad. He was thin and worn with scmistarvation, his shoulder-blade~ and ribs protruding hor ribly; his back was seamed with scars from the lashes of the ~lave-drivers; and, worst of all, he had a terrible wound in the right thigh-a huge. gaping hole which must have caused him the most exquisite agony. Sir Richard stared at the man in amazement. How he could have forced hi111self to stand up, let alone walk, was inconceivable, Ile glanced from the wound to the man's face, and now sa\\ that there was a grayish pallor underlying the deep brcnze oi the skin, aml that the eyes were glazed and filmy with agony. Yet the poor chap uttered no sound beyond every now and again a gritting of the strong. white teeth. "Lie down," said Sir Richard. "lnkoos," rc11lied the man dully, and ~wayed upon his feet. ' In an instant Sir Richard's arm was round him, and he laid him on the ground, telling Checkers to bring a blanket and the medicine-chest and such scanty supply of warm water as they could spare. "A panther-bite,'' he muttered to himself. as he husicd himself with wet soft rag-and iodoform. "Umph' No, gunshot-wound at close quarters• pot leg an<! ~crap-iron at that! Poor beggar!" The man, his endurance at an end, had S\\'fJOned: but with partial relief from the pain he opened his eyes again. '·You lie :till, old man," said :5ir Richard_. ''You ve ~ot th<; 1.1Iuck ot the ol<l ge1!tle1~1an lumself, thats :v~at's 1ilmg yott,l And h1: pnt to h1~ ltps a tin cup wntammg a little muddy water, nearly the la•t of their supply. and a few drops of branch•. The '!lan\clrank eager!), and then once more relapsed into unconscwusncss. "Lobangu,'' Sir Richard called, in a lqw voice "come here! You, too, Keith ! I want ) ou !" ' . "Look here," he continued-''look at this poor chap. What do yQu mnk<' of him?" Loba~gu stooped _down and gave an exclamation as nearly cxprcs<H'e of astomshmcnt as he ever allowe<l himself. "Wow! Inkoos ! But this man is of the Etbain of mine own people-of the people of Mathuna, my hrothcr, of \\hom thou knowcst. See, here is the tribal-mark. Yet he was not of them when I dwelt a•nong them. N'o. nor when yoi1• Inko0s an~ Untwana, who i:, father.of all the ghosts, \\'Cr<' there-a rmged mal', toq. He has, hke mv3elf. hee'l a wanderer, pnchance~othcrwisc I ~hould surely know him n ringed man of the Ftl,ai:i.'' · ' 'SQ I tho1•ght, but I wasn·t sure,·· replied Sir Richard. "\\ hai of thL wound?" Lob.-ngu. ol<l warrior that he \\as, knew as much of ,,ounds and their cfl"cds on a nathc a'!-m,my a rloctor Ii examined it closely, and :shook Ins he. d. "In an hour or the half of an hour, [nkoos, he will reco\a his senses. rt may be that he will gain a little strcn,~th, even; but \\ith the coming of the dawn he will <he.. 1 l 1s ever thus. Out of the dawn do w~ sprmg, and \Hth the d111l of the dawn wind, om spir"ts ar home from II llr dies an hour before surri,c, anrl his snnkc has tok: him. I:, it not so, Untwana, my father?'' Keith nodded grmely. "It is so, Loliangu; it is \\ rittcn there·• And he point~•! to the man's upturned face. "l!'s no go, Spot ,' he continued, "till• poor chap's done for. If we could have taken him in hand earlter, there might ha,c heen a ch. nee. He must hav~ had a conMitutid1 nml a will of iron But you know what wounds that bca,-,tly pot-leg make,, an<l how it rankles.'' ''There',; nothing to he Jone. I doubt if he'll have rtfuch more pam-that's one blessing N'ow [ must go and start those wretched slave< off, or they'II blun 'er a'crg until they get themselves collared agam. You k•1nw the t) pc tlicy are. As soo11 as it gets dark, they'll be too scared to mo\ I!, for fear of ghosts, and \\ill just sqn:it down \\h.:re th(V arc tin the -im con•c" out again. Grub will be read\· in half an hou . Old J.ubangu's knocked the: fear of death·mto our fools of bearers.'' "Inkoos.•·• Lobangu came ~talking up out of the darkness into the circle of light thro,,n b~ the C'lmp fire. Sir Richard lookt:d up from hi~ blanket on whic-h he wa: cujoying an after-dinner pipe. "\Veil, you old ruffian, what's the trouble?" j ''Inkoos, the man who dits-1 c of the Etbaia-wm,IJ speak \\ith you and with my father l'ntwana before hf,; spirit passes. "Ile lias a strange talc to tell, lnkoog, and at first methought his senses ,,:inclered and that he po1-e as one living in a land of dreams; yd it is not so, for he ha-, tdJ me thingr. of h's own c0u11tl"}' and in other , ·a),, too. ha, t I tested him. His had is clc:ir, but hi5 ,;trenl(th ebbs fast, and he knows, a~ we clo, tl1at ht:: 11as~,,., with the <lawn·• "All right, J obangu, we'll come at once. ::ipot.;, bring tl,at flask am! a drinking-cup \dth ,;ome \\ater in it." Kt'ith knocked the ashes out of Ins pipe, and ro~c as h~ spoke. They found the poor fellow much weaker than they had ldt him, hut he was :tble to speak \\ith clearne~s. He glanced from one to the other of thc,,n. "You han~ heen gocxl t,) me, JnkoM, :111<I thou. too, whom my kinsnl"ll calls the father of all gho,ts, .in•ong whos;: shadows I shall pre·e:rtly walk. "\\"di haH' ye treated m<', a ~•rangcr·in a stranv.e I.nd, :11H! before the coming of the end I wo11lrl in some measure rt'P\IY by enahling )OU lo scl'k uut and help me of your O\\n nation-also a stranger among ,trangcre, and \\ho hn~LfS among h1~ enemies m sore stra1tc;. ''ListCJl closdy, Jnkoos, for 111v \'oicc gn'WS faint. "l\lany and many 111oons pa·~l there came ... white n'an into the kra, ls of l"m:itaka ":Kre I thc1\ was one of the king's council. "A small -built man, hut strong no; a lion, k110\dng no fear, and with an eye \I liicl1 pierced and n:acl the thoughts. "Petchan<:'e, Inkoe,, thou kt10\\~st suc~1 a OPC for I h:-ve heard that 111 his O\\ n <'Otmtr_J, he was held in , c t r"J, r? \ ,\n•rng the p '"pie of tile l."mataka he \\, ,, railed '~1.:lana,' which means the wizar(I. for he wnc: :i JYTC)'lt hunter and tracker of ~,l'11e, fo'.lo,dng a pe>rt \\he.re'C\ en I, who am of tl·e Etbaia a tnbl of I unt r~-=-n uld see nothing: but, alove all, he w~i-r:reat mnuti-J1an, h,nin"' won i( rful skill 111 medicine . and for that chiefly the -C'mat~ka ga\-c him the name of wizaftl. !'or le cured them of fc\'crs \\it), a w11;tc po\~der with a hitter ta-;tc, and of wouml got in the ch. or m.battle; also. he ctm:d tlie Chief I ndl•na of a <;\hi ingof the legs, from which the U'm taka suffer much, and o~ c BRAVE •\l--; D of nn \\hes from the !,lack death. \nd for that reason I ueca1i1e hb dog. going whither soever he went, and lying at the door of brs tent. 1, "\\ ell, Inkoos. this N"'klana 0£ ,,hom I •pc.ik heard tales s of a ~trange ,icl,nes~ far away to the north, which is knm,n '1 as the ,;fecp of death-a ver} ~trangc ,ickness by which.a 5 man, strong even as thou art grows drow~y a~ after a htgit feast, where many O:\~n ha, been slain, and then:: has been much passing of the drinking-gourds. "But once that has come upon him, he does not wake to rl renewed strength. No, not at all; hut the lids oi his eyes Igrow heavy, and soon he can no longer stand on his feet, n but sits all day dozing in the sun. till, in a few days or the C half of a moon, he can no Jong-er do anything at all -110, not l1 even eat, and so the end comes. A very strange sickncs:., it killing the people by hundreds!" "IT e means 'heri-beri-sleeping-sickness,' " muttered Keith, h under his breath. r ·t I Sir Richard nodded, and the man continued; y "Well, Inkoos. I linger long over my tale, and I must y hasten, for the enct draws near. .i\'klana would go to search out this sickness, and use his n1outi and his powders upon it. y \\'hercfore, he and I and certam otlicrs set out from the .II kraals of the U'mataka. which ,lie yonder by the great ri11er .0 in the forests, and, setting our faces to the north. traveled for many days. ,:-j ",\ fine country, Inkoos; full o; game and beast$ oi all kinds, and teeming with elephants the like of which I have lS never seen for llize and ivory. "But m the woodlands. which are Yery thick and hard to pass. are many very small men-no higher than my hreast: k bone--fierce and ugly and ,·cry cunning, who shot at us it constantly with arrow5 steeped in a fluid which burns. and \\hich, but for the skill of N klana, woult.l have slain,many c-of ti!\. Later we came to a country of strange ~wamp ·-a 1g horrible place of flies-and many of us would han' turned •e back, but N'klana said ;No!' Ancl so we came to a very I great lake, on the banks of which dwelt the peoples who ;t, were sorely smitten with this sleep of death. '" Gi\·c me to drink, Inkuos, for my tongue deaves to the roof of my mouth, and I would make an end before the time comes! The head a little hlgher so! J b1·cathe easier thus. "for many days my X'klana \\·orkcd among these people, and the ne\\·s of his corning and the ma~,·els that he wrought spread fast and far, till one dav there came a hancl of yellow~ kinned men. wearing thtir faces covered with a veil or cloth, with slits cut for the ere~. and they fell upon tis ,m una\\ are~. ancl, though we did the utmost whi.::h men could, se Inkoos. it was hut little of a fight. J J "For they were armed with weapons. such as thou and thy followers carry. an<l N'klana wa~ busy among the sick, and I "as aiding him, bringing such medicincs as he required. and fetching and c:irrying. ;,s I was used to do. "rhev took N'klana. aPd me, al,o. thcY carric<l off; but the rest" of our following. \\ho were men o·f no account, they killed an •··1 hen, having honnd us, they tr.ivt1cd t\\O days over the he hig lake. till they came to an 1.sl~nd on which were great high kraal~-hut piled upon hut all built of stone. the like of which I have never seen hdorc. "\bout me they trouhlcd not at all. Joosin(;' my bonds as soon as we reached the island shore, arnl !ettt1g me \\ arnler ,r? \\'here I ,rnuld; but .'\'klana the) took ;;iwa) into the buil,l 13,' n<l ut, <ill :he cite ,~e ing ,ne ing of stom!. and for a long time I saw him no more. '' \t first I tried to break a way into hi111. but w1tlwut avail; and, for Jnmger·~ sakc. I betook me to the low-wooded end of the i~1and. wl·crc there were hinb, ar:d fish' to be caught in the lake. "1Tanv times I could haYe got awav. ~wimminrr, fc r thf're arc mai;y ~mall islets in the bl,e, and hy n ."ng at one a1<l a1 other of them. for a man nf my streng:th it \\·oulcl ha\·e been an cetsv matter to reach the• 111ainlaNI; hut my :N'klana wa. 111 dn1 .,(r, c111d I \\ou!J nut ka1 e him. BOLD \VEEKLY. "One night my snake bade me leaYe the ,,·ood,, an<I t1 v to force an entrance inte the stone kraal once again. and that so I sho{1lcl gain sight of J\''klana. There was no moon, and it was at the time of the lesser rains. A little higher, I pray you. Inkoos. for my sight grows dim, and there is a singing as of strange music in my cars!'' Sir Richard raised the dying man's head, and supported him by placing his arm round his back. "The time draws near. Inkoos !'' he gasped. "I saw K'klana. hdng guided by a sound of moaning. I climbed, though hardly, by the crevices between stone and stone, till I reached a slit in the wall, from ,,hich•the sounds <.:amc. "There he was. my K'kl:rna, stretched on some skins, and too sick and ill to move, in a little chamber, no more than a man's length and the half of a man square. They had cut him with krfives, Inkoos-in a hundred places they had cut him: not big wounds, hut just a scratch of the skin. a finger's nail in length, and some \\'ere sore an5I some \\ere healed. ''Rut his face! ·wow 1 I am no woman or white-livered hoy, who has never se<'n a well-fought battle. or heard the rattle of the throwing-knives upon the shiel<ls, yet, when I saw )lis face, my spirit became as water, and I trembled so that my fingers loosed their grip on the stones and I neaily fell. "It was dead, Inkoos-clcad. all but the eyes, and thcv were ablaze like the eyes of a lion in his agony! "J.'hcy 1vcre killing my N"'klana; hut his spirit they could not kill and it li\'cd in his eyes, wh;ch were red-rimmed and bloodshot, like the eyes of a man who has fought against sleep for many days and nights. "The slit was too narrow to pass e...en so much as an arm through, so J preS3cd my lips tightly against the stone, and spoke to him in the tongtic of the U 'mataka, cautiou"ly beneath my breath. "He had the sense;; of a clwellcr in the forest, Inkoos, and J,efore the first word had left my mouth he knew me, and ~poke to me in turn. "'Get thee gone. b other!' he said in a low, strained voice, Yea, lnkoo~. my X 'klana cnlled me. who was his dog, brother! 'Get thee hence. if a way to freedom may be \\On, and with what speed thou mayest. for it is at an end. I may Ji,·e yet many moons, but tlwy have taken my strength from me. till [ am as a child: yet this r charge thee. by the faith that there has heen between us. that, shoulclst thou rnret one of my race, thou say to him these words: ·' 'Britain is in the greatest da•1ger ! \\'ithin three years she will cease to exist a~ a n·1tion. and her min will be the work of one man, and that man holds me here powerles-• "TTe was \'ery weak, Inkoo'-, and for a time the \vords failed him. After a little. with a great effort, he crawled across the floor. ancl thrnst through the slit in the stone a golcl circlet from his finger, grawn with a ~trange device. " 'Take !' he said. 'Tell them that I pledge my word on that. that mv talk is true talk. and bid them come, and come quickly, if they would save their country from being wiped out: and, aboye all, hid them slay the man who is called--' "lnkoo,. my senses fail the name escapes me! Quick! The rnouti-ba,g-at my neck-the circlet is there! You shall take it when I am gone 1\Iy wound-what matter-that was the \ral>'s work! Now, set my face to the north! Quick! I go fast! · \ The first chill of the da,rn breeze was freshening the i.e, ted nir, and Sir Richart!, supporting him, turhed hi~ race \ 11orthwar<l. '·:.fy hack is to the great river. Good! Hearken now! Straight forward for ten marches. then again four marches toward the rising-of thr sun, and \Ott shall come to the border of the J;;ke. I-I--Higher. Inkoos; I cannot breathe! I --N'klana, a little while-have patience !-" Ilis head idl hack, and there was an ominous rattling ia BR.AVE A~D BOLD WEEKLY. 1 is throat. Keith tried Yainly to force a little ~pirit between the clenched teeth. and sudclenl) desisted "La,· the poor chap down. Spots,'' he ,aiJ, ''his journey's finished! \\'e can do no more." CHAPTER III. A CLOSf. C \ LI,. "By Jo,·e, Keith. 1, ol, at that! \t all costs, w11. m11 t push 01i and inqu1n• into thi,. though ['m h;111gcd if I undc1 ~tand what the game 1s !" Sir Richard. as lw spoke, hel<~ out a plain gold stg'l(' ring toward the camp firelight, ,,htte in the other hand he grasped the ripped O)ll'll ~kin chnrm-hag oF--the dead _i~an.. ''Three leopards' heads and eros,l'd hattle-a,es. 1heres no mistaking whose property that is. Don't you remember?" Keith smiled. ··i\Jy memory is in pretty good working-order. ol·I chap. I think that this aLout meets the case. Thosc arms are th(' arms of the Duke of Dorset. five years ago his nephew ,rnd heir-apparent, Major ;1!ainwaring, '!'llready a noted explorer, , nd a member of hali a dozen ~cicntific societies, left Eng land on a trip to k•ad an expedition across \frica, just south _of the desert line. one of the main objects being the charting and exploring of the little known lake cal_k<l ;11'lana. whi~h is popularly supposed to be the s,1urce 01 , onc of the main tributaries of the ,\ruwimi. ''Only one white man ha, e,er been kno,, n to set eyes ,m it. The expedition pro,·cd a tia~co. Two of the member, :-:ot bowled o,·er by fc, er, a third lost his temper and quit m a fit of sulks, ancl :\lainwaring. relinquishing all claims to the expedition's stores, and disgusted with th~• behavior of the men with him, determined to push on alom·. "He b known to have bartered i,·ory and gc.ld-dtHt for qores at an outlying Belgian post three years ago. "Six months later a rumor came down to the coa,t that he and a party of native brarcrs had hecn cut up at Kumalasso, and that was the last thing heard of him. Dorset died last year. Am I right?'' "To a dot, old man," said Sir Richard, •·so far as you go: but I can go further. I know, or kne,,, :\lainwanng personally. IIe's o'c of the finest sportsmen I've ever mrttough as they mali!e 'rm. and with a wonck,rful knowledge of nati,·es. and how to handle them. ''Beside,. he's a way-up medicine man. That's ho,, he i:;:ot the bulge on the U'mataka, l expect. Ile was a walking dictionary 0~1 tropical <lisease-ekphantiasis, and so on, an<l -I saw him just before he left his great icka, apart from rounding up ·this lake ;'l.f'lana, ,,as to study this infernal beri-beri-sleeping-sickness. or sleep of death, as they call 1t in some parts, which carries off something like a hundred thousand natives every year. "He told me all about his plans over a dinner at the Travelers' Club, two nights before he started. "What docs me altogether is that message of his. Oi course, it's quite possible that the brutes who have collared him have so manhandled him as to make him half-delirious. "But T never knew any one who was Jess of an alarmist nr more lc,·cl-headecl, and if the poor beggar who lies yonder hasn't made a hash of the message, which is improbable, there must be something extraordinary going on; and, more than that, something which it's our duty to strive our utmost to find out. ''Besides, J\Iainwaring is too good a man to he left in the lurch. I wouldn't leave the lowest trader's chap in a fix of that sort, if he wore a white •kin, even if his record was a5 black as a hat: and I tell you straight, Keith, that we've got to get the poor beggar out if he's alive!" Gordon Keith smiled, and thrust a slim, brown hand into hi~ pocket. withdrew it. and held it out for in~pection. In the palm !;iv a rlai-i :::-old ~l<'<'ve link. "orn thin. On It was a barely decipherable monogram, '·E. 11." I ''That was given me by a Kroo-boy on the coast, two days. after I landed,i' he said, ''or. to be more accurate, I bough• it. It was found, he told 111 , far up-country, and belon~ed to a \\hite man, \\hose p.irty had_been cut up_~ a warhk tribe. T ditln't pay much attentton at the time, but you never know when a little thing like that may prove useful, so I gave him a dollar for it, and kept it." "Ily Jove!" said Sir Richard. ''·~. 1\1.'-that stands for Edgar Mainwaring. \\ here was it found?" '·So far as I could make out, not very far from this di, trict we are in now; here or hereabouts, anyway. Now we'll turn in!" Th(' next day they started late_. ~eing delayed by the burial of the dl'ad man, and also w1sl11ng to act as a cover ing-party to the fugiti\·e ,la,cs. in case the Aralis should venture to renew their attack. The northward march lay through fine open forest lands. interspersed with stretches of tall grass country. I.obangu wa• acting as scout ahea~, wit~ Checkers. and Pedro a little in the rear. and shortly atter 1md-day he picked up a fresh elephant spoor, evidently the tracks of a big mak. The spoor branched off slightly toward the east, and wns as easy to follow as a high-road, for where the great brute had c.-ra<he<l throu~h the tall grasses he Incl trampled then: flat. ka, ing a trail six feet wide. Beyond lay a strip ot wooola,HI, and they could sec where he had torn up some of the vounger trC('S as he passecl. . . "Roinc elephant. lnkoos !" said Loha11gi.. po111t111g this out. " \ bad elephant, and dangerous, for he runs alone. Sec ho\\ he has struck do-., n everything in hi~ rage I C"•m ning he is, ancl \"Cry strong. H '!ala gahlc ! .,Let us go cautiously. Tnkoos, or may he we shall nK·ct 1t. Bot\! Sir Richard and h.<"ilh carril•c! heavy elcphant expres•es; but they were the on.ly two large-caliber rifles, for their weight ,rn., \"ery considerable, and the separate amrnunition, as it ,,as, required an additional bearer. This being the case, Keith and Sir Richard moved to the head of the column. Lobangu looking after the bearers and pre,cntin" them from straying, while Checkers brought up the rear ~rmed, as usual, ,,ith a i\Iarlin of ordmary c.-aliher. Everv,,hern traces of thl." gre1t brute \\ere .ibundartt houghs'were torn rlown or \\ rcnched off. young trees Tl'th lessly hroken off or pulled up. and the S('CtJt was becoming warmer. Lobangu, after a clo;;c inspection, gave it as his opinion that the elephant \\as-less than an hou~ ahead of them, and that, having travelc-d a long diMance he would probably halt at the first swampy pool or rivulet, and refresh himself bv drinking and ~quirting water over himself. . Sure enough. before long there wero indications of a swamp ahead, and the party continued to ad\'ance with increased caution. The tracks led F,traight on till they finally rt'ached a shallow.·muddy expanse of water, the hank of which was t1p11npled ind stamped flat in all direction~. ''Sec./'ntwana I ' saifl Lobangu, in a lo,, , oice. pointing with his big spear. "Here he ha~ stayed a while, a I said, and thrown water over his hack and drunk his fill; afterward he has gone on for a little space, hut not far, and soon we shall come up ,,ith him.'' "\\'c must pic.-k up his tracks on the far side, Keith,'' said Sir Richard. ''You take the right side of the water, I'll work round to the lcit, and the first one to pick up the tracks again can signal the other. Lohangu, you old scoundrel, keep the bearers from stampeding. Checkers, you'll have to play rear guard.'' Tt,e pool was in all about half a mile round, and fringed with high swamp-grass, interspersed here and there with trees. which gradually thickened, until a hundred yards from the ,,ater's edge the forest once more ~wallowed everything up Gordon Keith and Sir Richard started off in opposite s ,t d e u I, ,r ,V e d s, d rl g LS :c 11 )f 1e is e. 1 :o ... t s, tc IC 1d 1p r. 1 1g ,n 1d ly If a il a is 1g d, r1d " :r, lC n '11 !d th m y te BR \VE .AND clirccticn,, ancl were soon lost to dew; while the bearers, glad of a rest, put down their loads and ~qttaltul on tll('ir hcds, laking prodigious <Jnantiti<'s of snuff; and O\er all lay the drowsy hum of a tropical noon. Presently, howc\er. Lobangu lifted his head am! gazed atound uneasily. "i\['lolo, I smell elephant!"' he said quickly, in a low Yoke, turning to Checkers. ''Get ready thy rifle q~ickly; but not so that these bearer folk may sec, for they are fools and sons of foob, and will become mad with terror. Sec, the king of beasts also smells something amiss! \Vatch how his nostrils quiver!" Pedro was sniffing eagerly, the muscles of Ii.is !lose twilcl1ing, while at the same time he gave vent to a low whimper. Checkers i;urreptitiously cocked his rifle, and waited with 5training ears, his nerves on the quiver with excitement. Lobangu, too, laid his rifle across his knees, and slung his big spear across his hack. for the best spearsman in the world is not much use before a charging bull elephant mad with rage. An anxious quarter of an hour passed, and Checkers was beginning to think that before long Keith and Sir Richard would have joined forces on the far side of the water, when there came a sudden screech of panic from one of the hearers, who sprang to -fiis feet, pointing at the forest behind them, and bolted for dear life. Checkers turned sharply, and there, sure enough, not eighty yards a\\ay, bet ween t\VO tall tree stem~, was a httge shadow-flecked gray elephant, glal'illg at them with cunning, vicious little eyes. He had one tusk jagged at the end, where it had been broken off in a fight probably, but the other was of enormous length, curving to a sharp point; and his ears, pricked forward like a terrier's, twitched ominous!.) . The hearer's screech was reechoed by the others, who flei:l in all directions, for a mad elephant is a thing few men would care to face. Pedro, with hair raised, growled defiance-a defiance, by the way, which Checkers felt was entirely uncalled for. For his o,vn part, he would at that moment have been quite content with Baker Street and an armchair. • He felt that he had neglected his natural history sadly, and yearned for a little kttowledgc of elephants and their ways. The only thing he did know was that he had never before realized what a short distance eighty yards can look. Lobangu, cool old warrior that he was. raised his rifle and waited. "You fire first, 1\f'lolo." he cried. "then I in turn!" Theoretically the arrangement ,,·as good, for Lobangu's shooting was hlore-likely to prove effective at the shorter range. But the elephant hacl views of hi~ own: for before Checkers had raised his rifle, 1nuch less got a sight, the beast charged home like a whirlwind. A good sprinter can cover a hundred yards in a little over ten seconds. How long, thcrdorc, will it take a mad elephant to cover eighty? This was, roughly, the proportion sum which flashed through Checkers' brain; but he didn't wait to bother about the answer. Instead, he flung up his rifle and fired a wild snapshotthere was no time for more. It was not a miss, so much he could tell, for so acute do the genses become in instants of extreme terror or emergency that simultaneously with the smack of the rifle he hear<l distinctly a dull, thudding impact, which told a tale of a bullet gone home against bone. Twice more he fired, and to miss was then impossible. for the huge bulk was towering above him as the thirrl shot rang out: hut so far as stopping-that terrific rush went, he might as well have used a ~ea-shooter. Ile 'lhmg himself a~ide. and the big unbmken tusk missed him by a i11atter of three feet. BOLDI \VEEKLY. 7 Ev,..n at that moment hi,; hraln was clear, and he wondered why Lohangu had not fired. His swening cour8e took hi111 past the dump of reeds among which the old warrior stood, pnd then, with a chill of horror, he underslood. A faulty cartridge had jammed in the chamber, and out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed T.ohangu working at it furiously with fingers and teeth. \\'ith a grunt of disgust the chieftain of the Etbaia flung the useless weapon aside, and plucking his great spear frol)'l its rawhide sling, dashed into the narrow gap beb\'een Checkers and the elephant, generously bent on throwing away his own life to give Checkers a chance. But tlk elephant, for all his mad rage, had the keen . instincts of his race,· and all their well-known spirit of revenge. Hi~ C\tnning little eyes, gleaming redly, had spotted Checkers, and he lmcw well that the smarting pains which were sending agonizing t\\inges through his head and body were the work of that swiftly flying figure. As he r~achcd Lobangu-standing calmly straight in l1is path-he swerved and charged at Checkers again. Checkers dodged once more, and an eager trunk outstretched to grab stirred the hair at the back of his neck, making his flesh creep. Loliangu, reckless of his own risk, leaped forward and plunged the big spear twice in the big brute's flank. The steel went lwme through the tough hide well above the broadest part of the blade; no ordinary man could have driven it so far wilh a half-arm blow. But the infuriated animal, intent on its original prey heeded the wounds no more than if they had been wasp1 stings, and with a horrible trumpeting noise rushed on, nearly wrenching the spear from Lnbartgu's grip. For the third time Checkers darted. aside, and the elephant overran him hy a few yards. Bnt an elephant galloping, especially over rough ground, • can outpace a horse, much more a man. In a flash he had wheeled again. when with a low growl of rage and a tremendous spring Pedro launched forward and buried his teeth in the delicate tendons of the hind leg, just above the pad. The pain of the grip was exquisite, and the big brute stumbled as it shot through him. The next instant a kick. which would have demolished the side of a house, sent poor Pedro flying through the air, his m,n weight tearing away his grip, and leaving a great jagged 1wound where his teeth had clenched. But though he was flung asi<lc, his gallant effort told, fur he had compelled his huge adversary to check in his !:tride1and that gave Lobangtt just the chance he had been longing for. ' Utterly heedless of his o\Vn clanger, he leaped in to close quarters, and, getting well under the animal, with a tretnen. dous slashing stroke he clove clean through the main ten,lon~ of the, other hind leg, the keen edge of the spear biting like a sword-cut, and practically hamstringing the giant of the forest. Checkers gave a shout as Lohangu sprang clear again, anti threw up his rifle: but luck was against him, for his foo, slipped on a tussock as he wheeled, and he came down heavily on his back. The elephant lurched forward to pin him to the earth lmt missed; and Chccl,ers, prone as he ,\'a!-, fired qt1ickl) twice, from his hip, up\\'ards into the soft, wrinkled flesh of the throat. Both bullets penetrated the root of the tongue, and buried themselves in the brain. "Roll, M'lolo-roll over!" roared Lohangu. "Quick! He falls, and tbo\1 wilt 11e crushed!'' Checkers-heard dimly. saw the elephant [-;tagger, and rolled clear. Then he ~prang to his feet and fired again-once behind the shoulder for the heart, once behind the ear-both shots at point-blank tange; artd with the last the huge moun BRA\'E \~D BOLD \\ EEK.LY. tain of flesh ~waye<l an<l reeled amt lurched forn ard onto its knee,;. Then, with a last agonized trumpeting of bafrle<l fury, it rolled over with a era hfng thud, which shook the ground for yards round about. just as Keith and Sir Richard, who had heard the shouts an<l the firing. came dashing up. Checker,; was ,,hite and trembling, and J,:obangu \\a Lathed in sweat from hi~ terrific exertions, and for a moment neither of them were ;ilile to speak. At last Lobangu ,~ipcd hi spear on a tuft of gra s, anJ regarded it loYingly; then he walked across to the prostrat I ody and inspected the two wound macle hy the stabs. '·\\ ow, M1olo !'' he cried. "S e here, there ~ire ft.w weapons which could !1a,·c done such a~ tho e.!_ My S'lakc bade me thrust, and I thrust blindly, )Ct ncv<'r before have I seen a ~pear smk so deep. Truly thou art called the 'slippery one,' for Iii-a: an crl didst thou twi~t and tum. But for tit.It, M'lolo, thou l•adst been in the land of the ghosts of my father Untwana ere now. Twice I made sure that thbu ,,ast gone, and that it was over with thee. l\ow let us go and se<' to Ill) king of bca~ts, for it ,~as he that saved thee in the first place, and I fear he is sore hurt." They found poor Pedro !yin~ "here he had fallen. He wa~ badly shakrn and hruised, but I e wr.s able to wag his tat! when they came up, a1u\ lick Checkers' hand as he took the old dog's head on his knee. They bound him up, and Lobangu, ha,·ing collected the hearers and hammered them back into some kind of sense, forced two of them to weave a kmd of sling-hammock of the tuff-gras~. and in this J'l'clro, cardully handagecl, was carried, the hammock su~pended from long poles; and the bearers who were compelled to carry it in sour, black tem 11crs, for Pedro was no light weight, and the pole chafed their shoulders. CHAPTER IV. TIIE POISO~ED DARTS. The tree-trunks through which they marched shot upward mto the gloom, high overhead. like the columns of a cathedral- aisle, hare of hrnnch or foliage for the first sixty feet, straight as an ocean-going clipper's masts: hut at that height theJ became lost to vie,\ in a dcn~e tangle of hea, y leaf through which the sun was uuable to penetrate. Undergrowth there was none, save a soft carpeting of rotting leaves, \\ hich deadened the sound of the bearers' footfalls. l\ot a glimpse coulcl lw seen of the blue sky up above, only now and again, as they passed through th,~ endles~ avenue of bare trunks-once in half a mile, perhapsthey would sec far ahead, or to one side, a splash of light, \\hich glimmered like a pool on the dead leav<'~ cf th<' floor. There was an awesomeness about it which chilled thl• spirits Clf e,·en the usually irrepressible Checkers. It was good traveling-ground and they pushed on at a splcnclid pace-but they marched silently. Each _pf the white men felt as though he would a5 soon think of talking 111 church as in that sepulchral forest avenue. It was as clark under that dense t·anopy of foliage as a summer mght, and the heat \\ a-tifling. £or not a breath of wind pcnctraterl into those depths. Only here and there ,,here a branch had rottt'cl and fallen away in decay, a $mall, loopholclike 01>9ning admitted a shaft of light, clear • cut against the surrouncling gloom, and adding greatly to the eeriness of the scene. and where the shaft to•1checl the ground there was a shimmering pool of silver. In parts, too, tl•e tree~ were festooned \\ ith great hanging wreaths of the g:i1111t, gray Spanish moss, which hung trailing in thirtv or forty-foot lengths, looking for all the world like the wch of omc horrible giant spider-creatureNot a bird was to be seen or heard; even the flies and mosquitoes seemed to have temporarily deserted them. "No", Untwana," said Lobangu in his deep voice, "now, indeed, art thou come to th"nc 0\\11 for surely this i the place of ghost . Behind each of these trunks methinks ~ can feel the presence of the pirits of deparll.:d chief an I fighting men Of a truth this wood is hagoti be\\ itched. Sec, ne,\\ for three• day han. ,, c. marched 1'1 thi l'Vtl forest, yet is there no end, no c iangl' \\C might he walkmg blindly 111 a c1rcl , for 01ic tree i likl' another, and there is nothing 1 to gmde one 'JO moon, no star , nor \\Illl , nor un. lt is all tree<: and gta} moss, and my spirit ,,caries of it." "!\ , Lc',a'lh'll, ,,t: 1110\ l' forward Sl'c, sin~l' the very start the ground h s slopl'd gmtly do,,1rnar<l. llad ,vl' lost our ,, y. and turned to the right or left, then ,\e sho11ld no,~ be ar;ce11ding · •:\l..y bl', l 'Pt\\ ana m~y be, for of a truth I have \\:ilk <I like one in ,1 drtam gi\'-Ulg no heed Y1;t tlus much I know, that <:.mewhue there are e)c which watch u ; yea, and which have \\ tchcd us since the first hour of o.ir cormng itt." "Wh.it do ) ou mean, Lobangu ?" answered Keith testily. "Have you een anything? How do you k'low we ar<' being ,\atched?" Lobangu shrugged his broad shoulders. "How doc a man know when there are evil spirit abroad my father? His nakc {i!!,tinct) tells him-is 1t not so?" Keith d•dn't ans,,cr. He had a \\Ondcrful faith i!'l dd J.obangu's instinct, and for the pa t twcnt)-four hour h him.:;elf had h1d a vague, unca'-y susp'cion that the •mcanny silence wac; hiding c;Of'l1ething, thou~h wl•at, h< could nol tell. Ile had seen nothing, heard nothing, yet all the ~ame the suspicion "as there, and he could not free himself of it. Lobangu loo!,cd at him closely. "So, Untwana, you. too, ha,c felt those eye upon you. It is, as I said-this is a plact> of spirits To-night, when we camp, I also will watch, Ill)' fat! er," and he took a huge pinch of snuff, and stalked on ahead hy him•elf. But there war; no n<'cd to ,vait till nightfall to convince themselves that there was danger lurking in the silence. Scarcely half an hour had passed before one of the bearers the one carr) ing the larger of the two tusks of the recently killed elephant, suddenly dropp<'d his load with a muffled s'1riek, clapped his hands to his head, and spun round twice, collapsing on the leaves with a dull thud. He was dead before they could reach him. Sir Richard and the others came hurl')ing up. ''What on earth is it?'' he asked. ":Must be some kind of stroke, or a fit. Th<' chap war; a~ strong a~ an ox." Keith shook his head, and, kneeling beside the dead ma'l, hcgan to examine 111111 carcfnlly all over. Before the man shrieked thl're had been no sound, no suspiciou~ movements of any kind. Keith examined the man's feet, on the chance that he might ha, c been st1111g, or trodden on sornl' poi onous in .t, or small ancl particular!) deadly snake But a glance \\ s sufficient to sho\\ him that such a thing "as i'l1po sible. The skin on the soles of the feet wa~ hard and thick, and as tough as leather Tlw man could havl' walked onr broke'l gla" with impunity Inch by inch he examined the body, but there ,,,.s no mark or sc;ar of recent origin. The mal' had c t n nothmg hut tl'c r. tion sened out to l1im from tl,e ccmn on bo,\I. lhs sudden death was a cO"ll• pletc mystery ::-:c.xt Keith devoted hi~ attention to the arching branche~ ovcrhe d, l•·it \\ ,thout avail. The gloom \\ s too intc.ns to make detail , ; ible "\\'l·II. Im jiggered!" ~ id Sir Ril'hard. "The poor beg gar must ha,·e had a heart attack, or apcplcx)." "N'e11J-:cr would have taken him off lrke that in the rnirl-t of a clay'-march 1here would ha, c I c-cn some \h,r11111g S) mp1 m ,'' replied Keith absently. Ile was 1hinking hard, try111g0 to puzzle out why thh man should ha,e been struck down in preference lo th oth r . r t i ' 1 ~ e s ,t d e y 1t e t. l. n :e :e 0 y d e, d if 11, . n l ts 1e -t, lS e. lS •n y, to 11 es to g- st BRAVE AND Suddenly he gave a short exclamation, and turned to Check ers. "Checkers, I want your knife, the one with the tweezers in it. That's the one-thanks !" He took the dead man's head on his knee, and examined the scalp carefully, parting the thick hair here and there. A quick ejaculation told them that he had found what he was looking for. He pressed the hair to one side and ~n~. ' "Look there!" he said, in a low voice waving the· other bearers aside. ' In the center of the scalp was a minute wounrl no bi<rn•er than .the tO_I? of a .slate-pencil. an insignificant-looking pla-::e, exuding a srngle tmy drop of blood. "Hang it all, Keith !'1 broke in Sir Richard. "You don't mean to tell me that that could hurt anybody! Why, I've seen a horsefly make a worse mark !" "\\'ait a moment," answered Keith and with a deft twitch of the tweezers he drew out a ~mall thorn half an in~h long, straight, and perfectly round, taperi;1g to a point as sharp as a needle. Obviou~lv it had been artifi cially finished off by a skilful workman,' and was made of a piece of very heavy hard wood. Keith held it up gingerly in the tweezers, with a warn.ing cry of "Don't touch, man, for Heaven's sake!" as Sir Richard stretched out his hand. "Poisoned?" asked the latter. "Very much so., Spots, my friend,'' retorted Keith drvly, "seeing that it kil!ed this poor chap in something lllider three seconds, I should have thought you might have guessed as much." "But what in the name of fortune-I mean how did--" "Blow-pipe!" said Keith tersely. "Allee samee pigeon pea-shooter. The Andaman Island aborigines use 'em. So do a tribe of the Terra de! Fnegans. \Vhat the poison is, I don't know; l~ut its action is directly on the heart through the lesser blood-vessels. It kills almost instantaneously." Sir Richard glanced at the arching roof overhead, and shuddered. "Man alive!" he exclaimed. "I don't mind fair scrapping with any one, but I'm blessed if I can stand this sort of thing!" "A scratch from one of these will end all your scruples, Spots,'' answered Keith, and dropping the tiny dart he ground it into the earth with his boot-heel. "Do you remember what the poor chap we rescued from the raiders said? 'Arrows steeped in a fluid which burns.' I rather fancy this is an improvement on the old patent.'' "But who--" began Sir Richard. Keith cut him short. "It's no good your asking me. Spots. I know no more than you; or. at any rate, precious little. This is the wav I figure it out-Lobangu, here, and myself are certain tha't we've been watched for hours past. \\'ho by. I don't know. l\·e neither seen 'em nor heard 'em. But they are certainly watching our movements, from up above, among the branches, and probably signaling ahead to their friends. This shot was fired from directly above, remember. I asked myself why this poor beggar should have been picked out instead of one of us, the obvious leaders of the show; and the answer is this: Firstly, we are all wearing sun-helmets, except Lobangu, and he has his head-dress, which would act as a protectior, from a light dart like this. Secondly, all the others bearer~ were carrying their loads on their heads, which would effectually protect them from any attack from directly abO\·e. While thi~ chap. whose load was the big tusk. carried it slung across his shoulder, leaving him defenseless. Thirdly--" , "Well?'' "Thir,lly, the people up above are probably a hunting BOLD 'WEEKLY. 9 offender, they potted him-poor beggar! The Terrt. de! Fuegans are wonderful shots with their blow-pipes, up to eighteen or twenty paces, and they can make things ugly at nearly twice that range. I know, because I've been there." "But, good heave11s, Keith, old man," said Sir Richard, "the brutes may be crawling about up above there now, ready to pick us off! It's all verv well for us we're on our own, and it's our business to take risks, if n;ed be; but I'm hanged if I like running these poor wretches of bearers into such a hornets' nest." "There's nothing else to be done that I can see. It would be 1~ore dangerous to go back than to go on. We must move caut1ous)y, l~o,~·ever, and keep our eyes skinned, and Lobangu must dnv~ 1t into the bearers'. hca~s that the straighter they' carry their loads, the better it will be for them. Besides I've got something here which may be useful if only it can be applied at once." ' He produced from his pocket a small metal case, containing t_wo v~als of a dark-colored liquid, aml a small, hypodermic synnge. ·'That's permanganate," he said. "They use it a lot for ~nake-bite, and.I have used it for these same poison-darts 111 South America. If you can catch the chap the instant he's hit, and inject some of this into the wound I fancy it will act as an antidote; but I'm not sure.'' ' It ,~as ner\'e-racking_ work trudging through that silent. ghosthke gloom, expectmg every instant to feel somewhere a sharp, little stabbing prick, and know that in all human probability you would be dead inside of ten seconds. Still, push on they must, and did, though every man walked with humped shoulders, as if expecting a blow. Gordon Keith, with Lobangu, paced up and down the line of bearers every few moments to make certain that they had not shifted their loads, and so deprived themselves of a certain measure of safety. The rare light shafts were now no longer vertical, but slanting from left to right, by which they knew that the sun was on the decline, and the gloom began to increase in consequence. Suddenly Checkers, who was fifty yards or so in advance of the o~hers, gave a low cry. which he checked half-way, for, peering through the ~ree-t_nmks, a little on the right, was a cl11mpanzee, the most mtelhgent and the most fascinating of all monkeys. She, for it was a lady, was standing-Greet, with her Jpnoarms hanging limply by her sides, regarding Checkers ~·ith bright, inquisitive eyes, a little timidly, but by no means badly scared. In height, as she stood there, she was close on four feet, and Checkers noticed that her left paw was hurt. for every now and again she raised it to her mouth, and sucked at it, giving a little whimper, and looking at him rather piteously. He fumbled in his t>ocket, am! found a bit of hard biscuit, the remnants of a hasty lunch en route, and held it out ;::;11c stared at it doubtfully, and then advanced, head on one side, and an eager right paw stretched out hesitatingly. "Come on, old lady,'' said Checkers, and then, in a lower voice: "Herc. Lobangu, can you talk· monk<',·-talk ?'' "\Vow.'' grunted Lobangu, in disgust, ••.M'lolo, once I did plunge thee head downwards in a \\·ashing-bath when we were across tht black water, and willingly would I do so again. Monkey-talk, indeed! Dost thou think that I, a keshla, a prince of the Etbaia, and, mark you, a very great \vhite chief, can talk monkey-talk like the Banyan peoples?'' "All right, old man, keep your wool on!" grinned Checkers. "\Vatch me. Here, Jemima, old girl, try a bit of grub.'' The chimpanzee drew slowly nearer, then shot out a long, soft-fingered paw and grabbe<l the offering. 1g rn tribe, and were furious to see a man walking about with a fine piece of ivory. which they naturally enough looked on as their own private property-poached game, in fact. So, Apparently it was much to her taste. for her sl1arp white teeth made short work of it, and she stretched out her hand again for more. :s. as he offered the best mark, and was, in their eyes, the chief Keith and Sir Richard came,,up at that moment. • BR.\\~ \ D BOl J) \\ I KI.:~. h J,;.er , you imp \\ '1at th d ice k r ' 1 m r to a clump nzc" i I Keith, cl uckling. I he monk y, (jUit1: un ba~ht:d, ,,n d rn:11 dmg more fo d. h was evident that ~1 c, wa-hungry, for her hcdy \\U~ thin ciation d the nl pr tru I d t 11111 11 tl.Ji · P or Jittl beast, h ' got a ma ·11 d forean•1, look," id K<'itl " napped clean ~• t aho, e the ,Hi t ,1ic 'rn,n't I en able to forage for her~elf that's ,, h..t mak hrr ~o ra\' nous. l v.on lcr af he'd let PK bandn •c her t•p t Lobangu, tell that b n.r ,,1th ti m 1ci1 ch t I v. nt •ornr $plmts :'Ind a roll of banc!ugc , and on oi th w .. terJ. cs and the drc sings." J mama, a Checker r amcd her glanced at K ith and \lo\\cd him to tt'uch th ,,oundcd arm ~cntly. Th n, b:> ct gr es, a if realizin~ that , t was to be done was for her own good, ofter a little coa)(ing nnd a gleam or t\\O of white fangs, he let hiM d the broken bo c and apply the linimcn and h:-u dagcs, I mg rcwan d wh n 1t ,,as d ne by a small chunk of chocolate from their cm rgency store. I intling h,·r so docile, Keith improvi cd a sling for the • rm, "hich, a, ~ n a she found it he' d to ca c the throbbmg pam, he "ort and u eel it for all th "orld hke a h 11J1an bciPg "There you arc, old girl,'' said Keith at la I. ' It I could only make you un<ler,tand that y!)u ought hi 1-eep <Jukt nnd worry • t th l m:l::i "ith }OUr ,,l 1 t~ th, ) u'd all right in a week or so.'' As ,;orn n th y beg n to mov on, Jemima ~cuttlcd back n I di apponcl a1J1or1-t tht. tr c trunks, clutcYng her chocoe but for till next hour or o ti cy c.ould hrr now and n patt rmg long on her I rt , g an ng the trt:es, p.n :-i parallcl-Unc ,,ith their C\\ n route. h ckcr ' fatal b<. uty ha~ found him out at 1 t," said ~ir Richard, with a dr p chuckle. II umph ••· an wcn:d Keith. "I '1 uld c more incl'ned t y that it is a ca of bird of a f th r. ~o )u-U c< Ill(' to thi1 k of it. tl•c two profill arc not unlike." \\ hereupon Lobangu grinned. M011kc) •I, lk, indeed! M'lolo, aln ost I begin to think that 1 u art of the Banyan p pie · CH \PTER V. SIi \ D BY /\ MIR\CLF., Checkers' Jemima !•ad ~crvcd momentarily to turn their , 11 d £rem the horr r of their tu tic tJ • I ut a,; d e , ept do\\ n on tht:m. the) "er<'.' nil er n ciou of a f hng <f W• , e t•II a ine~ , f r non~ c uld tell I t. t11 t \\ h ti c night a perfect hail ot those deadly little dart m ght no be I \\('rt.tl ,) \\ 11 \ 11 th 'Ill, t A emsult a 10n \\ a h Id, and Ii 11; it , d ter 1it to I Id o large fire in the most open soace beneath the trees \\I ch thcv could find. 'It' this \\ y to 111; thmking," aid Keith "If it <'<'mes to a fight, the Ii ht of ti• • fire \\ ill ho,, u11 th u 1 I r i 1 l th brar I c overh d for a pr tt) , i r a, nd give 1 enough light to ~hoot by, "hilc we our che:; un take I dt r in the shadow of the tr... e trunki;, rnd be pretty wdl irl\'isible. "R ides, if th re arc an)' of th e be r f Ii r un I up above, the; will ha, e all th di ndvant ge of I kin straight down into tlw glare of the fire, and it will upset their atm a hit." 1 his "-CCtned sound ndvi c, and ju t as darknr s fell, a «c I ile of bark and m of th dri r l , c 11 d • ,o-,..tht·r with a lot of pare fu I, J that th blaze c 11d be I t I p all njght If 11ced be. ('1 aft r a ha•ty m I, the b arcrs " r • bid I n t rc1 o a di-,t nee and t kc such ~helter a lhev rould, ,,,nlc Keith nnd the other , sele tin" their trc trunk , ook up h ir po itt on the id \\ hich \\Ol!1u in d hndo1\. KC'ith arranged three sl ping bag tutfed "ith o • ends to l:1) then out a !i•tk wny :may fr th pile o and at the 111 , 111cim nt. thtir 1ircp'r,1tio11 1,eing as com1 ·~t<' a th ) uld m k them, K ith lit the ire in half tlo plarc , nd d rtcd or co, r. ' I or omc tim nothing "as t > be h arc! but th" \\hiz 1 and hi%111g' of the Hames as they ate their way lilt? the p1l , and now ancl a am a crackli11g as the larger piece of bark plit ,!ld • !mt red in the rr \\'ng h ..t ( ,radt• lly the red glare spn.ad up\\ ard, nd, K ith I J prcdictecl while on the ground, only a con,p r. ttv ly s'll,11 c1n·'e ,,a illtminakd, bordcrt:d by ;1 frmge of uncert m shadow• .> puzzlmr, and ('onfu ing that total d·1rknc s \\ould ha he 11 pr feral! from th ene, 1y' int f v I l p above, the ,~hole of the u11dcrsidc of tie d~nse nrd11 1g foliage \\ a illwninc<I liy a ~troug, glaring light throughout a circle fifty , ar<l:s nd more in diametc r. l hecker him:self in a dee,> shadow, tared upw,1rd an I aw the bon~h• lac d an 1 intcr!ac ·d, and the 1 ) er on 1 r of clcn,c foliage grew light, and showed a reddish gray in the fire glow • ~ on thc flan c~ bl zed high r till, with a low, murmur' 1g r r, and th r d r, y 11.!rn d. o a rudely got 1. ::,uddenly he felt a touch on his arm, and a g ntk pre re w, rni11" him to kct'.'p quirt and make no movement. It wa Lal 1gu \\ ho ha l ra,,'ed acr fr I the sh r of his own tnc. ' I hey ar there M'lolo,'' he s id, in a whisper, and j ' in, his l-icad upw, rJ. "They arc there, cores of then, nil amol'g th 1r, nd , all 11 en nci hi her th n a m. 1 's chl t, a ti n n \\ ho told t the ta! id , t, th sm 11, the) ... e vcr) strong a•1cl actil l:1 for I • onL "hdc a hro1-en l,ou h hn I m de a ap, s,vin • him If c' · r a r from hr nch to bra11c\1 by hi hands and. t r twlct the l •1 ,,11 of a ! I' , 1 's be , ht \\, 111 Ill; 1 • ir t ud1, 1 otl \\ , , l I th ght h u t ur Iv f. II \ 1 I , h n<'.ll; but c,.tching at L'1r !,ranch \\ ith one hand 3 he sv. 1t 'I y he •mlled him d( up n,; c ily a a b '>to11 or that I which Un ,rn11a tk I u•> in L,1ndng s n httl \\Ink I, ck. • \1 o, but Clf ti I I am 1 t s re T f 'lcitd ti t in e p,ace I nw a er mg nnd recro :;11,g of cut tic.b an l '-'1 • II b a•1chc 111 king u kind of plat form hwh 'I' amon~ th :c,,\ , a thou h th sc , 111c c;m JI p pie I u1lt 1cir I ut th •re. MorcO\er, .i th tre b) , hich I \\ \\alch'ng u t 1 ar manJ nctch t•t '1l al v ti c h r in a fr1,hirn1 that a \<.r) active 111.111 ,\ho 1\,1, li{.'ht and 1n,1ll, 1 i '1t find r •ing pl cc in them for I i fin r and t c , an ! rt 1J up and do,\n at will." ·1 h cl U, ;·ou I'd I' • 1 I ( h ckerc; '·By rO lock at th t ' JI broke off sudd nly, ar I rah t. d I ,al, 11 1 by the boulder. fl •gh up ixty f et at I t, abo, 111cm I nln t din:ctly al ovc the fre, boki11g rcpul 11; ly h1deou m th r d ,low, th ) c'luld c a I 1 11 small, fierce an ry foe prl'.rinr. downward ut the slccpin hag , through the parted leaves. One n n peci II> • pl i•1ly vi il a he la} rut al ng a trnnch a little beneath the re t. lk ,,a t 1 r b'y \Hll fc.rmcd, but co•1ld not h. \.C b n mu h mor tha tour fret high, and bis head wa large in proportion to the •izc o' hi body. The arm , I r,,, and hould r looked v ry mu cular. <. heck<.r could c~ tie fir gl-nt on hi cyd 'I givin th m a horn >1 r,ol lmhkc ll ok, and th n a1 d not till then hr ,~ot,cc, th, t each man had clapped a long, slender ti k to I 1s n 1 1. l I ,. It rl •10 telling to ttn<I< r,tand that tho e tichs I re o n 1(J h 11 wed ,Hod, and thJ.t cac.h cc,•11 mc:d •1 r ; n d•Pt ! hey ,vcr ~bout three feet Ion"' and a1 parcntly 110 thi ' than a I, rg dr.iwin •-pencil. p d <, .e n tel ·r in re r g. id Jt JC at ,st JC C$ ~d ut ly ur lie re n- er BRAVE ANJJ Knowing the deadly nature of the volley which was to be showered down, Checkers c;,rouched back beside Lobangu. They could hear nothing above the roar of the flames, and they could not, of course, follow the flight of those tiny, murderous darts. In fact, the stealthy silence with which those apparently ' harmless blow-pipes could spit death at anything•within range was part of the horror. Neither of them could detect the exact instant the volley was fired, but when they looked "' at each other again, they knew instinctively that each of the blankets was pierced in half a dozen places, and that had they been beneath them, instead of a mere stuffing of leaves and bark, they would in all probability be already dead. . Checkers peered upward again, and as he did so, his eyes looked straight into the redly glowing ones of the man stretched out along the branch. Checkers knew he had been seen as surely as though the fellow had yelled at him; yet for an instant he continued to gaze spellbound. l l He saw the man's hands fumble for a moment with the mouth of his bJow-pipe, saw the slender reed slowly align itself on him. · He knew that he was in peril of instant death, yet he continued to start,;. fascinated, unable to move hand or foot. l At last, with a strangled cry. he forced his limbs to obey his will by a great effort, snatched up his rifle, and fired. · There came an unearthly screech from the bough-a rustling of leaves, and then the dwarfed bo<ly rolled slowly over, toppled from its precarious perch, and fell headlong, a whirling. inanimate mass with--eutflung limbs. It struck the ground by the outer edge of the fire, sending up a spouting fountain of glowing sparks and embers, and, turning over twice, lay still. A strange silence followed. Checkers' forehead was bathed in sweat, and he was shaking from head to foot. He raised his hand to wipe his face, when an astonished grunt. from LoQf(ngu checked him. '·\Vow, :M'lolo, of a truth thou must bear a charmed life! Nay, move not. Be still a little while-so. I have it!" Checker felt a pluck at his right sleeve, and turned. "Death has been near us very many times, M'lolo," said Lobangu. "and very many times have we felt the chill of his breath and the grazing of his bony finger-tips, yet ne\·er, I think. wast thou so near letting him take thee ·in his clnl'ches. Sec, I have plucked it just now from the fold of thy shirt just above the elbow. .\nother half-inch, and--" He finished with an expressive grab at the empty air. Checkers looked to see what he held in his other hand. It was a poisoned thorn. He was still staring at it horror-struck, when there came a chorus of yells and screechings from above, followed by showers of arrows, the tips, as they afterward discovered, being made of the wing-hones of birds, and very sharp. Whether mgre poisoned darts accompanied the volley or not, they were unable to see. Luckily, no one was hit, for the dead man alone had succeeded in spotting them, and he had been killed before he had been able to warn his friends. The arrows for the most part were aimed at the stuffed blankets and vaguely at random all round about the fire. For the glare was directly in the pigmies' eyes, and what light there was only served to puzzle them by contrast with the heavy black shadows. Keith and Sir Richard returned the volley effectively, and Checkers and Lobangu joined in the general fusillade.~ Several bullets found their way home, as could be told by an occasional shriek from above, and two more stunted figures came crashing down. One shot fired by Sir Richard glanced off a branch and caught one of the d,warfs in the thigh, shattering the bone. He was far out along a bo~1gh, and the shock partially clislocl~ ed him. leavin&" him swinging precariously, and evidently in terrible Qatn. BOLD Vl"EEKLY. n He had been one of the leaders of the attack, but the sight of lum hanging there in lingering agony sickened those below, and Sir Richard, utterly heedless of his own risk, stepped out into the open, and, raising his rifle, ended the poor fellow's misery. It was the most merciful thing to do, for nothing could have saved him. Suddenly Checkers heard Lobangu's rifle drop with a clatter, and turned. An arrow was-hanging from the muscles of the arm, and the old warrior's face was gray. "My time has come, M'lolo," he said, very quietly, wrenching the arrow out, and throwing it away. "It is hard, M'lolo -hard that I, a prince of a royal house, a warrior of a hundred pitched battles, a man who has fought shoulder to shoulder with the Inkoos, and thou and Untwana, should come to an end in a paltry skirmish with a Little rat-faced people, whom I could take in my two hands and break over my knee by the score. "Farewell, ,l\I'lolo ! It burns! I go quickly to,. the land of the peoples of Untwana, my father! I would I could have seen my king of beasts before the end. and felt once more the touch of his muzzle on my hand. "~:!,y senses fail. Fare thee well, brother! The spear my s1!'ear--" He reeled, and leaned heavily against the tree-tn,nk. Checkers,, in blind rage, emptied his rifle into the boughs oyerhead, flung it down, and, utterly regardless of the shower of arrows, dashed ~traight across the open to Gordon Keith's cover. · "Go back-go back, you fo~ !'' roared Keith and Sir Richard together. "The case-the small syringe!" cried Checkers, gasping. "Quick! Lobangu has been hit! Give it me, and keep these fiends off ! " Sir Richard swore a great oath of rage and pain. Ik was a man who neYer used ''language," and heartily despised those who did; but he cared for Lobangu as for his mrn brother, and the words were wrung from him. "I'm coming! Go back!'' he cried again. But Checkers held on. ''Stay there!'' he gasped. "Two of us, must keep the hrntes in check ! Quick, the case !'' ' Keith rushed to meet him, and thrust it into his hand. and at once resumed firing at the spot from which the arrows were falling thickest. "Keep him moving at all costs!'' he yelled after Checkers' flying figure. When the latter reached his tree once more, poor old Lobangu had collapsed, and was lying on his side. Guided by some instinct of half-forgotten memory, Checkers fell on his knees beside him. and sucked at the wound vigorously. · Some acid poison burned and blistered his tongue, but he spat it out, and sucked again. Then, wrenching open the case, he filled the syringe, and, plunging the hollow needle deep in the wound, pressed the plunger, sending a minute jet of the strong permanganate well into the lacerated flesh. Lobangu was a big man, in prime condition and perfect health, and Checkers did not hesitate to give him a second injection. Then, holding up his head \Vith one hand, he unscrewed the top of his flask with his teeth, and poured a liberal dose of fiery spirit down his throat. The muscles of the throat were drawn and contracted, and it was with the utmost difficulty that Checkers could t>rce the spirit clown. At last, however, Lobangu gasped and choked and swallowed. and Checkers, on the chance that the poison might be akin to some of the deadlier snake-poisons. for which alcohol or ammonia are the best-known antidotes, forced more and more of the spirit down, till he had the satis BR\VF .\:'\D BOI l> \\. E!'KL'i. rtion cf eein" Lob:mgu gr at ~I est e'tpand in a d "P I ,Im.I.!1011. Mt nwh1le. the rifle v.cr<-bl :zing away on the far i<lr of the lire, and the pignm. , , ho, though tread era I ar tl cruc.l, were ahsolutely fcarlcs.,, w,1 re losing so m ny men that they , ere comp lled to retire to the highe t bran hes, irom whi h their fire, of nccc~s1ty. decreased in a,·curacy and volume Checker still on his knee by Lobangu, n ade him S\\ llow the ren·ain of the contents of the Ila k, and c ntir t ...d to t'1ump him an<l kick him and pound him back into ensi tilit) The poi on. ti ough strong and quick 111 its action, wac; dearly e, nescent, and it I' e a c<::rtair. ruc.i I po11 t wa\i pas cd 111 afety, the effects quickly worked off. The co1 tnch.: I m11,cle5 relaxed, an 1 with a return of consc1ou nE'-, ..ame a rett m of bodily \Igor. Th \\ound it<il'lt \i11rned p,mfull), and wa badly rnll.1mc.cl, Iut no SO('ner ,, ~ I ol an u able once more to realize h;s urro1mdi 1gb th:111 hr ".1~ :ihlc to ,tagger to h1 ftd, and, after 1nomcutary di zinc s a, tl sickness h·d left him, he ,~as. to all intc-r• and purpa e , a \\hole man ag in Had 11ot ( l1eckers emplc_ved such drastl'c re. ncdies, hr would undoubtedly h ve n Hr rcco~cred from the t te of co 1 mto \\ hich he ha<l fallen. But, having hccn dr. ggecl an I pummelled and kick d out of that \\ ith the ~trong a11tidc1<.' de- stroymg the noxious effect of the po•son in )us veins, he W:15 little, if any, tht 1\0rse. ",·e. r tbmg, oh.I man I" ga ped Ch ckcrs And, kanmg against the tree, he laughed hysterically l.oban~•. "I' e !llind v.a not )Cl quite dear :is to \\hat had happer-t•d, fl.It lm rib!? tenderiy where Iinker had been plaving on them energetically with boot and fi•t and rifle- butt. "\\'ow, M'lolo !" he said ruefully. "Surely I have been lecp and in my drc ms I fell among evil spirits, who bc.;t me, for I nm very sore." \\'hueupon Checkers went into another fit of laughter. As a math.r of fact, the tension once m,er, he was as near hysterical as he harl e\•er been in hi~ Ii fe. Suddenly Lobangu held up his hand warningly, and signed to Checkers to listen. Far av,ay over the frirest there.: came a I w, thun i rous mo:1t1i1 g 1101sc, like the roar of some gigantic cataract or the ocean surf pounding on soml' lonely island I each. Even as the) Ii tened 1t grew louc'er and louder, 111-r ing momentarily in volume, the 11ott• rising as it approached. Keith and ~ir Richard h<l evid1.1 ti) he rd 1t, too, for they were shouting to the hearers. "\\'hat ic; 1t, Lobangu ?" aske 1 Chc..:ker , in an awed whisper. , Ile had never lteat<l a c;ound quite like it, and wa inclined to l l CH that a he:ny flood w.s surgi11g through the forest. "The winds, ?II'lolo-the evil spirits of th winds r. c broken loo c, and otltin , may hve in the f c of t'1 m. They,tear up hig trees, such as thi , and tl'akc sport with 1t, flin ing 1t thi , ) and that. and ca tmg it l>efore them, a, I \\ould east a thrO\\ mg-5pcar. Hark ! The littk men up a'iovc u~ have hearc1. and umlcrstancl. They knO\v the po,,tr of the \\·md-c;pirits, ti e d,,clk·rs in te trce-t p ,." < hcckcrs. accustomed to Lobang11' quain. mode of talki•1r.-, im gined th l he meant thev wer ·11 for a bad •ropic~I storm. an<I '-hruggccl hi• shoulders. Tht:re was nothm., p:ir ticularly , larniing about that. ' The pi rmie~. hO\\ , e.-, \\...Ce in c'wi?us terr,Jr. They p 1d 110 furthrr hcc<I to the intruder-; below. Ko• n arr " , fired, but ( h ck rs could '1<'ar ti 111 ) <'l ·11r: t nrl rrc.:.111i11g •11d now a11<1 a1; •n h.: r ugl t a gl nips , f tran,.,r tunt d figures I ar, ng ;:>I'd s,,i'l ,in fn 1 b.-ai h to hra11d1. like so many 1/g apes, evidently hent on one t'1 11"'. an I enc thini:: "OI} fli ~ht. The r ~c at n I ich they tr,, 1 d , •c; ;, t un ling. \ m·rn would );-1 ! on , bra, cl, ,,1th a flying kap, al'J hefore he had time to o,erbalance hunsclf, a second spring ,,ould In I l•i a 1-rmer bough, twenty or ven ti ,rt) t t 1 )OI I, h own ,mp tu and t t ,;t1 ht drop a1ehng I ,m. ,nd thc.n 011 agam fo c. itch 1,oth r bt nch dth I I cb o,erhc. . In pl tes, too. , hen the gap \\ere too big for a i !;pring I• r •ice I that a rC'ugh ~ ind of flyi11v,-tra1 ez pended •1 r. "lrnlc thorig,-wa !uni{ tru 1 tl·c topn brm•rl to I k1 e thL intenal ( le rlr. th~ c , e hi h r b f th tnh P'"C.P Ped for "a eof tra pc d lug 1, , n re wcs that o 1~, too. e:r I ,, st lou h, ,, re never I '>5 than 11£ty fc.et ground .\s an a<.rl"\iatk per ormr nc it \\:l~ 111 ·rv I u }t. hos lh in.,, wmgiog, I 'l!ling figur 1 1 lie n thin of •t rh( night \ ·a--••ii brca•hl ~ ly q\11t' but the o 1c mu g m o the torm \\as incr ing r pill'). !'re c nil) ( l1ec.k rs •• It • ..:l'II putt of • ir III I i-, f ~.:. q 1ckh s ct tl h)' a I, 1t c l :J!, p•IIT of , and !he',,,I oif tht toi> of t'tt b g honfir , a11' droH a • ta~t ,f heat d n 1,e in hi l'ircctarm. 1 hen he h ard Kc th shouting, •1cl an in !ant later ~ir Ric\Jard cane n1 h•ng up. "Ouick, for Ile Hn's ,1ke, or we're done I Gra'1 the nri 5 an,! ~bl nkd I I'll man ge. poor old Lob:u,gu amt.how! I<; he <til! alive•" "\ er) 1mch alhc, and fit as , fiddle,' ried ( '1etkers, ''h rrin, an i•1i:J r1c<l houldcr I" .\nI he g .ibbe I th t, a rifle . Lc',anr.u. , if to a crt 111, return to rI . had alrc-:idy ~ izcd th bl. ,k.:t and cmpta~ l th c;tuffing ,ut of ti r1 It ,, c! ere. \\Ork, for the einh~r "er, ll<!g111n11 , •o sc-1ttcr und •r incre, in , puffs of \\md, and each bl t,k literaJI) br tied ,,ith poi r! thorns, The e ,,as 110 ti1 it' to pick the e out, ), wc\ r; ani, , r r ping then itt a lmndk, \\ ith as much ca 1•io11 a" l•e coul '. hc p·c-ktd them U'D, an l raced after Ke1tl• and th<' bear , \\ho \\c.rc. heading throu,;h the \\OOd .it right angle. to tndr pre, iou5 c ur e. "What on earth's up?'' ga~ped Checker a he ran along l ~ ide ~ r R ich1rd i11 the track of the her . Tl-ey were goini:; as h rd a,; they ccmld and words we.-e prcc-or•us. "( )Clone 1" grunted Sir Richud. "Hurry!" ( hccker~ ran t II h felt , f hi heart m 1 1 bur t; , en yet Ile did 1't under tand quite what \\a~ h ppenmg. Sudd nl) tre moan ro e to a \'; iling shriek, a if, ind td, I bang,1·~ pirit:. of the wind were abroad intent on mi chid. "DO\rn on your fncr I'' roared Sir R1diard; and flung hin If en hii; stomach bthin<l the trunk c;{ an enormou tree. Check r dro1 pcd clo e beside him, and a h did on thin dronttl through the air p t his head, l"h a gigan• c hnrnet ft 1,aso't a l,ornc•: it w a r.naiped off tree-trunk, I\\c.nty feet Ieng, of ohd timber, tra,..chng at somethi1 g hke six y mil an I ur He h~kr I it c,-. ~h again t :mnthi>r em thirt} pr<l \\a\. and I ll it lik a carrot, anc.1 be ,an dun!) to undl r,-tand. He rbke<l • gl:lncc under his arm, an~ ~ , He hu , l • fire th v ad bu It , ept b <lily a\\ a) into the darkn . a•1 I thtn he hurrO\\e<l down a close and flat 11,to the t 1rth IK co1•ld, f r the air \\3S athe , ith rr.i ile, of all and i ,. rem a trc c,~nty f ct l11g'1 to pie. cs o leans, arn:I h1 Tr pa 01 ti e ,,.. inJ ". tc.rnf ·. Brr th n , c,u1 \\I h one.' flee pre l a III t tt c grc, m<l and 1 1 ti• cc- p,u. t , e I c ter of tht mon ter rooh. :iri •1 , wh1 h th lh11•v t'ie1 1 ch c ,,·,, "ell , i ,h 1mpo s1bk. To m l,e elf heard. e,en I.,. ~c.rtam ng, utte.-Jy o. CI k r c't I g ncl c'n, eel f r ck r life, d1 1ng fi and !ocs i'l o th earth al out ti c. ro • He kne, that it \\a~ a thousand-to-one chance if he cam BRAVE AND BOLD WEEKLY. :n >p :h le sst 1e 1d 1e .ie se ·c, >ff ke 'ir es Is r~. VO Jy to :et pl< l. rs, !ir ng :re en :d, is ng ,us JCtic tty ,ty ay, ire .nd as pe, rk. ith ,m 1e me out alive, but there was no time to be frightened or sorry, things happened so quickly. He heard dully another awful rending crash, and realized rather than saw that the monster behind which they had taken shelter had snapped twenty feet from the base, and now trailed out slanting above them, hanging to the remains of the trnnk by a few feet of bent and splintered wood. the topmost boughs broken off and hurled far away or buried deep in the soil behind them. If the splintered wood gaye, the whole of the enormous weight must come clown on them inevitably, in which case they would be crushed into unrecognizable pulp. Yet they dared not move, even if they could have, for, once out oi shelter of what was left of the tree, they would have been whirled up and dashed against the nearest obstacle left standing. The shriek of the•wind was deafening, stunning; and then in a moment the tornado had swept by, an<l all was still agam. Too dazed and stupefied to move, they lay there for perhaps a quarter of an hour, gasping like fish out of water. They could not at first comprehend what had happened. \t last Checkers raised his head, and saw in the dim light that Sir Richard's mouth was opening and shutting. Ap parently he was talking, yet Checkers could hear no sound. The pressure on hi., car-drums had been so great that for the time being he was stone deaf. He shook his head, and glanced upward. In place of the dense, arching foliage shutting out all the heavens, to which he had been accustomed for days past, barring one broad, solid black line, which he could see no reason for, all above and around was open starlit sky lighted by a tropical moon, which was rising somewhere behind him, and there was not even a breath of air to stir the hair on his forehead. He shouted, or thought that he shouted, at Sir Richard, but he could hear no sound; and Sir Richard, who was gazing ahead, evidently failed to hear him, too. As a last resort, Checkers pulled at the other's shirt-sleeve to arouse his attention, and scrambled to his feet. .Sir Richard nodded and rose, too, and followed him out into the open. Suddenly they both looked back and stared. Whether their movement had set up the required vibration, or whether some other cause \\'as at work, they could not tell, but before they were a dozen. paces from their late shelter the massive fop lialf of the tree under which they had been crouching tore loose from the parent trunk. and the whole huge mass, weighing many tons, crashed down on to the very spot where they had been lying a few seconds before. But for that short interval of time, nothing on earth could have saved them from being squashed as surely as though they had lain under a steam-hammer. They looked at each other; then Sir Richard patted Check ers on the shoulder, and they solemnly shook hands. They couldn't speak, or, i:ather, both of them were as deaf as the proverbial post, so there was nothing else to <lo. Still keeping bis hand on Checkers' shoulder, Sir Richard turned him about. and pointed first north, and then right away round to the south, It was a marYelous object-lesson as to the full powers of nature's forces. Straight through the forest, as far as they could see in either direction, was an evenly cut, broad, open road, as neatly rukd as if it had been done with pen and ink on the map; two miles broad at least from edge to edge, aPd, barring a broken trunk standing i~olated here and there and shorn of its top hamper, as clean-swept as though an army ot men had been at work with axes and ropes and 1.,lasting-charges. The tornado, as is the habit of those wild storm-bursts, ha<l traveled· in a mathematically straight line of definite bre~.dth. On either side of that line the forest stood un touched and unharme<l hv so much as a breath of wind. But where the storm h·ad passed all was gone, swept clean out of existence-trees. pigmies, everything had been wiped out, as figures are wiped from a slate with a wet rag. So accurate was the demarcation of the storm-belt, that had Sir Richard and Checkers been able to run another twenty yards before it burst on them, they could have stood and watched the whole thing as saiely and securely as they could ha,·e stood behind the rails and watched a league football- match. Those twenty yards had made all the difference. Keith, Lobangu, and the rest were even now emerging from the forest fringe, staring at them in incredulous amazement; for that any human being could have passed through that inferno and lived seemed impossible-blankly unbe lievable. Not a man among the rest of the party had received so much as a scratch, with the exception of one poor fellow, who curiously enough had heen carrying the elephant-tusk, which he hatl taken from the bearer killed by the pigmies. It almost seemed as if that inanimate piece of ivory must have been bewitched, for having already caused one man's death, and come within an ace of ending Checker's career-, when worn by its original owner-it had been the direct reason of this third man losing his life. For as he, ,vith the other bearers, was running for safety, it slipped from its lashings, and the point caught in the ground, checking him. IIc stooped to readjust i.t, but the few seconds involved· made all the difference, betwixt life and death. Before he had even raised himself again to an upright position, a big tree-stump had coiile hurtling along end on, and literally dashed him out of existence-not a fragment was left of either him, the tusk, or the load he was carrying. Keith, after vainly endeavoring to make either of them hear. and having shouted himself hoarse in the attempt, made signs to them that they had all better camp where they were tiU dawn. ' CHAPTER VI. A THIEF IN THE CAMP, Long before daylight they were aroused by a tremendous red glare away to the southward, and saw that the forest on either side of Hie swept line of the storm ,\as afire in half a dozen places, the result undoubtedly of their own bonfire, the glowing cinders having been scattered far and wide for miles. Of their late enemies not a trace or vestige was to be seen. Doubtless many had escaped, and in all probability it was only one village or settlement, out of many, which had attacked them. Lobangu and Keith had busied themselves picking the thornlike darts out of the blankets, exercising the utmost care. The point end of each \\'as smeared with a shiny, resinous substance; but more than that they could not then discover. Keith, who was always interested in such maters, e,·olved a theory that they had acquired the habit of building their huts in the tree-tops for three reasons. First, that being inhabitantg of a forest utterly devoid of undergrowth, they depended for their subsistence on such birds, lizards. and nuts, or green food as could be found only among the dense foliage far from the ground. and so devised this plan in order to save thcmseh'es the labor of constant climbing up and down. Their second reason, he argued, was thnt unless thev chose to discoyer themselves and attack on their own accou~t, they were quite safe from any slaye-rai<ling parties crossing the forest in searcly of black ivory. And lastly, though brave hunters and fighters, their weapons were poor onei; with which to tackle wild beast~ hand to hand. Thl: spear, for instance, ,,as unknown to them. and consequentlv thev found enormous advantage in being able to shoot their ·quarry from BR\Vl a position of perfect safety, or c,·en la,•o it frcm above with long 1:iriats oi ra\\'hid\' The c theories Keith wa,, able to prove later on, much to his satisfaction; but Lobangu, to whom he expounded them-smc,· neither Checkers nor Sir Richard could hear decent!) as yet-looked profoundly bored, and expressed his utter disgust of "the ltttk red 1wopll's," :uul all that co11 cerned them, adding, a-. an afterthought, that if he did bother his ht•,ul about them at all, 11 would 111l'rCI) he to C'Xpn·ss a wish that they had all l>een blown to pt•rdition, or even fur ther. So l.:'.cith, in dt•spair, had to content himself with rC"clressing Lobangu's shoulder and taking the bandage'> off poor old P,·dro's rib, which'was knitti11g together .1gai11 firmly. For convenience ,akt·. they followed the track of the ~torm, only in the ren1rse direction, kcepmg just on the edge of the fore,t to avoid the sun's glare. Com l'rsaticm \\a, difficult, and Keith 50011 ga,c it up in <11,gu~t. Next morning when Checkers ,,oke, howc,er, ht• was glad to find that his hearing had returned to its normal acuteness, and Sir Richard's also. But ,,hat did puzzle him was to find that "hen he was ;;c,ing over the loads-it wa,; part of his business to check ti em at each march, and prevent pilfering a small round hox of chocolate tablets was missing, and also a pot of jam from one of the opened cases which held the week's supplies. The ja1r ,,as not of great account, for it was, in it~ way, a lmrnry: hut tl•e chocolate was a serious matter for on forced marcl•c . \\ ht·n 1t 1s necc~ ary to cut weight 'down to thl' !:1st ounn·, :1m) yet carrv enough to keep body and soul togeth,r. there i'l notl1ing ill the world like chocolate for sav111;:: hulk aml sustaining strength. \ ft<·r a thorm gh :::e,rch Checkers n.ported the matter to Keith "(. 1't make it out!" he said. ''\\'e've never missed mzything hdorC"; ~ml I ah,a)s thought that though rather a co,1anll_y lot ul d1ap~, the bl'arl'rs 'were as honest as they make 'cm" " lkllLr k,·,·p an<')'\' out, old chap" ~:ll<I Keith. "I shouldn't ~:.) an) thin~ al out 1t ju,t ) ct, or the men ma) think we're arc11<i11g them 11nj11,tl), ancl ~ulk. lt's po~ ,iblc they \\·ere dropped or mbbiil when we bolted ju t 1,cfo~c the storin came on.' ,\t the next halt. how(•vcr, S(lllll.! morr, things were mi,-sing -the remnants of a tin of crackers and an opened can of condensed milk "l suppo~e old Pedro can't possibly ha,·c thought that as an inv:i lid lw wa, cnlitkd to a few lmrnrics ?" said <. hecker:s doubtfully. Lobangu, ,,ho was sitting near, snorted indignantly. "Look ) 011, :\l'lolo, that i~ d1ild's talk, and only fit for children,'' he said scornfully. for ne,·cr under any eircum stances roul<I he bear to hl'ar :i wont said against his king of beasts. ''Sec' 11) lord j,; sick, a'ld has a pain in h•~ side. and, thercfort'. ,,hen one of thc~c low pcoplc"-indicating the bearers with a \\a,·c of hi._ huge )Id\\ "the t' lllC'II of uo tribe, finger th1 and that, thou mu l nc<'<lc; look • skance at my king of all beasl5. Jla,t thou \'Vl'r known him so much as lick one of the sticks <>f brown •m cctnes~ chocohte~or thrust his 11111zzk into the cow-juice in the shil'ing tin<; Again I say it i,; fool talk. A biscuit here and there, it m.1y be, and once in a ,\hi!C" I have given him of 1m· share of \\hat Untwana calls canned-horse; !Jut swectstuffs llC\cr!'' ,\11,I he brought do,rn his fist \\ith a tremendous bang on his knee, ancl took :;o large a pin,h of snuff that he w:ts comprllcd to upset his dignit) hy ncezing There was C('rtainly a Int of (0t111d common sense in what he said, and Checker-;, "ith a mental apology to Pedro, deter mined to kt:ep ,,atch that night. There wa<; a c!c:ir m<;<>nht sky, thou~h under tile fringe of the forest bchmd them It "as very dark. l he.:kc.rs la) rolled in his blan~et, blinking dro,,l'-ily, and trying hard not to go to sleep. The bearers, worn out with a long day's marchmg, were curled up a little way apart. :'.\o,, and then one of them \\Ould stretch himself and roll over, babbling a\\ay incohcrrnth 111 his sleep, or, after the rather disconcerting manner of his kmd. spring from his rug-\\ith an awesome, gurgling cry, mumble ~omctlung about ghosts and spirits, and promptly hll asleep agam. Checkers himself had dozed off once or twice, wakmg each time with a jrrk and a $tart, and starin~und. The third time, howevrr, it was something different \1/hich roused him, a noise faint but distmct-thc clink of a tin on an carthem\are vot, followed hy a slight rattling. He raised himself cautiously on one elbow and peered over the blanket to,,ard the dark background of the trees, betwixt him and which lay the pile of loads. \t first, his eyes hca,·y with :-Jeep, he could sec nothing, but after :. little he succeeded in making out a crouching dark iorm on all fours, and a glimmer oi something which shm,ed up whitely and uncertainly against the blackness be yond. He slid out of his blanket, gripping his revolver, and kccpin3'.low, <:o as not to ,hO\\ him elf again-st the sky-line, wri,:glcd his way forward, his heart beating in double-quick time for he \\a, prct111 n•rta•n he had one of the pigmy tribe to deal with, and any second might see one of tho<:e terrible poison dart~ flitting acro,s the mtencning space and pinning him in brea<:t or shoulder. \!ready 10 imagination he felt the sharp pricking, and then the numbing paralysis, as the dead!)' poison die! its work. He crept another four or fi,·c ,ards, his '1ngc.r on the trigger, ready to fire the instant he could II akc certain Another )ard, and, dropping the revoker, he rolled O\'er on his back and writhed in silent ,; 1,1smodi , buckle:;, 1 he thief ,,as di~co\·ercd cHtainly, and the thief ,ms an old acquaintance-Jemima I Iler ling hung in graceful and not over-clean festoons from her neck, and the bal'dagt· had been partial~Ji torn or bitten from the woumled arm, and trailed a ) ar<l or more on the ground behind her But that the wound had partiallv healed and the paw ,,as l'seablc \\ as plainly e, idcnt, for it clutched tight!,> a glittLring tin of mnlincs, while the Qther arm \\as insc:rted up to the elbow in the open store-box. She had c,idci;itly followed up the party on a parallel line of her O\\n. Instinct !·ad warned her of the approach of the tornado, and she had bolted for safety, rejoining the line of march ta•cr, and helping herself to rations of such daii,tie-. as took her fancy. Sht snitT,·d at t!1c sardi11c tin !\U~piciousl), then ginge~ly rcplacrd it, and ,,1th the other pa,, srooped out a quantity of ~01"1Jcthing which she licked at grccdil}, and which Checker, corrc1..tly gucs~cd wa~ the remams of a pot of jam with ,,hich the) had finished off the e\cning meal. He ~ot a hlankct from under a sack of food for the bcarerg, nd then, fearing that 1f he trii;d to tackle the job singlehanded he would makC"'R mess of it, he crawled round and waked l.o'>angu The latter, on!) too glad to find Pedro's char~ctcr vindicated, \\as as cager to c:atch and retain the proof of innocence as ( hcckcrs him5clf. Together they made a detour, and came up to Jemima from l chiPd: as a matter of fact, she \\as ~o intent on polishing off the jam that they could have walked straight up to her. \\'hen they \\en• within a c:ouplr of yards they sprang for\\. rd and \\rapped the blanket round her, dra,,ing it tight. \11 nl'tragcd jabbering follnHcl, and a ,;truggle in which Jemima proved c<nclu i\'cl\' that though 1,ot over large she was ;~n adept in the. art of rough am) tumble •trappinor. "Mmd the paw-oh, mind the pawl" gasJied Checkers, as he rolled oyer for the tenth time, with emima clawing, e r s r e s g e !1 h e h y y ch s, '-... etd ,'s 1e Ill 1g :r. rlt. :h lie as 1g, IlR \ VE \ND scratching, kicking. and biting in the folds of her blanket on top of him. "\\ow, M'lolo, how can 1 mind anything with this fiend of an ape thing? She is as strong as five coolie men, and ~lippery as an eel! Of a truth, I believe she 1s thine own sister," he gruntc-d. "And now she is trying to fasten her teeth in my leg. 13e still, thou imp! Ilold her fast, M'lolo, while I fetch a rope to bind her. Thou hairy she limb of darkness-thou robber of the brown sweetstu/l', be still, I say !" And he brought down his hand with a resounding thump on the luckless Jemima's back. She, hy way of revenge, having managed to wriggle the uninjured paw ckar of the blanket, grabbed furiously at Checkers' hair, and tugged with might and main till Checkers howled himself hoarse with the pain and J,iughter combined. The row had brought Keith and Sir Richard rushing up; while the bearers, who had leaped to their feet expecting at the least a night attack, sloo<l round in a grinning circle. It was a fine fight, and from tl\e way Jemima stuck to it she was apparently enjoying herself to the utmost. At last. just at the critical moment, as Lobangu got a spare strap fastened rot1nd her waist, to which was attached a stout piece of packing,-cord, Jemima dragged away her paw, and with it such a fine handful of Checkers' beautiful locks, that their late owner gave a yelp of agony; and when at last he managed to ,truggle to his feet he had a nice white, bare patch just over his right ear, which glistened in the moonlight. Jemima was made secure for the ni&ht by anchoring her to a tree-stump. For the next day or so, though graciously accepting offerhgs of food, especially anything sweet-tasting, she resent<'d any attempts at personal intercourse, or undue familiarity, with a double row of strong, white teeth and a quick-grabbing paw. One of the bearers. in fact, who in an unwary moment tried to tease her, found that the teasing was being done by the other side; for Jemima gripped his wrist, jerked it to,,iml her, and left a very perfect impression of half a dozen fangs before he could wrench himself free. Gradually, howe,er, she realized that kind treatment and an occasional spoonful of jam and other delicacies were not things to be lightly despised. Also, curioll',ly enough. she conceived a Yiolent affection for Pedro, anci he returned it. At the outset mutual respect had been established by a mutual exhibition of ivory; but after a few preliminary skirmishes affairs adjusted themselves. Pedro liked being stroked, and-it may have been the latent feminine cunning in Jemhmi.-she like<l stroking him, or pretended to. She had very soft, velvety paws when she chose, and after one or two trntative trials of the stroking proces~, varied with an occasional mischievous tug at his co;:it, which evoked a growl; she discovered that so long as she re1p,1incd on her best behavior Pedro would Jet her ride on l1is back, on condition that she did no more domage than hunt for imaginary fleas by way of amu~ement. That ~aved her tbe trouble of walking; and Jemima frankly loathed walking exercise just as much as she loved jam. So the moment she o-ot bored with the march, she would perch herself on Pedro'; back and hunt diligently. Dy the time the expedition had reached the borders of the swamp-country. Jemima had become so attached t_o the various members, and had got on such good terms with Pedro, that no one dreamed of chaining her up-except at night, when they were compelled to do it ~s a precaution~ry measttre, for she was an inveterate and highly expert thief. CIIAPTER VII. TUE DESERTED \'!LLAGE. The snn came up through the mor'.1ing mists on a s;c_ne so utterly dreary and desol;ite, t~at 1~ gave G_onlon h..e1th the impression that he was standmg m the midst of some T.., BOLD WEEKLY. :, primeval swamp ages and ages before the earliest man had put in an appearance on lhe earth. Such a scene and such a swamp as must have been the lurking-places of the huge winged lizards ancl the mammoth reptiles af long ago. He stood leaning on his rifle and peering forward throug·h the writhing, swirling mist-wreaths as they floated upward. Somewhere beyond lay the island-dotted w,iters ~f Lake J\I'Iama, the mysterious, uncharted, unknown lake wh1~h only five white men before had ever set eyes upon and lived to record the fact. And one of those five, if lie still lived, was held a prisoner on an island far out behind the mist; the man who had sent that strange cry for help across the wild mid-African i,wamps and forests. Major Mainwaring'~ record and reputation were known all over the world-a keen ~portsman; a fearless leader; cool-headed; a man of indomitable courage, whose original research in scientific matters had caused honor to be showered thick upon him-a silent, almost morose figure-a man accustomed to be much alone-slight and spare of frame, but toughened and hardened by exposure and hardship in all the lesser-known corners of the earth, from Cape Chegluskier to the 1fagellan Straits. Such was the picture of him that Keith had formed in his own mind, based on the one and only time he had seen him. Had that strange message come from any other source, Keith would have regarded it either as one of the sensational yarns which native rumor loves to spread and distort, or the outcry of some poor, lonely, fever-ridden Englishman in his de lirium. - Dut, coming from a man of Mainwaring's stamp, he felt that some strange, ominous secret lay behind it, and that the danger, whatever it might be, was a very real and imminent one. The words themselves, too, had not been distorted by the picturesque, native imagery of the messenger. They were concise, logical, and pregnant with sinister meaning. The dying man's account, too. had been clear and detailed, and, so far as they had had a chance of verifying them, accurate. The man had spoken of a dwarfed race using poisoned arrows in the big forest-belt, and they had met them and suffered from them. His estimate of distances, too, had proved tolerably correct-were correct, in fact-but Keith, pressing on by forced marches in the hopes of arriving before too late, had reduced the man's estimate by four days' march. Had the message ran-"the white men throughout tl1e Central and \Vest African Hinterfands are in extreme peril," Keith would have believed a11d understood at once. He hacl been following closely the_ current of events. in that li1.~lek11ow11 and mysterious regxon, where the commg of a tri ial war or a fanatic uprising can be forecast by a hundred and one insignificant facts; mere trifles in them~eh·es, but sure warnings to those who know how to profit by them. He was perfectly aware, for inst;mce, that there had b~cn a migration of the remnants of some of the most fanatical Arabs and Moslem fighting n1cn from the Southern Souclan across the ~outhern edge of the Sahara. He knew that these gathered groups had been drifting across Africa hy degrees ever since the time of Atbara and Omdurman, and that they had as their objective the region of Northern Sokoto and the whites throughout tl1e region of Northern Sokoto and the Senegal frontier; that they were well armed with modern weapons of precision, and had plentiful supplies of amnmnition which had mysteriously found its way into that ungetatable territory. The mist thinned rapidly, but Keith still stood staring out across the water, now just dimly visible, lost in thought. A touch on the arm roused him, and he found Lobangu at his elbow. "Come, Untwana, my father," he s~id, in a deep voice. "I have somewhat to show thee," And he pointed tllfough the mist-curtain with his spear. "The messenger-the man of mv people-was a true man, and his talk was good talk. Come, thou, and see with thine own eyes." Tll BR.A.VE A. 1D BOLD \\ EEKLY. Keith followed him mechanically, still busy with his own thoughts. \\ hen he next looked about hun, seeing that Lohangu had halted, he found himself in the midst of a ruined. squalid, deserted collection of native huts which had hitherto Leen hidden by the swamp-mists. The huts, such as they were, were rapidly falling into decay, and were of the t}pe common to fishing communities who dwell by lakes or rivers. At one time it must have been a fairly large and prosperous settlement, for there were the remains _of three or four score dwelling<:, though barely a dozen still stood. iiorcover, they had been built in an orderly fashion in a double row, with the entrances facing on to the main path or street, and the ground round about bore traces that it had once been more or less cultivated On the lake side of the. ,·illagc half a dozen crazy. brokendown jetties jutted out into the ,,ater-things half-mudbank, half-timber. Keith tripped on something hard, partially hidden by the weeds. It was a human skul1 ! "The kraal of the peoples ,,ho verc smitten ,,ith the slceping-death~is it not so, Untwana? The people among whom the N'klana worked with his medicines, trying to heal them and stay the sickness, until those others came and carried him away yonder?'' "By Jove, Lobangu, you\·e hit it!" exclaimed Keith, suddenly wakened into renewed energy. "The reek of the mist is stiflingI Is there anything else to be seen?" , ''Surely, my father, else had I not disturhcd your thoughts. Sec, it is this way. ~o farther than the lake shore." They passed between two of the ruined huts, and stood at the water's edge. A few long-deserted dug-out canoes ,.,,.ere drawn up on the beach, and by one of them lay a piece of sun-bleached, weather-stained board, propped up against the bow of a canoe, as though to make a conspicuous mark for any chance passer-by. Its surface was deeply cut and scarred with strange markings, into which had been rubbed some of the black Jake mud to make them show up more distinctly. "By Jove!" exclaimed Keith, stooping clown to examine it more closely. "Picture-writing, as I live I I'm hanged if I can make it out, though," continued Keith, as he moved some stones which ha,) been placed again~t it to \,edge it firmly. "There. are three boats, or canoes with men in them, and a sun rising from the fake, I suppose. That thing, there, is a hill, w'ith two blobs on it, and--You read it, Lobangu, if you can." ''Look you. Untwana, this is the meaning: First, thou seest the mark there, three strokes and a curved line. Of a truth thou knowest it well." "The Etbaia tribal mark, of course-I see-that's !he poor chap's signature, and this is his handiwork.'' ''True, Untwana, this is h.is message. Below, again. you will sec men fighting with a spear. The other is a man firing a gun. See, he holds it out before him, and the other figure, that \I ould be the white man. l\"'klana. for there is a co,•ering on his head, and see, again. he is falling, and is wounclcd. but not dead, as is the man beside him. Then there arc three boab full of men, traveling eastward. and over the lake toward the rising sun, as thou saidst; and they go to a high island on which are dwelling-places. They would be the huts, built one upon the other, of which he spoke, Untwana. It is there that X'klana is kept prisoner.'' "I see," said Keith. "But what on earth are those other two suns up abo,·e the fight?" "That means two days. Two days' journey eastward across the lake, to the high island, Untwana.'' Keith noddl'<I. '·Two days' journey eastward, and rJremember. too, Lobangu, that he spoke of many islands on the way, coming and going, so close as to be within swimming-distance one from the other. \Vas it not so? Also, he said that one end of the islands was low and wooded, and that the buil<ling in ,Yhich the yello" skinned people, "ho wore mask dwelt, and in which N'klana was a prisoner, was built of stone, Lobangu, old friend, we have a tough figh~ before us; aye, and a dangerous one. too, fc?r ~Ye fight agamst a power u11 known. Yl't I t11111k that 1t 1s a fight of cunnmg rather than of armed men; the fight of the fox rather than the lion. Though there will be hard blows exchanged before the end comes." "\\o,, ! l'nt,,·rna," said Lobangu, "my snake also has spoken to me in the dark hours befor_c the <law•'.• or per chance I dreamed dreams. For lo! twice and agam have I ~een the same thing pictured before me on the hlack curtain of the nrght. I heard a voice calling to me, Untwana, through the dark11css. and the voice was thy voice. And thy face was pale pale as those whose spirits walk, though their hodic are helow the grnuml, and round the eyes were great red rims, all sore from want of sleep, and in thy hands was a rifle. the barrel much fouled "ith constant firing. By thy side lay the Inkoos and M'lolo, and methought they were dead, for they lay without breath or movt'mcnt. 'Y. et again there was another figure, all white, with red~circlcd eyes, and a face all covered with strange scar;;, and very thin. \\ cak, 'he was, Untwana, weak as a month-old child. Only the eyes of him lived, and they~lowcd and smoldered like fire. "Loudly didst thou call, my father, and from afar off I, thy black dog, heard thee, and came. Then, for a \\bile, all was blank. but there came a great rushing of wind in my cars, and I was mo\'ing swiftly over the earth through the night. ).lcn sprang up in front of me, but I dro, c at them with a shout, and they vanished. 1Iy hreath came in great gasps, for I was hard pressed, and round my\\aist was slung a bundle. And then, Untwana, there was water, much water -and-1 remember no more I" His \'Oice, which had taken on the kind of sing-song note, which always betokened that his mind was far away, broke off suddenly, and relapsed into his usual deep tont•s. "I have heard.•Lobangu," said Keith thoughtfully. "Now let us return to camp, for there is much to be done, and many things to make ready against that which is to be.'' CHAPTER VIII. llIROUGH THE ;\IISTS. The lake shore wns far astern of them, for thty had been paddling since an hour before noon, and the mosquitoes, and a myriad other kind» of insects hung round them in clouds, making existence one· prolonged misery. Twice Checkers, in despair, had plungccl over the side of the canoe ancl hung to the low gunwale I\ ith inst his cycfl and nose above water; and the bearers were ·tortured i1early to ma Inc, as they worked at the rough-hewn paddles. They had chosen the three most water tight am! ser\'icl'ahle canoes of those left de~ertcd on !he lake shore. \II leaked like sieves. but hy con taut balin!{ it \\3 po sible to keep them not onl} afloat, hut romparau,·e!y fret. from any dangerous amount of water. In the fir~t was Keith. with I.obangu, picking ::i conr~e amicl the various reefs and island<. Checkers, Pedro, and Jemima came next, and Sir Richard, in the largest canoe of all. brought up the rear, \\ ith most of the heavier baggage. The bearers were di\'idcd e,·enly between tht• three, and worhd the pac!dles. Timar<! dusk 011 the following; day Keith signaled ti ·1 he had nr,'lagcd to pick ou the island \\ ith the ai<I of 111 gla,-.e . It lay ten or twel,·e miles ah,..ad of them, and a little to thl' nor'ard, and when first sighted was hull down. It was easily recognizable, for all the other bll ts had b~en mere low !)ing banks, of var}ing extent, on which trees an_d dense undergro\1th hacl found root from time to time. TJ11s i land, however, stood up bold!\' above tht• horizon, and "a, in part. at any rate, of a rock,; f0nnatio11. Keith took careful bearings, and pu hed on cautious!), He was anxious not tl'J arproad1 too 11ear, ~o 1011g as thu was any light left in the sky, for it was impossible to tell ' n: fi s e~ Ju m jo ti; w ut li al ~ f fo n d \\ m sl ch co "th w A, wj alt a ai 111, of ru BRAVE AND BOLD/WEEKL/ what sharp eyes might not be on the watch from that com-So tired were they, indeed, that they did not even trouble manding height. And men who were possessed of a supply themselves to prepare a meal ; and a camp-fire they dare not of modern magazine rifles, would presumably have modern light in spite of the chill of the mist. Yet, though too tired field-glasses also. • to be hungry, they ,vere nearly dead with thirst, and Check- All through the stifling afternoon the bearers had piddled ers and Lobangu volunteered to search for a spring. The sullenly, and the others had sweltered at the steering oars, dead man had told them of the existence of one in the lower each with a dense gray cloud of mosquitoes and flies around end of the island-a clear spring of fresh, sparkling water, him. good to taste-and this they needed badly, for the water of the The sunset hour here, as on all lakes, was the worst, and lake itself was so bad, and so reeking with decaying weeds most trying of all. For then to the mosquito forces are and the gases produced by decay, that Keith had issued an joined legions of sand-flies, which settle on the ears and nos-order sternly forbidding any bearer to do more than rinse his trils, and eyelids, till men fling themselves down, and roll mouth with it, and that only as a last resource. with the torture of their constant attention. Lobangu and Checkers groped about in the chill mist, until Six miles away. the sun just dipping behind the western they found -that which they had been looking for. ·It cost horizon, Keith called a halt at a small islet, and all of them them a box of matches, and many bruises, but in the end they instantly plunged into the water up to their necks, splash~ filled a couple of canvas-buckets, which they carried, and, ing their sore and swollen faces to alleviate the pain. having marked the spot carefully, and drunk freely them- The lake for the most part had proved to be shallow, with selves, they returned to camp. unexpected deep holes here and there. In fact, it "vas literally Sir Richard and Keith took a long pull each, and the rest little more than a sunken swamp. The weeds in places were was handed round among the bearers as far as it would go, almost impassable, and delayed them terribly. Keith emerged two of them being despatched to replenish the suJply. They from the tepid water and once more took careful bearings, all turned in just as they were, and within a few minutes were for the mist was beginning to gather, and he was afraid of sleeping like dead men-the sleep of utter exhaustion. missing the island during the night, while an approach in An hour passed-two hours, and the dense chill mist still daylight was out of the question. hid everything at a distance of half a dozen paces. \\Tith the darkness they pushed on once more. The canoes Then from the undergrowth beneath them came a faint were compelled to keep close abreast, for it was hard to see crackling sound-the sound of a man treading cautiously more than twenty or thirty yards. and stealthily, who places his foot accidentally on a rotting Jemima, accustomed to th~ higher woodlands, shook and twig. shivered in the damp, as she sat in the bows, her teeth Silence. And then once more sharp ears might have chattering; and every now and again she gave vent to a caught the gentle rustling of parted leaves and a low murcough, like some asthmatic old woman. muring of subdued voices calling in whispers one to the Checkers wrapped a rug round her, to keep her warm, and other. finally coaxed her to go to sleep. All around was the strange, But among those tired, sleeping men there were no listeneerie hush of the mist, broken only by the faint chunk, chunk, ing ears; even Pedro, who had slaked his thirst at the spring of the paddles, as they swung rhythmically, and the occa-pool, slept heavily like a log-an unnatural, stupefied sleep. sional splash of an unseen fish, disturbed in his sleep, or Of all of them, there was only one living bein~ awake and frightened from his favorite feeding-ground. alert. Hour after hour they forced their way along through the Jemima, who detested water, and had quenched her era- impalpable white blanket, which hemmed them in on all ving with a handful of berries snatched from a shrub nearsides, utterly worn out with the labors of the day, and with by. Wrapped round with a piece of sacking purloined from constant watching. an opened case, sh~ was perched in the fork of a tree above Checkers' head, and she alone saw what followed. The paddlers stuck to their work mechanically. Half of She alone saw a dozen men in loose, blue clothes steal them were paddling as thcy1slept, and Checkers, with aching from the undergrowth, each carrying a rifle slung across his eyes, plied the steering-oar, now this way, now that, and ;. • b anathematized them in whispers in every dialect he could back, and a heavy machete at his waist cit, their faces think of. covered with cloth masks. And she alone saw that other Twice the canoes got separated. and circled round and figure which came after them, close at their heels, in loose, round in search of each other, not daring to call out; and baggy clothes of similar type, but all white, with a big, dark the last time this hapi)ened Keith lost his bearings, so be-cloak wrapped round the shoulders, and, having seen, fled up the tree, chatterin!2' an!2'rily, scared and indignant. wildering was that game of hide and seek in the mist, and ~ ~ they were compelled to continue 011 their course by guess-In vain she gibbered and grimaced at these strange men, work. and flung berry-stones at them from her lofty perch. They paid no heed, but kept their eyes fixed on the white- It was Lobangu who eventually came to their rescue. robed figure as he bent over first one sleeper and then According to Keith's calculations they must either have been another. within a stone's throw of the island, or have overrun it altogether. Lobangu cau!2'ht him by the sleeYe. At a sign from him-a mere movement of the hand-two ~ high men stepped forward and picked up Sir Richard, two more "See, Untwana. see! A light-a light over there, did the same to r-0 rdon Keith, and yet two more raised above the water !" '-< Checkers from the ground and bore them swiftly away. Keith looked, and there. sure enough. was a light, very The white-clad figure chuckled quietly, and, stepping across clim, very faint, and very small; but unmistakably a light Lobangu's body, stooped to inspect the stores. made by the hands of man, and it was far away to the right At a jerk of his head his other six followers came for- of them. But for the glimpse of it, they would certainly have ward. run on past the island, and missed it clean. He pointed to a case here and a case there-the ammuni- Keith immediatelv altered bis course, and the word was tion-cases-and as he pointed, so they were lifted up and passed to the othe; boats to paddle with extreme caution. carried off. Finally the two remaining men gathered up the In half an hour they were beneath the rock on which the rifles, and in ten minutes from their first appearance not a light was perched. Fallowing this round they groped their vestige of them was to be seen. way along, searching for the lower encl of the island, where they could affect a landing in comparative safety from ob* * * * * * servation. They found a place some half-mile from the rock, and ran the canoe ashore, utterly done up, and dropping with \\/hen Keith recovered consciousness, the mists had disapfatigue. peared, and the sun was blazing high overhead. BR,\VI: .\!\D BOLD \\ EEKLY. He had a racking. agonizing pain li<'hind tie e)c • and his mouth and throat ,,er<' parched and dry. In n state of scnibtupor he rolled over 011 one elbow with a firoan. 'This is fe\'cr,'' he muttered thick!} to himself, "and a jolly bat! c!o•e of it into the Liargain. It's my own fault for campin,:: out in thc,e beastly swamps without taking pro{ler precautions. I fancy a couple of cigan:tte-papers of quimnc will meet the cnse. Ouch! My hl·ad feels as if it would burstI" He 15trctched ou,t an arm, blinking heavily, and felt round for the medicine-chest which was generally clo,c to him; J,iut instead of the "ood,,ork, his hand encountered cool tone slab, smooth mid \\Om. lle tried again in a diffcrt'nt direction, ~ro1ting hlindly, for the mo,·ement cai:: eel him exquisite p:11n, and he ,~as forced to close his eyes tightly, and once ngain his finger:; touched nothing hut hare stone. He lay s,till for a while, trying to collect his thoughts, :ind then suddenly, without any continuous process of nrgumcnt, he knew. He guessed the truth :is surely as though J1e had stood by that lonely s\\ampside camp nnd watched the masked men at their work. His quick hrnin intuitively arrived at the correct cQnclu &ion, and with knov. lerJ~c a thrill of anger ran through his vein", momentarily ba111shi11g the kthnrgy uncl the racking pains. The intdlcet, the organizing power which he had foreshadowed as he £tood hy the lakeside, ha<l liecn at work, and he and the rC$t \\'l're m its grip as surely as Mainwaring hinu,elf. He ra{l'cd inwardly as he saw what a fool he had been in un<lerestnnating, or, rather, neglecting to take into account the enemies' extraordinary cunning and darmg. Things had been suspiciously easy so easy that lie ought to hnve gut"S~e<l he was I.icing lured into a trap. The picture-,\riting on the hoard-genuine t•nough, no doul,t; Liut why lt;id it been.allowed to remain th~rc i11 a prc,mincnt position? The light \'.hich had shown up so opportunely 'l\hen they were within an nee of ruuning past the island in the 111iht 1 The spring! Ah, that was \\here the intrl'ect hat! come in again. The strange being \\ho dominated the turbuknt fanatical tribes of the n·gion, and bent tlwm to h1~ \\ illhad reasoned coolly and accurate!), having kno\1 ledg of their cunning-had calculated \\ith mathcr.rntical ccrt.anty that they ,1ould try and dfrct a lancling at the lower encl of the i land, :ind that th ir fir,;t n1rc \1oukl he to look f r drit1kable \\ater, their own supplies !wing n;;iturally shortcrn d by their m:1rch across a 1,aterkss ,•('Jtmtry. Therefore the spring had been drugged saturated ,,ith opiatrs. And in their drugg~d stupor they had heen sci1.ed an<l tarrit cl off as ca~ily as an 011 I picks up a ficld-mou e. , "It is ca5y to be wi, fter the c,ent," Keith thou,,1 t bitterly. Then, ns .a fresh ~pa m of pain, the aftt•r result~ of the opiates, ~hook him, he 1·lenchccl his teeth a1HI forc,·d his br:iin to uork in nonnal, logical .chan clc;, and for td his (•yes to open. fqr he knew full \\ell that they were in deadly peril, and tliat it \\ouJ<l need all his nits and quickness and re ource to ,,in way out. Wenrily and dizzily lie Jookrd round him. He was in a small room of rnlid ma~onrr, lighted hy a single narrow lit of unglazed \\indow. On its inner ide it \'wl'> eighteen incht~ or so acros~: but the stonework sloped sharply, and at the outer (•dge of the wall the opening was barely large enough for a man's hand. The wall itself \Ills quite twn f1•et thick, the stom~s ~quared and trued as in the be~t snmplc of old Egyptian work. sa\\ ~ir Richard an J Checker b th I)ing loglike in n heavy stupor "hich they h ,d not yet thro,,n off Keith blinked Ht thrn1 unccrt inlJ, and looked mund for Lol.iangu II v. no• there, , nd for tl•e first hie 'nee !us a.:11 akening, Ktith ,,as consc1ou~ of a t,,int glimmcrmg of hope. Ile ruuem erod ,,h1t had I 1ppened it the ca ,. d )I jor l\Ialirnarmg-thc sl..ves and bearers had been trcatd as thin~s of no ;1ccou111. Only the ,,hitc 111111 had heen tak ·11 captnc. It \\as pos~ibk, of cour~e. th.it Loi:. ugu l11d 1,cen killed out of hand 1,hile still in his dn•ggtcl ._Ju,p: hilt it was more I rot able that h ha I 'mply be 11 i,;-r re n entity on account of his <lark i:kin. l f o-Keith smilrd grimly to him;eli in spik of hi,, p:-i11 Thr intellect the brain-the mo\ing spirit of , h t Hr da tare!) ·heme \ .i~ afoot had made his first mist;ike For Lobangu, free, nnd in full pos" 1 n of hi \\ ond rful trengt11, might prove their ah-at1011. For h<' , cun111n,:the old warrior-cunning . s a fox, and thourh a frght wa~ meat and drink to him, he knr,1 \\cII ho,.,,· to Ii 101, wlwn the odd-; \\ere too h a,}, and to \\mt hi chan t ., r k i;wiftly, surely, arn1 1111cxpccte<lly. \\'ith a grc it effort Keith ro e ,giddily to his hands an f knees, and, \\1th the aid cf the \\ II, finally t<, tered to I i fret. The room swam round, and for time he , a compe1' d to cl sc his cyes 01 e me rc ..nd clin~ ,1i1h h -; fin er ilat! to the rreviccs ktwecn thl' sto1w, for support. Twice a sudden vertigo seized him, a'ld he ,. me , 'thin a'l ace of falling; but Liy dt"i;rees h gr w !;t d•er, a 1d th drug worked more famtlv 111 his l,lt1od, He lurchl',l the floor a,:id l.ickecl Sir Richard h avih 111 tl•e rt, A , ·n nnd :tf{ain he kicked 111111, with sa, age energy as hi~ trc.ng 1 came back to him, trying ta rou1e him, hut wuhcut st•c eess. Th<' 1•tm9st that he e uld get from h'm \\ s a ,;le I) gn nt and ;m incoh,-rept gru111l1l<· which died away in a heavy snore nl'd stertorous hreathm~. Sick v.1th fqilurC', he turned a\\ay, n<l, kncdmg dow1, hcgan lo pon1mc-l CheckC'rs 1111mcrdfull). He beat 111111 over arms and legs with hi \')' I It He trit•d artificial re,pjration; he bit Im c:ir and pulluJ at hi5 lmir in dumb frenzy for at n11y ~ec:ond the crisi migl t come. But (hcckcr s1ept like a log through it oil. In a last desrairing effort he tric.d to dr g him to tie ~n like \\lndow, hut tlw attt:mpt ,rn t mud1 f 1i t n I, and half-way ,1c.ross the flcor l,e reeled ,111d coll,LJJSCd with .. crash, striking hi~ head )1e "ily :mainst tic stou.. It was so that they found )ljm. There wa~ a sudden clt111k111g of bolt thl' 111,1ssiv1. door swung open. n1 I it1 the entra1 ce tc,od th ,ll it• clad figur ; I hind, iq the corridor, \\ re t\\ o mtn, their f ces n •k d, 1,1ch armed with a heavy (,oft r~volvcr. Keith sat up, an<l, l11,; mouth t lik1 a t d trap C'Hry partielc d strc1 gth and foru; ju h11n \\ cor 11trat 1 in an dTort for clear 1isio11. Ile 11,rnt ii to ll -to ,•5tm11te t)1e power witlt which I e had to play n g me with life am.I death and more for the •takt,. 11is ,•yes glittered, and tht') nH I the gl ,nee l f those oth1.r eyes-calm, in crutahle. implaea'ile as fate. The first glance told Keith th.it in part, at any rate, h1 theorizing had been accurate. The J11'H1 licfori: him ,,a0 an Oriental-a Chinaman, or, t lea. t. a m n of f hmese ori-,·n. The yellow tinge of the skin, the high clicck bon,~, the ~quarcnc·ss of the hcnd, nnd, al ovc all, the unfatho!T'a'Jlt: something \\hich lurked telund th d rk, sl nling e>~- Of furniture, there wa~ not so m1.1d1 as a wooden stool e~ es whi h no Europc:in C'an ever hope to read all told the just four hare w.dls. a slit of a window, and a massive door, tale of heritage derived fro1h the mo t on~ iwt ral"l' on the ra~tening,; of which \1cre all on the outside. earth. The floor and roof were both stone flagged and clean. He ,rn~ o man of no gre:it stature. 1rnt tough looking and As Kcith's sight grew more nccustomed to the light, he dccp-chc tcd. By far the most 1101 ccabk thing about him. thou with man the plan, the c ha\'e flick woul sche A the divid whit G acct•t K some .-pr "I the plied yo.~r the t It S\\Or og111 "F the fi have matt "I done rumo my scon· faik crccli picio Ke -otl "T repli defr Tl "ind th~ 1 when 'that ''B ~ath Briti died My earli go,c .. I to P were ,\hit what "I race. I wh the "hie 0\\'111 ce of or as n e d s d s vy ·or :.n ·s BRAVE ,\:\'D though, was his head, which was broad and on massive lines with the high brow of a deep thinker, and the mouth of a man of power and indomitable will. A dangerous enemy- the most dangerous conceivable-for there was the brain to plan, and the inflexible ·will to execute-absolutely callous of the cost, so long as the end was obtained. A man who would have hurled army corps to wholesale destruction without a flicker of the eyelid, so long as he felt sure that the last one would attain his object and so be of use in his general 1 scheme. And behind this force, this great intellect, lay a motive- the motive of revenge-hatred of the white races-not as in- dividuals-his mind was too large for such pettiness-but the white races as a whole. Gordon Keith read so much in his first glance, a,nd understood; and, understanding, knew that the struggle of his life had come, and that it would be a fight to the death. "You resist narcotics better than I should have expected." The English was perfect, without the slightest trace of accent. The pronunciation as good as Keith's own. Keith realized that his second theory was also correct-at some time of his life the man ha<l been educated in England •-probably at Oxford or Cambridge. "I once underwent a severe operation-it took quite twice the ordinary amount of anesthetics to put me under," replied Keith coolly. "Also, I only drank one small cupful of your spring." ''Ah!"-The single exclamation betrayed appreciation of the fact that Keith was an antagonist worth troubling about. It was as though two men beginning a duel felt their swords click blade on blade for the first time and each recognizcd his opponent's skill. "Frankly, I rather expected to find you as these others," the figure continued. "By my calculations, the drug should have kept you under for a couple of hours 111ore-not that it matters. "I sec that you are a clever man, Mr. Keith. Report has done you.no more than justice. I doubted whether, like most rumors, it would turn out to b~ an exaggeration; but I laid my pla-ns so as to be on the safe side. That is where I scored. T didn't underrate you. If I had. I might have failed. You, on the other hand, I fancy. scarcely gaye me credit for taking such pains, or you would have become suspicious and-well, you would not he here where I want you." Keith bit his lip when he heard his name so glibly spoken -otherwise he made no sign. "I was thinking chiefly of the question of motive," he replied. "Has an .\nglo Saxon ever knocked you_down or defrauded you of some imaginary right, or insulted you?" The yellow face 'f)ecame momentartly distorted by a whirlwind of passioi1, which passed almost as soon,as it came, and the voice which answered him was under perfect control. ''An Anglo Saxon did knock me clown once, Mr. Keith, and when he did so, I vowed that he and his race should pay for "that blow a thousandfold. "But quite apart from that there are other reasons, l\1y !father's father was a mandarin of the yellow jocket. The British o-ot him dismissed from office. disgraced. Later he died the" death of the thousand cuts cursing the British. My father was there, and saw it. It is one of my own earliest recollections. Later my father became military- governor of a province. "He was taken prisoner and shot hy the _expedition sent to Pekin after we had stormed your, 'Legauon, and-there were other things. Again I vowed vengeance against the white races. But first it was necessary that I should learn what my enemies knew. "I had money. I went to Oxford. where, because of my race, I was kicked and bullied and rn1de an object of scorn- I who am by rights a prince ~!!11ost of royal blood.. I took the kicks and the laughter snulmg. for I was learnmg that which I had come to learn. Later I \""1S compelled to leave owing to a scandal; but I cared nothing. I had begun to see BOLD \VEEKL Y. !9 my way. I studied at Munich, at Paris, at Bonn, in America, everywhere. Then I came here to perfect my plans and make experiments. "You begin to understand? Major Miinwaring is one of my subjects. I shall honor myself by making you and theS£. others subjects for experiment also. Though there is really no need. I know all that there is to know on the ~uestion. "Still, I will pay you the compliment of acknowledging that I thought you a man who might be dangerous-might prove an obstacle in my path. Therefore, when I learned that you were coming here, instead of avoiding you, as I could easily have done, I made the way easy, and trapped you. It was safer in the end. I left the board with its pictur~-message undisturbed, and so on." Keith nodded. "What do you call yourself?" he asked abruptly. "Li Yen is my name, Mr. Keith-.,-at your service!" "Well, Mr. Yen," said Keith, "I will give you a piece of advice. You are not without brains, and you can calculate chances. My friend here, Sir Richard Loseby, is, as you may or may not know, Governor of the Musardu territory. If anything happens to him, a flying column will be sent upcountry- a punitive expedition on a small scale-and you and your handful of ruffians will be wiped off the face of the earth. That will be even more inconvenient for you than being kicked." Li Yen smiled slowly, and wagged a yellow forefinger. "Mr. Keith,-Mr. Keith, that isn't worthy of you, really it isn't. You understand things far better than that. A month or two back I had the pleasure of reading an article of yours in one of the more serious magazines, which explained clearly and ably the dangerous situation on the Nigerian border. Your estimates of the :\foslem fanatics' numbers, their vow to exterminate the white man in these regions, and so forth, were admirably accurate. Indeed. reading between the Jines, I even fancied once or twice that you had-to use slang-'tumbled to' the existence of some such a person as myself. "It was that article which made me particularly glad of the chance to get you here under my own eye, and later to personally assure myself of your death. As I said before, a man with your intellect might have seriously inconvenienced me when the trouble begins. "As for your punitive expedition, of course the idea is absurd. I have but to raise my finger and wipe out a dozen ✓ expeditions on that scale. But I will tell you a little secret. On June 7th, two years hence, the British AJ?lbassador ~t Pekin will hang head downward from a pole m the public square, and die the death of the thousand cuts; and I myself shall be there to see it. June 7th is the date of my father's father's death. And-here is the gist of the secret-there will be no punitive expedition in that case. There will be no one to send-no one at all." 4t Keith felt a chill run through him. Here was confirmation of Mainwaring's message with a vengeance. Outwardly he made no sign. "Your conversation is becoming tiresome, Li Yen," lie said. "Fairy-tales don't amuse me. Go and dream Y,Our opium-dreams elsewhere." Li Yen continued to smile. "Britain is in danger," he said very softly. . And for the life of him Keith could not repress a slight start at the repetition of the words of the message. Li Yen noticed it. "Ah, my friend, opium sends strange dreams sometimes, <loes it not? I knew the message had reached you-another reason why you and your companions must not leave here alive. You do not believe me yet. Come, I will show you something-something that will make you reflect. "Take my arm. The drug has not quite worked off yet. You are weak." For an instant the idea crossed Keith's mind that he might 'be able to seize the yellow neck, and, getting his hands about 20 BRAVE t\~D BOLD \\'J:EKLY. 11, tear the life out; and he woulcl have done so glridl), for eyes t in a dead face, and the rims of them were woller he realized that in some \\ay this man \\as a menace-in and crim~on, and horrible to sec:. some way which he did not yet under!itand. Li \ en ri:ad Li Yen took out his watch, mi, stooping, gra pNl for th his thoughts, and smiled agam. man's wrist to feel his pulse In doing o he !lung bade the "Too \\eak;' he said. and touched his thro:it light!). quilt, drsclo ·ng a shrunken, emaciated fr me:, the. ,Hi t an 1 "l will come," s:'\1(1 Keith. "I can mana{iC to walk 1£ )OU arm no thicker than an ape' . Ilavmg taken the poor will go slowh-." wretch's pulse, Li Yen rose once more to an upright posi" As you• piease," said Li Yen, and led the way out. tion. "There i a hght collap to da) ' he 1d, , 1th th benevolent air of a respectable practitioner paying a visit to a favorite patient "I carried matter rathc.r furth<r than CHAPTER IX. usual yesterday, and the ,;italit,r I at a Ion ebb. A C.LIMPSE; OF TUE INF.ERNO. "It has been a most interc tmg expemncnt most usdul object lesson You can have no idea of the txtraordinary Once more th,·rc was a metallic clanging of bolts farther reserve fofl'e there 1s in that frail hmly. l\ny of )0Ur do\\n the corridor. , 11d Keith, reeling and staggering after ordinar}, a, erage lcth rgic Bnti hc.r , Mr. K ith, w uld Li Yen. hb ~cnscs in a whirl, feeling deathly sick nnd weak, hll\·e died on my ha~ds a hundred time.~ o, r. But th1 perceiYecl by a slanting ray of light ahead oi him that a door one" he kil'ketl the rnvcr over tlw body again with hi, foot had been opened, giving entrance to a cell somewhat similar as he spoke-"this one, rcgar I d from ti1 exp rim~ntal po'nt to that which he had just left. of view, 1s stupendous immense. Li Yen walked but two paces in front of him, head bowed 'Por eighken ,,hole months I hav inoculated him agam down, apparent!,> lost in thought. IInd Keith been in pos and agam, trying first one form of tl•e poi on, then am,th!'r; ~e sion oi his full strength he \\OUltl not have tiesitated a but always at the last n,nment I have be 1 careful to n tch moment, but ,vould ha,·e sprung on the man and crushed him out of the ja,1s of death JU t befor t \\ t o late .lii111 as cmc w 1ld cru,It a noxiou reptile, even though his "I h:ive learned an cxtr,1c.rchn.1r) ...mo·mt by c., refol ,1atch own life paid .forfeit the next instant. ing. The curious irony of the situ t"o1. is that r-i· jor Ma'n Rut. \\1:ak and enfeebled as he \\J$, to risk the attempt \\arin, here i or [ hould , , a I ·111 elf a kcc:n tud nt would lrn,·c bcrn n ere folly. Li Yen alone could probably of tins very uise .: \\ ith which I ha.,.e infected 1nm. I refer, hnvc tackkd him \\ith ea c, and, quite apart from tl•at, both of rnurse, to the sleeping-de: th, or 5lccping i.-!mes hcri liehircl and I dorc ,1crc the masked men with thc'r heavy hcri, ~ome p oplc call it ·• rc\oh-crs "\'ou toad l'' ~aid Krith thick!} ''If I had the trength 'It is here, Mr. Keith,'' said Yen, turnmg suddenly. to u e e,·en one hand I d str ngle ) ou h re and no,, ! Keith lurclml forward, ~upporting himself by the ,~all, Li \ en 11ndtkd. and enterer!. The cell was the same as his own, with this 'Of cour e," l·e as l0 •1ted. \\ ith the air of a nian agreeing difference, that it had its httle luxuries in the way of a ,1 ith the obv1ou . "Still, 1t i part of my pl n that )(u quilted silk mat and a bowl of food, and in one corner stood should sec thi~. It \I ill enable you to unckr•tand many a enntortnlile armchair. thing-;. To l•egin with, it ,,ill serve to give you a rough Li Yen motioned Keith toward thi-;, nt the same time idea of what )OU will look like your elf a 11101 th Iv nc . You standing with hi~ own back to the narrow window, so as to will make a good fight again l the inroads of lht d1 asc, I obscure mo,t c,f the light. Keith, worn out with his effort, can $CC that. You have the ,~ill-po,1er and the latent s.ink do,111 on tIll· cushions of the chair. strength, ju,t as he had. ''You find yourself eomfortaule?'' asked U Yen, with his •I w ~mile ''That is IDj favorite chair, Mr. Keith. For "Sir Ri.:hard, I ~hould !'3} \\Ould succum~ more c ily, as ,1ill the ) ung-~tcr. Still. 1t , 111 h<: 111l!'rcst1•1 , to try ti e the last eighteen months I han• rarely missed spending an effect on 1·nrio11s types. 1 sha'n"L kt•cp you '-O long, of !1our or ~o in it studymg. Do you know what I was study mg? It was this'' cour c. Siic or eight \\C;ek will b sufficient then I hall \\ ith .m abrupt movement h~· left the window, admitting let the disease take its n:1tural c ur~e. But \ ith lain waring here I have exercised the utmv t care. For instance, a strong heam of sunlight, and turn!'d back a portion of the ~ilk quilt with his foot, disclosing a face. The sunbeam fell for the next few days he ,lill be feel 01 the mo t 1101 ri~hin.._, full on it and Keith. with an exclamation of horror, clung and ustaining diet po siblc, and a httic \\11 e and spirits to the arms of the chair and gazed ~pellbound. will be !!}\en hnn evtr) h,o hnur till h!' ri k up trcnr:th It was the face of what bd onl'c heen !-.lajor l\1ainwar111g, again; thc-'1 I shall set to \\Ork en r,. 11. c cc. n the intrepid f'(plorer, the brilliant scientist. To begin with, "By the way, I havc.11't i11troducc·d you yet. I don't kn, w it was ashen white. It glistened with the beads of moi turc whet! er }OU ha\e m t bcfon• \fa"m rin " h cl n of exec ive weakness. There were gray shadow,; on the raise his voice, I ut h spoke , Cr) di~t;, ctlj, e~ ph izin • ~unken, wasted checks; the Iips were devoid of all vestige of each ~yllabl~ as though to giv!' it tune to pc.netratc. 111!0 t' e color: \\ hile from bro\\ to chin it was covered ,,ith hundred_; sick man·s !,ram-"~laiim armg, th1 : :\Ir C,ord n Koll . -literally hundreds-of minute ~cars, some half an inch \\ho, with two c1,mpan1cns, t me to tr) nd ckpriv 11e of Jong-small, scratchlikc slits such as might be made with n ) our ocict). Fe rtunately, I o, (.\ er, I , a a I to f re II ltlllcet. them, as you sec, Mr. Gordon Kc th-Major !\!aim\ rar· . M~ny were healed: lmt more were frc~h and angry-looking, The sunken C)CS gleamed. For a fr ction of a c.cond and m places the ~km had been excoriat<'d ,1here new sears Keith ~aw the fixed stare g1,c place to a I k ot mt lhg nc and old ones crossed an<l rC'crossed; and, in contrast to the \\'hich instantly fockcl livid white of the rest of the skin, they were horril,I to "Ile i;; too \\eak tll ,peak," Li Yen explained, ,~ith a liCe But the eyes themseh·es. Ah. there was where the clcprc tory ge~ture. "In fact, it j., sc\<.n-1 o, Pn" , ck horror lay!. !hey were burning with a feverish light, un~ mce he \\as able to peak \:0'1!'n .1tl). \t fir~t I u d tu naturally bnlh:1111 and fixed-that was the only word for it. mi~, our daily ch· t .'' Months a!1d months of constant fighting and constant strain, Keith gripped hi , h:iir ti~hter. A sud le 1 w,n e of dizz1 the frantic efforts of an indomitable wilt1 and indomitable ne ~ had c, ue 0\\.r him ~ m, and tl•c c. 11 bl <led rt t 'i v pluck to retain a grip on life ha~ fixed thtm in a hard, glaring of thi~ creature.-he , 'd ha,.<lh c I hi1 a m n , stare as though the musch•s of the eye had become rigid him. •\s 1t passed away he hcar<l Li Y cn'i; smooth voice rm through sheer dfort of ,,illing. ✓ mrg on: They were ~liv!'. tho~c e~ cs. for as they rested on L1 Yen "You car, under land that, und r tie circumst the) burned \Hth a fierce, nnpotent hate; but they were live have no objection to being frank with you. The fir t s11,'l, th i'l t th th :id a K b) ,i~ on i L • h· in M tr 0 lrl fo in tu 'ia tn r1 de BRAVE AND of trouble will be an organized massacre of all the white traders and ofiicials betwixt here and the coast. That part I shall entrust to the Arabs and Soudancse immigrants. They are ripe for mischief, and but for the fact that they regard me as a sort of l1igh priest and leader combined I should have had hard work to keep them in check. As it is, I have fixed the date of the massacre for next April. It will be thorough and complete. and T have no doubt that the newspaper editors will lie grateful for having something sensational to fill their columns with. ·'In June, the real campaign will commence. Hov.,-ma11y natives do you thiuk die c,·ery year of the sleeping-sickness in mid-Africa? The last official returns put the number at roughly two hundred and sixty thousancl-men, women, and children. "ln June my emissaries will begin drifting-into Britain in twos and threes at various ports. They will he Chinamen, but no one· will suspect them. \ score will come by different ships to the port of I ondon: others will go to Bristol, to Hull, to Liverpool, to :ill the big shipping centers. They will be deck-hands. curio-dealers. washermen. merchants, and so on: and by degre<.'s, singly and in pair~. they will drift into all the big towns and rnunty towns, They will have money, and they will he quite quiet ancl orderly. and no one-not even your vaunted police-will interfere. Each one of those men will carry a supply sufficient to infect fifty or a hundred thousand people with the sleeping-death, anti not one of them will be detected Wait!" He stooped and picked up tty the wings a small insect like a common house flv. and thrnst it close to Keith's face. '',\ fly, that is ali. Its life extends for possibly three days, and then it dies: but in its place, instead of one fly. there will be anything from three thousand to five thousand-its descendants. A sting from any one of these means infection, and infection means death, for your Western science knows no cure for l)eri-beri. "Each of my men will carry in a small glass vial two or three score of such fellows, ready to infect, to slay, and in the warmth of an English summer to increase and multiply ten thousandfold. In all the big centers my men will set these loose-ravening-eager for food. Within a month there will be enough of them to infect all England ten times over. "See! I have but to place this harmless-looking insect against your cheek. L\ prick like a mosquito's sting as he does his work and without my aid and my knowledge you are a <lead man." l l As he spoke he thrust the fly nearer. till it almost touched Keith's skin. Gordon Keith set his teeth. and cli<l not budge by so much as a hair's-breadth. He was learning things and storing them away for future use, if so he could keep life within him and shake off the drurr Already he had learned one fact, which kept hammering in his brain-a fact of vital importance. There was an antidote. For Li Yen himself ! . had said as much in that last sentence. Li Yen watched Keith closely and smiled, then flung the · insect down and set his foot upon it. "Bah! That would be too clumsy a way. wonlcln't it, :Mr. Keith? Rut it is not only on such humble and industrious little fellows as that I rely. Do you see those scars on that face there? I did those mvself with a lancet, and in each cut I poured a drop-half a ·drop of the poison itself. "See! Herc is a small glass bottle no larger than my finger, yet it contains myriads upon myriads of death-dealmg germs. There is enough in that one small bottle to turn the water of yot1r biggest reservoii, into deadly poison. "Each of my men will carry twice that quantity in a { harmless-looking drinking-flask-the k_ind _that can be bou~ht l am·where. Those flasks will be emptied mto the reservo1rs, the streams. am! all the main water supplies of your country. '' \h, I see that at last you begin to comprehend the completeness of my scheme. I rather pride myself on a grasp of detail. BOLD \VI:<:EKLY. 2II "The work will begin in June. By late August or early September England will be not decimated but reduced to desolation. There will be no one left but the laborers and plow-boys of the obscure and remote villages. The towns will ha\·e been apnihilatcd. There will be no trade; no one to hake bread ; 110 one even to but·y the <lead. "Now you can see what I meant when I said that in the following June, when the British Ambassador at Pekin, who will ha,·e been carefully kept a prisoner. dies the death of the thousand cuts. there will be no punitive expedition, because there will be no one to send-no army-nothing! "Your country is in danger," he added softly. ''Major Mainwaring and myself used to discuss the subject often, before he grew too weak to speak. He believes thoroughly." With rage in his heart, Keith sat impassively in his chair. He saw the chabolical ingenuity and cunning of the scheme. He knew that if once put into effect. it was a thousand to one chance that eyents would shape themselves exactly as Li Yen prop'1iesied. His strength was coming hack to him; but the stakes were too large, he dare risk nothing yet. Li Yen glanced at his watch. "Your friends will be recovering from their stupor by. now,'' be said at last. "For the present .I will leave you ·with them to talk oyer what T have told you. Food will be brought to you in an hour's time. and bed<ling for the night. You need haYe no fear of eating what is put before you. It will be quite harmless. an<l T hope well cooked.'' He made a sign, and the two masked figures who had waited motionless in the doorwa,• led Keith back to his cell. The last thing he heard as the bolts shot home was Li Yen's soft. mocking voice : "Pleasant dreams, Mr. Keith!" CHAPTER X. A DESPERATE ATTE1'.!PT. It was pitch-dark, and the mist from the lake drifted in through the slitlike window, covering the walls of the cell with chill beads of moisture. Sir Richard, with bent shoulders, was working noiselessly but franticallv at the door. where Keith had some hours previously marked the exact level of the two bolts on the onter side. . It had been his first action on reentering the cell. Sir Richard's nails were split and torn and bleeding, and great <lrops of perspiration stood out on his forehead. His only weapon was the broken blade of an old pocketknife, and the wood,of the door was hard as iron. Under other circumstances, the task he was attempting would have been ridiculous; but so desperate were the straits in which they found themselves, that nothing which suggested even the wildest possibility of escape could be passed untried. \Vhen Keith had returned to the cell. after his interview with Li Yen, he found them hoth conscious; and having had some hours longer in which to sleep off the drug than he himself had had, they were in far better condition than himself. True to his promise, Li Yen had sent them an elaborate and well-cooked meal, and a couple of bottles of really excellent wine. Two of the maske"d men had brought the food, while two others covered the prisoners from the doorway with their revolvers. Keith had perfect confidence in Li Yen's statement that the meat had not been tampered with. Such a course would have been too trivial and too commonplace a move for a man of Li Yen's stamp. unless tl1ere was any definite and immediate object to he gai11ed. They fell to work on the provisions, for they were ravenously hungry, and the food and wine put new strength into them., BRAVE A)JD \\ hile they alt: Keith told them what he had seen and heard word for word. Sir Richard's face grew grim and hard as steel, and his eyes snapped and glinted with cold fire. "Keith, I ~wear by Heaven that if I can lay hands on that yellow demon's neck, I \\ill never leave go till the life is squeezed out of him!" "The worst of it, the horrible part of it all is, that his plan is so terribly feasible. There's no exaggeration. Given the opportunity, he can do precisely what he says he intends to do. Old man, our country depends for her safety, her very existence, on us three, and on us alone. Poor :-Iainwaring might have helped, but you say yourself he is as weak as a child. "If we could get in touch with old Lobangu, we might possibly send a warning message; but who would believe it, unless they knew what we know? The traders on the coast would think it a practical joke, the officials would ignore the thing as a yarn. and the people at home-if it reached them at all--would shrug their shoulders and smile. How should they do anything else? To them this part oi the world is just a blank space on the map. Tlwre is only one way. Li Yen must be stamped out, though we three and poor Maim\aring pay for it with our lives. But how' Tell me that." For two hours Sir Richard and Checkers had worked at the door "ith the frenzy of despair. K~ith did nothing. He sat motionless in the corner of the room, i<lly t,\ isting an (·mpty wine-glass between hb fingers till the last ray of light had vanished; ancl since then, so far as they knew. he had not 1110\'l:d. Dut though his bocly was still, his brain was working as it had nc\'er \\Orked before. A thousand an<l one s ·hemes flashed up one after the other, only to be in~tantly <li,misscd :,s worthless \1 last he sprang to his feet Ile h .. d a scheme-the merest outline of a plan. The risk wa,. tremendou:,, but at least there was a possibility oi success in it. Every quarter of an honr or ~o a couple of armed sentries macle their way along the corridor 011 a , i~it of inspection. and the instant their footfalls became audible Sir Richard and Checkers had cea~cd their work OJ! the dnor. until a clang at the far end of the passage warned the workers that the danger was o\'cr for the time lidng. and that the sentries had gone. Twice th.ey had paid a , isit to ~lainwaring's cell. They carried a lamp, too, for Keith had seen the glimmer of it on the stone flags under the door as they passed and repasscd. That they would be absolutely incorruptible and rigidly adhere to their duties, Keith knew ,1ell. Li Yen ,,as the type of man who would maintain an iron discipline. But it was on that \'cry iron di~cipline that Keith based his hopes of success, though he was so ignorant of his surroundings that much hac! to be left to chance. He glided swiftly across the floor and groped for Sir Richard. "Spots!" he ·,·hisQi:ecl softly. '·Spots-Checker»! Herclisten ! I've got a ~gh kind of scheme. 1:'s a trcm n<lous risk, but it's not quite so hop<c.less ~ trying to cut through four inches of iron-hard timber with a broken knife." \\"ith their heads totcther they whispered a while in the darkness, and then mo,·ed apart. "Remember. Spots," Keith whi5pered in final injunctions across the darkness, ''above all, the revolver-hand first. They mustn't have a chance to fire a shot. ;Break the wrist if you can, and, in any case. prevent the hammer from falling. Then make an end of things as quickly and with as little noise as possible. This is no time to stick at trifles. Checkers, the lantern is your affair, and you know what you·ve got to do. Look out, now, they're ju~t about due-1" ~ir Richard and Keith groped their way to either side of the door, close up against the wall. BOLD WEEKLY. Checkers took his stand exactly opposite it, with the broken knife in his hand. Presently from the far end of the corri<!..ir there came a muffied clang of bolts being shot back, .1nd the tread of the two sentries tramping alont; the pas~age They chd not come straight on, hO\\ever, but paused at ~Iainwaring's door Keith could tell by the faint gleam di light that the one with the lamp remained on ~uard in the passage while his fellow entered. He had overlooked that possibilit) before, and altered his plans. ''Spots," he whispered very tow, "you take the ch,1p who comes in; Checkers and I must spring past him and tackle the other man out in the pas,age. Are you ready? Stand b) ! Now, Checkers!" , The sentries were approaching, they were almost opposite the door, when Checkers, gripping his knife, began a renewe<l and vigorous attack on the woodwork making as much scraping noise as he could "ith the broken blade and rattling the holt on the outside faintly. Tne steps checked instantaneously, and they heard the ~huffie of feet as the men wheded, followed by an ominous dick, click, as the h~o revohers were cocked. A rattle of bolts, a flicker of light, and as the door s,rnng back, the first man stepped across the threshold, his re\'olver ready to fire. Sir Richard seiz<>d th<> revoker b;, cylinder a1 d lod action, almost breaking the iran's finger b) the pr ~ urc o his grip a~ he did Sll, while with his right hand he caugl t thr fellow '.l terrific ">mashing hlow full III the face, and thrc11 him off hi balance. \' hat happened next. Keith could no se1;, for he ai I C-hcckers had darted past th~ ,1a)ing hgurcs, and tlungth i.1 selves on the second man. Checkers, in ohedicncc to or lcrs, rK lcctcd the man, and grabbed the lantern, gidng 1t a d xtcrous h•, i t a I ,, renchecl it a\\ay, which disloe .. tcd t\\o of tl-e man' fin6rr that had hem passed through the ring handle. Keith 111isscd the revolver at the fir~t natch, frt •he 111:>1 had turned half-rounc! as Checkers grabbed the lantern. Like a fla h he s1 at hed again with hi right • n<l sciz I it just in time, for the ham11H.r fell \\ ith a snnp on till second joint of his middh. finger, 11ipp1ng it hadly. and bruising the bone, though at th time he felt nothi g Th next instant he h...id ~wung his left arm r~und the n ar s throat from behind. and was hending him slowly h t st'r ly backward, hal £-strangled. "The rcrnlver !" he gasped. "Take it, Chcckc.r ! Mind the hammer!" Checkers dropped the lantern, and. cocking the revolver first. so a~ to release Keith's finger without risking an ex plosion, dropped the hammer again gwtly to ''safe,'' and tore the \\eapoll from the man's grasp. Both Keith's hand being 110\\ free, h(' put out his fut, strength, and the end came <JUil·kly. As he h,l<l ~aid, ti,(' stakes were too enormous to t·,k,• am· risk The Chmaman "a a po,\crfully irnilt l\Ianchu, but Keith having gripped hi~ throat. clung there, hi finger gripping like a sterl trap. There was a ho, rible gurgling gasp, and the big bulky figure collap eel and became a lkacl weight. Keith dropped !um, stooped to make sure, and ro e breathing quickly. ( heckers had already snatched up the lantern amt gone to ai<l Sir Richard. It v.as not ncccssar), The big Engli~hman leaned against till' wall panting. and at his feet l:1) the sccor cl sel'lr). The two men, looking gha tly m their mnsks, lay motion less on the stone flags ''Xo11," s;iid Keith, looking pale and ,tern, "we must act before .?n alarm can I,c rai•ed. Check~r , gi\'e me that re vohcr. ".\.Vhat are you going to do, Keith?" gasped Sir Richard. rnilli \\ u hm .\ impo call.' l (I t, 11° K ficd .( coul ~r•a 0 Cl! matt H~ nothi it an Bu BRAVE AND BOLD W,EEK'.LY. "Make my ,,·ay below. an<l shoot Li Yen on sight wherever I find him." replied Keith sternly. "If necessary, I would shoot him in his sleep; he is a menace to civilization, and Jnt1$l be stamped ant.'' "Coocl!" baid Sir Richard tersely, and picked up the other weapon from the floor. "l am ready!" Keith shook his head. ··Only one of us, Spots, old man-two would double the difficult1c~ and the risk. I 'II go; ) on and Checkers stay and try and •ave Mainwaring." •·If any one goes it is myself," sairl Sir Richard. Keith glanced across at him and smiled faintly, but with the eyes only. lJe knew-all of them knew-that it was a million to one that the man who went, even if successful, \\ou!d never come back alive, and each wished to sacrifice him-cl r to spare the other. • \\-c'!I toss," said Keith, at last. "Every second is of importance. Checkers, spin a coin. Spots, yours is first call." l l ''Heads!" said Sir Richard, as the coin fluttered down. Checkers held out his open palm in the lamplight. It was tails. K<:ith looked at the lock-action of the revolver, and satisfied him0 elf that all the chambers were loaded. ''Good-by. you chaps!'' he said quietly, and before they could answer, he was gone, padding stealthily down the corritlor. Ile passed 1\!aimYaring's cell and the doors of two others which stood ajar, and found himself at the door which closed the end of the passage. This alFo was ajar, as the sentries had left it. Ile opened it cautiously an inch or two, and peered through. Beyond lay another passage, half-way down which was a glimmer of light from an open doorway. Ycry softly he slid past the door and tiptoed onward. The chamber with the light in it was e,·i<lently a sort of guard-room. It was empty, but had clearly been recently occupied by the two Chinamen. There were a couple of mattre ses, a chair, a table, and a lamp. He did not wait to see more, hut continued his way onward. Ten pnces farther he was brought up with a round turn. A massive door, even thicker and heavier than the others, shut off all communication from the rest of the building. IIe tried it. It wa~ bolted on the outside. Li Yen was right. He had a wonderful brain for detail, and gaged possibilities \dth \\'011derful accuracy. CHAPTER XI. A STERN RESOLVE. Sir Richard gave a quick sigh of relief as he saw Keith returning, for he had been, humanly speaking, certain that he would never ~ee him agai11 "What is it, Keith?'' he asked, in a low tone. "Trapped," said Keith bitterly-"trapped like so many rats. Li Yen Jcayes nothing to chance. Those sentries ·were prisoners as much as we ourselves. They were locked in, and l suppose the far door will only be opened at dawn, when. in the ordinary course of events, the night-guard would be relieved, and two others take their places. Come and see." All three, treading softly, went.over the ground that Keith had already trodden. The door was locked, sure enough; nothi11g but a charge of blasting-powder could have budged it an inch, fr'om the inside. But they, or, rather, Checkers, macle a discovery of great importance. In the guard-room under a pile of _rugs carelessly tossed in one corner were the cases and nfles looted from the camp. It had pro))ahly been intended to remove them later, but they had been oyerlooked. Fmther search revealed a cup , board built into ·the thickness of the wall, containing a good supply of provisions, for the use of the men on duty-drink ing-water, and a bottle of cordial and a medicine-spoon, evidently for Mainwaring. Sir Richard, with a little further rummaging, found a small ax and some billets of hard wood stored handy for lighting a cooking-fire on the hearth. ''At least we can make a fight of it," said Keith, roused into fresh action. "v\'e will show 11r. Li Yen what a little barricade-shooting is like. All these doors open inward, you'll notice. They may shut us in, but we can also shut them out." And without another word he began cutting wedges of the hard wood, muffling the sound of the ax-blows with a blanket. He cut nearly a score in all, and proceeded to fix some of them in the outer door, driving them well home-three on each side, two top and bottom. "There is our first line of defense," he said grimly. "It will cost them hours of time, and so long as I can shoot, not a few masked, yellow-skinned ruffians, before they break through that. Come on, Checkers, bring along all that gear and food-stuff; we'll make !vl;J.inwaring's cell our heads quarters." \Vedges were laid in readiness by the second door, and in the corridor itself between that and the entrance of l\fajor Mainwaring's cell they set to work to build a substantial barricade. The heavy table formed the main portion of it backed by double thicknesses of mattress, and any weighty objects they could lay hands on. As a finishing touch, Sir Richard, putting out all his enormous strength, and aided by the others, managed to lift one of the massives doors of the empty cells from its hinges, and add it to the breast• work. They made a sort of slide of it, for it was necessary to leave an opening in the barricade to enable them to pass and repass. Now they arranged the door so that at the last moment it could be slammed across this opening, and make a bullet-proof defense. The last of tl1e wedges were laid ready for an emergency beside the sick man's door, arid while Checkers mounted guard to giYe the alarm, Keith and Sir Richard carried the food, ammunition-cases, and spare rifles into the cell. The <lead men they dragged into what had been their own prison, and bolted the door on them. Keith's first action was to cover the slitlike window of the sick man's cell with a blanket to prevent the lamplight showing. His next was to raise the poor fellow's head, and pour a spoonful of the cordial between his teeth. To his utter surprise the staring eyes· looked into his with a gleam of intelligence and recognition, and a wea~ voice said huskily: "Thank you, Mr. Keith." Sir Richard, after a glance at that terrible face, had !urned away with a perceptible shudder; but at the sound of that husky whisper he wheeled sharply once more, with a muttered "Good heavens!" Keith bent over him eagerly. "?\fainwaring, can you hear-can you understand what I say? We ha,·e killed the sentries, and barricaded the doors from the inside and the passage. 'v\'e have food for a week or more, and plenty of ammunition. There are three of us, and we have rifles and to spare. "I know Li Yen1~ plans, but I don't know how many men he has here, or what his resources are, and I am absolutely ignorant of the building we are in, having been brought here drugged. "Your messenger, the headman of your expedition, fell in with us a dozen marches down-country-to be accurate, we saved him from an Arab slave-party, but he was badly wounded, and died the next day, and we pressed on by forced marches to try and get you out of this mess. "I tell you plainly now, that I don't think there is the remotest chance of any of us getting out alive--you probably 24 BRAVE AND BOLD vVEEKL Y. know that better than I do, or a man of your resource and ability wouldn't be here; and you also know again better than I, that there is o~ thing that must be done at any cost-any cost! "Li Yen must be killed-we owe it to our country, and we ought to be thankful if we can do it at the cost of all our lives. I know that you feel in this as I do. I saw it in your eyes this afternoon. "'Ve have the strength, but you have the knowledge of the local surroundings. How can it be done? If you are too weak to speak much, I will question you, and you can move your head by way of answer-yes or no." The red-rimmed eyes lit up with a gleam of intelligence, and a faint flush of excitement drove the blood to the sickly, white, scarred face. "More of that cordial," said,he sick man httskily-''two spoonfuls-no more, it is too strong." Keith gave him the dose, and Mainwaring's voice grew stronger. , myself with my own hands, and I pledge my word as a scientist, and a student, that if that bottle were emptied into the bigg-est reservoir the world has ever seen-near the main exit-in four days' time that water would be deadly, and as sure a poison as prussic acid. only its action is gradual instead of instantaneous." '''\"hen are the sentries changed?" "An hour after sunrise. If there is to be fighting you had better sleep a while. :ror me-I dare not.'' Checkers slept at his post by the outer door, a rifle beside him; Keith an4 Sir Richard behind the barricade in the corridor, and in the cell with the <Joor open Major Main- waring stared blindly, open-eyed into the darkness above. The chill mists drifted away before the rising sun, and as the first red rays came slantwise through the narrow window-slits, there was a sudden clamor and a battering at the outer doorway. All three were on their feet in an instant. The hammering and thumping increased in violence. and voices cried "I have hoped against hope for something of this sort,".--aloud from without in strange heathen dialects. At fir!;t in he said, "and by sheer will-power I have tried to keep myself ready for the emergency. It may sound absurd, but I ~ave had a kind of haunting intuition that in the end a white man would come. :'Li Yen is a ~ood scientist-very good; but I have studied this same sle~pmg-death myself, and know the symptoms. F?r the last six months I have been slowly gaining strength. Lt Yen thought I w~s on the verge of collapse to-day. But I w3:s l?artly_ shammmg s~ that he should or~er me a more nounshmg diet. My on~ idea has been_ to ga11! stren15th.. I can slow my pulse at will for a short tune while he 1s with me, and for weeks I have pretended to be too weak to move or speak. But I can move-see!" Very shakily and ~lo,vty he li~ted onearm with a tremendous effort, and let 1t drop agam. "If Li Yen knew that, he would be astounded," he said, panting, for the effort had tried him severely. "I w~s hoping one day to gather strength enough to throttle L1 Yen as he bent over me. But enough of myself. "He has only thirty men here all told. This wing of the building is completely shut off from the rest. He himself lives below, and the men occupy a sort of barr'ack or outbuilding." "\Vhy are they masked?" asked Sir Richard. "At first the masks were a device for keeping an antidote to the disease over the mouth and nostrils. It proved a failure. But he continues the practise, because he became known among the fanatical Arabs as the leader of the masked men, and they attributed to him all sorts of fantastic powers which he was quit<: shrewd enough to realize the advantage of, and made his followers retain their air of mystery and their masks. You know the superstition of the Moslem mind. They. poor fools, look on him as their leader -a kind of second l\fahom('L " "He is a. fiend, that man! I have seen hi+u give a feast to a whole village of natives, and deliberately infest their food with the germs. There were forty men, and perhaps three times as many women and children. They all died. He will kill you, too. He told me so the night his spies brought in word of your coming. Me he will not kill yet-not until he has no further use for me as an experiment. Though, by rights, I should have been dead twenty times over." "But the antidote?" said Keith. "If I were free and strong, I could make you impervious to the disease in a few. hours. But here-I can no more help you than I can help the thirty millions of people at home, who will shortly be as I am, and worse." "Is it true beyond all possible doubt that he can do as he declares?" Major 1Iainwaring's eyes flickered momentarily to a shelf over his mattress-head. Keith reached for a small vial which stood on it, and took it d0\1·n. "The liquid in that," continued Mainw,tiog, "I pcepa,ed surprise, then in anger, rage, and doubt. All need of concealment being at an end, Keith, se1zmg the hatchet, drove home the wedges still farther, with heavy blows from the butt and the noise of the strokes went echo ing down the bare 'stone corridors beyond. For a time there was silence. Then there came a tapping on the door, and a voice-the voice of Li Yen-was heard speaking through the thick panels, muffled, but distinct. ''Is that you, Mr. Keith?" "Yes, Li Yen, it is. I have killed your sentries, and if you attempt to break in, you will be shot down like the dog you are." A faint chuckle came from the far side of the door. ":tllr. Keith-Mr. Keith-really, this is very childish l There isn't any need for these heroics. I shall come in ex actly when I please and you will not shoot me down-no, not at all. I am bu~y to-day, and shall not he able to attend to you personally till later on. Meanwhile, if you would be so good, please look after Major Mainwaring for me for a little while. I am most anxious that he should not suffer from a further relapse. I hate troubling you; but having killed my poor sentries, it is your own fault, you see. He should have the cordial in the big bottle every two hours, and some of the jelly in the white earthenware pots, which you have probably already laid hands on It is most sus taining-try some yourself. I am leaving four men on guard at this door. For the present, au revoir; I'm sure my patient will be in good hands." • And with another quiet chuckle came the sound of retreat ing footsteps, and silence. The mid-day heat became stifling, and yet no word or sound came from without. Sir Richard, Keith, and Checkers rested at their posts, and fed where they sat. Once every two hours regularly one or other of them at tended to 1Iainwaring, and shortly after noon Keith, having given him his food, sat for a while beside the mattress, earnestly discussing the situation in low tones. Outside the sun was sweltering, and everything was as oppressive and dro1ysy as a mid-African noon can be. Myriads of insects droned about their business, and the sick man, shivering in the heat, under his coverlet. held forth in a weak voice concerning what he knew of Li Yen, and of his own researches in the question of tropical disease and tfavel. Suddenly Keith sat up, with a sharp exclamation, a_nd slapped his check. Something had settled Lhere for an mstant, and given him a sharp sting-like the sting of a mos quito, only more intense. Mainwaring glanced at him askance, wit!: his red-ri1:1med. staring eyes. A second later another crawlmg msect _tickle_<l the skin of Keith's forehead, and a third alighted behmd his ear. He raised his hands to brush them.away with a gesture of imp,tjeuc, ,,·kr M,iuwatiog, with , wcench of his en• \, feebl face. "T \\ith, migh alrea time sleep You your "i\ morr: him. Ke flags. well The time "T -an M, ":N as sc nothi for a irrcsi them tom• what Ke wall que,t red I: had, t-fr intro, Li'{ "M a5· h, all ,.., poise or m, "T Ill, Jr count •in ten, stren, K(' ing c hand. "11 "F< 1ives: ,1is ! to Ii\ befor Ke angle ''It aften "V, the ,, ammt Provi left ii say t: inside Kei "I . warin Sir ands was c BRAVE AND feeblcd muscles, which brought great drops of sweat to his face, forced himself into a semisitting-position. r r "The flies-the flies!'' he croaked hoarsely, raising a withered, clawlike hand. "Keith, he's overreached us! \Ve might have guessed it ! He's let loose the death-flies! See, already they have bitten you in two places! In ten hours' time you will be overcome with drowsiness. Then you will sleep, and, unle~s he chooses, you will never wake again. You are already tainted with the sleeping-death-it is in your blood-in your veins! "Xow. I see why he waited, why he left the door this morning laughing, as you told me he laughed. It was like him. He is ne\'er in a hurry-he knows his own power." Keith flung the dcacl, shattered insect from him onto the flags. For an instant he felt cold and sick. He knew full well that he was, to all intents and purposes, a dead man. The next instant he sprang to his feet. There might yet be time to save the others. "The masks," he gasped hoarsely, "those the sentries wore -are they any use?" l\Iajor :Mainwaring sank back exhausted. "None!" he said feebly. "Li Yen discarded them almost as soon as he began to study. There is no help: nothingnothing that we can get, tmless he wishes to keep you alive for a few weeks yet! He will wait till sleep overcomes youirresistibly: till your eyes grow sore with the effort to keep them open. and your head droops.-and you are powerless to move hand or foot. Then he will force the door, and do what he wills." Keith sprang into the passage. and reeled against the wall with a groan of despair. There was no need to ask que~tions. A glance sufficed to show him three or four angry, red blotches on Sir Richard's face and neck; and Checkers had at least two. ( :Moreover, the whole corridor "'as swarming with flies, introduced, through Heaven knows what hidden crevice, by Li Yen. • ."Mainwaring gives us ten hours," he said, in conclusion, as he told them the truth frankly and brutally. "That's all we've got before the dro·wsiness steals over us, and the poison begins its work. After that it may be days or weeks, or months, as Li Yen wills," he addecl bitterly. ''Then I know one thing for certain," Sir Richard broke in. in his deep voice. "I may by a dying man-by all ac •counts I am-but I intend to die fighting: and if I can, I intend to send/Li Yen to the infernal regions before my strength leave/ me!" Keith's eye1 lighted up, and Checkers, who had said nothing at all, quite spontaneously gripped Sir Richard's big hand. Thenlthe light died out. "1Iainwaring !" said Keith simply. "For our country," said Sir Richard bluntly, "we gi•,e our 1ives ! 111ainwaring, poor chap, will only too willingly give 11is ! There is only one thing to Reep in mind-we must try to live, till we, or one of us, see Li Yen stretched dead before his eyes. What's the time, Keith?" Keith glanced through the narrow window-slit, and at the angle the sun's rays made as they entered. ''It's hard to tell. but it's between three and four in the afternoon," he replied. "Very well," said Sir Richard, "at midnight we'll knock the wedges from the outer door. \\'e'll sacrifice a case of ammunition to blow it open. and the rest we must leave to Providence. ,ve shall ha,·e two hours full li\1ng strength left if Mainwaring is right in his estimate. Anyway, I dare ~a)'. the whole thing will be finished one way or the other ms1dc twentv minutes." Keith nodded. "I will get an idea of the plan of the building from Maih:-' waring," he said. and turned on his heel. Sir Richard and Checkers dragged out an ammunition-case and started extracting the powder from the cartridges. It was cordite. :f!OLD Wh,t<;KLY. CHAPTER XII. IN DESPERATE STRAITS. The lamp burned dimly in the narrow cell. Keith, who had rewound his watch, and set it by guess-work, make it nine o'clock. Outside it was pitch dark. Major Mainwaring had had his prescribed food ; the others had eaten a hearty meal, and the cordite lay neatly packed in holes scooped out of the wood near the bolts of the outer door. Each hole was rammed home tight, after being filled, and had a short, homemade time-fuse attached. Keith, by constant questioning, had an exact map of the building in his mind, and a very definite plan of Li Yen's own apartments. There catne a faint knocking at the outer door, and he and Sir Richard rose slowly, with grim-set faces, both fully armed. "Who is there?" asked Keith cautiously, keeping a couple of yards from the door, so as to allow himself room for instant action if necessary. Li Yen's quiet, penetrating voice came through the paneling. "Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Keith, but I hope Mainwaring_ is all rig}J.t. You've no idea how sorry I should be if any ·thing were to happen to him before my series of experiments were complete." "Major Mainwaring has had his nourishment at stated intervals, as you suggested," answered Keith. "He seems a trifle stronger." "Thank you!" answered Li Yen softly. "Have the bites taken well. l\Ir. Keith?" Keith gritted his teeth, but his voice was perfectly calm as he answered: "I haven't your experience, but there is a slight reddish tinge, and some irritation''-he stifled a groan artistically"! should say," he continued, with a faint touch of drowsiness in his voice, "that from your point of view, they will prove eminently satisfac\ory. I myself have three-Sir Richard four-one being on the lip,\--and my assistant has two." He yawned again audibly. "Mr. Keith," said Li Yen, "it is a pleasure to have to deal with a mind like yours, which can dissociate li,ere personal feeling from the higher scientific interests.• Under other circumstances I almost wish we could have worked together. You and I, between us, might have gone far. Sleep well, Mr. Keith!" And with another of his sinister chuckles he turned away. "I shall call back in a few hours' time," he added over his shoulder. '"Possibly!" said Keith, and yawned again-loul enough for Li Yen to hear. Li Yen did hear, and, as he descended the narrow stairway leading to the outer door, he wondered why Keith was trying to deceive him-for a man with sleeping-sickness does not yawn at all, though that was a fact that Keith didn't know, and which Li Yen did, and it made him think a good deal. , As they reentered the cell Checkers met them with an air of suppressed excitement. ~'Listen!" he whispered warningly. "From far below tljere ascended through the night, very faint, but very clear, the call of the m'lolo-bird, which feeds after the sun has set, preS,ing on small lizards. insects, and anything corresponding more or less to the field-mouse." They knew it well-it was the night-signal which they always used in time of danger. "Lobangu, thank Heaven!" said Sir Richard. "I was beginning to be afraid that they had done for him." Keith said nothing, but gave Checkers a leg up. He was the smallest. and could get nearest the slitlike windowfor Sir Richard's broad sh'oulders could not have come within a foot of it. Checkers placed his mouth as near the opening as he could and gave the answering cry, and Keith signed to Sir Richard to hold up the lamp, so that the light showed clearly, for / BRAVE AND BOLD \VEEKLY. he had ascertained that none of the other floors of the other building had windows on that side. A faint scrambling and scuffling noise followed, which drew nearer and nearer, and suddenly Lohangu's deep voice came murmuring from just below the opening. "Art thou there, M'lolo? Surely it was thy voice that answered the call, or was it, perchance, the voice of thy spirit, for no man can tell what happens in this tagati island? See, I drink of a spring-clear water, even as thou didst, and lo! ,,,·hen I wake, the day and half of a night have gone by, and tuy mouth is hot and dry, as thot1gh I had been at a feasting, or a beer-drinking, and thou .and Untwana, and the lnkoos had been carried off from by my side. r\y, carried off; for before the light was already gone, I found the tracks of those that did the carrying-two and two they wereyet there had been no struggle. ''And round me all the poor bearers slept also, as though they were dead men Verily, I believe they ,would be sleeping now, but that I beat them savagely over the head ancl shoulders. And my lord, my king of beasts, slept too, nor could I wake him with blows, nor with stripes, till the coming of the dawn. "Last night I was here, trying if it were possible to find you, but I could not, though 1 saw many strange men wearing coverings over their faces. Is it well with thee, .i\flolo, and with Untwana, my father, and with the Inkoos ?" "So far it is. well, Lobangu," said Checkers. "But stay, hete is Untwana, who would speak with thee!" IIe wtiggkd away, and Keith took his place. ·'Lobangu, dost thou hear?" he called softly. "Ay, Untwana, I hear thee." '"Then listen well, old friend, for it is the voice of a dead man speaking to thee, for i11 a little while we shall surdy be dead; already the chill, bony fingers have touched us, and left their mark. But first, before ,:ve die, there is one here whom we "·ould send before us-a yellow man, not of big stature, but very cunning, and a great medicine-man. Li Yen is his name. Shouldst tnou see such a one to-morrow walking in the high sunshine, these he my words: Take thy broad spear, Lobangu, and drive it, throuB'h his heart, yea, e\'cn thopgh thou thyself are cut do,\ n m that same moment., fot he has sworn to carry disease and death into my beloved country.'' '·J hear, my father. The man shall die!" '·But listen yet a while. \\'c three, who must shortly pass into the land of ghosts, have sworn to kill him within three hours from now, if it may be done. Therefore, if to-morrow he cm\1est not, make thy way down to the coast, and in the name-of the Inkoos and of myself and of the Inkoos Mainwaring- his finger-circlet thou hast in thy charge-tell those in high office that, at all cdsts, an expeditiipn must be sent •up here, and this place must be 5tampe<l out, and thou thyself must act as guide. . "Sec, I have written certain things on a paper, bearing my name and the name of the Inkoos Loscby, which will tell the reason and the need." Keith thrust a crumpled piece of paper as far into the embrasure as he could. "Canst thou reach it, Lobangu ?" "Nay, Untwana, my hand cannot pass the opening; but I have one with me here who can. \ moment, Untwana, till I get a new foothold, fol" the stones arc hard-so! Now, I will raise her up, ailcl do thou give her the paper." A slender hairy paw came sliding through the narrow slit. It was the paw of Jemima. Lobangu, having fonnd the night before that his own hands could not pass through, had brought her with him, and climbed up, carrying her ort his shoulders. The soft, black paw grabbed the paper greedily, and was swiftly withdrawn. '·Once more, Lobangu," said Keith: and. drawing his revolver from his helt, he slid it over the stonework, and i11~ duced Jemima lo clutch it. "It is one of the short guns-, loaded in every chamber, in <·a~e thou ~houldst fall in \\ith any of these yellow-skinned men who wear masks.'' "\\ow, Untwana, the short gun is good; but the yellow men arc fools ! See-, two kept watch below here to-night, but they tramped up and down noisily, so that all men might know, and I. coming gliding through the bush, took them unawares. Kow they arc gone, each with a spear-wound beneath the shoulder-blade!" "It is good, Lobangu ! And now, old fricnd, farewell! My heart is heavy that I cannot touch thy hand nor see thee face to face. Be kind to the king of beasts; he is my parting gift. Farewell, thou good and faithful friend! Per chance in the land of dreams we shall mee\ again, and fight the old fights once again. Get thee gone, for my spirit is too sad for more words !" "Who is that? \\'aitI" The words came in a dry, crackling whisper from the couch. l\fajor Mainwaring-, who had been in a stale of scmi stupor, had caught the sound of Keith's voice, and realized that he was speaking to some one outside the room. "v\'hat is it, Mainwaring?" answered Keith, a tittle testily, for he was full of sorrow at parting from Lobangu. ''It is only a friend-Lohangu-of whom I spoke to you-to whom I have given a message, and said good-by!" ''Stop him-stop him, nian, in Heaven's name! He may save you-all of us-yet I Listen. There is a chance-a bare chance, and that is all. Northward from the island here, it is only a mile or so to the farther shore. Behind stretches the desert. How far, goodness knows: probahh up to the Algerian littoral. I only know the first hundred miles. "A long day's march due north from the lake-say, twenty miles-there is an oasis-the only one, so far as I know. There is a spring there and a clump of date-trees. "It is from that oasis that Li Yen gets his antitoxin-his antidote for the sleeping-sickness. " \ll round t)'le water-hole there is a stumpy growth, no more than a foot high, of large green leaves, not unlike a dock-leaf, and having a small red berrylike fruit, with a very bitter acid flavor. Chewing those drives the poison out of the blood-kills the germs in some way-and the craving for sleep passes. "If your man can teach those and·g-ct back in time, he may sa.ve you yet. Bt1t time ~s everything, and the whole desert is swarming with Arabs on that side. Ifs a thousan<lto- one chance: but, if he can get there. and i{ ) ou can keep on your feet and hold the passage till his return, we may win through." Keith darted back to the window. "Lobangu !" he cried. From far below a voice floated up to him: "I have heard, Untwana, my father-I have heard, and already I go; swift as the \vind I go! IIave patience a little while!" Keith turned to the room once more, and as he did so there came a thunderous hammering at the outermost door. The attack had begun, for Li Yen had grown suspicious when Keith yawned. . Keith grabbed his rifle. "Come on, you chaps," he cried; "we've a fighting chance left !" There was no answer ! Ile stared about him with a chill sinking of the heart. Just through the doorway in the passage Sir Richard lay prone, breathing stertorously, and in the cornet of the cell Checkers, with drooping head, sat propped in the angle of the wall. Li Yen had proycd himself right; they had succumbed more easily than Keith. The disease already had them in its grip. The only con~cious things to be seen were 11ainwaring's wide-staring eyes. Or daw1 mile cano Tr comi with: steel. He swal: kept CO!llJ: Hi sacki him. So of th So the l ran ago -him. i Th his t mout Or and path. Ar close his I little, His A his r by hi Or So up t man, neatl:then On tall t \\'; He yard~ him next comir withi Te there him eyes, to, a1 was;; \Vi pluck them He rinsec quenc a plu a fina the !~ life o Tw twent the s1 race. BRAVE AXD BOLD WEEKLY. CHAPTER XIII. IN THE NICK OF TIME. ' Onward through the night and through the chill of the dawn mists Lobangu ran the race of his life. Mile upon mile behind him a shivering crew of bearers crouched in a canoe, hidden among the weeds of the lake shore. The rush of the wind was in his ears, his breath was coming in deep, long-drawn gasps; !mt his heart was strong within him, and the hard, sinewy muscles were springy as steel. He ran, bending low, against the wind, with his curious swallowlike movement. Once in the open his keen instinct kept him heading straight for the north, as truly as a compass-needle. His big spear was slung behind him, and in a piece of sacking round his waist was the revolver Keith had given him. So lightly did he run that he seemed to skim the surface of the sand, and as yet his stride never faltered or varied. Somewhere ahead of him in the darkness lay the oasis and the big green leaves which meant life or death, and as he ran that strange dream which he had told to Keith days 1 i i ago on the lake shore by th! deserted village recurred to him. The wind drummed in his ears, and the blood throbbed in his temples; the veins stood out in knotted cords, and his mouth was slightly open, his eyes fixed always ahead. Once he had heard a scurry of footsteps away on his right, and once some wild thing of the desert had fled from his path, with a grunt and a snort of fright. An hour and the half of an hour, and he had covered close on sixteen miles; but his chest was heaving badly, and his lungs felt as though they must burst. He staggered a little, too, now. and the faultless stride was tiring at last. His foot slipped on a loose stone, and he fell heavily. A moment only, and he was up again, a red•graze along his ribs showing where he had slid along, hurled forward by his own impetus. On, and on again, and still the darkness held1 Something, a darker hlotch even than the night sky, loomed up before him. Reeling and staggering like a drunken man, ho hurled himself forward till he felt the sand beneath his feet give place to cool green leaves heavy with the night mists. • On once more. and he was lurching and swaying through tall tree-stems, fighting for breath. Water! He caught the sheen of it ahead of him. A few more yards. brave heart-only a very few! A groan burst from him as the overworked lungs failed momentarily, and the next instant he was 011 his face among the leaves, his breath coming in great sobbing gasps, while his brain reeled madly within him. Ten minutes, a quarter of an hour passed. and still he lay there motionless: and then, as in a dream, there came to him a vision of Keith. white-faced and with red-encircled eyes, swaying and rocking with the sleep he would not yield to, and in his hand was a smoke-fouled rifle, and the air was acrid with the reek of burnt powder. With a groan, Lobangu dragged himself to his feet, and plucked great handfuls of the leaves and berries, stuffing them in the canvas sacking. • He stretched himself flat by the edge of the water-hole, and rinsed his mouth again and again; then one big gulp to quench his racking thirst-more he darec1'not allow himselfa plunge to freshen the aching muscles and brace them for a final effort; and then his face was turned southward toward the lake, and round his waist were the leaves which meant life or death. Twenty miles in under two hours and a half, and another twenty y·et to go. But the surest brain, the swiftest foot, and the stoutest heart in Africa were pressed to service for the race. One hurried glance to the east-no hint of a reddening in the sky as yet-a bracing of the big shoulders, a deep breath, and the long, tireless stnde spurned the desert-sand behind it. * * * * * Gordon Keith lurched drowsily aiainst the stone wall of the passage, and choked amidst the reeking fumes of burned powder. The outer door was down, but five men had paid the price ·with their lives, and lay huddled round the shattered fragments, while three more had fled, shrieking and groaning with pain from that deadly hail of bullets. The second door he had had no time to close, but had dashed frantically to the barricade and jammed the entrance just in time. There, again, a fierce fight had raged, and Keith was grazed in half a dozen places, one bullet grooving the outer side of his right shoulder, and burning like white-hot iron. But a glance at the grizly heaps in the corridor told the tale of the outcome of that fierce rush. The dead lay thick along its length, and one man, not quite dead, sat with, his back against the wall moaning faintly, deserted by his comrades. It was an hour, though, since the last shot had been fired. When the rush failed and melted away under that withering hail of lead a whistle had sounded shrilly from somewhere below, and the survivors, scowlin~ behind their masks, had drawn off sullenly. Li Yen was not disposed to waste any more men. He preferred to let the disease do its deadly work. He had seen Keith's face through the smoke-haze, had noted the straining, staring eyes, and the figure which reeled and staggered as it fired, and ha4,_ marveled at the will which sustained the sleep-ridden, droopmg hody. But he knew that next time victory would be his. 'Jhere was only one man to deal with, and in an hour-two hours at most-that man must succumb to the deadly poison in his veins, and fall an easy prey. So Li Yen argued, and rubbed his hands. and cracked his finger-joints, as was a habit of his ·when in a good humor. "\,Viii Lobangu never come?" The question repeated itself again and again 111 a maddening sort of rhythm in Keith's brain. Minute by minute he could feel the deadly lassitude creeping over him till his legs and arms felt like lead, and his eyes ached and grew sore, for he dared not let them close. Up and down the passage behind the barricade he reeled and lurched and staggered, driving a nail from one of the cases deep into his skin, so that the sting of the pain mig'ht keep his senses alive. Mainwaring called to him faintly from tin,e to time, trying to help him to keep awake, but Keith had Jong ago given up attempting to answer. All he could do was to nod and grunt drowsily, and pray that Li Yen's men would come on again. so that the rattle of the rifles might keep him from • dropping off. , But Li Yen knew, and Li Yen waiter!. For whole minutes at a time Keith leaned against the wall. one leaden-weighted hand resting on the lock of his rifle as it lay trained on the door across the top of the mattresses, unconscious, oblivious of everything, till a hoarse whisper from the little room behind him came stealing on his failing senses. "Keith. old man, are you all right? Keith, wake up!" And the heavy eyes would strain anew, and the leaden fingers twitch nervously around the rifle-lock; and sometimes the hoarse whisper, finding pleading useless, would pour forth streams of abuse and insult, calling him a coward and a cur, and a white-livered hound who couldn't be trusted. And soonor or later one of the gibes would bite home, and the weary shoulder would leave its prop against the wall. and the sunken head raise itself, and the eyes blink vacantlv at that black doorway a dozen yards beyond. · BRAVE A~D BOLD \\ EEKLY. They fought a big fight, those two men-one Iielp)ess and weak as a child, the other struggling with the poison, which was slowly but stlrely sapping his vitality. An<l so another hour passed. and the dawn was growing red in the east. Lobangu. with a spear-gash in his thigh and an ugly stab in the ribs. but with the leaves round his \\"aist, was lying face downward in the bottom of the canoe drawing his breath in great sobbing gasps, and snatching what rest he could, gathering his 5trength for the final struggle. Forty weary miles of desert lay behind him, and the bearers, shivering in the clav.·n. plied their paddles in mortal fear of this great blood-dripping specter which had come reeling out of the mists and cursed at them with savage, gasping threats. In the bows, wrapped in an old jacket, crouched Jemima. * * * * * * * "Keith-Keith I'' The hoarse whisper rose to a shrill cry. "Keith, they're coming! \Vake up, ~nan-for Heaven's sake, wake-wake! The dawn is here; only another hour. Keep them off a little longer.'' Stealthy, yellow-skinned men were creeping along the passage, keeping low in the shadows ; but still Keith did not move. They were past the slanting ray of light marking the first cell window: they were up to the second: and then the last shrilly whispered words penetrated the dulled brain, and thrilled through the tired neryes. Bang-bang! The smack of the rifle in that confined space reverberat~d like the roar of a cannon. A scream, a shriek, and Keith lurched to the door of the cell, swung it to, and kicked home the wedges. He could hold tht> barricade no longer. He was driven back to his last line of defense. With a crash the barricade wer>t down, and Li Yen's men came swarming over; but the sound had startled Keith into a new spasmodic wakefulness. There 'was a bottk on the sheff by him half-full. 'It was l\Tainwaring's cordial. He blinked at it, seized it, and gulped the contents. Mainwaring might need it: but unless he could keep strength in him Ivfainwaring and all of them would soon be past ;111 human needs. The spirit sent the blood pulsing through him anew. He still reeled, but his sight was clearer, his hands less heavy. They were battering at the door. He saw one of the wedges giYe, and lurched back for firing-room. Another wedge broke loose, and a yellow face peered through, and a heavy bullet shattered it. .i\ shot was fired, but flew wide, and somctl1ing fell on the flags by Keith's feet-a bundle of canvas. A hairy paw was withdrawn forcibly, and a voice shouted: "Stand clear, Untwana ! Stand clear, and cat of the leaves! I can hold them for a while through the opening!" "Lobangu, by Heaven!" croaked Mainwaring. ''Take the berries, man-the .red berries. They will act at once!" Keith stooped and fell, fumbling with the canvas, and Lobangu's revolver spat through the open'ing, over his head, as another face showed itself. Keith crammed a handful of be~ries into his mouth. They were hitter as death. Another handful, and the blood seemed to smge madly through his veins..The lassitude, the heaviness were passing off. Twice more Lobangu fired, and the powder stung Keith's cheek as he rose to his feet. For a moment everything grew black. and the world seemed to spin round. The next instant, with a shout, lie hacl seized Sir Richard's rifle and charged straight at the door. The accursed, irresistible desire for sleep had left him. "They fly, Uniwana-they fly!" roared Lobangu. '"I will cut them off by the big gate!'' Li Yen's men. panic-stricken hv Keith's-to them miraculous- recovery, turned and ran,· screaming. tumbling over on~ ~nother in he~dlon_g flight. Keith dashed away the rem~ 111111g wedges with l11s boot--toe, and sprang out in pursuit, firmg as he ran. :Kot a shot was fired in return, hut a shout from below told him that Lohangu and his spear were at work. There were scarcely a dozen of the masked men left, all told Two Keith accounted for. and Lnhaugu's spear sent one man cho king to the rlu_st, a~1~ gashed another. The rc~t fled blindly through the m1~t. l he twn men met half-way up the stairs. "Li Yen!" shouted Keith. ''He has not passed, Untwana ! • was rhe <leep, panting answer. Keith dashed rlown a passage on his nght, which ;\lain waring ha<l told him led to Li Yen·s rooms, Lobangu, \\ith his dripping .0 pear, dose nt his heels. To the right again, and he found himself in a large room, furnished in European fashion. The walls ,vere completely hidden by row upon row of book,, and down one ~ide of the room rnn a broad tahle littered with laboratorv appliances retorts. test-( ubes, bottles of acids, and great beakers of par• tially distilled liquids. By the table stood Li Yen, a revolver beside him. "Good morning, :\[r. Kc:ith I'' he sai<l quietly. Keith raised hi~-rifle. Li \ t'11 stared with his upwarci, slanting eve~ straight down the-barrel. '·Tt is unnccc,,ary," !JC' 0 air~ e\·cn more C]Uietly-so quietly that Keith"s finger checked 011 the trigger. Li Yen pa~•ed a elO•<'d lnnd across hi~ month Exactly what he did Keith could not see but th-:! result was instanta neous. A slight shn<ltler ran through the man's frame. He seemed to shrink into himself, as it \Yere, and the next second he slid gently to the floor in a heap, and lay still Keith went back to l\fainwaring and told him. The sick man gave a choking-sob. "Thank Heaycn 1" he whisperecl-"thank Heaven! N0w I can sleep. GiYe the berries to the others. In a few hours they ,,ill recover. The poison has not been in them long. Give that hr;;ive fellow there and your bearers the leaves to chew. They are a preventive. For myself, let me sleep five five days. On the sixth. a double handful of the-the berries. It will be all right. I shall_,_" The whisper tailed off into silence. :.fajor .:\Tainwaring slept. * * * * * * * A fortnight later they left the island, and astern oi them a cloud of dense smoke and an occasional outhnrst of flame marked the site of Li Yen's fort. r.Iajor :Mainwaring, pale nn<l waster!. hut gaining str<"ngth rapidly, lay on a mattress of fresh-cut boughs ancl i:,rns.es, gazing back at the spot where for cightern Jong months he had suffered torture unspeakable. At the stern-paddle sat Lohangu, croonini::-to himself a song of how he had run through th<.: dark n:ght, ontstripp'ng the ,lawn, and how his father, Untwana, ha,! fougl1t wi'h the death-sleep. At about the thr<'e-hundredth verse he broke off, and brought down the flat of the pacl lie with a resourn!ling thwack on the bare shoulders of a bearer who wa,; hirking his share of the work. Keith, in the next ca11oe, heard it, and chuckled. Suddenly he called out to Sir Richard: "Spot~. for goodness' :sake, look at those two beggars! Talk oi flirting!'' Sir Richard glanced ove1-his shoulder toward the bow, Pedro was ct1rled up half-asleep. with a 1m\ over hts muule, and dose beside him was cuddled Temi'lta-in on.; soft, blnck pa,\ a lump of half-gnawed chocolate, the other ea,essingly searching in Pedro's back hair for what Pedro \\Ot1ld bave been disgusted to own-fleas. "Sbe's a terror!" said Sir Richard, arnl refilled hi~ wellsmoked briar with an air of placid content. THE END. Tl1e next nmnbei; (279) will contain "The Phantom ffoy; or, Young Railroaders of To\\Cr Ten," by Weldon J. Cobb. ALBERT PIOTRACHKE, 2 S. LennerdSt. A' B.\NY, N. Y. T 3 mon 4 mou 6 ruou r◄·:;i~t• hycur I rua.1,i:crcdit, Tl squir tail c atrra six ; the I Of C vr11 uc five c It wher ever~ the c yello pure: presE have and .,._ so C loose evin, fait~ n its n at it prov cessc w kept its ll a, C( to h large X, BR.\V.t: .\ND BOLD WEEKLY. NEW YORK, April t8, t(}08. TERMS TO BRAYB ANO BOLO WEBKLY MAIL SUBSCRIBERS. (Posta3"1J Free.) Slnirle Coples or Back Numbers, 5<:. Each. 3 mcllltb,.,...................... ll5c. IOne ,.cM .......................$2.50 4 months ......•.•...........•.. Stic. 2 copies one )·car.........•.... 4.00 6 mouths .•••••..•..•..••...•..$1.25 l copy two yN,rs...........•.. 4.00 Bo,.-to Send Money-Ry post•ofllce or express money order, rc;:i tcri•rl lettcr. hnnll' check ordraft. at onrrisk. At your own risk 1f sent hycurrcnrr, coin, or po~tagc stamps in ordinnry Jetter. Reedpt,ic-Receipt of your remittance is acknowled~cll hy proper cl1an~<.1 of numhAr on yourlahcl.. If notcorrectyou have not !wen prOJ'.lerly credited, and should let itsknow at one". STREET & SMITH, Publisheu, OR~0'1D G. s,uTH, l p 0~ , lo Gt-:oRGB C. SM.:TH, ( r ,.,ne rs. 79°89 Seventh Avenue, New York City. I l BOYS' HOBBIES. PET SQUIRRELS. A HOBBY THAT .,[ANY BOYS DELIGH't IN. There is no prettier and more lovable pet than a tame squirrel. The handsomest part is, of course. the magnificent tail of the little animal, but its whole bearing is irresistibly attractive. As a rule, a foll-grown one measures between six and eight inches from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, an<l a very ordinary price is a dollar and a quarter. Of course, the handsomer a squirrel is the greater is its value. and there arc many whiC'h cannot be bought under five dollars. It is absolutely essential that squirrel~ should be purchased when young. An old one will be most unsatisfactory from every point of view. The age of squirrels can be detected by the color of the lt:eth. which are white in a youngster, but yellow in an aged squirrel. It is not much use in trying to ·purchase a tame one. because it will be nearly as shy in the presence of its new owner as when it was wild, and will have to be tamed all over again. Though naturally a wild and timid animal. a squirrel can, if caught while young, be .... so completely domesticated that it may be suffered to run loose about a room at will, or e, en in the garden, without its edncing the slightest desire to make its escape from captivity. This is all the more remarkable when one realizes that in its natura1 state the glorious freedom of the forest glades is at its disposal. One ,rnuld imagine that captivity would prove irksome to the pretty little denizens of the green recesses of the ,yoodlands, but this i~ apparently not the case. \\'hen first a squirrel is purchased it must. of course, be kept under strict supervision until it gets quite familiar ,vith its new owner. A cage should he provi<led for it. this being as commodious as is possible. ;{o cage in which a squirrel is to be kept should be less than threr. feet square, and the larger it is the better. Xeecllcss lo say, the cage mus( be kept scrupulously clean, and all refuse frequently removed. A perch should be placed therein. consisting of a small forked portion of a young tree; and there should also be a piece of wood for the little captive to gnaw. With regard to diet. the young squirrel-keeper should endeavor. as far as possible, tn give his pet similar food to what it has when in its natural stale. Nuts and acorns are great favorites, while crusts of breacl and corn may be give11 it frequently. It is a good plan to provide bread and milk for the pretty little creature now and then, though great care must be taken that this is fresh and sweet. Meat may be given very occasionally, and only in minute quantities, as a special treat. There is no difficulty in teaching a young squirrel quite a number of pretty little tricks. When taken and bred from the nest, it may be taught to dive into a pocket in search of a nut, to run after one which has been thro,,·n along the ground-just as a dog will a stone, to jump over a stick, and turn head over heels. A squirrel of more mature years cannot he persuaded to do any of these things. .\s a rule, a tame squirrel will, if kindly treated, display all the affection and attachment to its master that a dog does. It is possible to breed these little animals in captivity, but it is not easy; and. therefore, squirrel-keeping must not be looked on as a profitable hobby, like pigeon, rabbit, or goatkeeping. If the S(jttirrel is allowed the free run of the house-and there is no reason "·hy it should not-it should be provided with a sleeping-box. in which to comfortably ensconce itself during the hours of slumber. In the box should be placed some sweet hay or moss, or a little clean straw will do as well. The squirrel is very fond of that treadmill 1:xercise obtained from revolving cages such as are provided for white mice. Cages of this sort, and .of a suitable size, may be bought from any dealer, and the little animal will very soon learn how to use it, and will revel in the fun. See that the exit is large enough for your pet to get in and out at will. because it may be a bit intimidated if it finds it has some difficulty in escaping from the cage, and what should be f'un ,yill llecome torture. Never chain a squirrel up. 'If )'ott want it kept prisoner for a while, put it in its cage and shut the door. A squirrel cannot understand being fastened by means of a collar and chain, probably because of the freedom it enjoys when wild. The result of attempting to keep a squirrel thus is usually that the little animal tugs and strains at its chain in its futile efforts to get free, and eventually chokes itself. HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE TENT. Every boy likes to have a tent, and a good one can be made at very little expense; the stormy afternoons and long evenings of the winter will be excellent times in which to construct it. You can make either a wall tent or an A, or wedge tent, whichever you prefer. First make up your mind which would best serve your purpose, and about what size you want your tent to be. 'Then calculate how much canvas it 'l.vould take. This calculation may be done either by arithmetic or bY, ) BRAVE AKD BOLD WEEKLY. chalking out on a pavement, or representing with a string on the floor the Jines of the tent that are necessary for your measurements. For instance, to find by arithmetic the a111ount of canvas necessary for ·a wedge tent, square the number representing the required height of the tent: square also the number representing one-half of the required width of the tent; add these two results, and find the square root of the whole; the final result will gh·e you the measurement of the slanting line from the top of one of the upright poles to the ground. Twice this measurement, besides about four inches more for the hems and two or three inches to spare for the rounding of the canvas over the top pole, will give the length of one of the long strips of canvas. To find out how many of these strips you will want is easily done by aividing the required length of your tent from front to back by the width of the canvas, which for this purpose may be considered to be twenty-eight inches-its real width is twen ty-nine inches, but one inch tnust be allowed for the seam. The amount of canvas necessary for the front and back of the tent is not so easily determined, but it may readily be figured out closely enough for you to make a good estimate of how much canvas will be required altogether, remembering that where the door is to be the Caffi'as should lap over. But the other method of calculation is probably much the more simple one of the two, especially for tents that have walls. \\Then you have chalked out a line to show the re quired height of the tent, one for the length of it, two for the roof, and one for the wall-if there is to be a wall your calculations may be all readily made with a tape meas ure, remembering, as before, to allow about two inches for each hem and a few inches to spare, some of which may be taken UP. in the stitching. Now for the sewing. This will have to be done by machine unless you have an unlimited amount of time.. or a lot of friends to help you. The seams should be double seams, and are made by lapping the edges of canvas over each other about an inch, or as far as the margin marked on the canvas by a blue line, and stitching on each edge of cloth, making two rows of stitching to each seam. The only difficulty in cutting the canvas is to cut'the slant ing lines of the back and front widths at the proper lmgle. This may perhaps be most easily done by laying the canvas down on a p).an of the end of your tent chalked 011 the floor according to required measurements, and cutting according to t'Ke cl1alked lines. \\'hen the tent is all put together, holes should he made in the lower hem, in pairs, and fitted out with brass rings, and through each pair of rings a bit of rope should be passed and knotted at both ends to form a loop. These loops are to be caught down by tent-pegs to hold the tent in position. In deciding what size you would like your tent to he. it would be well to take into consideration the width of the canvas; for instance, in a ten~x7, which is a common size for a small tent, the width of the canvas goes an exact number of times into the length and width of the tent. · A tent with walls requires two rows of tent-pegs. The height of the wall should be about three feet and the height of a tent 7x7 about seven feet. The canvas comes in two weights. The lighter weight is about fifteen cents a yard, and the heavier about twenty cents. THE CO"\VARD. He was the man who came last to ship as seaman aboard the Warrior as she lay in the harbor. A fine twomasted schooner was the vessel, and Captain Scudder was properly proud of her as she lay alongside the wharf, receiving cargo and passengers. She was to sail with twenty souls upon her-seventeen men, two women, and a lady's-maid. ,\t the last moment the captain decided to augment his cre,v by one man more. Ere he made a move to engage one he heard a man's voice saying: ''Please tell me where the captain is.'' He turned and faced the speaker, who was a tall, gaunt fellow of thirty years or thereabouts, with such diffidence of manner as required some courage in him to look the captain squarely in the face when the latter gruffly said: "I'm the captain." The man stood still, in an awkward attitude, under the captain's stern gaze, as if unable to find speech before so fierc~ a glance. He dropped his dull gray eyes to the deck and doffed his now shapeless hat, and spoke, after a gulp. in a low voice that slightly trembled: "If you please may I work my passage out?'' The captain was moved by this speech to a faint facial demonstration of amusement. A pretty sailor this big, shamefaced man would make! The captain studied the applicant's appearance in detail. A homely fellow he was, with an unhealthy brown hue to his skin, a forehead into which some lines of sorrow had been wrought, roving eyes that met one·s glance with a slightly startled look, a haggard face without whiskers, a receding chin, bent shoulders, and a graceless way of wearing his faded and frayed attire. Red hands and long wrists protruded from the two short sleeves of his worn-out blouse. "vVhat do you know about sailing?" asked the captain, in a tone of ridicule. "?\ot much, sir. I've worked with fishermen, and I know a little about handling a smack.'' "I reckon we don't need you. Ever been on a schooner before at all ?" '·Often as a passenger, sir. I know I'm not a seaman, but I'll do anything. I want to get back to my people." "You look strong enough; but why do you hang your head like that? One would think you were a coward--" "I am," said the man, in a low voice. "\Vhat ! and you admit it?" "Yes. \\~hy not? I've fought hard against it. but I can't help it. I make up my mind to be brave enough, but when the time comes for it I'm afraid!" The captain had never met such a character as this befqrc, and he was interested. A fe,,. other loungers on the wharf stopped to overhear the conversation, their attention first attracted by the great height of the man. "Af ,.. "I c ,3 I 011 C cante was k the bo s,vim.' ··w stande "Be didn't there instan the be st rug~ his fa mc l" face, hate " mack wh<11 know to sh, sha1m on m. day a the bl Sue face t to SOI excite the v Wl twenf Th ,, ladie~ Th age. was wate1 becor to a: comn clung ing C sea. "N Ye Ever rapid Tr Seve. asho1 grou· the 1 ~c BR \ \ E \~D "Afraid of what?" asked the captain, "I don't know. Of death, I !lt1ppose. This is how it I came from home with a comrade. I go back alone. On day when we were out in a little sloop a stom1 came up, and in a sudden lurch of the l>1lat my partner was knocked overboard by the boom. In half a minute the boat, as se,eral fathoms away from hun. He couldn't . ., S\ JIU. '"Why didn't you throw him a line?" asked a bystander. "Becau e I was afriid for my O\\ n coward's life! I didn't dare to let go the tiller for a moment. I tood there stupirl with frar, afraid to leave the tiller for an instant, afraid of death. I felt like a mah paralyzed As the boat ro e and fell on the waves I \\atch<:d my friend --trugglc in the sea I saw him throw up his arms; I aw his face white with terror; ] heard him cn out: 'Save t11e I" an,I then l•e must ha, c real! what was in my scurcrl f, CL, f r he shouted: 'Coward!' and ,ent me a look of 1atc a the waters CO\ered him up. I don't know how I wad, l,111cl, but I got in safr, after six hours of tossmg, \\ hc-1 the ale fell. I'd give my life, if f only could. to knm\ hat l \\asn't a coward, bi1t when the time comes to sh w it, I ha, en't the i10,, er. You don't know the shame of it, sir; lmt you would if you could see that look on my comrade's face ancl if his cry rang in your cars day and night. (' \rnrdice is upon me like a cur e. It's the blight of my life, sir." Such evident sha!lle and grief were upon the man's face that all who heard, including the captain, were moved to ome pity of hi !:late, and o much curio,ity had he excited in the captain's mind that he was employetl for the VO) a"'C. \V11c:n the Wan ior hoisted sail an hour later she had twent -one ,outs aboard. The captai11 clac:sificd them thu,: Seventeen men, two JI ladic., a maid, and a Coward. The Warrior had good winds at lhe start of her voyage. Dut one nigl t a "ind rose, anrl at cla) light there was a hca\) gale. \\ h1tecbp dancEd \\ ild\Y upon the \I aters of the sound The pcrtttrhation of the sea was becoming frightful. The \'(',sci was driving straight on to a rock,> coast. The pa~sengers, pale with dread of the coming catastrophe, lashed themselves to the deck or clung to the rigging. Captain Scudder shouted the warning of the doom of the Warrior above the sound of the sea. "N'oU11ng under hca\·en can change her ccurse !" Yet he and his crew strove, nevertheless, to the last. Everybody on board knew that the vessel was drifting rapid!), tltat soon she must strike and be da,hed to piece,;. The ea swept her deck and broke over her ma-ts. Seven men hung to the rigging for life. They looked ashore. Onl) 011c hundred awl fifty prds away stood a group nf i~landcrs, as helplc,s to succor those in peril as the latter, rre to :ne them-.che,. ~O\\ ti.._ po::.1tion of the \ c~:.cl \\ a:. thi:,. \\ hero Sandy BOLD \\ EEKLY. :Point rlrop:-beneath the sea, it doc not encl, hut it is prolonged tinder the 11 ater, t11aking thus a perilous sandbar. Out upon this bar was the Warrior. The island tide from the cac;t and that from the west meet here. There i, no more terrible place in a gale than that where two seas collide. The ~torm grew. Such \\'as the wo1-l-of wind and sea that times were when the c:a•1d-bar from the shore to the \·e ~cl was :.\\ept naked. nut its nudity was "peedily buried under the heavier sea'-. Passenger::. and crew, fatigued with lahor and loss of i;lcep, a~sailcd by a biting wind, at last succumbed to chill and tmmbness, and made no mote effort. Then arose one of their number, a tall, gaunt fellow whom the captain had called a cowarcl in harbor and he proceeded to hclahor thetn a11el to keep them active that the) might not perish froltl the cold. ''There's hope yet!'' he cried. "l,cep aliYe, men!" Antl one after another did he awaken by rude shaking, and warm by his rough chafings. Some caught this spirit, and hy the labors of their weary muscles set their frozen blood in quicker motion. ""But what uc:c ?" cried one. ''The encl must come." " \)·e, but thr.re's one chance,'' shouted the coward, who now loomed up large and resolute. "Look I the sea has rolled back and left the liar uncovered. \ man could run ashore on that, maybe, \\ bile the sea held back." Two men laughed madly. "Aye, ma)be! Look 110\\ !'1 said one, with savage sarcasm. The coward looked. The ~ca hacl $\Yelled up and hid den the bar far beneath its foaming ,rnlers. "Y<'t 011e might tr) !'' cried the co\\arc!. "fry )OU, then," shouted the other. :t\ow, it is hard to meet death half-way. It i~ against man's nature to walk to destruction. Even though he know 1t be coming. he has the hope ot the cc,\ arclice to shrink from it to the last. Therefor<' no •ailor of them would leap into that sea or dare the deed uggested by the coward. ''U I succeed will you follow at the next fall of the sea?'' he asked. "\\That one man can do another can," ,,as ti e reply. The coward looked ashore. Suddenh the waters rolled apart. The sand-bar was naked; the inan jumped from the gunwale, am! ra11. The people on the yessc:1 watched him ,, ith waking hope and cessation of breath. The hundreds of islanders on shore stood silent, thrilled, eager. No word was said; only the sea spoke. The man ran !,hore\\'ard, "ith shoulders and head bent forward and eye-; set. The sea rose on both sides of him. Two huge wayes walled his roadway. The roadway hcgan to narrow. A tttrhulent high sea moYed in pnr uit of him Tlc lengthener! and quickened his steps. It \\ as a race between ~o ~mall a thing as a mah, and so great a thing as the stor111-impelled ocean. The ocean won. \\'ith a g1 cat roar il came down upon the man. But he would not be taken in flank, with his back to his cncm,. IIe turned and faced the sea. He leaped into it hc:nd foremo~t \ftcrward his boch· was cast upon the beach. The ocean had toyed with it, and had then thrown it back to it~ own kind. Tho~e on the isla,nd saw that when the man turned to meet death a -.mile was on his face. Ile had discovered that he ~\ as not afraid to die. IJlrLATESTISSUES~ THE BRA VE AND BOLD WEEKLY All kinds of stories that boys like. The biggest and best nickel's worth ever offered. HIGH ART COLORED COVERS. 32 BIG PAGES. PRICE 5 CENTS. 270--Gordon Keith, Lumber-jack: or, Wild Life in the Great Northwest. By Lawrence While, Jr. 27J-Money to Spend; or, Tbe Boy Who Had a Million. By the author of "The Prince of Grit.'' 272-Always on Duty; or, The Life of a New York Fire Laddie. By John De Morgan. 273-Walt. the Wonder-worker: or, A Secret of the Sea. By Fred Thorpe. t 274-Far Below the Equator; or, Gordon Keith in the Land of Revolutlon. By Lawrence White, Jr. 275-Pranks and Perils: or, The Black Sheep of the Burrar,es. By Ernest A. Young. 276-Lost-in thelce; or, Two Boys' Adventures in the Polar World. By John De Morgan, 277-Simple Simon; or, The Fellow They Took for a Fool. By Herbert Bellwood. 278-Among the Arab Slave Raiders; or, Gordon Keith in the Wilds of Africa. By Lawrence White, Jr. 279-The Phantom Boy: or, Young Railroaders of Tower Ten. By Weldon J. Cobb. THE TIP TOP WEEKLY The most popular publication for boys. The adventures of Frank and Dick Merriwell can be had only in this weekly. HIGH ART COLORED COVERS. '32 BIG PAGES. PRICE 5 CENTS. 6!9-Frank Merriwell's Suspicion; or, The Last Stroke of the Secret Powers. 620-Dick: Merriwell's Gallantry; or, The Girl from the South. 6U-Dick Merriwell's Condition I or, An Affair of the Heart. 622-Dick Mrrriwell's Staunchness; or, Standing By a Friend. 623-Dick Muriwell's Match; or, The Fellow Who Failed. 624-Frank Merriwell's Hard Case; or, The Boy Who Would No· Try. 625-Frank Merriwell's Helper; or, Tbe Assistance of R alph Sand. 626 -Frank Merriwell's Doubts: or, The Wizard of the Water Swimming Tank. 627-Frank Merriwell's "Phenom"; or, The Untrained Wonder. 628-0ick Merriwell's Stand; or, A Fight Against Prejudice. THE NICK CARTER WEEKLY The best detective stories on earth. Nick Carter's exploits are read the world over. HIGH ART COLORED COVERS. 32 BIG PAGES. PRICE 5 CENTS. 584-AMillion Dollars Reward; or, Nick Carter's Process of Induction. 585-The Signal of Seven Shots; or, Nick Carter's Struggle for His Life. 586-The "Shadow"J or, Nick Carter's Mysterious Pursuer. 587-A Dead Man's Secret; or, Nick Carter's Search for Counterfeit Plates. 588-A Victim of Magic; or, Nick Carter's Struggle With a Human Tiger. 589-A Plot Within a Palace; or, Nick Carter's Royal Client. 590-The Countess Seta•s Defence j or, Nick Carter in the Palace of a King. 591 The Princ.:ss' Last Effort; or, Nick Carter Wields a Royal Scepter. For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sem: to any address on receiptof price, 5 cents per copy, in money or postage stamps, by STREET®. SMITH Publishers 79-89 SEVENTH AVE., N. Y. IF YOU WANT ANY BACK NUMBERS of our Weeklies and cannot procure them from your .1ewsdealers, they can be obtained from this office direct. Fill out the following Order Blank and send it to us with the _J)rice of the wuklles you want a::d we will send them to you by return maiL POSTAGE STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY. I I • • • t • I t • I • • • • 41 • I • • o • o I I f I I I I • I I I I • I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I • • I I • • I I • I • I t • • • o I I o I • I • • • • I I • • • t • • • I • • • e -, • • • • • • STREET & SMITift 79 Seventh Ave., New York. ..................... .•.......•.....190 Dear Sirs :-Enclosed pf ease find......•....•.•..cents for which send me: •.....copiesof TIP TOP WEEKLY.........••...................................... ········.····· ••.... • . . . . • " " NICK. CARTER WEEKLY.....•...............................•. · . · · · · · · ....... · ... · .. . ...... u " DIAMOND DICK WEEK.LY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , · . · · · · · . · .............. . . . .... ,. 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By l·.rncst :\. ¥oung. 249-.\ :llad111.111·, Secret: or, l'he Prisoner nf Dead :\Jan's l,lanc!. !1y the author of ..The Boy in Black." 250-Li,,ucrs Pluck; or. The Young :\liner'$ Fight for a :IJillion. fl\• Frank "lwriclan. 25i-The ·Red \\'afer; or. Gurdon Keith at Bay. By Lawn·ncc \\'hite. Jr. 252-J"hc Rivals nf Rinr\\'O<lcl: or. \\"inning the Sil1·cr Pennant. lh· He1·ben Bcl!wc,od. 2;=;,,-Joll_v· Jack Jolly: or. .'\dn:nture:i of a Xew York Boy. By Tohn :llack. . 254-\ Jay irom :.\lai1w; or. ·1 he Fortunes of Reuben Green. Ry 1Ierhnt lkl111ood. 2_:;5-]Jank. the l lu~tkr; ur. A Brave Iloy's Batlle for Bread. By Fred Thorpe. 256-,\t \\'ar with :-Jars: or, The Bovs Who \Von. By Weldon J. Cobb. 2_:;7-l,;11lroad Ralph: or. \\'inn111g His Way on the C. & J\f. Hy Enginec1· James Fi,lc 258--G,,rdon Keith. 1\lagician: nr. Through the Danger Zone in .\,hanti Land. Tly La11rence White, Jr. 25~L t1cky-Stonc Dick: or. The Fighth \\'onder of the \\"oriel. lh \\'c-Jdnn T. Cohh 260-"Gi1-t·p-And-Git :" or. From Flam(• to Fame. By Fred Thorpe. 261-l'p-To-Date: or. Push and P luck Rewarded. By the author of ··\Yide-A \\'ake." :?62-Gorclon Keith's Double : nr, The Ch.ise of the Coiners. By Lawrence \ \'hite. Jr. 263-The G0l<kn Harpoon: or. Cn1iSl' of the Clifton Cadets. l3y Weldon J. Cohb. 26-1-Rarre<l Out: or. i\ Race Acros~ the Continent. By Fred Tlwrpe. 265-lloh l'ortl'r·, Srhoolda),; nr. l.if, '.II L1l,c\ ,,.,1 l~y Waltl·r ~lorri<,. 266-Gordon K~ith. \\'hakr; or. A Cha,c f!\rnvgh l Xorth. By Lawrence \\'hite. Jr. 267-Chum, at Grnndcourt. M, The B"Y~ of t' < \1,,1111•,: .\cadrmy. Hy Frank Sheridan. 26..~-Partncr,; Three: or. A Cnrtload of f"ut1. B~ ~ cidon J Cr'· 269-Dick Derby's Douhk: or. ~T~o Hoy Kin~,. Hy Ft< Thorpe. 270-Gordon Keith. Lumber-jack; or. \\'il<l Life in hu i;, Xortlrnc,t. By Lawrence Whitt·. Jr. 271-~loney to Spend: or. The Iloy \\'ho haJ it, :1-hl'i,m. the author of ..The Prince oi Grit.'' ~ 272-.--\l\\'ays on Puty; or. The Life of a :'\'C\\ Yori-.: !<ire· L' 'die. By John De ~Jorgan. 273-\\'alt, the \\·oncler-\\'orkcr; or. \ Secrd ni the ::::;,,;1. 1' Fred Thorpe. 274-Far Belo\\' the Eqnator; or. Gordon Keith in , 1~ Land f ReYolution. By La\\'rcnce White, Jr. .275-Prnnks and Perils: or. The Black She..-p of the Curra;:,,. Th-Ernest A. Young. 276-Lost · in the Tee; or, Two Boys· \Jventure, in t'w P, . World. By John Dc:llorgan. 277-Simple Simon: or. The Fellow 'I hey Tor,k F }or' Rr Tle1·hcrt Bell,\·ood. 278-;\1110;1g-1he ,\rah Sla\·e Raider~; or. Gorclon Keith in the \\'ild~ of :\frica. By Lawrence \\ hi1e. Jr. .279-Thc Phantom Boy: nr. Young Railmnckr, nf \·a ·1en Bv Weldon J. Cohh. 280-Romid-The-\\'orld Bo\',: or. The Search ior the <;-eat Pink Pearl. By Fred ·f·horpe. 281-NimhJ,_, }C'rry. the Young Athlete: or. Boats. B.11,. a:id Bicycle~. By Ernest A Young ll,' YOU ,YA:<-T ANY BACH Xtl~lllERS of tlli~ W!'O'klr and rannot pi-0<·111·,, then, from ncws<lcnlel'~. t lwy ('fill he ohtahw,l Ii-om tbl, MTI<'P diT• t. Cnt out an<l till in tlw folluwiu~ or11<,1• hlank nurl '"""l tt-T,o us with tho pri<-c of the nm11he1·.s yon want aml we will """'1 llu·m to you hj· ••turn"" l \ POSTAOF. STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY. \,.,REET &$)111'1-l, P 11hlislwr,, 79 i'<'Y<'lltll A,•cnttc, New York l'it.,·. . ...................................... ••··· -··•190 GP11th~11w u :-1":ndo:..<•<l flnd....._.......,·cu t~ foJ' '"'hi<·h 1,lea~P ~e,n(l me: BRAYE AND BOLD WEEKLY ~os ......................... ......................................................................................................•-· . -...... -. ..-..... -..--....... -. ----.... -. ...--.............. -....--.-. -............... --. ..........-.. -.... -.-... ···················--············-····-···-······--··· |
