OCR Text |
Show t 8 THE QGDEN - J -- : SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 22, 1921." aFf aT W piSOIMllilf STANDARD-EXAMINE- R (O We vv (C "jlTL OUiLll J)C2L3 '(Continued from Preceding Page) looked so hard and cruel and cocked it, and put it carefully down. And now, it being dark, I began to wander helplessly, restlessly, up and down the house, for 'once not afraid of the night, but only of that which it might bring. The greater fear had driven out the less. I don't know how I passed the early part of the night. It seemed at least a week long. Once or twice I was so tired with ffly wandering about, my staring into the dark through the louvres of the steel shutters, my strained,-fruitles- s listening, that I dropped into whatever chair came nearest and slept uritil I was startled up afresh by anything, nothing an owl in the forest, a frog on the croaking top of the tank to wander, and listen again. r It seemed to me that in those wanderings I realized as fully as any mortal may the feelings of spirits supposed to haunt old houses, restlessly, night by night, forever. I felt that I was haunting. I felt it would never end.. But it did. I had no watch or "clock ; it waS impossible to tell how the night hours were going. But I Judge, by Jater events, that it must have been Hearing dawn when, as I- - lay half asleep and half awake in one of the long chairs of "Lily's" room, I was flung upon my feet as if by an electric shock. Someone? without the least attempt at concealment, was A v trying the doors below. Trying! It was more than that. He or they, after a tentative push or two, seemed to have fixed on a door; and in another instant an awful din began the sound of fierce, determined men smashing thelrxway in by the oldest of all devices, a battering ram. It. must have been a k that they had, and no small one by the noise. And may God deliver me from ever hearing again such Bounds as the yell that accompanied Aevery stroke! Not many people have heard the island cannibal raising his war-cry- , end of those who have few have hoo-hooin- A vfii, J - "Sitting on the edge of the bed, I laid the muzzle of the big .45 against the side of my forehead. Its hard, cold circle felt like the finger of Death himself." - " - a,AAh a --- - AA A StAZ - v :: . S' m : g - " V I :' a--:- :x - V I ' J. '' K V( 'mV, - lI "ZJ . . . I , v r, ' - return ed to tell the tale; for the Papuan and the Melanesian, rank; cowards at heart, never attack unless all the odds are on their side. The horror of the cry lies in the fact that it sounds hardly human. It is somewhat like the howl of a wolf, somewhat like the yelping of : angry dogs. 4 r 1r "Wooh! Wooh! wooh! wooh! waoooT' yapped the savages below as they-raat the door and slam-'me- d the tree trunk home. : ' That sound In itself was enough to tell, if one had not known already, that one might as well look for mercy from the jaws of a, pack of wolves as at the hands of these creatures, miscalled men. Back to my mind, as I fled to the big room and crawled, panting and ehaking, Into my hiding place, came the recojjection of a body of Malaita men I had once seen" marching through Port Hervey on their way to the boat that was to fetch them : home. the Beside, gentle, men and women they had looked like a pack of devils out on holiday from hell so dark as to be almost black ; broad chested, heavy muscled, their naked bodies flung back from the waist with an inimitable savage swagger, their fierce eyes roving boldly and meeting the eye, of the white man with an angry stare. ; I recalled lips and flattened noses, hung, like the snouts of pigs, with heavy rings; their woolly heads stuck full of feathers; the great bundle of clubs and spears carried for them since they were not allowed to wear weapons in Hawonga by a frightened native policeman. ' Seeing them pass I had felt as one feel at the sight of dangerous animals led by under control. And now I was alone on an island with them, and they were loose! In my hiding place I lay still as death, . scarcely daring to breathe, "for the horrible noise had ceased,. the door being down, and the sil-was still more ence that succeeded n - : , soft-eye- d Ha-wong- an their-blubbe- r 1 A , The Malaita men, I knew, were spreading themselves over the house, looking for its Inhabitants and hoping, by their own stillness, to make their victims betray them-- eelves through some movement, come attempt to escape. 'I'm not eighteen yet, and I'm fsoing toidie'was my thought, for I could not feel sure that the men would not discover my hiding place. "I wish I could have lived longer. I wish I had been a better girl. I wish I hadn't told lies to Lorraine and put red on my lips when I went out and stolen the cake from Dinah that time when I was little . . ' - a a y:h ; f l v 1 .- fo .r m - .A y - ' , ' - v. Y';- - ,;v- ' . ; ... " ; from room to room, howling their terrible howl,; lighting lamps and candles and everything of the sort they could find, seizing, on plunder cf one sort and, another, as I judged by the cries of satisfaction that broke out from time to time, and hunting hunting all the time, dev terminedly, :f or "me. They had been years on some plantation, in all and had .learned pigeon-Englis-probability, while there. Some of it broke forth every now and then in the midst of their own language. ' "Mary" is the pigeon-Englis- h word for "woman," and it came often enough, to make , my blood crawl in my veins and my hair crisp on my head. "Where this fellow AMary him stop?" "Hooh hooh hoo-d- o l" "Me catchum Mary."- -- 1 f!F ' K- vv-;y- ' ' y -- 4; , ' ' - - " : :. 7'.. -- "No, you , you no catchem Mary, him go walk-abo"Me go me flndem.". And another howl. They divided themselves shortly, some remaining in the house and, some going to hunt the kitchen ana outhouses. The tanks were among the first places they west to; l heard them, with horror, looking spears underneath and even climb-lnup on the tops to lever, off tho manhole covers and stab down into ' the water inside. , If I could have turned colder than I was already I should have done so; then; for I knew by their actions not the first time these , that men had hunted helpless white pco- . ut walk-abou- t, , g it-w- as , . pie from defence to defence, through LfJing place after hiding place, in the dead of night. .What poof shrieking oul had they sent to its account, from a body dragged out. of tho water tank in which it had thought itself so safe? But the hiding place of the riSes, t and of me, defeated them. ' That was not gurptlslog, after all; ft would have defeated most white men. You could easily look below tho bed, as they did; pall o3 the mattress and stare at the tprlngs and webbing underneath without a suspicion that below that mass, of- springs, feeing, but pot teen, there lay, beside the f tore of rlEeaand revolTen that were worth ; "hen I tzw their dark facet, with the rolling black and wblt eyes, and , the etalrstd grinning teeth, actually bndlsg over as I turned no sick that 1 was afraid m isudden attack of nausea might y roe, and fettle the matter onco and for all. But 1 bit my under lip blood desperately and ths - . - : ran&Jsg ' cured me, ; was all a It after .but very few momenta before they removed the big lamp they were holding over the bed and turned away. And in the relief 1 came nearer to fainting than I had done that tUhL I heard them then thumping and bo-tra- "tmi tr!1e," I retter!e, - lower t e iforey, erarolcte? iinaihed door and talking to cne another. There was cot a tlgn of tho Malaita ram. I unroe any ctrl who read fhf will belSeve that I ran to the mirror de la' Li!y' room and bmtr readjuitrarr.t cf myaelf before- t went down faira to rTet zr.j rescuers; I daresay older will cot - V il that la what I did do. a wet towtl tajtlly A ceO. a ah relied and a pair of ahoe allpped en trade too dUer ence In my. wild aawct. acd did mlnutea la the So!c not take Then I ran down to the vera and a tralg at lato Dinah'a irrci. ! to 'inn? WfThP HE'jGATEi Come Inside, came lnaldl I eiclairned. while b kirsl d enrtne over me for It hmd nd denlr occurred to me that the Malaita men might be aim omewhr tto-a"It ln"t aafe here.- -Safe? Why. cctrv detsaadrd Dlcah. "I never tee - a p'eaiintcr By Anthony Carlyle tu . A Great New Serial of Love, Millions and an Heiress Who Was Sentenced to Death. . femaJgamaled houae.- r - - ' ' - v 'v x - nv. -- Tfc, ,, y f v-- - Ma- Dinah did not, that I waa sot in any way erased by aolitude and waa apeaklng the ilrnple truth. a I told him brieSy what had W gtood la the , hap-pene- d. tacdal-woo- d' drawici nxni, beneath th tmlllse, beadlEt f.fr of tha Cntdlan Venat, the majettlc mfflan cf the Vatican lookisc at ca frota bit teat at tht other tide; cf lh room. i It waa dim and cool there and full cf the acent of precloua wo&di; ihm llsht alanted In through the barred Icuvret. tare where it Tell la cn unbroken, burning patch ihroujh the wrecked doorway. "What did you come InT I asked. "Have ycu any men? Are they nwl! You deal know tat tho MaUita men may -We came In thecr.!y thlcc avail- able, a laacch," raid Lake. "When we hard but there Ita't time to explain. Tve ro one. I ran ih laosca mjf ir. Ahir are tho t'.T.et ar.d tkljsra? Show m at quickly at ycTji ran.. t ran ur.a!rt before hlra asd lh fcldtsc pi a re under the ted.' awept a quick ttasca tound the room a he pulled" ozl aa armful cf runa and cartrliet, I thltk he would have tried to ao'ot fclta and take note of thine? had there not tierce r bu!seta afoot, Aa it waa. I taw thadow of curiot'.ty, diipproval1 t den t know what raa ever hit face. Then be tanaed Jo the dcor. down to the launch at "I jsuit once." he a aid. "If tiot fellowa let hold Of Jl" He ttopr4. la the very act rf quickly loadisc a rife. A yell of bech; triumph had artrtn frcn the !" - I-- tk roe Ik hair-hrc'- h dras There ire laita rata on the liiand, and they came her lat nlsht to kill rae, a J tunted all over th hoaae, and yoa don't know but what they , "What thatr Mid Ijaf har ly, entering tht hemis with I'.nah and taytelf. I think he had had acme Very different apeech opon tla llpt, when he taw me; bat he reallaed SniUr.t-ly- . wert there, !and!cc en the ccss- crete. terrace that unrrcur.ded the . r' f lng at her hand. I fell asleep. I awoke to foil tualight and the ound of volcea on the terrace below. I thought I mutt be dllrlou for the voices a earned to me it was those cf impossible, turely lik Luk Ivory and of Dinah. My leg were m stiff with tb long Imprisonment that I had icra trouble getting put. But I mauased !t. and hurrying to one cf the window! aw through the thnttrnr, w It h lnaredaIoua atnatrrcect, Dtcah and l)ke. Indeed! It it waa not their jrhoitai they trembling RirL 7 ; padllng down the itafr, qnaml-llnjr- , Jt eeastd, over the dlatritu-tlccf their booty, and snarling at one another becauae nobody bad found rayiclf. Afterward there a alienee, which laated so long that eahauited nature had her way and their weight la gold, a terrified, i , f . . . v ; J ' it ' a N r - tyr -'-' '..... -'. ; . ' A , A . ; '- i - V ' . : AS ' V- f - y - J. ) 7 ' ? A ,: ,. - f :?u v, v"V - ' . - - -- , Y- ';. V ' v. '," ;7 Yvy v'-f- . . - . ; ' " V . - Y:VY f n; ;. ,r ' ! it' " and I wish I hadn't gone to sleep instead of going to church, ever so many Sundays and made up funny stories with Mabel about peoplo in the Bible and run up bills at the Japanese store . '. The whole catalogue of my childish sins ran through my mind as I lay there in the. awful silence, knowing that in another ten mln utes or less I might hare to put that cold steel ring to my temple and let loose clean, decent death upon myself, for fear of worse I tried to put up some kind of a prayer, but I could find none, save "God be good to Harry England, and let ug be together in heaven." For I could not fancy my little soul let loose alone in any world beyond the world without his sour to travel ' hand in handwith it. And then hell broke loose. The Malaita men, satisfied, I do not know how; that there was no man in the house, began to run ' v r -- -- . X;. i t X M , - V.;,;; - jVj n': - ; H'sr :h - v. - t; - Y ?y - AY? ' :; rY At I ' ' v7-- - ; . terrifying. 1 I l.-- Y - ; i 4V:'" " fin - tree-trun- . A tea r "Uh "Lord C- h h Cf' h t KKX) . help ci'A crl3 t)ir.ah, "Tht taracea hat cot the launch. To 0 Continued Next Suniay, f J 1 |