Show P 3 22 2 03 dia JJ 01 aj 32 3 2 23 3 4 1 A S OM 4 in 41 4 OA DICK R 0 1 INE Y 2 A A on to sil orthe or the adventures of 2 an da n an F eton ton boy tb 5 41 I 1 u 01 DV D V 00 C 0 mo 3 40 1 lag ca ct c r cr ii s 6 as r io 6 Q Q is a C CHAPTER X X continued whoever anic ami 4 us had done this was guilty ot of wan wanton ton malice and treaon to the test lest of his friends tor for f lends we hoped wo we were as well as li others in in misfortune sf we also examined the mutilated read bag in the side thereof was a lean ican slash a foot in length made by ome iome sharp instrument and by shii ape aperture iture the biscuits had been abstracted attracted ate abe str tr by some som e one who hall had inserted hi his hands through the fragile wall of our hut but which as I 1 haie hae stated was borri om posed only of duif and branches the theft had been committed in the night but by whom was the thief one of ourselves the of each seemed to ask the hateful ful question ot of the others and to repel theli glances but soon after three of our missing biscuits were dis dit by tom lambourne Lambon rne lying a few yards apart among the long gra EM as it if the abstractor abstracter had droppel ali alum m during a hasty flight toward the woods or tte devils mountain in addition to ourselves there Is some ome one else on this island exclaimed hislop emphatically and this accounts tor for the loss of the studding sail boom and without delay this th s someone else must be discovered we dreaded lest savages might be concealed in some of the caverns or woods and that they might come upon us in the ni night and stay slay all or that they might make oft off with or destroy the long boat our most valuable possession it was at once resolved that one ot of our number to be regularly relieved should remain in it nay day and night armed with the hatchet our only weapon and that he should be well flogged it he slept or neglected the double duty of 0 wat watching the hut and boat which close by each other CHAPTER the mystery increases an immediate search was resolved upon lots were cast tor for the one who was to remain behind to guard our property and the duty fell ell upon me armed with the boat stretchers or with clubs which they had selected and cut from the trees hia lop departed with all my companions and after proceeding over the gra sy plain they soon disappeared in the woods that covered all the lower slope ot of the great mountain I 1 cannot describe the sensations ot of loneliness that came over me on finding myself tor for the first time single alone and left entirely to my own reflections and resources the carpenters hatchet was my only weapon and armed with it I 1 sat on a grassy slope midway between the hut but and sen sea gazing anxiously inland listening tor for any passing sound but all remained still save the dialing chafing ot of the waves on one hand and the loud buzz of tropical insect life in ili the thickets or amons among the long grass on the other what I 1 asked myself it if savages were actually lurking in the woods and on seeing that all my companions were gone they should come tumultuously down upon the hut and boat I 1 would at crice become their victim or of what would b be e my fate it if my frinda friends fri tell fell into an ambush or perished in detail could any human beings be lurking in ili the two adjacent isles was my next surmise wo we had never seen anything alive on them not even wild goats or boars baars anil and if there were other inhabitants the steepness ot of the rocks which rose sheer from the water and the fury of the surf that rolled between forbade any attempt to cross so in ili such painful surmises and in keen watching I 1 passed the most of the day alone in the afternoon one by one all my m shipmates returned to our little headquarters on the shore weary and jaded torn by briers and br amblas in the thickets and all had the same tale to tell they had seen and heard of nothing save rave wild boars baars wild goats and sea binds now directed that one ot of our number should guard the hut by night and a second the boat with elders to hall hail each other in this fashion boat ahoy aboy hut ahoy this was to insure a watchful lookout but with all these precautions wise and necessary esstry though they were vere our feeling of security and even ot of orlance ir ial lance ance on each other was gone for or the time As these occurrences fi belted the imagination agi nation of our companions companion some of 0 those who watched the hut but and boat by night asserted that when nil all our party save themselves were safely lodged and asleep something like h figure of a very tall man iad ud irad for an instent on the bieu th ovi hung bung the sea between them und and th 04 moonlight but of this mysterious pe nonage if such ested et cd e 1 i lit t in the of strained imagination of a lonely madni midnight lit watcher wo we could dia i no trace during the day dav one night when francis and ned carlton were on watch a sound like ilke the report ot of a pistol was livard heard by thern them and at the same instant both saw a flock of petrels and storm finches cinches rise up tip in the moonlight from the face of the bluff where they i evolved above the breakers like a swarm of 0 gnats in a sun sunbeam leam so it if ned and the cai lenter were mistaken in the sound round the birds N were ere also roused and alarmed mark alark hislop ridiculed their sto story bul lie he was wag considerably bewildered and EO mete wp we all when two days afterward a seaman named hugh chute when rambling in the woods found one of our goats which we knew by the fragment of rope still tied round its neck lying dead with a bullet in its throat he brought it to the hut where the wound was cut open and the bullet extracted it was small and had evidently beai fired cred from a Iii pistol stol till everit event caused the most moat exciting speculations amid which the carcass wa hawly hastily burled buried as none of us its would eat of 0 it what hat or who could this person b were the prevailing questions anil and what was his reason for concealing himself from us in ili the thick woods of the island in the thorough exploration of 0 the latter caused by these episodes our people fortunately discovered a una fine grove of banana trees and returned led laden alien with their yellow and lusilo luscious its fruit at the same time tattooed tom found some letters in a foreign lingo as lie he sail said cut on the face of 0 a steep rock overhanging the river which formed the cascade at the beach to this rock he h conducted hislop and me the next day and after tearing aside some masses massed ot of cheerers creer ers and sem sc plit off a lich coating or of moss we found this old legend on oil the smoothed face of the basalt el noble caballero D alphonso de albuquerque A D 1506 a dios por el the year of the discovery of the 1 land said hislop have other eyes ever seen this inscription since added 1 I it is very doubtful this alphonso also discovered the albuquerque kas kans as he named thi the three islets lie off on the mosquito shore in the calib cai ib bean sea hislop copied the inscription in to his notebook and just as ag we turned to leave the spot a large stone about sixty pounds in weight came era hins hinz don the cliff hurled apparently apparent from rom its summit ard and if so by no ine perl hand band tor for it struck the rock of the legend within a toot ol oi where stood and was as into a hundred pieces covering him over with dust had it struck him instead he had ball been slain and mangled on the spot had a fragment brok aroln n any of his limbs in how miserable miser ablo bli a plight would he have been on that desolate island without proper shelter or surgical od ild looking up tip to the summit of the cliff which was about i hundred an ail fifty feet in height I 1 perceived among amon the dense fringe of wild gourd chrul leaves and plantain tre tr then v v 0 ain i it in the wind something like a human face that after peering over at us wa suddenly withdrawn that stone was never dislodged either by goats or by accident said hislop there is not a vestige of clad cla upon the fragments li sides all flit hi face ace of the cliff Is smooth and solid rock and it Is the only place we did not overhaul yesterday master said tom lambourne Lambo ume then there must be the thief of our cur biscuits of our goats of our counsall boom and my old guernsey let us have all hands turned up tip for a hunt again ex exclaimed elid lot 1 am I 1 now mentioned what I 1 had seen A man do you think it was a mans head 1 I can not be certain Ill hislop slop said aid 1 I it seemed a face of some kind and a very hair one too it might be an old pumpkin suggested tom in his matter ot of tact fact way or a goat at all events it could not have been a baboon said 1 I no no there Is no such animal hereabouts master rodney replied tom man or monkey goat or devil devi 1 we well 11 overhaul the place this very aate afternoon r exclaimed Ill lop slop with increasing and anger but first we shall return with all expedition to tin till hut but CHAFFER jhc thc mystery solved all day the air had been unusually suit and ily hot even foi thi at that ira on but whon when i n ni sun un in 1 w w ward bihin i hen the air lir li r t i j n r and tin tho gadows of the tha with it 11 bluff and tow cling t blue mountain across the stone of which the ali light golaher goi go samer Lamer clouds cloud I 1 av v float ln halfway half way up tip were thrown fa a ea lard iwed ov r that lonell loneia sea ica which no pel lel edmed ever to furrow furro we prepared prep ired wed fin fill a further exploration or as hush hug bi chute said to overhaul that hat ere din rom t biek to keelson chute and carlson were dispatched desp itchek to its ita linse by the way of 0 the river bank and to where the cascade poured over the rocks waking the solemn echoes 0 of the otherwise silent ravine their instructions were to station themselves near the rocks which bore the spanish leg gend to keep a sharp lookout on the face ot of the cliff and all the way up tip to the grove ot of banana trees that grew on its summit billy the cabin boy was left in charge of the hit and boat while hislop with the rest of us its advanced toward the cliff up the sloping bank ot of which its only accessible guint we proceeded cee e to limb it was or is months an make no change a hundred and fifty fret feet in height as I 1 have stated rising sharply up from the ilde ot of the great mountain and is rove ed cd bv a jungle hingle of wild shrubs that must have been growing there since aln p the lay day or of tie the deluge the creepers with gummy branches the sharp serrated grass the yellow gourd vines the wild tendril and plants of which we knew neither the names nor tin 1 lature a tu IC I C were r chere her ei interwoven n ter woven as do clo oll 1 I as a herr ng net to the depth of en or eight f t f from their roots amid this junell the hum of 0 t ii 11 myriads of great insects which roused and dislodged was while the black clouds clouda of gad flies and cockroaches were very b biering and to say the least annoying we floundered and tell fell as we waded through this sea of leaver leave and verdure but bill rose and scrambled on again pausing ever avor and anon bre athlea and faustd haus td 10 sit and fan conj ives or to 0 o aid in pi hinr nR each other out of 0 net 0 lor it thai hai which sprang by magic apell pel around the palace of the sleeping beauty in the he old fairs tale to baffle 11 II intruders for or a hundred years hislop who had not yet recovered his strength was among the first to five i in n and ad declare when halt half way up that ht I 1 he could climb no further two or took advantage of 0 this admission to remain with him for a time but I 1 refreshed by a ripe banaria banana which had fallen from the trees at the top and which I 1 found just at hand pushed on and being lighter than any of my companions got ahead of them all after halt half an hours severe toll toil during w which bich my hands and knees were wera lacerated and torn lorn by sharp blades ot of gigantic grass and by the gummy creepers to which ones very flesh adhered at times I 1 reached at last the banana trees the foliage ot of which waved like a gigantic plume on the 1 summit of thip thi isolated rock the banana rises with a stem which Is about 1 si I or seven even incie in diameter at the toot and from thence i tapers 1 d I tn t the hie height ot of el b teen or twenty ket feet vo 10 where cherp the leaves spring pring like a im irah h green tuft broad navy fea feather thet iii an drooping as those i ol 01 the palm do I 1 uttered I 1 nut lut an 10 lo poran ito to my j announcing anno that I 1 had gained h dummit before them and armed I 1 1 j i we in the it I 1 i ak bood I 1 I 1 i pushed nt way forward apt betar r n alit smooth tem stem ot the bananas till I 1 ached the abrupt how of if ir from the v urge rge ot of n aich I 1 own 1 i low the bright lilii i in that rose in the slopes 1 pes ol 01 the e i dountain noun tain anning through the eitai hi ai of 0 the isle glit toting in the in still amour groves nd ind ravin s to 0 o where it poured in anam upon th hi n u sands sand brach and mingled abi i in ghan southern sea I 1 i aw il 0 rh n U urea ul ol chute dad cind carlton ds tho i oil n it rhe rock I 1 which bore the in crip tion but they could neither me nor hear my shout chii li save ti ih didor co those wh in I 1 hatt haa left balf wa flown clown and who nov i r aimed thru tapu j eni bent tto to be continued |