| Show WINGS OF DANGER A N eLby Arthur A. A Nelson Copyright 1915 by Robert M. M McBride McBrid Co q 1 Continued from yesterday On the the of June Tune we had crossed the Equator but found no break brcak In the great forest According to Pr pro Ivars- Ivars eons eon's aneroid we were more than feet above sea-level sea and steadily ascending Up tip to now we had been guided by Ibrahim's map but In our extraordinary position no map or chart made by man was of ot much avail since it was impossible to go around a stretched east and west right across the continent in a solid belt four hundred miles s wide It is quite true that explorers have managed managed managed man man- aged to pi pierce that gigantic natural barrier in a desultory fash fashion on but only on once mice e in a great while at places hundreds hundreds hun hun- of ot miles apart and the empty look upon the maps of Central Africa of of rid rid- still tells t lIs enigmas n never ver read Yet wo we must face it and penetrate letra its secret or turn back T. T TOT lQ make mak matters worse we were sh short rt- rt ot of We Ve w went nt on in indomitably indomitably in- in fighting off fever at every step w and nd no jarring twinge twine of ot conscience conscience conscience con con- science obtruded itself in my thoughts concerning I the propriety of making common commo cau cause e with the emissary of the By tacit consent we wo hung together r I had actually grown to have havea havel a l liking likins for the man and to regret that he was my unconscious adversary in that left l ft handed game e And T r believed he was In the Uie dark asto me J The days had passed I in In apparently endless nd ess marches and and the ladies ladles mounted on their sturdy sure footed donkey that nhat never seemed to tire Ure bore that journey pluckily while Eric Ivarsson Ivarsson Ivarsson Ivars- Ivars son was their mainstay In foul weather That grotesque old savant strangely enough was forever at their beck and call With his gargoyles gargoyle's face and faded parchment skin his shrewd little gray eyes peering dimly through enormous enormous enormous enor enor- steel framed glasses he seemed like Father Time himself beside their youthful faces that of late were growing growing grow grow- ing ng a little pale and haggard And day after day I had watched the waning bloom upon their cheeks fading insensibly but surely surely had had had marked the slow significant deepening of ot these haggard little circles like the tho pallid shadows of ot sorrow that fall from l some ome m master ster painters painter's brush the vague reflections of his darker moods that haunt so so many a priceless pictured f face ce And like lilee the dark touch of ot genius upon the canvas those shadowy lines only Intensified their beauty and m made de it more eth ethereal But their irony was was was' not lost on me For unless we reached the edge of the great forest forestery very ery soon the end was was very certain we we- should we-should should leave our bones to to rot In some reeking Central African swamp Short rations and hard marching were telling terribly on us all by now And I r cursing fate Impotently turned my eyes away from the sight of ot those thos wonderful serene white faces thos faces which the huge unreasoning maw of ot the ravening wilderness wilderness wil wll- was perhaps Inevitably to swallow and annihilate forever after atter ally For I I knew that starvation and fever grinned at them openly now now now- hough though they had never guessed 1301 For it IV had ad come to that We had food only four days more more- and but two ou ounces ces of quinine And then like a a. thief ln the night came the sleeping that sickness ss that pale specter of the tropics tropics and and men began to die of off suddenly suddenly suddenly sud sud- denly like flies What was It Other men have asked that question question men men with cool brains brains- seeing their bearers droop and die mysteriously mysteriously mysteriously mys mys- its deadly breath For oddly enough it almost never takes a European perhaps It is the racial difference dIfference difference dif dIf- ference In temperament between the black man and the white but as the proverb runs runs Egypt to the Egyptians fate to the fatalist who can tell teU Only another rim prim riddle of the Dark Continent we hear people say Yet to think that brave men should sleep un- un wakened at the gates of death to Beethe see Bee seethe seethe the stamp of unutterable weariness so strangely graven on their hopeless faces That Is the pity of it that Incomprehensible torpor that hideous surrender And that was what we saw hour by hour till our brains reeled with horror an and mote more than a fifth of ot our number had gone to swell the long list of victims of ot that equatorial hell Man after man they dropped In that deathly sleep and we were powerless to save them But we went on somehow Over us the long quiet shadows quiet shadows of twilight drooped continually and It seemed as though we should never emerge again to the welcome light of day Into the vtha perfect sunshine that men never learn to value at Its true worth it seems until it has been cut off Jn In the most desperate situations there Is always hope Thi That t Is a l lesson which Man has never quite unlearned About 4 o'clock o'clock-it o'clock It was the fourth day and our food was nearly gos Lord go-Lord Lord Chalmes who chanced chance to be ahead stumbled Into a ripening plan plan- twins There were faint traces of a clearing which the rank ranle choking growth of the tropics had nearly obliterated There were no bones and no remains of ot huts Whoever the people people peo peo- pie were that had once cultivated the clearing they had long since gone away But the plantains had gone gone on multiplying In accord with Natures Nature's bountiful law until now there were were literally thousands of them nearly ripe And as though by an actual miracle we were saved The discovery had put new hope into our hearts heart for forwe w we knew we could not be far off the edge of ot the forest now It w was s o obvious enough that no natives would go very far tar In for a f food purpose so simple The wholesome had magically banished the epidemic of ot sickness that had stricken the men and after a few hours' hours rest we went on with renewed strength On the sixth day a at 9 o'clock one of ot the Arabs in front called out that he could see a great light ahead of ot him A cheer went up from all those bronzed throats and then pell mell men fallIng fallIng falling fall- fall Ing over one another In their eagerness we rushed forward and found that we had reached the end of the great barrier There In a sky without a cloud cloud- the sun flun was shining placidly on a scene that made our hearts beat faster as we gazed razed Wave on wave of ot rolling uplands uplands uplands up up- lands covered with long yellow p tam- tam grass like a sea of ripening grain and In the distance the the- broad expanse of ota a a beautiful blue lake lIk like a magnificent gem in a setting of green rocky hills Fa Far away Vay to to the north I fifty miles mUes or more the morning sun sunrays sunrays sunrays rays kissed the tall glittering gUttering white crests create of ot a mighty mountain range whose snow capped peaks towered into the blue A voice said suddenly behind me Across those mountains my friend we shall find e each ch what chat our hearts de desire desire desire de- de sire For me me the other half halt of ot the Saga for you you what what Hardly the land landof landof I of milk and honey you expect to find find find- you and my goo good friend Rhodes find I but buta a land of old secrets ts of ot ruins of dead I gods Aye the sea kings are there I tell you there is the eyrie they would seek and the Norse Korse records do not tell lies I turned around to the old archaeologist archaeologist archaeologist who was swi standing there with the rapt look of some ROme Norse kald on his cracked and wrinkled face his long Iron gray locks tI flying Ing In the breeze I said mad You are mad Quite There are no Vikings there Youve You've come to the wrong show The old fellow fel fellow fellow fel- fel low had a bad nightmare you know The whole business Is a chimera For answer he pointed significantly at Ingulf who stood gazing fixedly at atthe atthe atthe the far off mountains his lips half parted and a queer stare on ori his hili in inscrutable inscrutable in- in face Look at th that t man he droned Tell me me me-It If you can who can who is he where did he come from took Look at his eyes So a man might hazard a guess that It I Is not the first time he has seen those mountains I tell you he knows something if it he would speak out Lord Chalmes sauntered up to us lazily wiping his monocle Ripping set of scenery he be ob ob- ob served Gad Oad sir It Is like heaven after purgatory Miss has Just Issued another ultimatum W Weve We've 6 concluded you know to see this thing through with you with you T U chaps and I daresay Im I'm not sorry I fancy I may have havo turned a bit crusty once or twice he was good enough to add He nodded to Dr Ivarsson with an amused grin So you think you shall find your lost sea kings behind those mountains Doctor The other wagged his his' great eat head vigorously Aye he said we we shall find them young oung sir so surely as the first white man to set his foot on the North American continent was a Norseman I left the Doctor gesticulating like a hypnotist in his lordships lordship's amused Incredulous in incredulous incredulous In- In credulous face and went to have a alook alook alook look at the donkeys None of ot them had bad come to any harm In the forest except from the aloe thorns thorn and In half an hour we were on the march ag again in steering for the snow capped mountain range In that marvelously clear at atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere at- at It seemed no more than a aday's aday's aday's days day's march away but It was three days before ewe we we had reached the base of the mountains and started to ascend them picking our route through a terrifically narrow mountain mountain mountain moun moun- moun- moun tain pass which appeared to with its tortuous way slowly upward to the At times we had to dismount and lead our beasts where the pa pass s dwindled d to a mere footpath running along the verge of ot an awful chasm which had in places a sheer drop of ot fifteen hundred feet And often otten there was barely room room for one of the donkeys with the Maxims to squeeze by Once I thought they would go over th the brink with the guns But they never did It was the most terrifying abyss that any of us had ever seen seen seen- like the pit of ot Hell itself In some dream of the painter Dore And looking down those frightful perpendicular walls I felt my brain positively reel They conveyed subtly a horrible in invitation invitation In in- had an extraordinary drawing power like shadowy hands down there that beckoned beckoned And be below below below be- be low us over those black depths a solitary solitary solitary soli soli- tary bird of prey hung motionless poised on powerful wings At five o'clock we reached rached the snow snow- line having begun the ascent of the pass at dawn That night the Arabs suffered keenly from the cold and the water froze to ice In our canteens The ladles ladies passed the thelong long hours at least endurably In their tent In which a petrol stove was kept burning while De a a wise quiet capable clever De In n this sort of emergency had emergency had draped the outside with skins that broke the chill of the wind To any party less well equipped a night passed at that altitude would have meant being frozen stiff But we had had the foresight to halt alt at a a. small clum clump of 01 dwarfed firs which grew grew grew-as as tho though gh by bya a providential whim of fate out of ot the ragged flank I of the mountain and a roaring fire was kept going They w were we're were re the very last sentinels of ot vegetable life lite Everywhere else above us and In front the mountain mountain mountain moun moun- tain was naked save for the lava ashes and the snow snow We Va were bivouacking bl- bl on a chain ot of extinct vol volcanoes vol- vol canoes The Arabs huddled together by the fire for warmth snatched snatched-a a few hours of ot broken sie sleep p. p At l length we we joi Joined e ethem them throwing ourselves down on the hard ground close to the animals for formen formen formen men men will sleep even cven in th the Strangest and most disquieting surroundings Somehow at last the night wor wore away another dawn came gliding over Aver the crest of ot the lofty range rang and presently presently pres pres- the snow-clad snow peaks at above ov us were glowing as though lit up by the glare of a burning city Like a rampart rampart rampart ram ram- part reared by supernatural hands to hide a formidable secret from the pryIng pry- pry big irig gaze of that puny insect man the great range ran on unbroken into the northeast apparently in a mighty circle cir cirr cle farther than the e eye e could teach reach frowning in In in silent grandeur over the over the rest of ot the landscape for tor league on league and capped with the eternal snows We began at once to descend the pass After some hours of ot very rough going over jagged crumbling lava beds it swung out around the th eastern astern flank of the mountain which had totally cut off the view t to the north Then it wound down the mountainside mountainside moun moun- in a s series rles of sharp zigzags like the trail of a colossal snake upon a hillside We halted to look lo k and nd I saw saw Dr Ivarsson abruptly y a battered pair of ot binoculars I rubbed my eyes There was something queer with the landscape it was all out of joint The Arabs jabbering away like anything pointed out to the desert Cold fear was written on their faces But Eric Ivarsson who had hastily his binoculars never rai raised d them to to his eyes Lord Chalmes at my elbow kept saying in a curious rapid tense mut mutter te ter Well ter Well Im I'm Well Vell Im I'm I I stared and stared Down there In Inthe inthe inthe the middle of ot the arid and desert which stretched away to the north for tor fifty or sixty miles from the foot toot of the mountains mountains moun moun- was set a great mass of ot fantastic architecture the the glittering spires and towers of a large walled city rising white and tall taU out of ot a blazing Veil of ot yellow vapor And then before you could wink twice that ghostly city had faded and disappeared Where It had been there was only the wild expanse expanse ex- ex of ot sun-bleached sun desert Dr Ivarsson let out a startling hollow hollow hollow hol hol- low cackle You saw It too then he mumbled Aye Ay the Aye the mirage you mean mean U The city of ot lost men or its atmospheric atmospheric atmos atmos- projection its aura aura- whatever aura whatever you you like I So young friend that place exists and perhaps we may see It one day Mark me the mirage does not send its illusion across mountains He lIe cackled triumphantly and then suddenly froze up with a gasp His eyes were riveted on who stood shaking like a leaf leat in the wind his fingers convulsively closed on n the hilt hut of the dead swashbucklers swashbuckler's formidable weapon which he had half halt drawn drawn- staring staring at the empty desert but with such a a. a look of ot cold fury and hatred and t fear fearon ar on his distorted features features fea fea- tures as I had never seen stamped on any mans man's face It gave me me the cold shivers That ghostly illusion that unreal city of t the lost had stirred him to unsuspected d d depths Had the past come comb back Had he seen something exactly like that be before before before be- be fore Nobody but the doctor h had d noticed I the remarkable effect which the mirage had produced on Ingulf We Ve descended descend descend- ed to |
