Show CHAPTER VII continued 14 go easy I 1 told her were going to have a real picnic trip down the no hurry everything pleasant there a nothing to cry about and noth ing to get in a paddy about I 1 m going to talk to the carriers take any rags you want out of ay swag chile im way I 1 left her alone sitting there a for lorn slim figure in the new sun of the day that was to have begun my march to victory all the great bush was awake and getting to its business of the day it dlan t care that my abbl alons were wrecked and my plans of years thrown into the romilly river had never questioned for an in betant the necessity laid upon me to take jinny safely back to civilization save her from the consequences of her folly at any cost but I 1 could not pretend to myself however much I 1 might pretend to her that I 1 was glad it mcnno the using up of my stores the going back to daru to refit I 1 os ang the carriers was possible they might desert as soon as they saw the sea and I 1 should have to recruit over again weeks of delay months haibe and all the time all the time A thought struck me and I 1 was re packing some of the boys loads nhen this idea came to me all the time I 1 said to myself all the time somebody else would be getting away 1 think I 1 can agree adb jinny in calling him a swine I 1 found her waiting by the baggage she had taken a shirt and a pair of trousers out of my swag and dressed herself n them throwing away her rags she had smoothed her hair with my comb and washed her face with what I 1 inferred to be the last of our drinking water no matter I 1 could send a boy or two to fetch more from the bottom of the gorge what was time now the queerest mixture of kindliness and anger filled my heart when I 1 looked at her after all if what I 1 suspected was true she was scarce at all to blame after all she had risked her life was ready to go on risking it just tor the doubtful blessing of my society was it a crime no by all the gods no matter what it had cost me yet the way to the romilly river was easier than it had been coming up e got there in two days and camped to make rafts since no canoes were cow available and on the first of the nights of our camp jinny and I 1 came to an explanation CHAPTER VIII we were seated upon the platform of jinny s tent fly which had been mine 1 I slept with the carriers now she sat with her legs crossed playing an improvised banjo and mimicking the sound with closed lips very cleverly if one had felt disposed for such cleverness I 1 was not so disposed feeling indeed a good deal more like going down to the romilly and drowning myself in it than listening to revue tricks but I 1 respected the pluck that set the improvised banjo to a seeming twanging somehow she influenced me drove the dark mood away somehow by and by she had me laughing and the great dark about us pressed less heavily the world narrowed suddenly to n cosy small tent with a lantern and a pretty girl lighting it up almost equally we had had little alk on the way down from the hills but now with a day or two of waiting before us while rafts were made it seemed to me that I 1 owed her something she thought me hard unkind I 1 want to be a churl it about jinny I 1 asked her as she ended her play the for want me to go out and buy you a pair of stockings she laughed stretched out her shapely dancers leg disguised in my kli akl trousers 1 I don t want anything off you she said suddenly grave at not anything want to bhema this side of the grave ive made up my mind to tell yon all about everything all about my colln t you I 1 mean well the beginning of it was that day when apu talked to me on thursday island and said no woman go exploring that put me in a bit of a paddy bet cause of course I 1 dlan t believe it aad 11 don t either well let that go I 1 cut in a trifle wearily I 1 knew I 1 should never sue aeed in making jinny see the truth well 1 was feeling pretty bad about it after you went and it just came into my head I 1 dono how that I 1 d get a boat and run over to the other aide and see like how thing were going on with you and your trip ot course sir richard fanshaw he was to go and get whatever it was before you and salcer he was backing him up id got that much out of the old boy while we was friends because of course he wanted 1 to make love to me aud I 1 nd that when they will tell and then I 1 found that ya there at all at da ft hat wag the place n daru les seems gone to port after all phil that fair awful about sir richard drowned did no one ever find bout anything well you nd nie ran on without waiting for n answer when I 1 acard you d gone ther 1 daiil wa ahll iwo that I 1 by cramshaw Crim shaw illustrations by 91 tiers copyright by co hervle snake beaded 1 could ve bit you I 1 m you all the truth phil I 1 dlan t want you to go because I 1 knew she would be there and 1 thought let her get safe married to sir richard and it 11 be all because ashes the milk and nater kind that wont ever think of another man again what I 1 thought so when I 1 heard gone there and he was dead are you going to narry her it burst forth like a cry it I 1 had been angry with her for her slighting words about pia I 1 ft as not angered now jinny my dear child who do you think would have me for their ter im as likely to marry miss laubler as you are to marry one of the lina sons I 1 answered her she rent straight to the heart of that sophistry yea but if you was to find some up at Tata tata that was worth fortunes and millions 1 I am quite sure if I 1 had a roll alloh tomorrow mrs laubler would not like m any the better yes but I 1 thought to mi self she would let me marry her daughter she bates the type I 1 represent all wise women hate somehow she influenced me drove the dark mood away if its antl social still if I 1 were a bolshevik from leningrad with a million in my pocket shed swallow her hatred hand oer tha girl curse her and all like her I 1 this went through my mind in a second while jinny was going on 1 I anywhere to stay at dam mrs malmstone Mald stone she give me a bed salcer he was there I 1 know salcer he used to be on the halls years ago but he any good at that so he got a job as gentleman s gentleman to sir richard well salcer be said to me why dont you up and after him when be starts hell be back here to get his boys which la waiting for him sas he and then hell be off by the romilly river and it you take a canoe along the coast says he put you up to all the tricks he says and catch him up be ore be can get out of the bush coun try where he 11 have to cut his way be says and you II 11 show him he gays what you can do after ail and who knots he says now ive told you everything phil amory and more than you want to know so if kindly leae toy little wooden hut to me go bye bye leave wooden but for me she parodied shrilly the black forest about us sounded to her high singing I 1 bad thanked her and left her and I 1 was alone alone with myself and the knowledge of my wrecked abbl alons things on the whole looked worse than I 1 bad supposed them to be jinny did not know everything so far as she was ae had been tha moving spirit in the plot to stop leas brang me back but I 1 guessed the hand of sir richard fanshaw in the mattei it the plan were his it was a good plan fully organized and one expect developments from it vet it was as certain as anything could reasonably be that a rival ex was even ann now on its way one hope ly 1 hal t a arr my road was esthe road of the dead miner grace AAA rf AMM M I 1 had used my knowledge of the country to beat out a new track if I 1 were right and I 1 was all but sore of that the new way would cut down risk time expense above all enable me to get to Tata tata aster than any one else could faster it might be than any rival trip that had started already I 1 wouldn t give up all hope of thit th it even now binler the hanging hurricane lamp I 1 drew forth my copy of grace a last notes written on the day when famine and sickness drove him to turn back with his task still undone grace was leading an exploring trip financed by he moneyed partner who wished to solve one of the many unsolved problems of the new guinea back country and incidentally place his somewhat undistinguished name upon the map to cross from the romilly to the fly bad been his ambition there was and still Is a big unknown area in those parts and jackson had been eltten by the desire most natural as I 1 saw it of finding out what and who might be in the uc traveled space I 1 sat on the end of the sleeping platform under the lamp and pored upon my copy of the words he had written tn the bitterest hour of his life january S no eago in sight stores very low jackson anxious to turn back at once after dispute agreed one day more boys weak rebellious bel lious dysentery threatening january 6 today at tour we turned back urged jackson attempt further travel but he declares himself unfit insists immediate return one carrier died today three in very poor condition natives appeared on distant ridge war danced no attack deeply regret necessity return then the passage that gave significance to the whole added hastily in pencil as if some reserve some impulse of prudence had suddenly broken down whole formation suggests gold if so have struck biggest jewelers shop ever known jewelers shop a phrase current among papuan miners means a pocket or series of pockets of extreme richness january 9 covered about five miles hard going carriers very weak feet badly cut jackson somewhat better much regret to say jackson killed by natives today evidently belonging to same Tata tata tribe that had threatened us when stopping in stream bed for lunch shower of spears suddenly thrown from dense bush one went through jaclson I 1 alred into bush and ordered carriers to do same heard one or two shouts but on entering bush later nothing to be seen attended to jackson best I 1 could he did not live three minutes seems to have been hit in heart burled him eight feet deep piled boulders on top resumed march reached creek I 1 had named jackson about five camped more dysentery among carriers two in bad way the record continued brief and hard relating deaths of carriers further attacks by natives terrible straits for lack of food and lack of water the finding at last of a email patch of sago that enabled them to secure enough food for a last rush back to the romilly river grace bad written little after that the fever that ended his life some weeks later was burning out his strength day by day and he was barely able to reach the coast alive there at a little trading station he died leaving bis gear with the trader and I 1 coming along some while after bad bought the stuff for a song graces diary interest the trader who had native blood and could barely read and write I 1 was as sure as anyone could be that my eyes were the first to rest upon it I 1 had been absolutely sure till the day I 1 met jinny on thursday island that the very word Tata tata was unknown to any save myself that the suggestion ane possibility of immense treasure contained between the lines of graces diary was my secret alone now that I 1 had passed the trading station again ascended the river no sherlock holmes was needed to tell me how the secret had got out that story was contained in one sentence grace had written to bis garl he had no doubt hoped to get better get back to her he bad done exactly as I 1 had done with pia as sir richard fan show had done with jinny told his girl his secrets and graces gari had gone out in an influenza epidemic not long after but before that she had in her turn told some one who was probably her lover might have been her lover all along fanslaw Fans baw TO BE CONTINUED M mam |