Show Bla auli in S e anh 7 is A CHAPTER VII continued 14 go easy I 1 told her ber were going to 1 have a real picnic trip down them the river no hurry everything pleasant theres nothing to cry about and nothing to get ret in a about iro im coins to it talk to tile the take any ang you want out of my swag white while vid a way ft ay I 1 left her alone sitting there a for lorn slim film figure in the new sun of tho day unit that wa was q to he have begun my march to victory all the great bush wnm wa ahnke and getting to its business ot 0 the adny diy it cure care that my ambia afons were fekei vi and my plans ot 0 yours years thrown into the river 1 had questioned for an instant tho inid upon me to take jinny safely back to civilization save eave her front from tin consequences of her fotty folly nt at any cost but I 1 could not pretend to myself however how evIr much I 1 pretend to her tint I 1 it the using up tip of my stores tile the going anek to daru to refit I losin os iny tile the carolei 4 wits pos possible gible they might desert ns as soon as they saw the th sea mid I 1 should lieve to recruit over again weeks of delay months maybe and nil all tile the time all tile the ahm I A tho light lit struck we me hard I 1 was some of tile the hoys boys loads when tills this idea emme to tile me all the time I 1 bald to myself all the time somebody else would be getting a awny wit av I 1 think I 1 can agree with jinny in III calling him film a swine I 1 found her waiting by the baggage she had find taken a shirt and a pair of trousers out of my swag and dressed herself in them tb throwing rowing away her rags slie she had smoothed her hair with my comb and washed her face with wit 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 nt at tier her after all if what I 1 suspected was true she was scarce at all to blame after all she had bad risked her life was ready to go on risking it just tor for the doubtful blessing 0 of my coy society was it a crime no by all the gods no matter what it had bad cost me yet the way to the It emilly river was easier ea aler than it had been coming up we got there in two days and camped to make rafts since no canoes were now aval available lable and on the first of the nights of our camp many jinny and I 1 came to an explanation CHAPTER vill VIII we were seated upon the platform of jinnis jinnys tent fly which had been mine 1 I slept elect with the carriers now she sat with her lep playing flu we crib add mimicking the sound with closed lips very cle cleverly v if one had bad felt disposed for such cleverness I 1 was not so BO disposed feeling indeed a good deal more like going down to the romilly and drown brown ing 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 croie the dark mood away somehow by and by bj she had me laughing and the great dark about us pressed less heavily the world narrowed suddenly to a cosy small email tent with a lantern and a pretty girl lighting tt it up almost equally we had had little talk on the way down from the hills but now with a day or two of waiting before ud us while rafts were made it seemed to me that I 1 owed her something sho she thought me hard unkind I 1 want to be a churl it about jinny I 1 asked her as she ahe ended her play the for fora want roe me to go out and buy you a pair of silk stockings she laughed stretched out her shapely dan dancers cerla leg disguised in my khaki trousers 1 I dont want anything off you she said suddenly grave at least not anything want to give rue me this side elde of the grave ive made up my mind to tell you all about everything all about my comin along after you I 1 mean well the beginning of it was that day when you talked to me on thursday island and said no woman go exploring that put me in a bit of a paddy because of course I 1 believe it and I 1 dont either well let that go I 1 cut in a trifle wearily I 1 knew I 1 should never succeed in making jinny see the truth well I 1 was pretty bad about it after you we went t and it just cume came into my head I 1 dono how that id get a boat and run over to the other side and see like how thin things g 8 were going on with you and your tra trip p of course sir lR richard ichard fanshaw fanslaw Fans baw he was to go and set get phat whatever ever it was before you and spicer he be was backing him up op id got that much out of the old boy while we was friends because of eburne course he wanted to make love to me and I 1 and when they will tell you and then I 1 found that you there at all at da what was the place datu dai u yes yea seems gone to port A moresby after all phil that fair awful about sir richard gettin drowned D dd ad no one ever find out ut anything well you know and she ran on without waiting for at an ahser when wheal nl lb beard albeard gone there I 1 was ava S was waa phil I 1 was that by beatrice illustrations by JOV suffers r Copyright by agle A C co sarline anake headed I 1 cotil dve bit you im in you all the truth 1 want wani you to go because I 1 knew she w would oded be abere bin an d 1 thought let lether her ket get bitae married to sira Il richard lebard and be till alt right because ashes the milk and witter water hind that wont ever think of another man again hints what I 1 thought so when I 1 heard gone there and he was dead are you going to marry tier it burst forth uko like a cry if I 1 had been nusry with tier her for her words orda about pin I 1 was not angered now jinny my dear child who do you think would have hae me for their daughter tart im as likely to marry alsa lauffer os as you are to marry one of tile the kengla sons I 1 answered tier her she went straight to the heart of that sophistry yes but if you was wan to find something up tip at that was worth fortunes and millions 1 I am quite sure it if I 1 had a milton militon tomorrow mrs airs laurier would not like roe me tiny any the better yes but I 1 thought to myself site she would let roe me marry her daughter she hates the type I 1 represent all wise women hate hata f somehow she sha influenced me drove the dark mood away it wis its antisocial anti and social still if I 1 were a bolshevik from leningrad with a million in my pocket shed swallow her hatred hand over the girl Cur cures soher her and all like herl berl this went through nay my mind in it a second while jinny was going on 1 I anywhere to stay at daro darn mrs afro Vaid maidstone stone she glee give me a bed spicer he was wag there I 1 know spicer he used to be anthe on the halls years ago but bat he any good at that so ho he got a job as gent lemans gentleman to sir richard well spicer he hebald said to me why dont you up and after him when he starts hell be back here to get his boys which Is waiting for him says he land and then hell be off of by the romilly river and isyou if you take a ai i canoe along the coast says h he e ill put you up to all the tricks he says land and catch him up before he can get out of the bush country where hell have to cut hla his way he be says and show him he says what you can do after all and who knows he says now ive told you everything phil amory and more iban than you wa want nt to know so if kindly leave my little wooden hut hat to me ill go bye bye leave ray ny little wooden hut for me she parodied shrilly the black forest about us sounded to her high singing I 1 had thanked her herand land lift left her and I 1 was alone a lone alone with myself and the knowledge of my wrecked ambitions things on the whole looked worse than I 1 had supposed them to be jinny did not know everything so farns faras she was aware spicer had been the moving spirit in the plot to stop me and bring me back but I 1 guessed the hand of sir richard franshaw in the cattez if the plan were his it was a good plan fully organized and one might expect developments from it yet it was as certain as anything could reasonably be that a rival expedition tion was even now no w on its way one hope only 1 I hart had my road was nottie road of the dead miner grace i I 1 I 1 had bad used my knowledge of tho the coun conn try to beat out a new track if I 1 were right andi nd 1 was wag all 01 but sure of that the new way would cut down risk time expense above all enable rne me to get to faster thim than any one else could vaster Faster it lt might bo be than any trip that had bad started already I 1 give ap all hope of that even now f under the hanging hurricane lamp I 1 drew forth my copy of bf gracea Graces last notes written on an tho the day when famine and sickness drove him to td turn back j with his task still undone grace was wai i loading leading on an exploring trip financed by the moneyed partner who wished to solve one of the many unsolved problems of the now new guinea back country and incidentally place his somei somewhat hat undistinguished namo upon the map to cross from the Koni Ito milly llly to the fly had been hla his ambition there was ins and still Is a big unknown area in those parts and jackson had find been bitten by the desire most natural as I 1 saw it bitof of finding out what and who might be in the traveled ut space I 1 sat on the end of tho the sleeping platform under tho the lamp binm p and pored upon ti von my copy of the words he be had written in the bitterest hour hoor of his life january 6 no sago in sight eight stores very low jackson anxious to turn back at once aher after dispute agreed onedas one day more boys weak rebellious bel lious dysentery threatening january Ja noary 0 today at four wo we turned back urged jackson attempt further travel but he declares himself ugilt 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 sign significance ift to the whole added hastily in pencil as if some reserve rea orve some impulse of prudence had suddenly broken down whole formation suggests gold if to 0 o have struck biggest jewelers shop ever known Jewel jewelers erIx shop a phrase current among papuan miners means a pocket or series of pockets of ex extreme tronie richness january 9 0 covered about five miles hard going carriers very weak feet badly cut jackson somewhat better much regret to say bay jackson killed by natives today evidently belonging to same Tata tata tribe that had threatened us ua when stopp stopping ingin in stream bed for lunch shower of spears suddenly thrown from dense bush one T fl a i into bush and ordered carriers to do same saine heard one or two iwo shouts but on entering bush later nothing to be seen attended to jackson best beat I 1 could he did not live three minutes seem to have hare been hit in heart hearl burled buried him eight feet deep piled boulders on top resumed march reached beached creek I 1 had named jackson about live 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 atra its for lack of food and lack of water the finding at last of a small patch of sago that enabled them to secure enough food for a last rush nish back to the romilly river grace had written little after that the fever that ended bla h I 1 a life some weeks later was burning out jut his strength day by day and he wais wa birely able to reach the coast alive there at a little trading stavon station he be died leaving his gear with the trader and 1 I coming along some while after had bought the stuff for a song graces diary interest the trader I 1 who had native blood and could barely read and write I 1 wa was 1 i as an hureas sure as anyone could be that ray m y eyes were the first to rest upon it I 1 I 1 had been absolutely sure till the day I 1 met jinny on an thursday island that tho the very word Tata tata was unknown to any save gave myself that the suggestion the possibility of immense treasure contained between the lines of graces diary was my secret secre alone now that I 1 had passed the trading station again ascended tho the river no sherlock She holoien was waa needed to tell roe me how the secret had bad got gotaut go tout out that story was contained in one sentence grace had and written to hi hii girl lie ile had no doubt hoped aget better get back hehir done exact lyas as I 1 had done with pla as sir richard fan shaw had bad done dohe with luny jinny told his girl hla his secrets secre tiL and graces girl had gone out in an influenza epidemic not long but before that she had in her turn told some ofte oh who was probably her lover might have been her lover all along Fau fanshaw shaw aci TO aB CONTINUED |