Show Ri beeps gol CHAPTER VII continued 14 go easy I 1 told her Were we re going to have haie a real picnic trip down the river no hurry everything pleasant there 9 nothing to cry about and noth ing to get in a paddy about I 1 in going to talk to the carriers take any rags you want out of my swag while I 1 in away I 1 left her alone sitting there a for lorn slim figure in the new sun of the day that was to ha have hae e begun my march to victory all the great gr eat bush was awake and getting to its business of the day it didn t care that my arabi ambi eions were ere wrecked and my plans of years thrown into the romilly river I 1 had never questioned for an in slant the necessity laid upon me to take jh ny safely back to civilization save her from the consequences of her folly at any cost but I 1 could not pretend to n ysela however much I 1 might pretend to her that I 1 was glad it lt meant the using up of my stores the going back to daru to rent refit los ing 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 maybe and all the time all the time I 1 A thought struck me hard I 1 was repacking some of the boys loads when this idea came to me all the time I 1 said to myself all the time somebody tome body else would be getting away I 1 think I 1 can agree with jinny in calling him a swine I 1 found her waiting by the baggage site she had taken a shirt and a pair of trousers out of my swag and dressed herself in 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 drI drinking aling 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 sus pecked was true she was scarce at all to blame after all she had risked her life was ready to go on risking it just for the doubtful blessing blessin of my society was it a crime no by by all the go Is no matter what it had cost me yet rahe way to the romilly river was easier than it had been coming up we got there in two days and camped to make rafts since no canoes were now 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 tenthly 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 clev ariy 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 drown 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 the dark mood away somehow by end and by she had me laughing and the great dark about us pressed less heavily the world narrowed sud denly to a cosy small tent with a lantern and a pretty girl lighting it up almost equally we had had little talk on the way down from the tills gut 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 d t want to be a churl it about jinny I 1 asked her as she ended her play 11 hat s the for want me to go out and buy you a pair of silk stockings she laughed stretched out her shapely dancers leg disguised in in my y khaki trousers I 1 don dont t want anything off you she said suddenly grave at least not anything you d want to give me this side 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 couldn coulden t go exploring that put me in a bit of a paddy because of course I 1 didn dian t believe it and I 1 don t either well we 11 let that go I 1 cut in a trifle wearily I 1 knew I 1 should never neter sue aeed in making jinny see the truth well I 1 was feeling pretty bad about it after you went and it just came into my head I 1 dono how that I 1 id d get a boat and run over to the other side and see like how ti clings ings u were ere going on with you and your trip of course sir richard fanshaw he was deanin to go and get whatever it was before you and spicer he was backing him up I 1 id d got that much out of the old boy while we was frie friends rids because of course coure he wanted to make love to me and I 1 wouldn t and that a when they will tell you and then I 1 found that yon you t there at all at da what was the place daru darn yes seems you d gone to port moresby after all phil wasn gasn t that fair awful about sir richard gettin drowned did no one ever find out anything well you know and ene igne ran on without waiting for an answer when I 1 heard you d gone there I 1 wadi wad wan I 1 was phu phil I 1 wa was that bu beatrice Gr illustrations by bg irwin irmin myers copyright by hughes massie co service snake headed I 1 could ve bit you I 1 im m tellin you all the truth phil I 1 t want you to go because I 1 knew she would be there and I 1 thou thought ht let her get safe married to sir rehard and it IL 11 be all right because she a the milk and water kind that wont ever think of another man again what hat I 1 thought so go when I 1 heard gone there and he was dead are yo i going to marry her it b birst arst forth like a cry it if I 1 had been angry with her for her slighting words about pla I 1 was not angered now tinny my dear cl child lid who do you think would have me tor for their daugh ter I 1 im in as likely to marry miss bliss laurier as you are to marry one of the king kinge sons I 1 answered her she went straight to the heart of that sophistry yes but if you was to find something up at Tata tata that was worth fortunes and millions 11 1 I am quite sure if I 1 had a mil lion tomorrow mrs laurier would not like me any the better yes but I 1 thought to myself she would let me marry her daughter she hates the type I 1 represent all wise women hate N nt v somehow she influenced me drove tiie tae dark mood away it its it s anti social still it if I 1 were a bolshevik from leningrad with a mil lion in my pocket she d swallow her hatred hand over the girl Cur curse seher her and all like her I 1 this went through my mind in a second while jinny was going on I 1 baan hadn t anywhere to stay at daru mrs Vald stone she give me a bed spicer he was there I 1 know spicer he lie used to be on the halls years ago but he wash t tany any good at that so he got a job as gentleman s gentleman to sir richard well spicer hebald he said to me why don dont t you up and after him when he starts ile hell 11 be back here to get his hoys boys which Is waiting for him says he and then he hell 11 be off by the romilly rier and it if you take a canoe along the coast says he put you up to all the tricks he says and you 11 catch him up be tore fore he can get out of the ansh coun try wt wl ere hell bell have to cut his way he says and you 11 show him he says what hat you can do after all and who v vs s he ga sais now ive I 1 ve told you bieri thing phil amory and more than you want to know so if you 11 kindly leave my little wooden hut to me go bye bye you 11 leive my little wooden hut for me she parodied shrilly the black forest about us sounded fb t 0 her high singing I 1 bad tad thanked her and left her and I 1 was alone alone alth myself and the knowledge of my wrecked ambi eions things on the whole looked worse than I 1 had supposed them to be jinny did not know everything so far as she wis 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 fanshaw in the matter 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 riv 11 ex tion was even now on its way one hope only I 1 had my road was not the road of the dead miner grace I 1 had used my knowledge of the coun try to beat out a new track if I 1 were right and I 1 was all but sure of that the new way would cut down risk time expense above all enable me to get to Tata tata faster than any one else could faster it might be than any rival trip that had started already I 1 t give up all hope of that even now under the hanging banging hurricane lamp I 1 drew forth my copy of graces grace s 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 I 1 by the moneyed partner who wished to solve one of the many unsolved lenis lems of the bew bew guinea back country and incidentally place his somewhat undistinguished name upon the map to cros cross from the romilly to the fly had been his ambition there wa was 9 and still Is a big unknown area in those parts and jackson had been bitten by the desire most natural as I 1 saw it of finding out what and who might be in the ua traveled space I 1 sat on the end of the sleeping plat form under the lamp and pored upon my copy of the words he had written in the bitterest hour of his life january 5 no sago in sight stores very low jackson anxious to turn back at once after dispute agreed one day more mord boys weak rebellious bel lious dysentery threatening january 6 today at four we turned back urged jackson attempt further travel but he declares himself unfit insists immediate return one carrier died today three in very y poor condition natives appear appeared ever d on dis tant ridge war wardan caned ed no attack deeply regret necessity return then the passage that gave signoff cance to the whole added hastily in pencil as if some reserve some tin pulse of prudence had suddenly broken down whole formation suggests gold if so have struck biggest jew elers shop ever known jewelers jeweler s shop a phrase current among papuan miners means a pocket or series of pockets of extreme richness january 9 covered about five live miles hard going carriers very weak feet badly cut jackson some what 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 jackson I 1 fired into bush and ordered carriers to do same heard one or two shouts but on entering bush later nothing to be bo seen attended to jackson best I 1 could he did not live three minutes seems to have been hit in heart burled buried 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 fur ther attacks by natives terrible straits 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 back to the romilly river grace had written little after that the fever that ended his life some weeks later was burning out his strength day by day and he was as barely able to reach the coast alive there at a little trading sta tion he d ed leaving his gear with the trader and I 1 coming along some while after had boegl t the stuff for a song grace s diary d t interest the trader who had native blood and could barely read and write I 1 was as sure as anyone could be that my ees ekes were the first to rest upon it I 1 had bad been absolutely sure u till the day I 1 met jinny on thursday island that the very word Fata rata tata was unknown to any save myself that the suggestion ane possibility of immense treasure contained between the lines of graces grace s diary was my secret alone now that I 1 had passed the trading station again ascended the river no sherlock Sheri ock holmes was needed to tell me how the secret had got out that story was contained in one sentence grace had written to his girl he had no doubt hoped to get better get back to her he ile hid had done exactly as I 1 had done with pla as sir richard fan shaw had done with jinny told his girl his secrets and graces grace s girl had gone out in an influenza epidemic not long after but before that she had in her turn told some soine one who was probably her lover ioner might have been her lover all along fanshaw Faus baw TO BB BE CONTINUED |