Show black bla ck cheeps s gold guilla id BY BEATRICE GUNISHAW illustrations by irwin myers copyright by hughes uarl massie A co CHAPTER XIII continued 23 ihnow 1 know its like them mountains that he called after you ever so BO often oft ell on the field id used to look at a t them at sunup sun up there they was t the he ha P aLaur Laur lers high up and cold with the light on them and oud see gee them fo for ra a little while all gold and then when the sun aun was nas gettin warm and they looked sort of homelike aull and not to do far away the mists would come up like cloaks nuns white cloaks hid them and they were pone gone the tears were near ilas eyes why youre a poet she said lightly to hide bide her emotion 1 I im m not im not even musical its what I 1 said you have so much that I 1 and there are things liell be miss but jinny weve got to remember that we love him and want to do the best for him and he be would j just u at hate it it if we be friends friend you mean be my friend real no nonsense about doln doin me good and improving Im provin me and gettan me into a nice place where be kind to me 1 I want to be your friend just as one girl to another if I 1 may if you may inyl 1 said jinny IIi iny and flung filing her arms about the others neck plas kiss given without reserve re serve was still on her lips when jinny without warning sprang away leaped to her feet listened a moment and then in frantic hurry began to put on her clothes clot lies the matter asked pla matter hark nt at that I 1 1 I hear nothing nothing h I 1 11 I 1 rain A sudden memory leaped into plas pins mind what happens it if rain comes him film say altogether we die she lid did not quite understand yet but she ran out of the tent and 1 un der the few faint drops that were be b lua ginning to fall looked cooled up and down the gorge camp had been made on a slope elope of barren sand and grin gravel el at the bottom of a rock wall there wits was driftwood there and plenty of water and when they had halted just before dark it had been impossible to see any place behind them or ahead all the gorge for mills miles wash na eteen to with a bottom almost level that ronde made good going in spite 0 of f boulder sand moraines mo raines of loose stone tile the thread of water that here represented the romilly Rom llly had not seemed then of any importance nut bill already that thread was making mak ng its import felt already a small gr growing ow voice was audible among the boulders tinkle and tripping of water that came from somewhere far away elmol had heard already he was it up P out of his tent aud and running rou round d among the other tent flies with a stick in one hand and a lantern in the other get up you a the they y heard him bini shout he wielded his stick with a powerful arm and many a carrier woke shrieking under his blows he tumbled them out he did not waste time on PIS pin arid and tinny jinny seeing see aa them already up and dressed lanterns were hurriedly lit all over oer camp the rain was not yet heavy but it was increasing in the slow blow steady fashion that presages a downpour leadem altogether you lond load get down along creek quick shouted the sergeant sergen nt we go back what la Is it ask asked edIla ila as he come came running up to her tent rain answered the sergeant ile he fullem up this place quick time you get down along creek you two fellow abada you run like hell bell where to demanded pla coolly 1 I show you you go firs torch ile he was wag away again arl driving ving the boys like cattle some 0 of f them wanted to collect their little belonging their betel bags baga their pipes their blankets kimol cracked them over the head bead over ever the legs legi hustled bustled them without mercy you want to die here you black swine he shouted hou ted get on the Tata tata boy had already vanished into the darkness behind the camp he needed no one to tell him what was coming through a rattle of rocks pla and jinny hurried huri led backward along the way by which they them had bad traveled earlier in the day ile he knows known some place we can get up it must be pretty near gasped jinny jindy as they pressed forward running was impossible walking not lot easy one had to balance and scramble pin pill nodded saving her breath in the minds of both was the thought it may not be near enough kimol according to his lights had acted wisely he had pitched camp in the one place where there was driftwood for urea fires and standing ground for tents he be had left behind him a way out to in case of necessity doubtless the proper place for ascending to the heights above wai was on ahead too far to reach in the dark doubtless one could have got back to the other oabe way out in the face of any ordinary dut but wes this ordinary in the minds of both women there was a fear that it was nothing of the kind where they were the rain was now heavy hissing on tho the stones thrashing the bent Rhoul shoulders ders of the two girls the thread of water in the river bed was rising so BO that they had to walk knee deep in many places but that was not all that was nas by no means all behind them chasing threatening thundering like some colossal dragon of the prime in search of prey camp came something in finitely wat noise se they could h heir it more distinct distinctly with every minute it was not like a dragon now it was 11 like ke a railway train running away like three trains ten dralus roaring through thio iii title line tunnel till together anil and they were like people trapped in a tull tunnel nel who Coul 1111 t find the refuges in the walls nulls in truth the walls of the romilly canyon were a us much a trap as ally tunnel runt ne and jinny J I 1 tiny at least well knew thill between those walls you might be heaten he ten and battered to fragments frugni ints by 1 the thing that was coming onil ng just its as you might be battered under the furious wheels of a train the darkness arid and the rain were ere terrible the hie torch was a mockery to be drowned in the dark thought pla ila sliding over boulders splashing in and of pools that deepened with every minute then oh sw etheart will you ever know then as she struggled s through water anter nearing her walt waist staggered against the clawing clan ing current felt fell that the end of the fight was very near came thoughts that slie she has bus never told to any broken and breathless prayers that chat remain be tween pin and her god and still in the roaring darkness in the rising water the tiny ray of the torch showed no sign of sergeant elmol A gust of wind came suddenly sweeping the canyon she did not need jinnys jinnis clutching hand jinnys jinnis half heard shout to know that it was the outrider of the flood the end they hung thein themselves selves again agnin ao the merciless rock wall for the last time ilias ilas torch swept up the dark she saw they both saw a rope dangling down the wall through the shout bout of the coming flood pierced sergeant mois bull voice from up above lakein ropel tie ile had found some all but impossible place of ascent torn a liana from one of the trees that clung to the the rocky wall and was flinging it down to the two fellow sl cabada the wall sloped outwards the rope seen in the stream of torchlight was very long in a single tense instant both girls realized reali sed that only one could be saved saied and each to in the same moment determined that it should be the other but jinny jinny the gypsy the dancer unstable tit in all things swift in all things was in that last moment swift to seize and hold the glorious chance of death while ilia ila more deliberate cooler was endeavoring to force the rope into the others hands while the wall of water and tumbling rock before which no human thing could live was nas sweeping down upon the two jinny crying take him that I 1 kissed ilia ila and flung herself into the flood there was but a second left the rope swung pla clear of the roaring Ito Hom milly llly just in time above sergeant kimol and the greater part of the carriers some had been swept awny away but some had fol lowed the boy arid and climbed safely out pulled heartily landing funding in a few minutes one white SInn hada who strange to say wept and cried at being rescued CHAPTER XIV the sun was climbing high above the proclaimed goldfield of Tata tuta now changed indeed from the lonely basin that held all its treasures untouched for so BO long light blazed from the intolerable silver of tinned roofs clustered cluster pd low down la in the valley magistrates magistrate a house ll licensed ceased hotel store small field hospital tio light danced on running water that was led from springs spring higher up and flamed into the various claims dotting the whole extent of the basin the basin that was gold bearing almost everywhere but nowhere et carried any thing to touch the wealth accumulated in one prospecting claim at the very ery bottom on new clean tents on old soiled tents on bush huts made of sago and black palm the sun struck fiercely milking making every place it touched w hite hot for it wits win growing now towards noon and in the low latitude of Tata tata midday found no coolness almost no shadow anywhere veat near the bottom of the pit above the small hat flat that licud the prospecting claim were slithered gathered the strongest strangest group that perhaps had ever been seen in that country of strange happenings papua it was far inland days daya anti and days from the sen sea but here on a 0 big flat rock as on the deck of a 8 ship stood together a number of men watching with the utmost attention two who held chronometers chrono meters and se sex tants and were apparently waiting for twelve to take an observation of the sun these were old val tailors lors of whom every goldfield holds it few they had held on to their instruments as ia a mute or a muster master will so long as he can keep himself and ills als goods good away from the pawnbroker the field had found them out and urged by one spicer and his mate caron who held the ground nearest to the coveted prospecting claim at the bottom bad got them down here toward noon on the thirtieth day of Smith sons absence from nothing was fas to be done illegally As soon as the thirty days were up and not one second before the goldfield at large would compete for the possession ot ol that treasure hole at the bottom would place its pegs peg all over the coveted ground spicer and it was well known would run the best chance they had been careful to take up much less than their legal share but to place their ground being almost first in the field all round the prospecting claim on this account they were sure to be the first alio would strike in the pegs F since inca custom forbids trespassing tres passing give us our bite at it cason camon had bad asked the others and well stand aside to let the rest of you tn in right after the miners had ag greed agreed there was nothing to be gained by rushing tor for and spicer having no prospectors pec tors claim could take up only two full claims between them alie v might I 1 ahli and and would pick the best bits what a was left eft twenty nine claims would be be well w ell worth getting worth fighting I 1 g for or if lighting fighting had to be done alie tisie wat waiden den and mil magistrate istrate hd bild left hj his h house ous e an and d come down to the alie flat he very sure about that m mutter t papuan goldfields gold fields had always at ways been conspicuously peaceful but then no field had ever shown so much gold in so small a place at Tata tata and on ii a geld field the more gold the more trouble for the last two hours a party parity of natives had bad been visible making their way down the sides of the basin they seemed for natives to be in a tremendous tiemen dous hurry but no one troubled much about that since loboi nobody y had come to Tatu tata to study the habits of if anyone thought about it at all he be put down the haste to the pig that the men were currying carrying wrapped in leaves arid and slung ailing from a pole a good pig by its size probably one of the bushers that the pal papuan uan holds something better than his wife 11 ife a little dearer than his child when there Is a fuist feast to lo prospect and especially a feast with tusker pig in it the papuan usually slow can call on a reserves of speed that astonish and exhaust the very best of active white men the time somewhat lome tome what impatiently asked coxon of at the nearest old salt looking at a hute huge watch the sailor replied ten past eleven arent you slow me ime slow blow my watch olow low that watch lost not two seconds in ten years then why cant we use it and hang this sextant bu business diness because said a tall fair man with at a face spicer we want to be absolutely it legal gal it and if two master mariners marinero ma malle malie it twelve on the day the thirtieth after smithson went away rt at twelve nobody can say a word about a any y of our claims afterward aits its a long iong time to wait theres bob whitson hell shorten it for you if you lend him a boy TO BE BB CONTINUED |