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Show (I CHAPTER IV. (Continued) 4 "TAe Lton ant fic Axe. sr TOW in front of Lhe gateway 11 of the cattle kraal srpw a i big wild fig tree. Passlug 93 ! under this tree I saw that the gate- Hj ' way was quite securely closed. I H '. started to go back, but had not H stepped more than two or three Wa ; paces when, In the bright moon- Hj : 1 light, I saw the head of my small- H k est ox suddenly appear over the WffiA top of the wall. About this there f would have been nothing particu- ? larly astonishing had it not been for the fact that this head belonged : to a dead animal. "What in the name of gooduess," ; 1 began to myself, when my reJlec- ( tions were cut short by the appear- i ance of another head, that of one of the biggest lions I ever saw, which had the ox by the throat, and : with enormous strength was dc- liberately hoisting it over the wall. I l There was the brute -within twelve I feet of me, and, what Is more, it I : saw me as I saw it and stopped I I still, holding the ox by the throat. I Although, of course, I was I ; startled for a moment, by the tiufe I ; that I had the rifle to my shoulder I , 1 had little fear of the issue, unless, I of course, there -was a miss-fire, I especially as the beast was so as- I tonished that it remained quite Wh still. Then the unexpected happenejj; as it generally does iu life, especially especi-ally In hunting. 1 fired, but by misfortune mis-fortune ' the bullet struck the cip of the horn of that confounded iix, ; which tip at that moment fell in ' front of the spot on the lion's throat whereat half-uncousciously .' 1 had aimed, llesult: the ball was turned, and departing at an angle just cut through the skin of the . creature's neck, deeply enough to make it madder than all the hatters hat-ters in the world. Dropping the ox, with a most ! terrific roar it came oyer the wall at me I remember that there seemed to be yards of it I mean ! of- the lion in front of which there" appeared to be a cavern full of gleaming teeth. fa I skipped back with much agility,'-. . also a little to one side, reflecting- '! that Zikali's Great Medicine was, after all, not worth- a cursej. .TKcT lion lauded on my side of the wall ; and reared itself upon its hind ' legs before getting to business. towering high above me but a little to my left. Then 1 saw a strange thing. ! A shadow thrown by the moon flitted past me all I noted of it I was the shape of a great lifted axe, probably because the axe came first. The shadow fell, and with it another shadow, that of a lion's paw, dropped to the ground. Then " there was a most awful noise of roaring, and wheeling round 1 saw, ' such a fray as never I shall see . i again. A tall, grim, black man was ! . fightiug the great lion, that now lacked one paw, but still stood upon its hind legs, striking at him with the other. The 'man, who was absolutely IJ silent, dodged the blow and hit hack with the axe, catching the beast upon the breast with such weight that it came to the ground in a lopsided fashion, since it had only one paw on which to light. The axe flashed up again, and i "before the lion could recover itself ? or do anything else fell with a crash upon its skull, sinking deep ) : into the head. After' which all was ; over, for the beast's brain, was cut " - in two. "I am here at the appointed : time," said Umslopogaas, for it was - he, as with difficulty he dragged . the axe from the lion's severed ) skull, "to find you watching by i night, as it is reported that you I : always do." "No," I retorted, for his tone irri- ' tated me, "you are late, Bulalio; the moon has been up some hours." I said that 1 would meet you tr on the night of the full moon, not at the rising of the moon." 4 "That Is true," I replied, molli fied. "And, at any rate, you came at a good moment." f. "Yes," he answered, "though, a3 it happens In this light, the thing : was easy to anyone who can handle an axe. Had it been darker the end might have been different, But, Macumazahn, you are not so clever as 1 thought, since otherwise you would not have come out against a ' lion with a toy like that," and he pointed to the little rifle iu my hand. ' "I did not know .that there was a Uon.M "That is why you are not so clever as I thought, since of one sort or another there is always :i Hon which wise men should be prepared pre-pared to meet." At that moment Hans arrived upon the scene, followed at a discreet dis-creet distance by the wagon boys. "The Great Medicine of the Opener of Roads has worked well," was all he said. "The ' great medicine of the Opener of Heads has worked better," bet-ter," remarked Umslopogaas, with a little laugh and pointing to his red axe. "But, Yellow Man, how comes it that you, who I have been told are cunning, watch your master mas-ter so ill?" ' "I was asleep,", stuttered Hans, indignantly. . - ' "It matters little, Macumazahn," he said, with a shrug of his great shoulders, "for of this I am sure, that 1 have played my part with the People of the Axe and to stop among them would have meant my death, who am a man betrayed. What do I care who love none and have no children? Though St is true that I might have fled to Natal with the "caJLtle and there have led a fat and easy life. But ease and plenty 1 do not desire who would live and fall as a warrior should. Never a'gain, mayhap, shall 1 see the Ghost Mountain, where the wolves ravened and the old Witch sits in stone waiting for the world to die, or sleep in the town of the People of the Axe. What do I want with wives and oxen while 1 have trek we came across a queer Nomadic No-madic people, who seemed to live In movable grass huts and to keep great herds of goat and long-tailed sheep. This folk ran away from us at first, but when they found wo did them no barm became friendly and brought us offerings of milk, also of a kind of slug or caterpillar which they seemed to eat. Hana, who was a great master of different differ-ent languages, discovered a tongue, or a mixture of tongues, in which he could, make himself understood to some of them. They told him that In their day they had never seen a white man, although their remote ancestors had known many of them. They added, however, that if we went on steadily toward the north for another an-other seven days we should come to where a white man lived, one, they had heard, who had a long beard and killed animals with guns, as wc did. Encouraged by this intelligence we pushed forward, for-ward, now travelling travel-ling downhill out of the mists into a , , more genial coun- .' . :. ..try. At length we rfKJr M. i $ "Then There Was a Most Awful Noise ol- 'W.MlV.- W Wmm Ml S Roaring, and Wheeling 'Round I Saw ' f-- ( . ,, , .tWlTOPLl Such a Fray as Never I Shall See Again." .. r . "mlLVvJ "Those who serve should never sleep,'" replied Umslopogaas, sternly. Then he turned and whistled, and behold! out of the long grass that grew at a little distance, emerged twelve great men, all of them bearing bear-ing axes and wearing cloaks of hyena 3kins, who saluted me by raising their axes. "Set a watch and skin me this beast by dawn. It will make us a , mat," said Umslopogaas. "Who are these?" I asked. "A few picked warriors whom I brought with me." I Then we went to the wagon and spoke no more that night. Next morning I told Umslopogaas Umslopo-gaas of the visit I had received from the Induna of the King, who wished me to come to the royal kraal. He nodded and said: "As it chances, certain thieves attacked me on my journey, which is why one or two oj: my people remain re-main behind who will never travel agaiu. We made good play with thoso thieves, not one of them es crpecl." he added, grimly, "and their bodies we threw into a rivei where are many crocodiles. But their spears I brought away, and 1 think that they are such as the King's guard use. If so, his search -for them will be long, since llu? fight took place where no man lives and we buried the shields and trappings." That morning we trekked on fast, fearing lest a regiment searching for those "thieves" should strike and follow our spoor. As we went Umslopogaas told me that he had duly appointed Lousta and his wife, MonazI, to rule the tribe during his absence, an office which they accepted ac-cepted doubtfully. I asked him whether he thought this wise. It had occurred to me since I made the suggestion that they might be unwilling to surrender surren-der power on his return, also that other domestic complications might ensue. Inkosikaas, the groan-maker; v?nrt , she is true to me?" , . , And he shook the ancient axe above his head so that the- sun gleamed upon the curved blade, and the hollow gouge or point at the back beyond the sliaft socket. "Where Hie Axe goes. there go the strength and virtue o'f the Axe, 0 Macumazahn." "It is a strange weapon," 1 said.. "Aye. a strange and an ancient, forged far away, says Zikall, by a warrior wizard hundreds of years ago; a great fighter, who was also the first of smiths, and who sits in the Under-world waiting for it to return re-turn to his hand when Its work is finished beneath the sun. That will be soon, since ZSkali told me that I am the last Holder of the Axe." "Did you. then, see the Opener of Roads?" 1 asked. - "Aye, I saw him. He it was who told me which way to go to escape from Zululand. Also he laughed when he heard how the flooded rivers brought you to my kraal, and sent you a message in which he said that the spirit of a snake had told him that you tried . to throw the Great Medicine into a pool. This, he said, you must do no more, lest he should send another an-other snake to stop you." On we travelled from day to day, meeting with such difficulties and dangers as are common on roadless road-less veld in Africa, but no move, for the grass was good and there was plenty of game for meat. Indeed, In-deed, here in the back regions of what Is known as Portuguese South East Africa every sort of wild animal ani-mal was so numerous that personally person-ally I wished wo could turn our journey Into a shooCing expedition. But of this Umslopogaas would not hear. In fact, he was much more anxious to carry out our original purpose than myself. When I asked him why, he answered an-swered because of something Zikall had told him. What this was he (C) 1919, IntcroalloDk would not say. except that in the country whither we wandered he would fight a great fighw and win much honor. Now Umslopogaas was by nature a fighting man, one who took a positive joy In battle, and, like a bold Norseman, seemed to think that thus only could a man decorously die. This amazed me, a peaceful person, who loved quiet and a home. Still, I gave way, partly -to please him, partly because be-cause I hoped that we might discover dis-cover something of interest,' and still moro because having once undertaken un-dertaken an enterprise my pride prompted me to see it through. Now Zikali had told me that when we drew near to the great river we should come to place on 'the edge of bush veld that ran down to the river.-, 3 4 J where a white man S. , ; sdrtr'i,Z if) r"-,,? Ti he thought this, .. Jj&j. SjKV L, - white man was a l&llk PV '' "trek-Boer;-This, I " '$: should explain.. . . "Sfk means a Dutchman ...... ' -. who has travelled. . ' away from wher- uv;i lit; men ii ii vi made a home for himself in' the wilderness. Also after an inspection .of his enchanted kuuckle-bones he ' declared de-clared that something remarkable would happen to this man or1 his family while T was visiting him.. Lastly, in that map he. drew -in the ashes, the details of which were so indelibly impressed upon my memory, mem-ory, he had shown me'' where'- I should find the dwelling of this r white man. Travelling by the sun and the compass I had trekked steadily in the exact direction that he indicated, indi-cated, to find that-in this useful particular he was well named the . "Opener of Roads," since always before me I found a practicable path, although to the right or the left it would not have been practicable. prac-ticable. Also such tribes as wr met proved of a friendly character, although perhaps the aspect of Umslopogaas Um-slopogaas and his fierce band, whom, rather irreverently, I named the Twelve Apostles, had some share in inducing this peaceful attitude. at-titude. So smooth was our progress and so well marked by water at certain intervals, that at last I came to the conclusion that we must be following follow-ing some ancient road, which at a forgotten period of history had run from south to north or vice versa. Oh, rather, to be honest, it was the observant Hans who made this discovery dis-covery from various indications which had escape my notice. Passing over certain high, misty lands during the third week of our 1 Featur Scrrlce, Inc. Great Brl i sawr far away a vast sea ot bush veld, which, as I guessed, must fringe the great Zambesi Riyor. Moreover, Hans, whose eyes were those of a hawk, saw some buildings build-ings of a more or less civilized kind, which stood among trees by the side of a stream a mile or two on this side of the great belt of bush. CHAPTER V. ncz. WE had sighted the hoti3a shortly after sunrise, and by midday we were there. It stood almost immediately beneath be-neath two great baobab trees. U was a thatched house with whitewashed white-washed walls and a stoep or veranda ver-anda round it. Moreover, beyond it, at a little distance, were other houses, with wagon sheds, etc., and beyond and mixed up with these a number of native huts. Further on were considerable fields, with springing corn; also we saw herds of cattle grazing on the slopes.' Evidently our white man was rich. Umslopogaas surveyed the place with a soldier's eye and said. to me: "This must be a peaceful country, Macumazahn, where no attack is feared, since of defences I see none." "Yes." I answered, "why not, with a wilderness behind it and bush veld and a great river in front." "Men can cross rivers and travel through bush veld," he answered, and was silent. Up to this time we had seen no one, although it might have been presumed that a wagon trekking toward the houBe was a sufficiently unusual sight to have attracted attention. at-tention. Italn Riehta Reserved. "Where can they be?" I asked. "Asleep, Baas, I think," said Hans, and he was right. The whole population pop-ulation of the place was indulging in a noonday siesta. At last we got so near to the house that I halted the wagon and descended to investigate. At this moment some one did appear, the sight of whom astonished me not a little, namely, a very striking-looking young' woman. She was tall, handsome, with large dark eyes, good features, a rather pale complexion, com-plexion, and 1 think the saddest face 'that I ever saw. Evidently she had heard the noise of the wagon and had come out. to see what it was, ' for she had nothing on her head, which was covered with thick hair of a . raven blackness. Catching with his gleaming axe, and of his savage looking bodyguard, she uttered ut-tered an exclamation and not unnaturally unnat-urally turned to fly. "It's all right," I sang cut, emerging emerg-ing from behind the oxen, and in English, though before the words had left my lips I reflected that there was not the slightest reason to suppose that she would understand under-stand them. But to my surprise she answered me in the same tongue, with a peculiar accent that was neither Scotch nor Irish: "Thank you," she said, "I, sir, was frightened. Your friends look " here she stumbled for a word, then added, "terrocious." I laughed at this composite ad- jective. and answered: "Well, so they are in a 'way, though they will not harm you or me. But, young lady, tell me, can we outspan here? Perhaps your ' husband" "I have no husband; I have only r, father, sir," and. she sighed. "Well, then, could 1 speak to your father? My name is Allan Quater-l Quater-l main, and I am making a journey ' of exploration." "Y'es, I will go and wake liim. He ! I ' '' ? ' ' - is asleep. Every one sleeps here at midday except me," she said with another sigh. "Why do you not follow thei: example?" ex-ample?" I asked jocosely, for this young woman puzzled me, and I wanted to find out about her. "Because 1 sleep little, sir, who think too much. There will be plenty of time to sleep soon for all of us, will there not?" I stared at her, and then inquired her name, because I did not know what else to say. "My name is Inez Robertson," she answered. "I will go to wake my father. Meanwhile please unyoke your oxen. They can feed with the others; they look as though Miey wanted rest, poor things." "Inez Robertson," I thought to myself, "that's a queer combination. English father and Portuguese mother. 1 suppose. But what can an Englishman be doing in a place like this? If it had been a trek-Boer trek-Boer I should not have been surprised." sur-prised." We had just got the oxen out of the yokes when a big, raw-boned, red-bearded, blue-eyed, roughly-clad man of about fifty years of age appeared ap-peared from the house, yawning. I threw my eye over him as he advanced ad-vanced with a peculiar rolling gait. A drunkard who has once been a gentleman, I reflected to myself, for there was something peculiarly dissolute dis-solute In his appearance, also one who has had to do with the sea, a diagnosis which proved very accurate. accu-rate. "How do you do. Mr. Allan Qua-termain, Qua-termain, which I think ny daughter said is your name, unless I dreamed. t ' it, for it is one that I seem to hava I heard before," he exclaimed with a broad Scotch accent. "What' n I IH blazes brings you where no real IH white man has been for years T Well, 1 am glad enough to sec you any way, for I am sick of half-breed Portuguese and niggers,-and shufC and butter girls, and gin and bad whiskey. - Come in and have a "Thank you, Mr. Robertson"- . i "Captain Robertson,"' he inter-rupted. inter-rupted. "Mau, don't look aslon- ; ished. You mightn't guess il, but fl I commanded a mail steamer once, and ' should like to hear myselt t called rightly again before 1 die." "I beg your pardon Captain Rob- pi'lenn hill mvcolf T rlrvn't rlritnl.- o mv- ll thing before suudown. However, .if you have something to eat?" "Oh, yes; Inez, she's my daugh- tcr, will find yon a bite. Those men of yours," and he also looked doubt-fully doubt-fully at Umslopogaas and his savage company, "will want food as well. I'll have a beast killed for them; they look as if they could eat it, horns and all. Where are my petv pie? All asleep, I suppose, the lazy lubbers. Wait a bit, I'll wake them up." Going to the house, he snatched a great sjambok cut from hlppopot-amus hlppopot-amus hide, from a nail in the wall ; and ran toward the group of huts, , roaring out the name Thomaao, also ; a string of oaths such as seamen use, mixed with others of a Portu- , guese variety. What happened there I - I could not see, because boughs were in the way, but presently I i i heard blows and screams, and jH caught sight of people, all dark IH skinned, flying from the huts. i1 I A little later a fat, b alt-breed man '' ' appeared wiflu so rue other nonde- ' script fellows and began to give dU ' rections about our oxen, aso as to IH the killing of a calf. .lust then our host reappeared, . jjH puffing with his exertions, and do- 1 ( daring that he had stirred up the swine with a vengeance. In proof ot IH which he pointed to the sjambok IH that was reddened with blood. I The captain led the way into his . I jH sitting room. It proved a" ''queer , j.H kind of place, with rude furniture ' seated with strips of hide after the i' ' Boer fashion and yet bearing a cer-tain cer-tain air ot refinement, which -vas I ' doubtless due to Inez, who, with tio I assistance of a native z'ir, was al- IH ready engaged in setting the table. IH Thus there was a shelf with books, jH over which hung an ivory crucifix, which suggested that Inez was a Catholic. On the walls, too, were two good .'ortraits and on the win- I dow ledge a jar full of flowers. Also ; jH the forks and spoons were silver, as were the mugs, and engraved with a tremendous coat of arms and a ( Portuguese motto. Presently the food appeared, ( I which was excellent aud plentiful, and the captain, his daughter and I i sat down aud ate. Also I noted that ( he drank s'm and water, an inna- I cent looking beverage, but strong-as strong-as he took it. It was offered to i me, but. like MissInez, I preferred 1 coffee. ! During the meal and afterward i while we smoked upon the veranda, 7 told them as much as I thought 1 desirable of my plaus. I said that rJ 1 was ongaged on a journey of ex- i ploralion of the country beyond the 1 IH Zambesi, and that having heard of i this settlement, .which, by the way, i was called Strathmuir, after a place in far away Scotland, where the lil captain had passed his childhood, I I had come here to inquire as to hovf to cross the great river aud abo U ; other things. The captain was interested, espe- t IH cially when I informed him that I tlH , was that same "Hunter Quatermain" j'l of whom he had heard in past years, )H but told me that it would be impos- '?H slble to lake the wagon down into the low bushveld, which we could see on the horizon, as there all the ! oxen would die of the bite of the 1 tsetse fly. 1 answered that I wai aware of this, and proposed to try iH to make an arrangement to leave it in his charge till 1 returned. , ,H "That might be manased, Mr. Quatermain' be answered, "But, man, will you ever return? Thoy say there are queer folk living on H the other side of the Zambesi, sat-age sat-age men who are cannibals. Aran- ;H bagger, I think, they call them. H was they who in past years cleaned out all this country except a few river tribes who live In floating ' lM huts or on islands among the reeds, ( and that's why it is so empty. But Continued on Page , jH i II Continued from Page this happened long ago, much he- "' fore my time, and I don't suppose l they will ever cross the river ( " again." "If i might ask, what hrought you here, Captain?" I said. "That which brings most men to L wild places, Mr. Quatormaln ft trouble. I had a misfortune and i piled up my ship. There wore some lives lost, and rightly or wrongly I got tho sack. Then I i started as a trader in a God-for- i! saken hole named Chinde, one o the Zambesi mouths, and did yery 1 1 well, as we Scotchmen have a way ( of doing. There I married a Portu guese lady, a real lady of high i blood, one of the old sort. "When my girl, Inez, was about j twelve years old I got into more j trouble, for my wife died and it pleased a certain relative of hers I to say that it was because I had neglected her. .This ended in a f! row, and the truth Is that I killed I him, in fair fight, mind you. Still, 1 1 kill him I did, though I scarcely Ji knew that I had done it at the time, after which the place grew too hot to hold me. So I sold up and swore that I would have no 5 more to do with what they are B pleased to call civilization on the East Coast. "During my trading I had heard that there was fine country up this I way, and here I came and settled I years ago, bringing my girl and if Thomaso, who was one of my man agers, and a few otaor people with me. And hero I have been ever since, doing very well as before, for I trade a lot in ivory and other j things and grow stuff and cattle, which I sell to the river natives, i Yes, I am a rich man now and could go and live on my. means in Scotland or anywhere." "Why don't you?" I asked. "Oh, for many reasons. I have lost touch with all that and be-tome be-tome half wild and I like the life find tho sunshine and being my ll own master. Also, if I did things II might bo raked up against me, II about that" man's death. Also, I dare say it will make you think badly of me, Mr. Quartermain, for it, but I have ties down there," and ho waved his hand toward the village, vil-lage, if so it could be called, "which it wouldn't be easy for mo to break. A man may be fond of his children, 'Mr. Quartormaiu, even if their skins aren't so whito as they ought to be. And, lastly, I have habits you seo I am speaking out to you as man to man which might get mo into trouble again if I went back to the world," and ho nodded his fine, capable-looking head in tho direction direc-tion of tho bottle on tho table. "I sec," I said, hastily, for this kind of confession bursting out of tho man's lonely heart when what he had drunk had a hold of him was painful to hear. "But how nbout your daughter. Miss Inez?" "Ah!" he said with a quiver in his voice, "thoro you touch It. She ought to go away. There is no one for her to marry here, where we haven't seen a white man for years, and she's- a lady, right enough, Ilk her mother. But who is she to go to? Moreover, she loves mo in her own fashion, as I love her, and she wouldn't leave mo because sho thinks It her duty to slay and knows that if she did I should go to the devil altogether. Still perhaps per-haps you might help mo about her, Mr. Quatermaln: that is, if you live to come back from your journey," he added, doubtfully. I felt Inclined to ask how I could possibly help in such a matter, but thought it wisest to say nothing. This, however, he did not notice, and presently he vanished into tho house to lie down. When I had finished ray pipe I went for a walk. First I visited the wagon, where I found Umalopo-gaas Umalopo-gaas and his company cngage'd In cooking the beast that had been given them, Zulu fashion. Hans, with his usual cunning, had apparently appar-ently already secured a meal, prob- ably from the servants or from Inez herself; at least, ho left them and followed me. First we went down to the huts, where we saw a number of good-looking women of "I Feel That You Will Not Betray Me," Said Inez, "and What Is More, That You Will Help Me If You Can." mixed blood, all decently dressed and engaged about theMr household duties. I went on rather hastily past some sheds to a long, low building, which proved to be a store. Here the quarter-blood, called Thomaso, and some assistants were engaged In trading with natives from tho Zambesi swamps, men of a kind that I had never seen, but in a, way moro civilized than many further south. Then we walked on to the cultivated culti-vated fields, where we saw corn growing very well, also tobacco and other crops.' Beyond this were cattle kraals, and in the distance we perceived a great number .of cattle and goats feeding on the slopes. Just then we mot the stately Miss Inez returning from the store, carrying some articles in a basket. I told Hans to take the basket and bear it to the house for her, and she and I fell into conversation. "Your father must do very well here," I said, nodding at the store with the crowd of natives round it. "Yes," she answered, "he makes much money, which ho puts in a bank at the coast, for living costs us nothing and there Is great profit in what ho buys and sells; also in the crops he grows and in tho cat- tie. But," she added, pathetically, "what Is tho uso of money in a place like this?" "You can get things with it," I answered, vaguolr. "That is what father says, but what does ho get? Strong stuff to drink; dresses for those women down there, and sometimes pearls, Jewels and other things for me which I do not want. I have a box full of them, set In ugly gold or loose, which I cannot use, and if I put them on who Is there to see them? That clever half-breed, Thomaso, for he Is clever In his way, faithful, too, or the women down there no one else," "You do not seem to bo happy, Miss lucz." "No. I cannot toll how unhappy others are, who have met none, but sometimes I think that I must be the most mlserablo woman in the world." "Oh, no," I replied, cheerfully; "plenty arc worse off." "Then, Mr. Quartermain, It must be because they cannot feel. Did you ever have a father whom you loved?" "Yes, Miss Inez. Ho is dead, but he was a very good man, a kind of saint." "Ah! a very good man. Well, as you may have guessed, mine is not, though there is much good in him, for he has a kind heart and a big brain. But the drink and those women down there, they ruin him," and she wrung her hands. "Why don't you go away?" I blurted out. "Because it is my duty to stop. That is what my religion taught me, although of it I know little except ex-cept through books, who have seen no priest for years except one who was a missionary, a Baptist, I think, and who told me that it was '- Wi false and would load me to helL y0 Yes, not understanding how I lived, he said that, who did not know j (y r that hell Is here. No, I cannot go, L who hope always that still God and the Saints will show me how- to S fT ' save my father, even thought it bo 1 -with my blood. And now I havo k ' said too much to you who are quite f Tj a stranger. Yet, I do not know h Jj why, I feel that you will not betray me, and, what is more, that you i will help me If you can, since you I upi are not one of those who drink or" and she waved, her hand L toward the huts, whore swarmed ; j the half-breed children, who, as I suspected, tied Captain Robertson to this spot as anchors tic a ship. "-: l "I have my faults, Miss Inez," I ' X answered. "Yes, no doubt, else you would ; TT be a saint, not a man, and even tho ' saints had thoir faults, or so I seem ?! to romembor, and became saints I by repontanco and conquering them. Still, I am sure that you j will holp mo if you can." T Then with a sudden flash of her i; I dark oyes that said more than all f: f her words, sho turned and left me. . "Here's a pretty kettle of fish!" 1 thought I to myself, as I strolled ( back to tho wagon to see how . j.. things were going on there, and !: ,1 how to get tho fish out of the kct V . " tie before they boil or spoil ic moro . than I know. I wonder why Fate I ;1 Ik always finding me such job3 ) to do. f i Even as I thought th.s a voico in my heart seemed to echo that iCiENC poor girl's words "becauBO it is Kg i my duty" and to add others to 'cade them "woe betide him who neg- i''asnlsl lects his duty." I was appointed Rranii to try to hook a few fish out of tho ) ihis vast kettle of human woe, and, Ripest therefore, I must go on hooking. 0 fo'essc Meanwhile this particular problem I of soemed beyond me. Perhaps Fato o cyvle' would holp, I reflected. As a mat- ijtfor ter of fact, in the end Fate did, It 3 & Fate is the right word to uso in I; this connection. k tithe To Be Continued j; ytai CoDjrlrbl. 1919, Sir n. Rider Iiacsrii ' xQT X clcalit |