OCR Text |
Show IBIlsKBlk Iaeep9s (Eapldl b& Beatrice Grimsliaw IlluttrutlomM bg trtrim Mgmr Copyrlrht by Hughe Uassle A Co. WNtJ Service think would have me for their dsnxb-ter? dsnxb-ter? I'm at likely to marry Miss Uurler at you are to marry one of the king's ions," 1 answered her. She went straight to the heart of that sophistry. "Yes, but If you was to find something some-thing up at Tatatata, that was worth fortunes and millions H "I am quite sure. If I had t million mil-lion tomorrow. Mrs. Uurler would not like me any the better." (Tea. but I thought to myself, she would let me marry her duughter; she hates the type I represent all wise women hate . ; j alresdy; I wouldn't five op til hope of that, even now. Dnder the hanging hurricane lamp I drew forth my copy of Grace's last notes, written on the day when famine and sickness drove him to torn back with his task still undone. Grace was leading an exploring trip, flnaneed by the moneyed partner who wished to sol re one of the many nusolved problems prob-lems of the New Guinea back country, and. Incidentally, place his somewhat undistinguished name upon the map. 1 To cross from the Romllly to the Fly had been hlj ambition. There was and still Is a big unknown area In those parts, and Jackson had been bitten by the desire, uost natural, as I saw It of finding out what, and who, might be In the untraveled space. " . . I snt on the end of the sleeping platform, plat-form, under the lamp, and pored upon my copy of the words he had written In the bitterest hour of his life "Jflmmrr 5 No ansa In staM , 4 CHAPTER VHContinued 14 "Co easy," I told net. "We're going to have a real picnic trip down the river no hurry,' everything pleasant There's nothing to cry about and nothing noth-ing to got In a paddy about I'm going to talk to the carriers; take any rags you w n .it out of my swag while I'm away." I left her alone, sitting there a forlorn 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 awoke nnd getting to Its business of the Uii.v-lt didn't care that my ambitions ambi-tions were wrecked end my plans, of years, thrown Into the Romllly river. I tin it never questioned for an instant in-stant the necessity laid upon me to take Jinny sufely back to civilization, ' save her from the consequences of her Cully, at any cost. But I could not pretend to myself however much 1 might pretend, to her that I was glad. It mount the 'using op of my stores, the Hng hack to Dam to refit Losing Los-ing the carriers was possible; they might desert as soon as they saw the sea, and I should have to recruit over again. Weeks ot delay, mouths maybe, and all the time-All time-All the time I A thought struck me, hard. I was repacking some of the boys' loads, when this Idea cam to me, "All the time" I said to myself. "All the time someboJy else would be getting sway. .... I think I can agree with Jinny In calling him a swine," I found her waiting by the baggage. 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 ber hair with my comb, and wtshed ber face with what I Inferred to be the last of our drinking water. ... No matter; I could send s 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 looked at her. After all, If what 1 bus- Stores very low. Jackson anxious to turn back at once. After dispute, agreed one day more. Boys weak, rebellious. re-bellious. Dysentery threatening. "January 6. Today at four we turned back. Urged Jackson attempt further travel, but be declares himself unfit, Insists Immedlute return. One carrier died today. Three In very poor condition. Natives appeared on distant dis-tant ridge, war-danced. No attack. Deeply regret necessity return." . . . Then the passage that gave significance signifi-cance to the whole aided hastily in pencil, as If some reserve, some Impulse Im-pulse of prudence had suddenly broken down "Whole formation suggests gold. If so, bare struck biggest jeweler's jew-eler's shop ever known." "Jeweler's shop," a phrase current among Papunn miners, means a pocket or series of pockets, of extreme richness. ". . . January 0. Covered about five miles, hard going. Carriers very weak, feet badly cut Jackson somewhat some-what better. "10th Much regret to say Jackson killed by natives today, evidently belonging be-longing to same Tatatata 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 fired 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 could, be did not live three minutes, seems to have been it In heart Burled hlra eight feet deep, piled boulders on top, resumed march. Reached creek I had. named Jackson, about five. Camped. More dysentery among carriers, two In bad way." The record continued, brief and Somehow She Influenced Me, Drove the Dark Mood Away. It; It's antisocial still, if I were a Bolshevik from Leningrad, with a million mil-lion lu my pocket, she'd swallow ber hatred, hand over the girl Curse her, and all like her!) This went through my mind In a second, while Jinny was going on "1 hadn't anywhere to stay at Daru. Mrs. Maidstone, she give me a bed. Spieer, he was there. I know Spicer; he used to be on the balls, years ago, but he wasn't any good at that, so he got a Job as gentleman's gentleman to Sir Richard. Welt. Spicer, he said to me 'Why don't you up and after him, when he starts? He'll be back here tn cet his hova ahlrh la nrnlrlno pected was true, she was scarce at all to blame. After all, she had risked ber life, was ready to go on risking It Just for the doubtful blessing of my society. Was It a crime? No, by all the gods io matter what It had cost me. Yet The way to the Romllly river was easier than It had been coming up. We got fhere 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 came to an explanation. CHAPTER VIII We were seated upon the platform of Jinny's tent-fly, which had been mine (I slept with the carriers now). She sat with her legs crossad, playing 1 an Improvised "banjo," and mimicking W the sound with closed lips, very cleverlyIf clev-erlyIf one had felt disposed for such cleverness. I was not so disposed, . feeling, indeed, a good deal more like going down to the Romllly and drowning drown-ing myself in It than listening to revue tricks but I respected the pluck that et 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, sud-denly, to a cosy small tent wlfh a lantern and a pretty girl lighting It up almost equally. . . . We hnd had little tulk on the way down from the hills. But now, with a day or two of waiting before us, while rafts were for him,' says he, 'arid then he'll be off by the Romllly river, and If you take a canoe along the coast,' says he, 'I'll put you up to all the tricks,' he says, 'and you'll catch him up before be-fore he can get out of the bush country, coun-try, where he'll have to cut his way,' he says, 'and you'll show blm,' he says 'what you can do after all. And who knows,' he says Now I've told you everything, Phil Amory, and more than you want to know, so If you'll kindly leave my little wooden but to .me, I'll go hye-bye." "You'll leave my little wooden hut for mo," she parodied, shrilly. The black forest about us sounded to her high singing. I had thanked her, and left her, and 1 was alone alone vlth myself, nnd the knowledge of my wrecked ambitions. ambi-tions. Things, on tho whole, looked worse than I had supposed them to be. Iltine riltl nit knntv pvorvthlno fin hard, relating deaths of carriers, further fur-ther attacks by natives, terrible straits for lack of food and lack of water; the finding at last of s small patch of sago that enabled them to secure enough food for a last rush back to the Romllly river. Grace bad written little after that ; the fever, that ended his life some weeks Inter was burning out his strength day by day, and be was barely able to reach the coast alive. There, at i little trading station sta-tion he died ; leaving bis gear with the trader; and I, coming along some while after, had bought the stuff for a song. Grace's diary didn't Interest the trader, who had native blood, and could barely read and write. I was J as sure as anyone could be that my eya were the first to rest upon It I had been absolutely sure till the day I met Jinny Treacher, on Thursday Island that the very word "Tatatata" was unknown to any save myself; that the suggestion, tie possibility of far as she was aware, Spicer had been the moving spirit In the plot to stop me and bring me ha.'k ; but I guessed the hand of Sir Richard Fanshaw in the mattei. If the plan were his, it wus 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 ex-pedition was even now on Its way. One hope only I had. My road was not the road of the dead miner, Grace; I bad used my knowledge of the country coun-try to beat out a new track. If 1 were right and I wus all but sure of that the new way would cut down risk, time, expense, above all, enable me to get to Tatatata faster than any one else could. Faster, It might be, than any rival trip that had started immense ipfasurr, cumiiineu iieiweeo the lines of Graces diary, was my secret alone. Now that I had passed the.: trading station a;aln, ascended the river, no Sherlock Holmes was needed to tell me how the secret hud got out That story was contained In one sentence Ora , e had written to his girl. He had no doubt hoped to get better, get back to her. He had done exactly as I had done with Pla, as Sir Richard Fanshaw Fan-shaw had done with Jinny. Told bis girl his secrets. ... ' And Grace's girl bad 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 ber lover all along Fnnshaw. (TO BB CONTINUED) niaae, u seemea to me tnnt I owed her something. She thought me hard, unkind. I didn't want to be a churl. "What's It about, Jinny?" I asked ber, as she ended her play. "What's the smooglng for? Want me tc go out and buy you a pair of silk stockings?" She laughed; stretched out her shapely dancer's leg, disguised in my khaki trousers. "I don't want anything off you," she said, suddenly grave. "At least, cot anything you'd want to give me this side of the grave. . . . I've made up my mind to tell you all about everything all about my comln' along after you, 1 mean Well, the beginning of It was that day when you talked to me on Thursday Island, and said no woman couldn't go exploring; that put me In a bit of a paddy, because be-cause of course I didn't believe It and I don't either" , "We ll let that go," I cut in, a trifle wearily. I knew I stould never succeed suc-ceed In making Jinny see the truth. "Well, I was feeling pretty bad about It after you went And It Just came Into my bead, I' don6 how, thut I'd get a bout and run over to the other side, and see, dke, how things were going on with you and your trip. Of course. Sir Richard Fanshaw, be was meanlo' to go and get whatever It was, before you, and Spieer, he wns backing him up; I'd got that much out of the old boy, while we was friends, because of course he wanted . to make love to me, and 1 wouldn't, and . that's when they will tell yon. . . . And tlu-n 1 found thnt you weren't there at all, at Da What was the placer "Dnru." "Yes. Seems you'd gone to Port Moresby after all . . . Phil, wasn't that fair awful about Sir Richard gettln' drowned? Did bo one ever find out anything? . . . Well, you know," and hhe ran on, without waiting for an answer, "when I heard you'd gone there, I was 1 was Phil, I was that snake-headed I could've bit you. I'm tellln' yon all the truth, Phil 1 didn't want you to go, because I knew she would be there, and I thought, let her get safe married to Sir Richard, and It'll be all right, because she's the nillk-and-wnter kind that wont ever think of another man again; that's what I thought So when I heard you'd gone there and he was dead Are you going to marry her?" It bnrst forth like a cry. If I had "'' "'""iVnnrry with her for her slighting J) about Pla, I was not angered iiny, my dear child who do you 1 |