Evening Star Newspaper, June 28, 1925, Page 62

Leaving her home'in England— with its placid round of existence— to join~ “A”—a man of wide experience in shooting big game— in the interior of British East Africa, Marguerite Mallett plunged into a life replete with thrills. Her first excitement, as related last week, came while on a “safari,” or journey, when blood- thirsty lons attacked their camp in the dead of night. On this same journey she killed a gigantic ython by shooting it and then ating it with the butt end of a gun. Arriving at the place that was to be called “home.” she had her first single-handed encounter with the king of beasts. As an angry lion, after Killing a bullock, turned upon a dog which she had as her sole protection, she fired. Then she fainted—and awoke to learn that she bad made her first kill. BY MARGUERITE MALLETT. NE day the Masal came over from their manyatta (@ col- lection of huts) about seven miles away, and begged us to go and shoot some lions that were taking toll of their bullocks. The next evening we rode over and took up our quarters in a tree, I be- ing pushed and pulled into position with some difficulty. It was not long before it became dark. The Masal had disappeared, like rabbits (o their burrows; nothing was to be heard save the occasional jingle of cowbells or the bleat of a goat. A young moon looked down for & short while, then disappeared. The last few spirals of smoke went up from the Masai fires, then died away. The Masal themselves were obeying instructions implicitly; no singing, no laughing tonight. A fretful wail, soon hushed, from one hut broke the stillness. Tiny quadru- s, denizens of the forest, came orth, searching around the Masal abodes for offal. Nighthawks gave their rasping cry. I put out my hand and touched A.; it was something to feel him near, although I could not see him. “Feeling creepy?” he asked. *No, hardly that; but I was wondering if pythons were night animals, or rather reptiles”’ Incidentally, the memory of a ‘oot python that A. had shot two days previously, flashed though my mind; and I recalled the walls of our home, with neat frescoes of this same beast encircling the rooms, brought in by the Masai. Inwardly I compared the two. Which were the more fearsome—lions or pythons? “I would give anything for a cigarette,” whispered A. as the hours crept on. He was an inveterate smoker, and ta spend wakeful hours without a smoke was simply purgatory, I well knew. Then a happy thought came to me. Had I not emptled a whole tin of chocolates into my pockets rior to our start? Joy untold! astily I dived my hand in, brought out a quantity and handed them up | to A., rather smashed, it is true, but still eatable. We sat and munched hours crept slowly by. How cold it became and how cramped I felt! But for the difficulty of getting up again I really think I should have got down | and stretched my legs. I was in a fork, where, as A. said, I just fitted. He certainly had room to turn t must be nearly 1 o'clock,” said A. “Be on the alert now.” And again e whispered sigh, “Oh for a This, of course, out of the question. Another half stifled a yawn. a hyena soun another. Instantly I in all probability they were following in the footsteps of the lion, scaven- gers for anything he might Kill, any remains he might leave. “Be ready!” A.'s tone was tense. “Ready!” I replied, and strained my eyes through the darkness, but could see nothing. Again came the wail of the hyenas, nearer now. Would it never get light? In Africa it is day- light almost instantly. * % ¥ * OUR tree was situated just over a weak spot in the cattle boma (In- closure), where the lions had entered the previous night, purposely left weak now as an invitation. Straight downward at this gap our guns were pointed, but if the beast came now it would be but a haphazard shot, for as yet we could see nothing. Nearer came the hyenas, their numbers swelled by now. What an uncanny sound it was in the stillness of the night! A bough cracked in an adjacent tree. Horrors! My heart stood still. Are we two be- ing stalked by a leopard? Will day- light never come? “Oh!" 1 gasped. that?" A long-drawn-out “Eh-h-h!" was the only answer. I looked through the enveloping branches down toward the gap in the boma. and, indistinct, it is true, but still discernible, were two shadowy forms. The crackle of the thorn bush told us they were forcing thelr way through. “Quick!”’ from A o while the hour crept by. All at once the c “Did you hear Two shots rang out simultaneously, followed by two mere, and yet two again, fired right into the strugziing mass below. Instantly the manyatta was alive. Out the Masai swarmed with cr of “Chul! Chui!” (“Leopard! Leopard!”) as a huge beast leapt from the tree in which 1 had heard the bough break and disappeared, and in the next breath, as they crowded to the boma, “8imba! Simba!" (“Lion! Lion!") It was then daylight, and the breath scareely out of the bodies of the two dead brutes, which had doubtless ac- counted for so many Masai oxen. As quickly as I can write it, A. was on the ground. “Dead?” he queried. “Dead,” was the reply. “Oh! Are you still up there?” Of course, I was, and likely to re- main unless some one assisted me. They helped me out of my cramped position, and when it was sufficiently | ettes until deylight. | T felt horribly | et there they knew. Here was a predicament. Only suff- clent water had been brought for the day; our horses needed water badly. So, for that matter, did we. We told the boys there were eight lanterns available: would they not venture with these? Eight sticks, banged, hard on eight_debes, accompanied by eight raucous voices and eight lamps, could surely scare a lion. At last they ventured; the din they made was hor- rible. were plenty of those, * ok Kk x AFTER walting threequarters of an hour, back they came, their debes empty:. no water, no sign of water. There were 12 boys, ourselves, Juliet and Major (our two horses) and the four mules which had drawn the board. Sterniy A. distributed the water from the two debes. A quarter of a pint for each horse and mule, the rest for ourselves. Secretly I gave Juliet half of mine, and she was still thirsty. & When the tents were in position, the horses and mules were tethered to the tent posts, the boys in a circle on the outside, a bank of hastily con- structed fires beyond them. Twelve hand lamps hung from the tent poles and improvised posts. We were perilously near the bush, but what could we do? The boy had been so confident of the way. About midnight the horses began straining at the tent ropes. 1 spoke to them, but failed to reassure them; in fact, 1 wanted reassurance myself. A harsh, grunting cough. The next moment I was out of bed, had seized my gun, and was shouting to A., “Do get up; there is something outside.” The boys too were shouting “Chuf* chui!* @eopard) as they tried to re- strain the frightened horses. We could see nothoing, but 1 knew some- thing had rubbed against my tent. We went out and walked around, spoke to the horses, saw the fires made up, and warned the boys to take turn and turn about in order to at- tend them. Once more we returned to bed—A. to sleep, I to toss restlessly about. About 2 o'clock the same grunting cough as befors. This time it sounded between A.'s tent and mine. Again I seized my gun and called to A., walk- ing to the door of my tent in'order to do so. Just as I reached the door a great spotted creature jumped the tent ropes and was gone. A. sent a shot after it into the darkness, themn two or three more, in order to warn off any- thing that might be lurking about, and again we retired. ‘About 3 o'clock I was surprised to hear a shot fired from A.'s tent. Pos- sibly I had dozed and heard nothing until then. On hastily running out- side, I found A., gun in hand, standing over a leopard, no doubt our previous visitor. “The beast was walking into my tent,” he announced. ‘“Well, one more trophy.” We decided to sit and smoke clgar- How we should have liked a cup of coffee, but you can't make coffee without water. The boys were not long in getting the tents down, and an early start was made, soon after 6 o'clock, in fact. tired and had a bad headache. Still, it was no one's fault, I suppose, unless that to blame. * % ox % BOUT 4 o'clock in the afternoon the horses showed signs of dis- and for half an hour we dis- ted and walked. Then A. said, ‘Come, we must be getting on.” Neither of the horses seemed much in- ed to do more than a walk, and I most_certainly would not urge Juliet uph they did. By 5:30 o'clock A. decided that if we were to get home before dark we must “get a move on,” to use his own words. We sent the buckboard on ahead. It was useless leaving it behind, for the lamps and tin of kerosene were in it, and once we let them lag behind nobody knew when we should see them. All went well for @ time. Then all at once, without rhyme or reason (unless he smelt a lion), one of the mules became unmanageable. We rode up just in time to see the buckboard lurch over into a ditch, one of the mules being lamed, and we had to leave the buckboard. Each mule was given over to the care of a boy, and the next thing was to find lamps. Out of 12 lamps only 7 remained whole, and only a little oil in those. 5 “Fill the lamps at once,” said A. Easier said than done. Where was the kerosene? In vain we hunted. Then some of the boys jumped into the ditch. “Iko, Bwana” (“It is here"), triumphantly, and in the next breath the short, staccato, “Ha, ha, ha! which denoted disappointment. There was the tin, but where was the oil? Here was a pretty predicament—still a good four miles from home, no moon and very little oil. A. and I mounted again. ““Keep close beside us,” he sald to the boys. They needed no second tell- ing, but we had to go slowly on ac- count of the injured mule. tres: 1ight we took photographs of the lions, a male and female. Two more skins to decorate our walls. The hills around were particularly fascinating, and often our evening ride was taken up one or the other, zig- zagging up the whole way until it be- came too steep for the horses to climb any farther.. Then, leaving them in charge of a boy, A. and I made the ascent alone. What glorious views we obtained when the top was reached, well repaying our exertion in getting there. One day A. suggested a “safari” to a place called Siana, right on the bor- der of what is now Tanganyika. I quickly fell in with this suggestion. It was a scorching day when the start was made, although the first few hours were most enjoyable. That evening in the fast-gathering darkness a boy ran on ahead with a lantern; the horses were evidently jaded. 'A. dropped the reins on his horse's neck, and rode gun in hand. “Had we not better camp?” I o was called, and in - tion elicited the fact that he did not know where he was. ‘s there any water nearby?” A. asked. The boy thought there was, Just behind that ridge of trees. We went toward them. “T don't think it would be wise to £0 any farther,” remarked A. “Eight boys take a debe” (tin can; kerosene tins are nearly always used) “and get water.” ~“One and all refused. ‘They said the ‘boy was not sure that there was any -watess they did not believe there was. There was only one thing they were ¢wtain about, and that was lions; upid boy was | ‘When we had done about two more miles (and it had taken more than two hours) I suddenly saw a dim light in the distance. “Had we not better leave the mule at that hut for the night?” It lay right in the path we were walking and it seemed to me it would be kindgr not to make the poor crea- ture exért himself farther. “What hut?” asked A. laconically. “Over there,” I said, indicating the direction with my riding whip. “There is no hut about here,” he Nl 3 “Where do you mean?” Then, “Good Heavens! That is not t is a lion!” At that moment I saw two lights, not one. Quicker than I can write, we were off our horses, grasping our bridles. “Shout! Shout!” A. said to the vs. “Swing your lamps!" ‘With all their might they shouted. The hurricane lamps swung hither and thither and for a brief moment the lights disappeared. On we stumbled, our hearts—or mine at least—beating a tattoo. Now the balls of light were at our side. Beyond that and the immediate space around us we could see nothing. Then A. put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a box of matches. “Strike these,” he said. “Fling them from you when well alight.*” 1 did as he said, striking one about every three minutes. The balls of fire were now behind us. Never have I felt so horribly frightened. I went icy cold, colder than I have ever felt on a Winter's day in England, and [ shook so that I could hardly walk. The horses and mules had got wind of the beast also and were increasingly diffi cult to hold, * % x ] HAD siven Juliet over to A. when I started striking the matches, and now, instead of throwing them for- ward, I had to throw them behind. On. came the eye, steadily stalking us— nearer now. There is nothing that appeals to a lion so much as a mule (unless it is a donkey), and we had four, one lame at that. b Would that night of horrpr neyer end? Should we never get home? Surely we must be near the stream now. T had just three more matcies. Oh, why had the mules been so mul- ish? One match went. The eyes were gaining on us. Then the cry of the hyena rent the air—one, two, three, four, in ever so many different keys. it Juliet were only safe! My second match flared for a moment, spun through the air and went out. “Only one more!” I breathed. How near the eyes were! And, oh, how cold T was! If only one could see, the horror would not be so great—and to have that dreadful specter crawling after us, getting nearer and nearer, to know that any moment the rush might come. And then! The stream at last! How thankful I was! How more than thankful! My last match flared and then died out like the rest, but the rest had others to follow them; this was the last. Some of the boys ran along the banks, searching for the crossing. Three lamps went with them. Up and down the banks they went. We could see thelr lights like will-o"-the-wisps through the trees. Thé eye were sta- tionary now, like ourselves. The bovs redoubled their shouts. One of the four lamps, which had been giving a bLarely perceptible light until now, 0., JUNE 28, 1925 Woman Braves a Leopard Which Has Taken Refuge in a Bedroom Cyrus Escapes From His Cage and Furnishes Excitement in the Home—Experiences of 4 Party Which Is Tracked by a Lion. “HE TURNED, FACED ME AND CROUCHED.” PART 5 went out, and the others were the merest flickers. A. pulled Juliet nearer to me and took my hand. ‘Why, you are icy cold,” he said. And then, “Poor little woman!" ““Will they never find the crossing?” I said. g Almost simultaneously came back an answering shout, and a boy with a lamp giving an_apology of a light said, “Come quickly; the light has almost gone.” Down the slippery bank we crawled, helping the weary beasts. How sorry I felt for the lame mule, for endless were the big stones lying at the bo tom. Then up the other side. We could hardly ses at 1l now, so faint was the light given by the lamps. I turned and again looked for those unblinking balls of fire; once I fancied I saw them through the trees, then they vanished for good. Half an hour later we were safely home. Never . was dinner so welcome, never the shelter of a house so much appreciated as then! We had been houseless and exposed to all and every- thing, and then were at home. For Obadiah, my pet lemur, the day had just commenced; he knew nothing of our dangers, and jumped from one to the other, snatched pieces from our plates, and behaved as if life were a huge joke. “Qur little mascot,” said A., caress- ing him. I gave thanks to a different and higher Power. Soon, thereafter A. had to go on a short sarafl. Would I go, too? No, I thought not. It was too soon yet. Memories of the last one were too fresh in my mind. I would walt awhile; besides, it would only take three days at most, and really was not worthwhile. So A. went alone. This time I made up my mind to get several jobs done that had re- quired doing for some time, and the days would go quickly. Still, there was always the feeling that one was miles from civilization, and that the nearest white man was 80 miles off. The first day soon slipped away, and it was towards evening of the second that a nasty incident occurred. I had a leopard which I had brought up from a baby—a dear little thing that it was at first. When it got too big to carry about, I used to take it out on a collar and chaln. Soon it got restive, and whenever it passed a boy, snarled and showed its teeth. Then one day Manibura said he did not like feeding it. “It is harli sana, Mem-sahib” (“very cross’). I said I,would feed it, which I did. PRI A VERY strong cage was made for it, and its food dropped through a hole at the top. Now it became too much for me to exereise; it almost pulled me over. Strangely enough, with A. it never seemed at ease, al- though most animals took to him. “We must have a proper house made for it.” I sald—"a big one.” ‘ “A BOUGH CRACKED IN AN AD. JACENT TREE. HORRORS!—-MY BLOOD STOOD STILL.” “Who will feed 1t?” demanded A. “Why, I will, of course. You don't think I would ask a boy to do so?" “Better let the creature go,” sald A. “There comes a time when these animals become unsafe. You would not like to know he was in a cage always fretting his heart out, would you?" 1 confessed that I should not. “Well, we shall see when I come back. I want to go to Garindi. We can go by way of Barimat; it will be new ground, and you will enjoy the safarl. We can take Cyrus”—mean- ing the leopard—‘with us, and let him go on the way, miles away from anywhere. 1 know you could not bear to shoot him.” And so it was settled. That second evening after A. had gone, about 5 o'clock, I was busy in the garden trying to arrange stones in one corner to form a rock garden Manibura came to me. “Mem-sahib, will you feed the chui (leopard) now?” he said. 1 glanced at my watch. Five o’clock By 6 o'clock it would be dark. There was still much to do. “Manibura,” I said, “don’t you think you could manage to feed Cyrus to- night? Just drop the meat in and shut the lid quickly.” “O'we!” was Manibura's exclama-, tion, borrowed from the Masai, and with a laugh he went. I went on with my work. In less than five minutes I was startled by gcreams, boys came running from all directions, dogs barked. Masai wom- e who had been standing about watching my (to them) senseless la- bars snatched up their belongings and fled, screeching, “Chui! Chui I got up and walked toward the house. There a sight met my eyes The leopard out of its cage, darting abou everywhere. Within an ace of catciing a dog, it bounded away to seize ‘one of my pet monkeys, which, utterimg shrill screams, was soon on the rdof, then after the boys, who had fled helter-skelter. Backward and forward it went, now reaghing out and clawing vicious: ly, as a cat flew past it and climbed 4 tree in_haste. “‘Cyrus! Cyrus!” and again “Cyrus I called. Two eyes flashed at me, but Cyrus gave no sign that he had heard. T seized & whip and lashed out at him. With a bound he was in the | house, and made straight for my bedroom, where he was soon snarling under the bed. What was 20 be done! No bo would venture Jnto the room, nor did I wish it. “Come with me," I said. Flve or six boys followed me. “Pull out that packing case.” * R ok * A BIG packing case was dragged out, the boys evidently wonder- ing what T was goiny to do with it 'ut it across the door,” 1 sald. es, a very good ylan; but, Mem- sahib, we would rathey' not venpture.” “Don’t be silly; all I ask vou to do is to place the case theve. They hung back, and 1 dragged the case forward until it wms in the re quired position. One board had become loose and | had been removed. “‘Fetch me a lex of mutton.” T said Off ran Manibura; it was geiting ex citing now. The leg of mutton I placed inside the case tied tighitly 1o a thick plece of string, which I_drew across the gap in the case and fas tened firmly round a nail on the out- side. ‘ow, T want you, and you, And you"—I indicated five boys—"to fetvh your spears and stand beside the boa Touch of Romance in Toil of Drag-Wi BY DONALD EDWARD KEYHOE. 6 TANDARD ahead!” The man at the bridge telegraph repeats the order as he throws the lever to the indicated position. There is an answering jingle as the engine room receives the signal. Then the little vessel begins to surge steadily through the choppy waters, holding to a course parallel with that of a second vessel more than 2 miles distant. Several fathoms below the surface a uny steé! wire forms an in- visible bond across the intervening space, the only hint of its presence being a number of buoys which dot the surface at regular intervals above the wire. For a while thers is no sound but the muftied beat of the engines. The buoys move slowly ahead in a long arc. Then comes a hall from the men on watch as one of the buoys veers erratically out of line. A signal flashes to the second vessel, and the engines are hurriedly stopped while the officers gather over a marked chart. “The drag should clear,” observes the commanding officer. *‘The.least depth shown is 18 fathoms.” ‘Within a few moments a boat equip- ped with sounding apparatus is low- ered. As it feaches the spot where the wire has caught, the officer in charge utters an exclamation. In the clear depths of the sea the tip of a mast is plainly visible, its base almost lost to sight in a dark hulk below. A few yards away another mast rears upward, while a third, broken and jagged, Is barely perceptible beyond. Under the tangled shrouds and rig- ging the hull of the unknown ship looms obscurely, its outlines sugges- tive of sailing days long past. |cient. It consists of a fine steel wire, | usually only an eighth of an inch in thickness, but of great strength, which is drawn through the water at the re- quired depth so that it will pass over the known obstacles and will catch any rocks or shoals which have not been charted. By fine adjustments of buoying and weighting any deviation from normal movement is easily de- tected. Comdr. N. H. Heck of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, who was engaged for a number of years in wire drag * k% ok S the officer gives the order for buoying the masts so that they can be found and destroyed later, he finds himself sinking under the spell of the mystery he has uncovered. ‘What ship can this have been which now lies at the bottom of a great sea lane, its lofty masts menacing the unsuspecting craft which pass close by? There is no record of a wreck at this point, although that is not sur- prising, for it must have occurred so long ago that not even the oldest in- habitants of the nearest shores would have any knowledge of it. Perhaps it is one of that shadowy, legendary fleet which has entered the ‘“port of missing ships”; one of those unfortu- nate vessels which set sail under fair skies never to be heard from again. It may be that the pirates of the early nineteenth century could have told; possibly the secret is buried far back in Revolutionary days. ‘Whatever the truth, it will never be known, for the Government is too busy to send divers to investigate the sunken ships which are found by the Coast and Geodetic Survey in its fas- cinating work of dragging our coastal waters. The mysterious wreck de- scribed is but one of four which were found in the Atlantic by the survey. Two lay not far from Boston, another in Penobscot Bay and a fourth just oft Block Island. There are probably more in the deeper waters where the wire drag was not set to penetrate. Locating the lost ships is not the purpose of the drag, however, except in the case of those which lie in sea lanes and thus are dangerous to nav- igation. Were the drag to be turned to this work alone, and its scope suf- ficlently enlarged, perhaps even the strange disappearance of the U. S. S. Cyclops, the greatest puzzle of the ‘World War, might be solved. This is but speculative; the main problem of the wire drag parties of the Coast Survey is to find, mark and chart the hidden rocks which stand in supposed- Iy_clear waters. The necessity for this was brought sharply to the attention of the survey in 1903, when the North Atlantic fleet held its maneuvers along the coast of Maine: During this period the U. S. S. Massachusetts struck a rock in Frenchmans Bay and before the ma- neuvers were over several battleships had been severely damaged in the same way. Most of the rocks struck did not show on the charts prepared by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, although they were known to fishermen and also appeared on local charts, such as those attributed to Capt. Elredge, a real-life character mentioned in one of Joseph C. Lincoln's stories. * K ¥k HEN the lack of reliability of the survey charts was realized, a rem- edy for the situation was quickly sought. Then it was that the wire drag came into use. The first one was a rather crude device, but it has been|in developed and improved until the paratus now employed is /most & Losf Ships Found by Men of the Coast and Geodetic Survey—Locating Dangerous Pin- nacle Recks—A Hidden Rock Which Might Have Changed History. been direct instead of glancing, the matter would have been more serious. I might add that this rock and sev- eral others nearby were promptly buoyed. * X X ¥ $VJANY large rocks have remained unknown even to the local fishermen, who are accustomed to ex- amine the bottom rather minutely with their gear. Salem Harbor is a good example of this. After the Bos- ton tea party Salem was the favored harbor for British trade, and when work, has a fund of interesting stories connected with these operations. “In the earlier days of dragging,” Comdr. Heck stated, “many unusual incidents occurred, for even in the most used harbors where the bottom was supposed to be known we found rocks which had never been thought to exist. Perhaps one of the closest escapes from collision with an un- charted rock happened one Summer when we were working along_the coast of Maine. The U. S. S. Dela- ware, drawing 28 feet, was passing within a quarter of a mile of our launches when the drag turned up a pinnacle rock just 23 feet below the surface. Had the ship’s course not been slightly altered because of the presence of the launches is is quite likely that the vessel would have crashed squarely into it. Had this happened the navigator could not have been blamed, for the chart showed a depth of 120 feet at that point. An uncharted rock is a war- rant for escape from responsibility and that is why there must be no such rocks to menace our commerce and threaten the lives of passengers. “Some time later there was a sim- ilar occurrence, but the ship con- cerned did not escape 0 lightly. Our drag party had found a.21-foot rock in the middle of Two.Bush Channel at the entrance to Penobscot Bay, but owing to lack.of funds the Bureau of Lighthouses was unable to mark it with a buoy. Within the vear the U. S. 8. Arkansas chanced to be in those waters as she was heading for Rock- land to make a trial run. The pilot cent chart, which showed the new rock, and in laying his course he hap- pened to cut straight through the point which was maxked on the new chart. His alm was so good that he actyually hit ihe rock, driving a h the ship's side and causing other damage which necessitated §80,000 to be spent for repairs. Had the blow in charge did not have the most re- | the Revolution was over the number of ships using this port was over 200. Many of these vessels had at least a 14-foot draft, and, as they were sail- ing vessels, they were accustomed to tack back and forth over the entire harbor. drag to discover 125 years later 13-foot rock in the center of the bay, where depth was supposed to be suffi- clent for large ships. “In _connection with Salem I am reminded of another case where a battleship was possibly saved from injury. A short time before the U. S. S. Vermont was due at Salem two rocks were found on the edge of the deep channel leading into the harbor. Both were situated so close to the supposedly clear water that a vessel navigating with respect to the buoys might strike full on. There was no time to be lost, so a message was hurriedly dispatched to the com- manding officer with a warning of the new dangers in entering “It is impossible to state how im- portant a rock may be. In 1843 a survey was made in the vicinity of Point Judjth, during which a large rock was Tound. It was charted, but was ‘later removed from the chart when another ship falled to find any trace of it. Then, in 1915, before wire- drag work had been done in that region, the Nebraska struck a patch of boulders and had a large dent put in her side, ample proof of the need for dragging at that point. “Sometimes we are asked for the explanation of solitary boulders in areas otherwise perfectly clear. An instance of this Is the bottom of Buz. zards Bay. It is extremely probable that these boulders became imbedded in the icebergs which lay at the edge and that as these icebergs drifted away from the main mass the boul- ders were carried along. When the bergs melted or turned over the boulders were loosened and were \ | ton an | ch: Yet it was left for the wire | a | of the great glacier of New England, | the net If the leopard attempts to leap box you are to spear it, but otherwise. Do you understand?" They sald they did, but I saw plairs Iy that discretion would be the greats er part of valor, and should the leop. ard leap the “boys” would assuredly run. We walted some minutes, I calling in es matter-of-fact a tone as I could manage, “Cyrus! Cyrus!” an] then again rus, come along, b Good old Cyrus!” My blandishments were of no av: Presently there was a movement, then a pair of flashing eves glared deflance, a rush—the box was almos: gone, the leg of mutton quite. What to be done now? Manibura sug- ed another leg of mutton. Don't be foolish,” I said “We must get that one away from him.* Time was going on, and it would soon Out he must come at any cost. I couldn’t go to bed with a leopard in the room, however much of a pet he might have been. He had on a thick collar, the one with which 1 always took him out. I armed mve self with a “kiboko” (small whip of rhino hide) and a thick stick with crooked handle, pushed the box slightly on one side, entered the rooin and replaced it. “Mem-sahib, what are you golng * Manibura asked concernedly “I am going to get that leg of mu nd the leopard, too, if possible 1 replied Then T used first cafoli neither was of tried the kiboko. Don’t forget, if he vour spears.” I five “he ‘dio—n'dlo answered, Again I the kiboko, fafled to reach him. What was he was getting more Indistinet, light was rapidly going. An an enarl was the only response. Again I alashed. This time I must has touched him. There was a rush. F spears were pointing at him. turned, faced me, crouched. 1 hooked the stick into his collan turned it so that it formed a torni= quet on his throat, and dragged him to the door. Willing hands helped mainder of the way to t he was dropped in and mutton thrown in 1 sat down and patted Cyrus had to go; there was nothing else for it. When b quite agreed with m “Poor old Cyrus' Not old boy—just nature asserting self.” then use. tries to jumy use glanced towa th (“Yes—yes"), they tried but lia ft24 (Copyright. 1925.) re Workers dropped to the bottom of the bay. Notta'ng but the wire drag could 1 cate auch isolated obstacles, and even that symetimes fails where the rock is rouml and smooth. Extra precau- ns ane naturally taken in suct Dragging the waters about K gave US Our greatest surprise. is difficult to under not a large that it fhere was One rock w found directly in t interesting & peculation whether history anight zed if the Maiwe had rock she was laiving Ke on what proved to be her last v “There are no places where safety of shipping is .concerned t DATA WITH WHICH TO REVISE AND CORRECT MARINERS® CHARTS. | | the wire drag does not =o. even examined the loca | the setting for ‘The Hesperus,” but ‘Norman's Woe not found. Of course, by this most places have been covered, the work is now only a routine ch ing up. The traveler along our may now have a comfortable feell of assurance that the lanes ov which he sails are free from lurk! dangers, and that the chances of his journey’s coming to an abrupt end against a hidden rock are practically nonexistent.” The Sun Kills Germs. AYS of sunlight have been imi- tated and tested for thelr effects on varfous germs by the Bureau of Standards, says Popular Mechanics The beams, produced in small quan titles and projected onto colonies of microbes, killed some of the germs in less than a second after the light struck them. The different wave lengths of the rays were measured and the numbers of germs killed b them in a given time figured yp for comparisons in determining the mast effective beams. The germ-killing power of sunlight has been known for a long time and 1s often employed by housewlves in “airing out” things on bright days. The invisible rays ars beliaved to transmit the energies that destroy. some types of zerm life | While He Hibernates. | TN Winter the boll weevil retreats to wooded country to pass the season. Plans are now being carri into effect to surround these Winte: retreats with poison gases and so de- stroy the weevils before they haws a chance to come out in Spring.