The evening world. Newspaper, April 14, 1914, Page 17

COM * GTNoPsis OF PRECEDING OHAITERS. Maye 100,000 years ago, loved a cavegirl. She beget 84 test of hie prowems, to go forth and Great mabmtoothed tiger. After a it Nu killed the ter and out off ite trophy for Nateul. Jus then an earth fim ronning for tefige intp a nearby Mountainside collage, iinpriaming cave, Nu fell in a trince npon the if earetomd, One hundred thousand ‘Terran of the Apes, who has suc. title of Lond Greymoke, trys a huge the site of Nu's wanderings BET af Fi s? cs it] 3 (tormeeiy Jane Porter) ant their settles there. Victoria Custer, by Girl, visits them with her brother . Victoria has a strange senation of j having lived in this region during & former in- ‘| carnstion. William Curtin, another of Tersan’s berth fee, {alle in love with Victoria, As he is iL) Sempre to hee ther ate interruvted by 0 ter 4 Grehquake, The earthauako lays open N iy cave and eres the prehistoric man from his thousand year trance. Unaware of tie # wife he (Od “Maggers forth into the light in search of Natal. os CHAPTER 111. (Continued) The Young Hunters. MOR a hundred thousand years he had lain hermeti- cally sealed in his rocky tomb, as toads remain in suspended animation for ‘similar periods of time. The earthquake had unsealed his wepuichre, and the rough tumble down the mountainside had induced respir- ation. His heart had responded to the » and simul- pumping of his lun; » taneously the other organs of his ody bad resumed their various func- tions. “ Ag’ he stood upon the threshold of cave of Oo, the man-hunter, the Jook of bewilderment grew upon his features as his eyes roved over the panorama of the unfamiliar world ‘which lay spread below him. There was scarce an object to re- mind him of the world that had been but a bricf instant before, for Nu could not know that ages had rolled by since he took hasty refuge in the lair of the great beast he had slain, + He thought that he might be dreaming, and so he rubbed his eyes and looked again; but still he saw the unfamiliar trees and bushes about him, and, farther down tn the valley, the odd-appearing vegetation of the Jangle. ‘Nu could not fathom the mystery of it Slowly he stepped from the cave { @pd began the descent toward the vwalléy; for he was very thirety and ) very hungry. Below him he eaw ant- mals grazing upon the broad plain, but even at that distance he realized that they were such as no mortal eye had ever before rested upon. Warily he advanced, every sense alert against whatever new form of “danger might lurk in this strange, new world. Had he had any concep- tion of a life after death, he would @oubtiess have felt assured that the earthquake had killed him and that ‘he was now wandering through the heavenly vale, But men of Nu's age ned not yet conceived any eort of Lyeligion other than a vague fear of ‘eertain natural phenomena, such as and earthquakes, the move- ments of the sun and moon, and those familiar happenings which first awake the questionings of the prim- itive, He saw the sun; but to him it was @ different sun from the great swollen ‘orb that bad shone through the thick, Bumid atmosphere of the Neocene. From Oo's lair only the day before fre had been able to soe in the distance ‘the shimmering surface of the restless gen; but now so far as eye could reach, there stretched an interminable jungle of gently waving tree-tops, where yes- “terday the black jungle of the ape people had reared its lofty fronds. Nu shook his head. It was all quite 4 him: but there were Leahey ‘a which he could comprehen ory ‘after the manner of the self- reliant, he set about to wrest hia livell- ood from nature under the new con- ditions which had been imposed upon while he slept. myst of all, his spear must be at- tended to. It would never do to trust f ¢ that crude patch longer than it ' <qould take him to find and fit a new fat, His meat must wait until that thing was accomplished, ) "gn the moan time he might pick up ‘what fruit was available in the forest “toward which he was bending his steps in search of & long, straight ‘ehoot of the hardwood which alone Would meet his requirements. In the days that had been Nu's there had grown in Isolated patches ‘a few lone clumps of very straight, ardwood trees, The smaller of these the men of the tribe would cut down and split iengthwise with stone wedges until from a single tree they might have produced material for a score or more spear shafts; but now Nu must seck the very smallest of . saplings, for he had no time to waste tn splitting @ larger tree, even had he “had the necessary wedges and ham- mers. } \ Into the forest the youth crept— for, though a hundred thousand years had elapsed since his birth, he was etill to all intent and purpose a@ * youth. Upon all sides he saw atrange and wonderful trees, the like of which ead never been in the forests of yes- terday, «nw tell Wp i f time, Nu picks up the head of the tiger - ‘The growths were not so luxuriant or prodigious, but for the most part the trees offered suggestions of al luring possibilities to the semiaboreal Nu, for the branches were much heavier and more solid than those of the great tree-ferns of his own epoch, and commenced much nearer the ground, Catlike, he leaped into the lower branches of them, reveling in the ease with which be could travel from tree to tres, Gay-colored birds of strange ap- Pearance screamed and acolded at him; Little monkeys hurried, chat- tering from his path. Nu laughed. What @ quaint, diminutive world it was, indeed! Nowhere had he yet seen a tree or creature that might compare in size to the monsters among which he had traveiled the preceding day. The fruits, too, were small and strange. He scarcely dared venture to eat of them lest they be polsonous. If the lesser ape folk would only let him come close enough to speak with them he might ascertain from them which were safe; but for some unac- countable reason they semed to fear and mistrust him. This above all other considerations, argued to Nu that he had come in some mysterious way into another world. Presently the troglodyte discovered a slender, straight young sapling. He came to the ground and tested its strength by bending it back and forth. Apparently it met the require- ments of a new shaft. With his stone hatchet he hewed it off close to the ground, stripped it of branches, and climbing to the safety of the trees again, where he need fear no interruption from the huge monsters of the world he knew, set to work with his stone knife to remove the bark and shape the end to receive his spear-head, First he split it down the centre for four or five inches, and then he cut notches in the surface upon either side of the split portion. Now he carefully unwrapped the rawhide that bound the spear-head into his old haft, and for want of water to moisten it crammed the whole un- fragrant mass into his mouth that it might be softened by warmth and saliva. For several minutes he busied him- self in shaping the point of the new shaft that it might exactly fit the inequalities in the shank of the spear head. 4 By the time this was done the ‘awhide had been sufficiently mols- tened to permit him to wind it tight- ly about the new haft into which he had set the spear-head. As he worked he heard the noises of the jungle about him. There were many familiar voices, but more strange ones. Not once had the cave bear spoken; nor Zor, the mighty lion of the Neocene; nor Oo, the sabre-toothed tiger. He missed the bellowing of the bull bos, and the hissing and whistling of monster saurian and amphibian, To Nu it seemed a silent world. Propped against the bole of the tree before him grinned the hideous head of the man-hunter, the only familiar object in all the world about him. Presently he became aware that the lesser apes were creeping warily closer to have a better look at him. He waited silently until from the tall of his eye he glimpsed one quite near, and then In a low voice ho spoke in tho language that his allies of yesterday had understood; and though ages had elapsed since that the long-gone day, little monkey, above him understood, for the lan- guage of the apes can never change. “Why do you fear Nu, the son of Nu?" asked the man. “When has he ever harmed the ape-people: “The hairless ones kill us with sharp sticks that fly through the air,” replied the monkey. “Or with little sticks that make a great noise and kill us from afar. But you seem not to be of these. We have never seen one like you until now. Do you not wish to kill us?” “Why should I?" replied Nu. “It fs better that we be friends, All that I wish of you is that you tell mo which of the frults that grow here be safe for me to eat, and then direct me to the sea beside which dwell the tribe of Nu, my father.” The monkeys had gathered in force by this time, seeing that the strange white ape offered no harm to their fellow; and when they learned his wants they scampered about in all directions to gather nuts and fruits and berries for him. It 1s true that some of them forgot what they had intended doing before the task was half completed, and end- ed by pulling one another's tails and frolicking among the higher branch or else ate the fruit they had gone to gather for their new friend; but a few there were with greater powers of concentration than their fellows who returned with fruit and berries and caterpillars, all of which Nu devoured with the avidity of the half-famished, Of the whereabouts of the tribe of his father they could tell him noth- ing, for they had never heard of such @ people, or of the great sea beside which he told them that his people dwelled, His breakfast finished and his spear repaired, Nu set out toward the plain toteing down one of the beasts he Fe A ee 4 TE NO T be Eternal Lover & ANOTHER TARZAN STORY eagpe te had seen grazing there, ‘or his stom- ach called aloud for flesh. Fruit and bugs might be all right for children and ape-people; but a full-grown man must have meat, warm and red and dripping. Closest to him as he emerged from the jungle browsed a small herd of zebra, They were directly up-wind and between him and them were patches of tall grass and clumps of trees scattered about the surface of the plain. Nu wondered at the strange beasts, admiring their gaudy markings as he came closer to them, Upon the edge of the herd near- est him a plump. stallion stood awitching his tail against the an- noying files, occasionally raising his head from his feeding to search the horizon for signs of danger, sniffing the air for the telltale scent of an enemy. It was him that Nu selected for his prey. Stealthily the cave man crept through the tall crass, scarce a blade moving to the sinuous advance of his sleek body. Within fifty feet of the zebra Nu stopred, for the stallion was giving evidence of restlessness, as though sensing intuitively the near approach of a foe he could neither see nor hear nor smell. The man, still prone upon his belly, drew his spear into the throwing grasp. With the utmost caution he wormed his legs beneath him, and then, like lightning, and all with a single movement, he leaped to his fect and cast the stone tipped weapon at his quarry. With a snort of terror the stallion reared to plunge away, but the spear had found the point behind his shoul- der even as he saw the figure of the man rise from the tall grass. As the balance of the herd galloped madly off, their leader pitched headlong to the earth, Nu ran forward with ready knife, but the animal was d before he reachod its slde, The great spear had passed through its heart and was protruding upon the opposite side of the body. The man removed tho weapon, and with his knife cut sev- eral long strips of meat from the plump haunches, Ever and anon he raised his head to scan the plain and jungle for evi- dences of danger, sniffing the breeze Just as had the stallion he had killed. His work was but partially com- pleted when he caught the scent of man yet a long way off. He knew that he could not be mis- taken, yet never had he sensed 80 strange an odor. There were men coming, he knew, but of the other odors that accom- panied them he could make nothing, for khaki and guns and sweaty sad- dle blankets and the odor of tanned leather were to Nu's novtrils as would Greek have been to his ears. It would be best, thought Nu, to retreat to the safety of the forest until he could ascertain the number and kind of beings that were ap- proaching, and #0, taking but care- Jess advantage of the handler shelter, the cave man sauntered toward the forest, for now he was not stalking game, and never yet had he shown fear in the presence of an enemy. If their numbers were too great for him to cope with single handed, he would not show himself; but none might ever say that they had seen Nu, the eon of Nu, run away from danger. In his hand still swung the head of Oo; and as the man leaped to the low branches of a tree at the jungle's edge to spy upon the men he knew to be advancing from the far side of the plain, he fell to wondering how he was to find his way back to Nat-ul, that he migiit place the trophy at her feet and claim her as bis mate. NI ti tt nat di So TE ernewnrrsy Only the previous evening they had walked together hand in hand along the beach, and now he had not the remotest conception of where that beach lay, Straight across the plain should be the direction of it, for from that di- rection had he come to find the lair of Oo; but now all was changed. ‘There was no single familiar land- mark to guide Lim; not even the ape people knew of any sea near by, and he himself had no conception as to whether he was in the same world that he had traversed when last the sun shone upon him, CHAPTER Iv. The Dream Mate. HE morning following the earthquake found "Vicforta Custer still abed. She told Lady Greyatroke that she felt wenk from the effects of the nervous shock; but the truth of the matter was that she dreaded to meet Curtiss and undergo the or- deal which she knew confronted her, How was she to explain to him the effect that the subterranean ram- blings and the shaking of the outer crust had had upon her and her sen- timents toward him? When her brother came in to seo her, she drew his head down upon the pillow beside hers and whispered something of the terrible hallucinas tions that had haunted her since the previous evening. "Oh, Barne: she cried, “what can it be? What can it be? The first deep grumblings that preceded the shock seemed to awake me as from a lethargy, and as plainly as I see you beside me now I saw the half-naked creature of my dreams; and when I saw him I knew that I could never wed Mr. Curtiss or any other, “It is awful to have to admit it even to you, Barney; but I—I knew when I saw him that I loved him— that I was his, Not his wife, Barney, but his woman—his mate—and I had to fight with myself to keep from rushing out into the terrible blackness of the night to throw myself into his arms. “It was then that I managed to control myself long enough to run to you, where I fainted, And last night, in my dreams, I saw him again— alone and lonely—searching through 4 strange and hostile world to find and claim me. “You cartnot know, Barney, how real he is to me, It ts not as other dreams, but, instead, I really see him the satin texture of his smaoth, bronzed skin, the lordly poise of his perfect head, the tousled shock of coalblack hair that I have learned to love and through which IT know T have lovingly run my fingers as he stooped to kiss me. “He carries a great spear, stone- tipped-—I should know ft the moment that I saw it-—and a knife and hatchet of the same flinty material, and in his left hand he bears tho severed head of a mighty beast. “He is a noble figure, but of an- other world or of anothor age, Some- where he wanders #0 lonely and alone that my heart weeps at the thought of him. Oh, Barney, either he ts true and I shall find him, or I am gone mad. Tell me, Barney, for the love of Heaven, you believe that I am anc!" Barney Custer drew his sister's face close to his and kissed her tenderly, “Of course you're sane, Vic,” he assured her, “You've just allowed that old dream of yours to become a sort of obsession with you, and now {t's got on your nerves until you are commencing to believe it even against your better judgment, Take « good grip on yourself; get up and join Cur- tins in a long ride. “Have It out with him, Tell him Just what you have told me, and then tell him you'll marry nim, and [il warrant that you'll be dreaming about him Instead of that young giant that you have stolen out of some fairy 1'll get up and take a ride, Bar. hey,” replied the girl; “but as for marrying Mr. Curtiss—well, I'll havo to think it over.” She did not join the party, ever, that was sriding toward how- the hills that morning, for the thought of seeing the torn and twisted stratum of a bygone age that lifted its scarred head above the surface of the plain at the base of the mountains was more than she felt equal to. They did not urge her, and, as she insisted that Mr. Curtiss accompany the other men, she was left alone at the bunga- low with Lady Greystroke, the baby, and the servants, As the party trotted across the roll- ing land that stretched before them to the foot-hills they sighted a herd of gebras coming toward them in mad stampede, ‘Something is hunting ahead of us,” remarked one of the men, ‘We may get a shot at a lior, from the looks of it,” replied another, A short distance farther on they came upon the carcass of @ zebra stallion. Barney and Butsow dis- mounted to examine it in an effort to determine the nature of the enemy that had despatched it. At the first glance Barney called to one of the other members of the party, an experienced big-game hun- ter. “What do you make of this, Brown?” he asked, pointing to the exposed haunch. “It is a man's kill,” replied the other, “Look at that gaping holo over the heart, that would tell the story were it not for the evidence of the knife that cut away these strips from the rump, The carcass ie still warm. The kill must have been made within the past few minutes,” “Then it couldn't have been a man,” spoke up another, “or we should have heard the shot. Wait, here's Grey- stoke; let's see what he thinks of it.” ‘The ape-man, who had been riding a couple of hundred yards in rear of the others with one of the older men, now reined in close to the dead zebra, “What have we here he asked, swinging from his saddle. “Brown says this looks like the kill of a man,” said Barney; “but none of us heard any shot.” ‘Tarzan grasped the zebra by a front and hind pastern and rolled him over upon his other side. t went way through, whatever It was," sald Butzow as the hole behind this shoulder was exposed to view. “Must have been a bullet, eVen if wo didn't hear the report of the gun.” 'm not so sure of that,” said Tarzan, and then ho glanced casually at the ground about the carcass, and, bending lower, brought his sensitive nostrils close to the mutilated haunch and then to the trampled grasses at the zebra’s side, When he straight- ened up the others looked at him questioningly. “A man,” he said—"a white man has been here since the gebra died, He cut these steaks from the haunches, ‘There is not the slightest odor of gun- powder about the wound, It was not made by a powder-sped projectile. It is too large and too deep for an arrow wound, “The only other weapon that could have inflicted it is a spear; but to cast a spear entirely through the carcass of a zebra at the distance to which 4 man could approach one in the open presupposes a mightiness of muscle and an accuracy of alm little short of superhumen.” “And = you Brown. “1 think nothin, interrupted Ta gan, “except that my judgment tells me that my senses are in error—there ts ‘ho naked white giant hunting through the country of the Wazirt. “Come, instead of speculating on the impossible, let's ride on to the bills and seo If we can't locate the old vil- lain who has been stealing my sheep From hia spoor, I'll venture to say that when we bring him down we shall see the largest Hon that any of us has ever seen.” An the party remounted and roda away toward the foot-hills two won- dering black eyes watched them from the safety of the Jungle. Nu was utterly nonplussed. What sort of mon were these who rode upon beaste the like of which Nu had never dreamed? At first he thought their pith helmets and khaki clothing a part of them; but when one of them removed his helmet and another unbuttoned his Jacket Nu saw that they were merely coverings for the head and body, though why men should wish to ham- per themsel with such foolish and cumbersome contraptions the troglo- dyte could not imagine, think"— commenced As the party rode toward the foot- hills Nu paralleled th keeping al- ways down wind. He followed them all day during their fruitless search for the lion that had been entering Greystoke'’s compound nd stealing his sheep, and as they retraced their way toward the bungalow late in the afternoon Nu lurked in their rear, Sean va Warerar TH Never in his life had he been #0 deeply interested in anything as he Was In these strange creatures, and when, half-way across the plain, the party came unexpectedly upon a band of antelope grazing in a little hollow, and Nu heard the voice of one of the Hitle black sticks the men carried and saw a buck leap into the air and then come heavily to the ground quite dead, deep respect was added to his interest and possibly a trace of awe as well—fear he knew not. In a clump of bushes a quarter of a mile from the bungalow Nu camo to a halt. The strange odors that as- sailed his nostrils as he approached the ranch warned him to caution, The black servants and the Wazirt warriors, some of whom were always visiting their former chief, presented to Nu's nostrils an unfamiliar acent— which made the black shock upon his head stiffen as you have seen the hair upon the neck of a white ma hound stiffen when for the first th his nose detects the odor of an dian, And, half smothered jn the riot of more powerful odors, there came to Nu's nostrils now and then a tan lizing suggestion of a faint aroma that set his heart to pounding and the red blood coursing through his veins, Never did it abide for « sufficient time to make Nu quite sure that tt ‘was more than a wanton trick of his senses—the result of the great long- ing that was if his lonely heart for her whom this ephemeral and elusive effluvium proclaimed, As darkness came he approached closer to the bungalow, always careful, however, to keep down wind from it. Through the windows he could see people moving about within the light- ed interior, but he was not close enough to distinguish features, He saw men and women aitting about a long table, eating with strange weapons upon which they impaled tiny morsels of food which lay upon round, flat’ stones before them. There was much laughter and talk- ing, which floated through the open windows to the cave man's eager ears; but throughout it all there came to him no single word which he could interpret. After these men and women had eaten they came out and sat in the shadows before the entrance to their strange cave, and here again they laughed and chattered, for all the 1, thought Nu, like the ape-peo- and yet, though it was different the ways of his own people, the troglodyte could not help but note within his own breast a strange yearning to take part in {t--a long- ing for the company of these atrange, new people. He had crept quite close to the ve- randa now, and presently there float- ed down to him upon the almost stagnant air a subtle exhalation that is not precisely scent, and for which the languages of modern men have no expression since men themselves have no powers of perception which may grasp it. ‘To Nu of the Neocene, however, it carried as clear and unmistakable a message as could word of mouth; and it told him that Nat-ul, the dauughter of Tha, sat among these strange people before the entrance to their wonderful cave. And yet Nu could not believe the evidence of his own sensi What could Nat-ul be doing among such aa these? How, between two suns, could she have learned the language and the ways of these strangers? It was impossible; and then a man upon the veranda, who sat close be- side Victoria Custer, struck « match to light a cigarette and the flare of the blaze lit up the girl's features. At the sight of them the cave man involuntarily sprang to his feet. A half-smothered exclamation broke from his Nps: “Nat-ul “What was that?" exclaimed Bar- ney Custer. “I thought [ heard some one ppeak out there near the rose- bushes,” He roe as though to investigate, but his #ister laid her hand upon his arm, “Don't go, Barney,” ahe whispered, He turned toward her with a ques- toning look, “Wh he asked, eying her fixed- ly. here i# no danger, Did you not hear It, too?” ‘ sho answered In a low v« figs it, Barney; please don't leave me." He felt the trembling of her hand where It rested upon his sleeve, One of the other men heard the conversa- tion, but of course he could not guess that {t carried any peculiar algnifi- eanee; it was merely an 9xpression of the natural timidity of the clvil- taed white woman in the midat of the savage African night, “Ive nothing, Miss Custer,” he sald, “I'l Just walk down there to reassure you--a prowling hyena, per- haps, but nothing more,” ‘The girl would have been glad to deter him, but she felt that she had already evinced more perturbation than the oc®wsion warranted; and #o she but forced a laugh, remarking that it was not at all worth while, Yet in her ears rang the familar name that had so often fallen from the lips of her dream man When ane of the others suggested that the investigator had better take an express rifle with him on the chance that the Intruder might be “Old Raffles," the sheep thief, the girl started up as though to object, but realizing how ridiculous such an attitude would be, and how impossi- ble to explain, she turned instead and entered the house. Several of the men walked down into the garden, but though they searched about for the better part of half an hour they came upon no indl- cation that any savage beast was lurking near by. Always in front of them a silent figure moved just outaide the range of their viston, When they returned again to the Veranda it took up its position once more behind the rosebushes, nor un- til all had entered the bungalow and sought their beds did the figure atir. CHAPTER V. The Zebra-Killer. U was hungry axain, and, knowing no Iaw of proper- ty rights, he found the odor of the Greystoke sheep as appetizing us that of any other of the numerous creatures that were penned within their compounds for the night. Like a supple panther he scaled the high fence that guarded the tmport- ed, pedigreed stock in which Lord Greystoke took such just pride. A moment later there was the frightened rush of animals to the far side of the inclosure, where they halted to turn fear-filled eyes back toward the silent beast of prey that crouched over the carcaas of a plump owe. Within the pen the killer ate 1} All and then, catlike as he had come, he glided back toward the garden before the bungalow, Out across the plaig, down wind from Nu, another ailent figure moved atealthily toward the ranch. It was 4 huge, maned lion, Every now and then he would halt and lift his sniffling nose to the gen- tle breege, and his lips lift, baring, the mighty fan; beneath; but no sound came from his déep throat, for he was old and his wisdom was as the wisdom of the fox, Once upon a time he would have coughed and moaned and roared af- ter the manner of his hungry breth- ren, but much experience with men- people and their deafening thunder- sticks had taught him that he hunted longest who hunted tn silence, Victoria Custer had gone to her room much earlier in the evening than was her custom, but not @o sleep. She did not even disrobe, but sat instead in the darkness beside her window looking out toward the black and mysterious Jungle in the distance and the shadowy outlines of the southern ‘hills, She was trying to fight down for- ever the foolish obsession that had been growing upon her slowly and in- aidiously for years. Since the first awakening of developing womanhood within her she had been subject to the strange dream that was now be- coming an almost nightly occurrence. At first she had thought nothing of {t other than it was odd that she should continue to dream the same thing #0 many timon; but of late these nightly visions had seemed to hold more reality than formerly and to prosage some happening in her career—some crisis that wus to alter the course of her life, Even by day she could not rid her- self of the vision of the black-halred young giant, and to-night the culmi- nation had come in the voice ahe had heard calling her from the rose- thicket. She knew that he was but a crea- ture of her dreams, and !t was this knowledge which frightened her so— for It meant but one thing: her mind was tottering beneath the burden of the nervous strain these hallucina- tlons had imposed upon It, She must gather all the resources of her nervous energy and throw off this terrible obsession forever, She must! She must! Rising, the girl paced back and forth the length of her room. She felt stifling and confined within its Narrow limits. Outside, beneath the open sky, with no boundaries save the distant horizon, was the fleld bost Atted for such a battle as was raging within her. Snatching a allken wcarf who threw it wbout her shoulders a concession to habit, for the night was hot —and stopping through her window to the porch that encircled the bungalow, she passed on into the Kunden Bey By Edgar Rice Burroughs Author of TARZAN OF THE APES, Etc, Just round the nearest of the house her brother and Billy Cure tims sat amoking before the window of their bedroom, clad in pajamas and slippers. Curtiss wae the rifle he had used that day, the #ame that he had carried into the rose-garden earlier in the Neither heard the girl’a light foot- steps upon the award, and the corner of the building hid her from their view. In the open moonlight before the rose-thicket Victoria Custer paced back and forth, A dozen times ohe reached the determination to seek the first opportunity upon the mer- row to give Billy Curtis an affirma- tive answer to the question he had asked her the night before—the night of the earthquake — but each time that #he thought she had disposed of the matter definitely she found her self involuntarily comparing Bim with the heroic figure of her dream- man, and again must needs re- wage her battl As she walked in the moonfight two paira of eyes watched her every movoment—one pair, ir and black, from the rome-thicket; the other, flaming yellow green, hidden tn a lite tle clump of bushes at the point where she turned in her pacing to retrace her steps at the point furthest from the watcher among the roses, Twenty times Nu was on the point of leaping from his concealment an@ taking the girl in his arme; for 60 him she was Nat-ul, daughter of Tha, and It had not been a hundred thousand years, but only yosterday, the day before, that he had last seen her, Yet each time something deterred him—a strange, vague, indefinable fear of this wondrous creature who was Nat-ul and yet who yas Bot Nat-ul, but another made in Nat-ul’s image. The strange things that covered her fair figure seemed to have raised @ barrier between them—the last time that he had walked hand in hahd with her upon the beach naught but the soft akin of a red doe had clothed her, Her familiar association, too, these strange people, coupled the fact that she spoke and under- utood their language, only tended te remove her further from him, Nu was very ead and very lonely, and the sight of Nat-ul seemed to ace centuate rather than relieve his dee pression, Slowly there was berm within him the conviction that, Neteul was no longer for Nu, the son of Nu, Why he could not guess, but the bit- ter fact seemed inevitable. The girl had turned quite close te him now and was retracing her steps toward the bushes twenty yards away. Hehiad their screening verdure Old Raffles, the sheep-stealer, twitched him tufted tail and drew his steele thewed legs beneath him for the spring; and a» he waited just the faintest of purrs eacaped his slavers ing jJowls, Too faint the sound to plerce the dull sense of the twentieth century maiden, but to the man hiding ia the rose thicket twenty paces farther from the lion it fell sinister upon Bis unspoiled ear. Like a bolt of lightning—eo quickly his muscles responded to his will—the cave-man hurtied the intervening rose bushes with @ single bound, aad, raised spear in band, bounded after the unconscious girl, The great lion saw him coming, and, leat he be cheated of his prey, leaped into the moonlight before his intended victim was quite within the radius of his spring. The beast emitted a horrid rear that froge the girl with terror, am@ then In the face of hia terrific charge the figure of a naked giant leaped past her, She saw @ great arm, wielding a mighty spear, hurt the Weapon at the infuriated beast—and then she swooned. As the savage note of the lion's roar broke the atiliness of the quiet night, Curtise and Barney Custer sprang to their feet, running toward the side of the bungalow from which the sound had come. Curtiss grasped the rifle he had Just reloaded, and as he turned the corner of the building he caught ene fleeting glimpse of something moving near the bushes fifty yards away, Raltsing his weapon, he fired. The whole household had been roused by the lon's deep voice and the answering boom of the big rifle, # that scarcely a minute after Bar- ney and Curtiss reached the side of the prostrate girl a score of white men and black were about them, (To Be Continued.) Next Week’s Complete Novel | THE FULL OF THE MOON By Caroline Lockhart WILL BEGIN IN —NEXT= Monday's Evening World An outdoor tale of jj the big West (by the author of “Me, Smith,”) and of @ ‘ew York girl's strange adventures in the lawless ranch