The evening world. Newspaper, May 11, 1914, Page 15

3 : j j J T . (Capprigha, 1044, by the Joke ©, Winston Company.) CHAPTER I. ~ The Sorcerer's Stone. |i was dark in the marea, yet not so dark but that the Marquis and Parlianent T could see about us. We had been inside this New Guinea temple, or building—you might call it a little of half an hour, and 8 e | i i i & z Fi 3 - g to melt fe i weneh; and the walls of qd bunches of barbed arrows. ‘The scene was old to me—old to felt it to be the moment of his life. - ‘There he sat, on @ pile of end heat t el if if € i was plenty in New n ta: {t ts the greatest nul- the country, and I for my Hi 8 Hi te i i) nothing. rather glad to take on when he turned up in wanting @ resident of find carriers for him through the country it. I thought Oe ’, F it fh 7 ¢ ae E i ust wait till I i 2 on did not iike us it struck ban fin Mager to white people up with punitive expedi- which do not exactly smooth way for those who come after. Our int vepret muse of th ae ee ate ‘talk much 0! e@ Kata-! ).fter all—bad told us that Mo, the ah eorcerer, was out in the forest aking spelis, but that he would be fa at sundown, and then perha: i nty Jot of salt, to show might consent, if we gave bim p Ve had been waiting and a us v for him @ Got while, but there was no sign of Mo. Of a sudden the Marquis dropped sprang off the throne of y—he was wonder- feet for his sise— leading en sitting with my pack to the doorway and could not seo what it was that had agitated him; however, I got up, without un- due haste, undid the fastening of th revolver holster that was strappe my belt and went dpwo the ladder after the Marquis. ‘Phe village street was wide and sandy, reflecting back the light; there was @ young moon coming up no above the cocoanut palma, and the sharp brown gables of the houses stood out clear among the stars. But I could not see the Marquis. “This did not altogether please me, i j ter Kata-Kata is a good way outside Svornment and things might happen, they are not Ukely to. the soft aend for a minute or two and stopped look and listen. I could hi noth- g of the Marquis, but I heard what Ie him for me just well as a English conversi ed, finttered gig of a girl, made straight for the sound, and in the growing moonlight, be- d the white stems of a clump of I-palm, was the Marquis ncing. \ T have not mentioned it—-being un- ustomed to writing, and apt to i my way—but I ought to have hat the Marquis had two ~ nd and they were sorcery @ancing. He knew all about every dance that had ever been danced in the history of the world, from David's fandango before the ark, down to ‘a latest pirouette at the Em- pige. And, in spite of his height and weight, he could dance them all him- self, more or less, but mostly more. You might have thought he would jodk ridiculous when he danced, but he did not; no man looks ridiculous doing that which he does supremely? well, He did not look ridiculous even now—pink, fat. a bit disheveled, step- ping and epringing, advancing and retreating, and wreathing his fat above his bullet head, here in the moonlight, behind a clump of betel, with a grass kilted, giggling 4 wore no clothes save a bark loin-cloth. ‘wooden spears and tall war-bows lying on the ground within the marea were covered with olubs, shields, spears inte their surroundings like ghosts, Moet weariness, But the Marquis, I think, tthe pg MM hd Meee angler souve way off first, chewing her neok- Jace and gigsting, had ‘uddeoly dirned ite ve emn, ev: was in a dream, Sword the ‘oes co where e the Marquis danced. pcan Her hands were spread out as if she bad be 8 Et her ag never looked ¢. Wie 'S or the moonlight, or the tress—only at the Marquis, dano- ing. And she stepped nearer and nearer. I don't go about with cotton-wool in my ears in the Papuan bush coun- try, even when things are—or seem— as quiet as Sunday evening church 11 cd with the wrong ‘alongside of you. I heard something moving im the ecrub that wasn't a pig do, ¢ Marquis didn't hear It, for he was whistling softly to himae?f all the time he danced, and the girl didn’t, for she was hynotized, or something like But I thought as well to stop the cirous just there; s0, without look- ing round, I went forward, gmabbed the by the shoulder, and said: ‘ut {t out!” He stopped—not without a turn or two to finish it off nicely—and, re- ponding to @ pinch on the arm, moved away with me quite amicably. When we got back to the marea— the girl had vanished, somehow, as these natives can, without one’s even seeing how—he asked me what the matter was, “You don't seem to remember,” T waid, “that we're in a hostile country. I'd be obliged if you would,” I put back my pipe. “What did you see?” ked the Marquis, quite grave and sensible now. “I saw nothing,” I said. “I don't know that there was anything. But I think I beard—the little creak that some of these big blackwood bows make. I wouldn't dance the Love Dance of the Red Men of Roraima any more, if I were you. Or I wouldn’t dance !t at that particular girl, Or at any girl.” “Bh beautiful," said the Mar. quis. “She is what you Australian: in your touching symbolism, call a tart. I ber an Austraitan lit- in for the deluge of reminiscence, 60 I cut it short. “LT believe that's your sorcerer com- tt,” I sald. as a nolse of throbbing drums in the village, a tramping down the street, that evidently fore- told the commencement of the eve- ning dance, Now it was hardly to be supposed that the village would be- gin ita entertainment before the sor- cerer came back from his spells in tho forest to join in the revels. I told the Marquts this, and suggested we should have some trade stuff taken out of the packs in readiness, We got one of our boys to untie a sack or 80, and selected some beads, knives, salt and tobacco “and here is the sorcerer, back from his spelling,” declared the Marquis, peering through the door at # tall, fine-looking man who was striding own the street with a general alr of owning the whole place. He carried a big tore! and had a netted string bag over one shoulder. Slung on his breast wa large, hollow piece of bamboo, which he took some care to keep in a per- pendicular position, His face, rather a fine one for a New Guinea native, showed clearly in the light of his torch: it was painted In stripes of black and scarlet, with a very flend- ish effect. On his head war a magnt- ficent headdress of paradise and par- rot feathers, rising fully three or four feet above hia mat of hair. He had no clothes except a bark belt, and did not wear the bead and shell neck- laces affected by most of the other people. There was something slung around his throat Hike a locket; It swayed about so that I could not see in his hand at's the sorcerer without a I sald, “He's making right was, and our interpreter, a timid little lad from the coast, was so terrified at the sight that he ran and hid himself at the back of the marea and had to be dragged out by force. By the time we had succeeded in New Guinea girl looking on at tha quicting him down and assuring him find procedure that our pons would protect us all Hallo, Mark!" T said (I used to from any sorcerer the man was at eat! him’ that because, being only a the steps and mounting them. plain Australian, without much — In the light of the fire we saw at achooling, I never could rememberadast what hix locket was. I took it OF pronounce his own extraordinary at first for a monkey's paw, but, re- fame). “What are you dancing?” membering that there are no monkeys “Tt is the Love Dance of the Red in New Guinea T had another look, ie of Roraima,” said the Marquis, Ing momething quite extraordinary think with the calves of his legs, he was too quick for one to # “Why the Love Dance, and w Men?" I asked. wRecause,” sald the Marquis, begin- ting to walk with a c tion that really was fine—like 1 n corn blowing in the .wind i ire to find the key to the heart Of this little beautiful, since T saw er on the steps of the marea; and fe dance talks, even when one does t know a word of their own blessed guage. And the Red Men—T se their dance because they will, hout doubt, be spiritually akin to 1 soul of this little kid.” went on dancing, and I really about the girl fora little, watch- res-swaylns im. I happened to glance at the ly all my amuse- 1 in the and I fell to counting up what u especial freak of the Marquis’ Mat be likely to cost us. For the lit- Papuas, who had been standing |NEXT WEEK’S COMPLETE NOVEL . == IN THE EVENING WORLD => a / and then realized that {t was a human hand, dead and dried, The Marquis looked at the ugly or- nament much as a collector of Insects looks at a hideous and valuable hentle. c is what you call the real Ma he sald, "This ts the money He rose and tthe sorcerer with rsailles--in fact, he dy begun a courtly bow when small and very ugly man, with ears Ike a bat, came running out of the dark from nowhere and grabbed the great man by the foot as he went up. “Mo! Mo!” he cried; and then came a flood of native, intermingled with the wildest gestures, The ugly little man beat the air with his hands, thumped himself in the ribs, jumped up and down till the feathers on his head weved like cocoanut leaves in a hurricane, and all the time yelled, chatter gasped and choked, Mo, who come down the ladder again at the first word, stood looking at the furtous little ZING creature with an absolutely inexpres- sive face. “What's he saying?” interpreter, Kopp! Koko ‘ mhe native’s face grew blank and ull, “Savvy ittle bit, That fellow man, him telling Mo some one make gam- T asked our mon along him, he no lke, | That fellow, he brother along Mo. ‘Fore God, Taubada (master), I no more I savvy. He seemed a good deal « about something, and when a Pa is thoroughly acared you may leave him alone for all you will get out of him. [ said no more, and the furi- ous Ittle man, after a’ final jump and yell, shoved something into Mo's hand and bolted away under the house like a sat. The sorcerer put his hand into bis string bag for a moment, drew it out empty and mounted the ladder once more. You could not tell what he thought or if he thought anything, @o com- © was tho veil of indifference he had drawn over his faco, He had, of course, hea.d of our arrival in ‘the village, wo I was not surprised at his taking our visit as calmly as he did. But [ did not—quite—like the way he had accepted the plaint of the bat-eared little man The rickety floor of sago-sheath creaked and dipped as Mo strode up the building. He went straight to where the Marquis and I re atand- hia breast hing in native that ntly a greeting. The Mar- took his hand and shook turned aside . alow b boo he eu (we could see it was plugs end with wood), and then swept Koppt Koko to him with « gesture of one hand, We were great chiefs, no doubt, he said: he was glad we had come to see his villa Did we belong to the Government? We as: him we did not—kno: Ing tha ata-Kata had probably been saving up a good long score to settle with His M tives, since the tion, This grea Koppi_ Kok way from i ea very long which was many, many moons away, to see Mo and hear about his wonderful doings. If Mo would show him any sorcery he would give much tobacco and ‘salt and beads and other treasures, And (since sorcery is illegal) he would promise not to tell the Government anything about tt. While I talked I could dance getting ready in the village; feet were stamping; drums were throbbing with the intoxicating triple beat that all Papuan travellers know; loud, brassy voices were rising and falling in @ ynotonous chorus. [ was glad to hear them, for I know the difference between songs of peace and songs of war, and this was not onegof the latter. Still—many years in New Guinea have given me an instinct for danger that has nothing at all to do with wight or hearing; and it was stirring, ever #o slightly, now. IT watched the fori ‘a face as I talked. It was etill a blank; you could no have read it than you could stone wall, Mo replied to my that he had been making | day and was tired, An- he said, he would show us some, ‘To-night 1 give him that tobacco and salt he saw, and he would think and prepare himself Magic, he explained, took much prep- aration, I swallowed my feelings and told Mo we should be glad to see his per- formance to-morrow, if that would suit him, nd in the me time he bacco—not the salt; when he had done something to earn it, a 1 pre. clous in the interior of oweG and | was not minded to thro’ of it away. The Marquis was almost ready to —t had been locking forward to an immediate satisfaction of his en- riosity, and he was like « child when disappointed. “Ask him something,” he demanded, “Ask him at least what it is that h has in his bamboo, and why he car- ries a human hand around his neck, and what ta in that string bag of his, Not to hear anything, to-night, my Flint, that would indeed be the long lane that breaks the cam: back, I'm_not made of patience! “You need not worry,” I said, "I UEST OF A “M. hear a ¥ know all that's In hia old bag without looking. I've geen other sorcerer baga. There'll be a lot of trash like lizards’ tails and bats’ wings, froge’ feet, and there'll be queer- shaped atones he has picked up and bits of carved wood and dried leaves and plants, and there's sure to be some quartz crystals—that's great magic with them—and there'll very likely be a dagger made of human bone, and fork or two, and a betel chewing outfit—poker worked gourd, with a boar tooth stoppe! nuts, nice litt spatula with carve: ‘That's about all,’ ‘here could be nothing of mo Interest in the world,” declared ¢! Marquis. “Ethnologically, you can see, without doubt, the cennection between the Witches of Macbeth’. “Cut {t out, Mark,” I 4d. “You ought ' now by this time that this vsn't yarded with that kind of core, But {f you don’t feel you can lay your golden bead on your little pillow to-night without seeing tho curio shop I'll work it all right. It only means a handful or two of salt.” As I said before, I hate spending my salt when I haven't got to, but 1 opened a tin, took bi and offered it to Mo, pointing game time to his bag and to our The fire was low in the marea, it cast up a deep red glow toward the roof, giving light enough to sce the contents of the wonderful bag, as Mo tumbled them out on the floor beside us. The salt had been too much for him; he accepted It eagerly and was eating it like sugar, amearin: his paint all to bits, and nearly chok- ing himself as he sucked it down. These inland natives hardly ever ace salt and they are as keen for it a» an alligator for fimh, once they get a ance of @ little. erything that was in the bag the Marquis handled, weighed, even smelled, 1 could tell him about most of the things. I did not know the Kata-Kata country, but quite a lot of the charms were familiar enough. This stone, T said, was meant to take the yam cropa grow. This one $s used for charming down rain, is carved monstrosity, like a pix that was haif @ beetle, probably was a charm for making war. All the time he was handling and exclaiming over the trash in the bag 1 kept a lookout on the sorcerers face. There was something | did not like in the air; the fact that I could define it made it none the lens It had to do, maybe, with the wooden demeanor of Mo—or with the appearance of all the other men from the marea—or with a certain strange pitiful whimpering that had been going on under the house for quite a good while—s dog, perhaps; perhaps not. Mo's face grew @uddenly dark: he made a snatch at something that the Marquis was examining and hid St away—where, I could not see, It was a trifling object, only a piece cut out of one of the platted red and yellow belts that nearly every one in the village wore, men, women and older children, The Marquis had pen handling it rather closely, to xamine the pattern, A amile crept over the sorcerer’a face when it was gone-—a cunning, ugly smile, worse than the stony inexpressiveness that ne before, I saw he was ing us forget that serap of p 1 stuff. He pulled out a lot of other things from the bag—fosstls, beaks, bats’ wings, lumps of quarts crystal that glittered tn the moon— and began showing them off. GIC” DIA ang bP F A Complete Novel Each Week In The Evening World $3 T unde read; Nked. ehell from the wall, that it was to be filled first of all. I filled it, and Mo got up from tis coe, ture on the floor and that would return. “How do you find that?” asked the Marquis. “Lucky he had that rag in Ma col- leotion,” I said. “He evidently for- got it was there, didn't want us to nd ta going to do some of his nonsense to put it out of our heads, it's @ throw-in for us, Mark.” Mo appeared in with something in his hand: for an instant the stony veil was lifted altogether from hia face, and he shot such a look of hate at the Marquis that I felt my hand slip involuntarily round to my hip. “The old cumo dealer dosen't like you, Mark,” warned. “Somehow your accomplishments don't seem popular here.” “What has he got in hie hand?” asked the Marquis, with Interest. It was @ lizard, about ten inches long, yellowish in color and quit dead, He gave it to us to hi dle. We both saw that It wae dead and beginning to grow atiff; It seemed to have died naturally, as there were no marks upon it. Mo aquatted down on the floor and motioned us to keep quiet. He latd the lizard out upon a banana leaf, shut his eyes ‘and began to chant something in @ low, monotonous voice. We could not hear very clearly, for the drume throbhbed on and on In the village and the distant dance had risen to a thundering chorus of feet and Syston like the beat of the trade-wind eur on the long beaches of Papua. . By and by he stopped, opened his es and took something out of his bag. The dance atill thundered ori through all its far-off roar we coull mar the dog that cried under the house-—if It was & dog. Mo had taken @ crystal out of hie bag_-the biggest ono—and unwrapDe it from its Soverng of leaves. bY Wan a pretty thing, like the end o! a chandelier luster, and just about the same size, only it wae double- ended, with two pointa. ‘The i: i lay still and dead upon the Lprene Mo pointed the crystal at it and be. ‘n atroking the air just above the without actually touch- little corpse, : . Over and over it he wen! wh ne crystal, making lines of with Ke t as the dying fire caught tl snares and — a elon ee gree! and crimson colore 0' hard all the He waa breathing ied Bors Lr time and sweat wae pour tat he a tremendous effort, but where, or how, one could not under- 4. stopped, laid the oryatal fen on the ‘panana-leaf and looks intenttly at the lizard, We looked, too. that no one will believe what happened next, but 1 must fen the thing as It occurred, The liza moved. eh We watched It, holding our, breath. It moved again. It drew its less under it. The sorcerer took the crystal up and drew more lines in the air, hreathing hard and narrowing fev tis eyes till they were two bia rka beneath his beetling eyebrows, oe Mzard sot up, Ae sdb and alked away, It was ¥ hi The Marquis took the crystal in hands and began examining It. Mo opt a close watch on It, hovering over us like a hen over her chickens Whene hawk In about, It was plain that he valued his charm quite | K00 deal. The finest crystal Te any one of these sore clared, handling It. I don't know how the 1d to my head, but it did shock from a battery—Juat_about as hard and as quick. And what was queer, it came into the Marquis's head it exactly the same moment. Kor just aé my hand made @ sudden Clutch at the crystal, his hand met it and the two hands closed on each other, Our eyes met, and if mine were an glaring and excited as hia—— I think they must have been. Mo had the thing out of our two hands hefore we knew where we were. It was gone, back in the bag like a con- uring trick, and the stony veil had teflon’ before the eorcerer’a face again. Wo wore both breathing hard, like men who have run a race, but I think we kept pretty cool. It waa the Ma: quis who begged then, by signs, see the crystal again, and succesded in getting Mo to show the end of It, shining out of the green wrapping of fresh banana-leaf, between the string meahes of the bag. But it waa I who pulled my watch out and got the face of it up against the point of the crys- tal—all of It that Mo would let us touch now. The sharp end of the thing acored into the glass of it as if it had been butter, “Keep cool,” I said to the Marquts “Don't let him suspect anything: It's our only chanea. You don't know how they value those charms of theire—it's no question of buying ver saw with 1 de- * * © Come away and leave him alone. Don't let him think we care about it.” I almost dragged him away. It matter. reading for six cents a week. wt you will by the foremost living authors, Bear this in mi Are You Going Away for the Summer? When you go out of town for the summer you may find it Is difficult and costly to provide yourself with the right sort of reading Why send to the city for novels at $1,25 or $1.50 each or buy them at a fancy price in some country store? You can supply yourself with the best, most delightful summer subscribing to The Evening World for the summer months secure a complete novel each week. country dealer has not been able to sell, but the finest up-to-date fiction , not only for yourself but for amy of your friends who expect to spend the summer In the country. Not some old book a THE PRINCE AND BETTY | By P. G. WODEHOUSE TWO MEN’S AMA MOND BIGGER THE KOH-I-NOOR' HE SORCERER'S STONE mr wes Goch if qocl and fresh ooening rain wind brough: ie whiffe of Foyt oy! im from eomowhere 9 forest, heavy and treacly-eweet, The noise the dance was dying dowa: it was al- most quiet, Under the the amoug the pil whips per went on. But the ule and I ‘wore too exited to notice Il or. ward we had heard it. “It's bigger than the Kokinoor, but not near @o big ag the Cullinan,” I sald, when we were out of verthelees that diamond is @ fortune,” emfirmed the Mar- He was quite tad and almost t ling. “And tl worcercr is be it to wane Lh sie “Lf wo can it" —— I began. “Where shall there be any dim- culty? It 9 only to buy.” “Ia it? You don't know these sor- cerera, Probably he thinks bia whole power depends on it.” nt, my Flint, it would be to say what it depends on. He has power, we know. He has power of life and death. What a mani” All (his time we had been making away from the marea, but the cry under the house never ceased to fol- low us. | could not atand it at last. ‘There are many things In a Now Guinea inland town which you had better not inquire Into unless you are repared to put up a fight. But some- ow I felt I wanted to look Into thia, and I told the Marquis ao. “Ia it not a dog?” he asked, sur- prised. “1 don't think it is," T gala. “Any- how, give me your box of matches and we'll go back and ace. It gets me, somehow." It was not a dog. It was the girl who had been #o fascinated with the hy Marquis's dancing a few hours eariter. Sho was crouching on the ground like ick monkey, her head on her knees, ereapl ly Aa Dire Lead dhe Heh of ay an if w not @: t that an one would hear or heed ‘4 "Hold! the Ittle beautifull” orted the Marquis. She did not even notice him. Sho went on a#oftly wailing like @ thing that was doomed to die and knew and foared it, In one alight brown hand she held something that was half wrapped round her waist, hajf torn loose, It was a red and yellow waist- belt, with @ piece cut out. The ap was jnat about the aise of the piece of red and yellow atuff we had see: {n the sorcerer’avbag. 8 would not iisten when w spoke to her; she only drew away and ehivered, I judged it best to leave her, for the present at all eventa, fe crept along under the piles, walking half doubled up, till we were out in the moonlight ofte more, ‘he street was still quiet, but the ugly little man with the bat- ey foi) wito = so angry in ning, was coming up toward the house. He seemed to Shear the crying; he turned half round aa ho passed and shook hia spear at the Marea, glaring at the little, crouching shadow below. Then ho looked at us and delib- erately spat toward the Marquis, |, went on and entered anot “That throws @ome light,” I said. “Mark, I reckon that the girl has been too much atruck with that beau- tiful performance of yours, and that the ugly little man is her lover and doesn't like it, I rather think he has complained to his brother, Mo, and got him to purt-purt her, and she's half mad with fright.” “What is puri-puri?” asked the Marquis, looking grave. “phey've another word hers it meat AMO 1% ry. t-belt to make thinks whe'x going to dle in conse- quence. Of course, she won't, but she's badly scared About the email chill hour that comes near dawn we were roused out by a wild crying from one of the es near at hand-—a house into h we had seen the little maiden creep, still sobbing, before we turned in vurselves, for, needless to way, the Marquis and I had been keeping ax h of a lookout over an we But this was not the girl's crying; It was horrified yells from tho other inmates of the house — yells of such dismay that we wasted time in catobing up our arms and running tn ‘The houre nothing but a brown thatch roof set on a sago palm. It was dimly Nghted by a fire; in the short Interval before I could get my hurricane lantern alight I saw 4 dozen or two brown naked forma, moving about distractedly, and how!- ing, Something was visible on the floor among their feet. I got_the lantern alight and held {t up. There lay the pretty little girl dead and stiff. She had not a wound or a mark on her, but ahe seemed to have been cold for hours. Probably the growing chill of her small body wan what had attracted the atten- tion of her companions. “Filnt, my friend, ahe tm dead, the Nttle beautiful, and [ have been her murderer, by kum!" said the Mar- Quis, In @ low, ahocked whiaper, ou haven't anything of the kind don't be morbid ¢ © ¢ little girl!’ To maid, looking at again, as the women, howling y. picked her up and carried her Life wale and doath—life and death!” the Marquis, “Flint, wo are in water” ‘If it's only water, we're lucky,” I sald, leading the way out of the house again intr after this, Mark. | take no chances.” m The Marquis was looking at the maren, where the sorcerer, no doubt, was coolly sleeping. “Blood blood!” he aald. “Always where there ta a great dlamoni there shall be blood. The atone ta blooded now, my Flint. When will be the next™ CHAPTER II. The Jumping Bamboo. ye Marquis and J, on the morning following that | eventful night, held a coun- cil of war in front of our tent where we could see all that went on in the village street and keep an eye on the whereabouts of Mo, So long as we caw bim we knew that he could not be doing much mischict. ‘The bat-eared litte man was net to be econ that day, (I had ascer- tained through Koppl Koko that the dead girl was his promised wife, and that she had told him after watching the Marquis dance that she never would marry an ugly ttle thing like him.) ‘The Mttle man must have developed &@ worse grudge against us than agains? bis late unlucky flances, and if her fate was an example of what we had to expect things were looking lively. @o f told the Marquis, and ideas “Mark, let's talk it all out.” “Perfectly,” sald the Marquis, tura- ing bis full-moon face round upoa “Look here. We've got to get that diamond. And we've got to avoid be- ing poteoned, as the girl was. And we've got to get our carriers out safe with ourselves, and be on our way to the coast inside of a day or so at the moat; At ten’ t healthy to stop bere too long. “, ‘That's right.” I reckon the sorcerers not going to go on keeping the dia- mond where he did, because a blind baby could have seen that we wanted it, We must get some idea of likely hiding-placew"——— “Hold @ minute. It, ae? simply “No, man. I've Could we not buy, tried.” while you were your hellotrope the green tie and your pounded him to a jell; can't always do the thing you ought to do up-country in Papua. Told him wo had a fancy for his magic crystal; said you wére a bit of a sorcerer yourself, and would give a lot for it; offered all it was safe to offer. No go; he didn’t rise to it worth two- pen C8. “You eee, if I had shown him all fe had he would simply have looted our stores and had us knocked on tho head—or tried to--and anything I offered didn’t tempt him, in com. parison with the stone, We have pretty short tucker, you know, Mark—I'm not blaming you, for I know you couldn't afford a Mig outfit, but there it is; we can't bid high, even if it wan safe to show every- . eee then!” exclaimed the bots “Could we not promi ‘Oh, you could promise him any- thing, put he wouldn't believe you. ‘They never keep promises themselves and can't understand any one else doing It. And I put It to you: Would even a white man part with some- thing he valued quite a lot, to a cue of strangers, just on @ prom- 80 “No, said the Marquis thought- seurediy he would say that 1 In the bush blows nobody good none at you ropore to do is just to take the diamond any way Hit, 1f you Ike and when we get back to by wend him a big equivale: @ cane of Valuable goods or other. That would be trea as fairly ax wo can. Anyhow, there fa ono thing wo aren't golng to do, Marky, and that i leave a chunk of rough ‘diamond you could man's head with knocking lor Kata-Kata in am «" “fam all of ord with you —no blooming fear!” said) the Marans “But, Flint, there is one thing that 1 must not for even on account of the diamond seek for the occult. Can we not get this Mo to show us more things of hia magic If Mo doe: nd to Snow you more of his ‘mai without being asked or wanted, may call ty yellow Chow," [ said. “Don't you worry. about that; you'll get all you want, f reckon." We had left the tent now, as it was nrowing very hot in the vil and we were walking along the bank of the river that ran close beside the street It was a pretty river, shallow and foamy, and full of big rocks covered with moss and fern. Here and there you could aee a pink or purple orchid, and t¢ cocoanuts cast wonderful shadows on the pools. Just where tho shadow was deepest and coolest someth! stirred in the brown of the water—something that wan brown ttaelf and that glittered with wet. It was Mo, bathing. 1 pull he Marquis back into the whade, his is luck!" T whispered, “The village is lquiet; we can very likely get into Mo's own house and have a look around, Come on as quick as you can.” ‘We knew where Mo's house waa a fine building with a high gabled roof and an extraordinary amount of ornament ‘n the way of carved birds and crocodiles and fringes of waving fibre. We scuttled up the silently and swiftly, Ife two th in under the low and empty filtered down from somewhere tn the ty roof, but there were no win- we and the door was burled In the overhanging thatch. Straining our eyes, we looked about A pl us Mats, wooden sleeping pillows shaped Ike alligators, lime gourds carved and poker worked, tall shields with devilish faces carved upon them, 4 string of human skulla extending from the gable to the floor, a dagger carved from a thighbone, dancing mask made in the semblance of and birds and kangaroos, ar- incapple shaped stone clubs, Jong, barked, ebony spears. In one corner hung tho sorcerer’s great feather bonnet, taken off for bathing; his ugly human-hand locket was tidily laid away on a rafter. The thick bamboo that we had eeen him carrying like a wand lay on the floor --tightly corked up. But what inter- ested us more than anything was the big charm-bag, hung on the wall, and bursting full, ‘We had it down tn @ moment, and tumbled the things out on the floor, tossing them reoktessly here and there, in the search for our wonder- ful stone. I took the opportunity of looking at aM the quarts crystals it The Book on the Stands Will Cost You $1.25 You Get It for 6 Cents By Beatrice Grimshaw? comtaineé—there were a good mar-y— —] Seems Seaeae ea banana- ng in tres diamond im the absence of our fs" ai , Which (f saw almost a = was not there. But there was “It seems to me,” said the Marquis pote ae 4 bimeeif erect and kicking og e bag “tha fe not au? “That'e right,” I answered, look'ny round again. Rolled-u; to RT ble to aay, At all events, wr mlght— “Wint!" sald the! Mai ins low, horrified voice, “Look at that! 4 The filmey flooring bounded back The bamboo was rolling about on Se and trying to stand on It the thatch by the door, breathing very hard, and staring atill harder. thing kept on jumping It was rolling toward us. have never been called a nervous man; but I was down the out In the etreet almost Marquis, It has always me @ special Providence not meet, and stick, in the We were scarcely out, and Horg ball yd @ little footie! made up my mind already to veotigate g back and in the cery, trick, or whatever it wo eaw the tall, wet time to continue our in’ so we made for the tent, 1 look as if we had only been @ stroll, and (I dare say) Just about as wall asa small boys caught com! - rt Xs ue ing away from “No go," I said, fitnging yeelf dow on the pile of sacks inside our tent. “Mark, we'll have a smoke and a kamo of cards, and then we'll go to sleep. “What for, to sleep?” asked the I don't propose to sleep ight—nor will you. It seem: to me that things are given to hap- pening here at night, and I intend go keep a lookout instead.” When we woke up at sunset wa were thoroughly rested, for we hac slept long and deep, after our broker reat the night before. I called wi Kopp! Koko and bade him get the supper ready. The Marquis yuwnea stretched and eat up on hia mat “Hallo!” T said. “There's anothe of your singlets going; you won't hay: enough clothes to carry you back { Port Moresby at this rate.” For thy Marquis, being big and fat, atretche hia clothes terribly, and in quence they were wearing very fast “I do feel like @ cool window in m: back; have a ik, kindly,” he saia, trying to see over his own shoulder looked at Bis back. “Mark,” I said, “take off your sing let and look at it. I don't Iike this” had to peel him out of it, for had shrunk and was tight) When be waa clear, and had the garment on his knee, he gave it one glance and then looked at me. “My friend, us I said yesterday, we aro in deep waters,” he remarhesl “This, while I lay asleep, has been ew ‘This cut, it has taken out @ piece, ant the plece is the same size as”——— “As the piece out of the girl's belt,” 1 finished. We looked at each other; the leath- ernecks squawked outside; the di of the village began — that urnful, wolf-like howling that ne. tive dogs always do set up about sum- And the girl, the Bittle Deautiful, that night she died,” observed the M ute. We had a ttle coffee tn our stores and | brewed @ billy-can full, for [ did not want any mt made ubout going to sleep. At the usue! * hour we put out our light and lay down on the rough sack fixed up, The Marquis and I were near enough together to touch 1f we wished. We turned in all standing. even to our boots. The carriers were camping in a@ little hut close by; our atores were mostly piled the tent, and we our strapped round our watets. It was arranged that we were to take watch and watch about, fer two hours each, and that the man ee watch should sit on bis bed, Ue. I could guess the time Lovey My and the Marquis thought also, In any case there should be pe striking of matches, After a time it grew so oti) lence in way it does when you night and listening. But it came to me, net suddenly, quietly and surely, that we were not alone. _I do not know whence the first warning conveyed itself; it came. however, and I found myself Hsten- 4 looking expectantly, with a inty in my mind that something was going to happen. . Sight and hearing are not the only senses that a bushman can use to good effect. I amelt, cautiously and without noise. ‘Thero wan the marshy odor of the river behind the palms, There wis the indeseribable #mell of a native, sanitary whiffs of decaying stuff, the hay-like odor of old thatch, And something more—the smell of cocoe nut-oll warm and fresh, and ver near 1 remembered that always oils himself recollected river. Very cautiously I stretched out an? touched the Marquis’ hand. He wis awake—he was not the kind of mar to sleep when he ought to have been waking, for all his flummery—and his hand met mine with a squeeze We listened hard. There was not the ghost of a sound, but ths smell < if! the Papua er bathing. having seen Mo in the stronger, passed, and died the faintest jadow crossed the gray id not like it, for I knew that what- ever Mo had meant to do was done. ‘Then, suddenly, the Marquis’ hand caught hold of mine in @ grip that ‘was painful. (To Be Continued.) ” A