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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1915-09-02, Page 7September 2nd, 1915 THE wi uAM TIMES Copyright. 11114, b W. et# 4Chapasaa 0 The Story by Chapters Chapter I. --A Hundred Thou- sand Years. Chapter II.—Today. Chapter 111,—Tate Young Hunter. Chapter IV.—The Dream Mate. Chapter V.—The Zebra. Killer. Chapter VI.—The Ancient Trail. Chapter VII. --The Lonely Mae. Chapter Ville --A Prisoner. Chapter IX.—The Hunt. Chapter'X.—The Death Donee. Chapter XI.—Happinesst• • CHAPTER I. A Hundred Thousand Year*. U, the son of Nu, his mighty muscles rolling beneath his smooth, bronzed skin, moved silently through the jungle primeval. His handsome head, with its shock *ol biackk hair, roughly cropped between •sharpened stones, was high held, the 'delicate nostrils questioning each va- a rrant breeze for word of Oo, hunter .of men. Now his trained senses catch the :familiar odor of Ta, the great woolly :rhinoceros, directly in his path, but Idu, the son of Nu, does not hunt Ta 'this day. Does not the hide of Ta's brother already hang before the en- tranich to Nu's cave? o; today Nu hunts the gigantic :cat, the fierce, saber toothed tiger, 0o, •tor Nat -al, wondrous daughter of old 'The, will mate with none but the rwightiest of hunters. Only so recently as the last dark- a'neas, as, beneath the great, equatorial ,snoop, the two had walked hand fa band beside the restless sea, she had made it quite plain to Nu, the son of hlu, that not even he, son of the chid :#f chiefs,,eoald deka her unless there hung at the•.thong of his loin cloth the fangs of oo., ak"Nat-ul," she had said to him, "wish- e)s her man to be greater than other men. She loves Nu now better than firer life, but if love is to walk at her Bide during life. pride and respect ' .must walk with it" Her slender hand reached up to ,stroke the young giant's black hair. "1 aro proud ,of Nu," she continued. ."Among the young men of the tribe ;there is no greater hunter or no ,mightier fighter than Nu. the son of '.'Nu. Should you. single handed, slay ,Oo before a grown mnn's beard hos darkened your cheek none will be :greater in all the world than Nat-ul's smite. Nu. the son of No." The young man was still sensible to the sound of her soft voice and the ,caress of tier gentle touch upon his ,'brow. Even as these things had sent ain't) speeding fqt:th into the jungle in -search of Oo While the day was still ..so young that the night prowling .,beasts were yet abroad. so they urged .;ltirn forward deeper and deeper into rthe dark and trackless uuazes of the tangled forest. As he forged on the seent of Ta be- came stronger, until at last the huge. ungainly beast loomed large before Nu's eyes. He was standing in a little clearing. !n deep, rank jungle grasses, and had he not been bend on toward Nu he -Would not have seen him, since even ,his hearing was fur too dull to nppre- bend the noiseless treed of the cave Aman moving lightly up wind. As the tiny. bloodshot eyes of the primordial beast discovered the man, the great head went down and Ta, Iii. ,exnt,,,.!,'1 ,,,tat a.. _ .:•ro^'ett':' t `Was Weak and flux Down. COULD NOT STAND THE LEAST EXCITEMENT. When Tine gets weak and run down the heart becomes affected, the nerves :bl:corne unstrung and the least excite- ment eauses a feeling of utter lastitt.de. What is needed is to build up the lic;.it send strengthen the shaky nerves by the use of such a medicine. as Millnerss Heart and Nerve fills. Mrs. J, A. Williams, Tillscr.rurg, ,Ont, writes: "1 caneot Speak tco highly of Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills. I suffered greatly with rr y nerves, and was n weak and run coon I cculd not stand, the least eaeiten.ut cf nny kind. I believe your I3tert sed Ncre Pills to be a valuable rctt:cdy kr all .sufferers from nervous trct_l le." Milburn's heart and Nerve rills are Zfic pet box, 3 bo,en kr 51 ,25, et c:l dealers or mailed direct on trail•t cf price by The T. Milburn Co., Limited, Toronto, Ont. equally fir natured and bellicose r n- eeeros of the twentieth century, charg- ed the little giant who had disturbed his antediluvian meditation. The creature's great bulk and awk- ward, uncouth tines belied his speed, for he tore cyclonically down upon Nn and had not the brain and muscle of the troglodyte been fitted by heritage and training to the successful meet- ing of such emergencies there would be no tale to tell today of Nu, the son of Nu. But the young man was prepared, and, turning, he ran with tbe swiftness of a bare toward the nearest tree, a huge, arboreal fern, towering upon the verge of the little clearing. Like a cat, the ratan ran up the per- pendicular bole, his hands and feet seeming barely to touch the project. ing knobs marking the remains of for- mer fronds which converted the tower- ing stem into an easy stairway for such as he. About Nu's neck his stone tipped spear hung by its rawhide thong down his back, while stone hatchet and stone knife dangled from his gee string, giving him free use of his hands for climbing. You or I, having once gain- ed the seeming safety of the lowest fronds of the great tree, fifty feet above the ground, migbt have heaved a great sigh of relief that we had thus easily escaped the hideons monster be- neath. But not so Nn, who was wise to the ways of the creatures of his re- mote age. Not one whit did he abate his speed u he neared the lowest b'rani!, nor did be even waste a precious second is; a downward glance at his enemy. What need Indeed? Did he not know pr♦ eisely what Ta would do? Instead, he swung, monkey -like, to .a broad leaf, and, thoughthe chances he took would have paled the face of a brave man today, they did not canoe Nu even to hesitate as he ran lightly and swiftly along the bending, away- ing frond, leaping just at the right in- stant sstant toward dr bola of a nearby jun- gle giant. Nor was he an instant too soon.. The frond from which he had sprung bad scarcely whipped up from beneath his weight when Ta, with all the force and momentum of a runaway locomotive, struck the base of the tree head on. The jar of that terrific collision shook the earth. There was the sound of the tmlinter-inn of wood, and the mighty bee toppled to the ground with a deaf- ening crash. Nn from en adjoining free looked down and grinned. He was not hunt - tug Ta that day, and so he sprang from tree to tree until he had passed around the clearing and then, corning to the surface once more, continued his way toward the distant lava cliffs, where Oo, the man hunter, made his grim lair Froin among the tangled creepers through which the man wormed his sinuous way ugly little eyes peered down upon him from beneath shaggy, beetling brows and great fighting tusks were bared as the hairy ones growled and threatened from above. But Nu paid not the slightest attention to the huge, ferocious creatures that menae- ed him upon every band. From earliest childhood he had been accustomed to the jabberings and scolding: of the ape people, and so he knew that if he went his way in peace, harming thein not, they would offer Like a Cat, the Man :Ran Up the Per- pendioular bole. lilt,_ rah inner,. - Ong, 0S. testier_ easter!. euee inlghl fittve ilttkiiiiit r to tii1-Vi them away with menacing spear or well aimed hatchet and tbus have drawn upon him a half dozen or more ferocious bulls, against which no tangle warrior, however doughty, might have lived long `enough to count his untag - Threatening and unfriendly as the apes seemed, the cave man really hooked upon them as friends and allies. since between tbetn and his own peo- ple there existed a species of friendly alliance, due, no doubt, to the similari- ty of their form and structure. In that long gone age when the world was' young and its broad bosom teemed with countless thousands of carnivorous beasts and reptiles and other myriads blackened the bosoms of its inland seas and filled its warm, moist air with the flutter of their mighty batlike wings man's battle for /survival stretched from tan to sun— there was no respire. Hie semiarborealhabits took him often into the domains of the great and lesser apes, and from this contact 'had risen what might best be termed an armed truce, for they alone of all the ether inbabitants of the earth had spoken languages, both meager, it is true, yet sufficient to their primitive wants, and as both languages bad been born of the same needs to deal witb identical conditions there were many words and phrases identical to both. Thus the troglodyte and the primor- dial ape could converse when necessity demanded, and as Nu traversed their country he undersl!ood their grumbling and chattering merely as warnings to him against the performance of any overt act. Had danger' lurked in his path the hairy ones wauld have warn- ed him of that, too, for of such was their service to man, who, in return, hunted the more remorseless of their enemies, driving them from the land of the anthropoids. On and on went Nu, occasionally questioning the hairy ones he encoun- tered for word of Oo, and always the replies confirmed him in his belief that he should come upon the man eater before the sun crawled into its dark cave for the night. And so he did. He had passed out of the heavier vegetation and was ascending a gentle rise that terminated in low volcanic cliffs when there came down upon the breeze to his alert nostrils the strong scent of Oo. There was little or no cover now, other than the rank jungle grass that overgrew the slope and an occasional lofty fern, rearing its tuft- ed pinnacle a hundred feet above the ground, but Nu was in no way desir ous.ot cover. Cover that would pro tect him from the view of Oo would hide Oo from him. He was not • afraid that the saber toothed tiger would run away from him—that was not Oo's way, but be did not wish to come unexpectedly upon the animal in the thick grass. He had approached to within a hun- dred yards of the cliffs now, and the scent of Oo had become ae it stench in the sensitive nostrils of the cane man, Just ahead be could see the +openings to several caves in the face of the rocky barrier, and in one of tbeee he knew Must Ile the lair of his quarry. Fifty yards from the cliff the grasses ceased except for scattered tufts that had found foothold among the broker rocks that strewed the ground, and m Nu emerged into this clear space he breathed a sigh of relief, for during the past fifty yards a considerable por tion of the way had been through s hatted jungle that rose above hit bead. To have met Oo there would have meant almost certain death. Now, as he bent his eyes toward the nearby cave mouths he dlacovered one before which was strewn such as array of gigantic bones that he need ed no other evidence as to the identitl of its occupant Here indeed lairet no leaser creature than the awesome Oo, the gigantic, saber toothed tiger o1 antiquity. Even as Nu looked there came a los and ominous growl from the dark month of the foul cavern, and then is the blackness beyond the entrance NI saw two flaming blotches of yellow glaring out upon him. A moment later the mighty beast it self sauntered majestically into the sunlight. There it stood, lashing ib long tail from side to side. glarlai with unblinking eyes straight at til rash man thing who dared venture thus near its abode of death The huge body, fully as large as that of a full grown bull, was beautifully marked with black stripes upon a vivid yellow !ground, while the belly and breast were of the purest white. As Nu advanced the great upper lip curled back, revealing in all their tet - ;Able ferocity the eighteen inch curved tangs that armed either side of the up. per jaw, and from the cavernous throat came a ("fearsome scream of rage that brought frightened silence upon the jungle for miles round. Tho hunter loosened the stone knife at bis waist and transferred It to his mouth, where he held it flrmly, ready for instant use, between his strong, white teeth. In his left hand he car- ried his stone tipped spear and in his right the heavy stone hatchet that wad so effective both at a distance and at close range. 00 was creeping upon him Moa. The grinning jaws dripped saliva. Ths yellow -green eyes gleamed bloodthittitt- ily. Cottld it be possible that this fragile pygmy dreamed of meeting M hand to hand combat the terror of a world, the Scourge of the jungle, the hunter of men and of mammoths? "Por Nat-ul," murmured Nu, for Oe was about to spring. As the mighty hurtling mass of boas and muscae, claws and fangs shot Many Trcublec biSe From Wrong Action Of The Liver. Unless the 1iVer is working properly you may look forward to a great many troubles arising such as biliousness, con- stipation, heartburn, the rising and souring cf food which leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, sick headache, jaundice, etc., Mr. Howard Newcomb, Pleasant, Har- bor, N.S., writes: "I have had sick headache, been bilious, and have had pains after eating and was also troubled with a bad taste in my mouth every morning. I used four vials of your Milburn's Laxa-Liver Pills, and they cured me. The best praise I can give is not enough for them." Milburn's ,taxa -Liver Pills are 25c. per vial, 5 vials for $1,00; at all dealers or mailed direct on receipt of price by The T. Milburn Co., Limited, Toronto, Ont. troy scone huLcuei"wfiu tut rue f,uw ' behind his giant muscles, timing its release so nicely that it caught Oo in midieap squarely between the eyes with the terrific force of a powder sped projectile. Then Nu, catlike as Oo himself, leap- ed agilely to one side as the huge hulk of the beast dashed, sprawling, to the ground at the spot where the man had stood. Scarce had the beast struck the earth than the cave man, knowing that Ills puny weapon could at best but mo- mentarily stun the monster, drove his heavy spear deep into the glossy side just behind the giant shoulder. Already Oo regained his feet, roar- ing and screaming in pain and rage. The air vibrated and the earth trem- bled to his hideous shrieks. For miles around the savage dent. sena of the savage jungle bristled in terror, slinking further into the depths of their dank and gloomy haunts, cast- ing ashing affrighted glances rearward in the direction of that awesome sound. With gaping jaws and widespread talons the tiger lunged toward Its rash tormentor, who stood gripping the haft of his primitive weapon. As the beast turned the spear turned also, and Nu was whipped about as a leaf at the extremity of a gale tossed branch. Striking and cavorting futilely, the colossal feline leaped hither and thith- er in prodigious bounds as he strove to reach the taunting figure that re- mained just beyond the zone of those uestroi'.tng talons. But presently Oo went more slowly, and then be stop- ped and crouched flat upon his belly. Slowly and cautiously he reached out- ward and backward with one huge paw until the torturing spear was within his grasp. Meanwhile the man screamed taunts and insults into the face of his enemy, at the same time forcing the spear far- ther and farther into the vitals of the tiger, for he knew that once that paw encircled the spear's haft his chances for survival would be of the slenderest He had seen that Oo was weakening from loss of blood, but there were many fighting minutes left in the big carcass unless a happy twist of the spear sent its point through the wall of the great heart But at length the beast succeeded. The taaw closed upon the spear. The ,tough wood bent beneath the weight of those steel thews, then snapped short a foot from the tiger's body. At the same instant Oo reared and threw him- self upon the youth, who had snatched his stone hunting knife Trona between his teeth and crouched, ready for the impact Down they went, the man entirely buried beneath the great body of his antagonist. Again and again the crude knife was buried in the snowy breast of the tiger even while Nu fell beneath the screaming, tearing incarnation of bestial rage. At the instant It struck the man as strange that not once had the snap- ping jaws or frightful talons touched him, and then be was crushed to earth beneath the dead weight of Oo Your Liver is Clogged up That's Why Vetere Tired—Oat of Sorts—Hsys AO Appetite. CARTER'S LITTLE LIVER PILLS will put you right is a few days. They do their duty. Cure Conti - It b uneu, lscifsnttea, eatl Sick Readstbe. 1 Pill, Small Dose, Small Price. Genuine mud boar Signature ewe Yuve este w Urania struggle and was still, With difficulty ifu wriggled from be. aeatb the carcass of Lia kill, Lt the haat moment the tiger itself had forced the spear's point into its own heart es it bent and broke the haft The man leaped to his feet and est the groat throat. Thus as the blood flowed be danced about the dead body of his vanquished foe, brandisking Itis knife and recov- ered hatchet and emitting now shrill shriek, is mimiers of Oo and now deep toped roars --the call of the vic- torious cave man. From the surrounding cliffs and jun- gle came answering challenges from a hundred savage throats—the rumbling thunder of the cave bear's growl, the roar of Zor, the lion; the wail of the hyena, the trumpeting of the mam- moth, the deep toned bellowing of the bull bos, and from distant swamp and sea camp the, hissing and whistling of saurian and amphibian, Iiia victory dance completed, Nu busied himself in the removal of the broken spear from the carcass of his kill. At the same time he removed several strong tendons from Oo's fore- arm, with which he roughly spliced the broken batt, for there was never an in- stant in the danger fraught existence of his kind when it was well to be without the service of a 'stone tipped spear. c, This precaution taken, he busied him- self with the task of cutting off Oo's head, that he might bear it in triumph to the cave of his love. With stone hatchet and knife he backed and hew- ed for the better part of 0 half hour until at last he raised the dripping tro- phy above his head, as, leaping high in air, he screamed once more the gloating challenge of the victor, that all the world might know that there was no greater hunter than Nu, the son of Nu. Even as the last note of his tierce ery rolled through the heavy. humid, superheated air of the Neocene there came a sudden hush upon the face of the world. A strange darkness obscured the swollen sun. The ground trembled and shook, Deep rumblings tnuttered up- ward from the bowels of the young earth, and answering grtnnblings thun- dered down from the firmament above. The startled troglodyte looked quick- ly in every direction, searching for the great beast who could thus cause the whole land to tremble and cry out in fear and the heavens above to moan and the sun to hide himself in terror. In every direction heasaw frightened beasts and birds and flying reptiles scurrying in panic stricken terror in search. os hiding places, and, movedaby the same primitive instinct. the young giant grabbed up his weapon and his trophy and ran like an antelope for the sheltering darkness of the cave of Oo. Scarcely had he reached the fancied safety of the interior when the earth's crust crumpled and rocked. There was a sickening sensation of sudden sink- ing, and amid the awful roar and thun- der of rending rock the cave mouth closed, and in the impenetrable dark- ness of his living tomb Nu. the son of Nu—Nu of the Neocene—lost conscious- ness. That was a hundred thousand years ago. CHAPTER I1. Today. TO have looked at her merely you would never have thought Victoria Custer of Beatrice, Neb., at all the sort of girl she really was. Her large, dreamy eyes and the graceful lines of her slender figure gave one an impression of that timidity which we have grown to take for granted as an inherent character- istic of the truly womanly woman. Yet I dare say there were only two things on God's green earth that Vic- toria Custer feared, or beneatu It 'or above it, for that matter—mice and earthquakes. She readily admitted tbe deadly ter- ror which the former nroused within her. but of earthquakes she seldom if ever would speak. To her brother Barney. her chum and confidant, she had ou one or two occasions unburden- ed her soul. The two were guests now of Lord and Lady Greystoke upon the English- man's vast estate in equatorial Africa, in the country of the Waziri, to which "Barney, there is something abet those hills that fills me with terror" ismommonsmammialionmismil Children Cry for Fletcher's TOF The Hind You Rave Always Bought, and which has been in use for over 30 yea;:s, has borne the signature of a(-11.9-----". and has been made under hiS per- sonal supervision since its infancy. Allow no one to deceive you in'this. All Counterfeits, Imitations and "Just -as -good" aro"•but Experiments that trifle with and endanger the healthof Infants and Children—Experience against Experiment. What is CASTORIA Castoria is a harmless substitute for Castor Oil, Pare.. goric, Drops and Soothing Syrups. It is pleasant. It contains neither Opiuin, Morphine nor other Narcotic substance. Its age is its guarantee. It destroys Worms and allays Feverishness. For more than thirty years it has been in constant use for the relief of Constipation, Flatulency, Wind Colic, all Teething Troubles and Diarrhoea. It regulates the Stomach and Bowels, assimilates the Food, giving healthy and natural Sleep. The Children's Panacea—The Mother's !Friend. •• t GENUINE CASTORIA ALWAYS' Bears the Signature of In Use For Over 30 Years The Kind You Have Always Bought .THG CENTAUR COMPANY, NEW YORK CITY. sag .ehasesentshe, Barney Custer had come to hunt big game—and forget But all that has nothing to do with this story, nor has John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, who was once upon a time "Tartan of the Apes," except that my having chanced to be a guest of his at the same time as the Custers makes it possible for me to give you a story that otherwise might never have been told. South of Uziri, the country of the Waziri, lies a chain of rugged moun- tains, at the foot of which stretches a broad plain where antelope, zebra, gi- raffe, rhino and elephant abound, and here are lion and Leopard and hyena praying, each after his own fashion, upon the sleek, fat herds of antelope. zebra and giraffe. Here, too, are buf- falo—irritable, savage beasts, more formidable than the lion himself, Clay- ton says. It is indeed a hunter's paradise, and scarce a day passed that did not find a .party absent from the low, rambling bungalow of the Greystokes in search of game and adventure, nor seldom was It that Victoria .Custer failed to be of the party. Already she had bagged two leop- ards, in addition to numerous antelope and zebra. and on foot had faced a bull buffalo's charge, bringing him down with a perfect shot within ten paces of where she stood. At first she had kept her brother fa a state bordering on nervous collapse, for the risks she took were snch as few men would care to undertake. After he had discovered, however. that she possessed perfect coolness in the face of danger and that the ae- curacy of her aim was so almost un- canny as to wring unstinted praise from the oldest hunters among them he commenced to lean a trifle too far in the other direction, so that Victoria was often in positions where she found herself entirely separated from the other members of the party—a comptl- ment to her prowess which she greatly prized, since women and beginners were usually surrounded by precats• tions and guards, through which it was difficult to get within firing distance of any sort of game. As they were riding homeward one evening after a hunt In the foothills Barney noticed that his sister was un- usually quiet and nitparently depressed. "What's the mutter, Vic?" he asked. "Dead tired, eh?" 1'he girl looked rap with a bright smile, which was irnrnediately follow- ed by an expression of puzzled bewil- derment. "Barney," she said. after a moment of silence. "there is something about those hills buck there that fills me with the strangest sensation of terror imaginahle. Today 1 passed an out- cropping of volcanic rock that gave evidence of a frightful convulsion of rulare in some bygone age. At sight of it 1 commenced to tremble from head to toot, a cold perspiration break- ing out all over me. "But that part is not so strange— you know I have always been subject to these same silly attacks of unrea- souing terror at sight of any evidence of the mighty forces that have wrought changes In the earth's crest or of the slightest tremor of an earthquake. But today the feeling of unutterable personal loss which overwhelmed me was almost unbearable. It was M though .fie whom I loved above all other's bad been taken from me. "And yet," she continued, "throngk all li' ' 1110 ijcahlr_ aoyrrag them _de= Children Cry FOR FLETCHER'S CASTORIA a ray of brilliant hope as remarkable and unfathomable as the deeper and depressing emotion which still stirred me." For some time neither spoke, but rode silently stirrup to stirrup as their ponies picked their ways through the knee high grass. The girl was think- ing, trying to puzzle out an explana- tion of the rather weird sensations which had so recently claimed her. Barney Custer was one of those unusual and delightful people who ds not scoff at whatever they cannot un- derstand—the reason, doubtless, that his sister as well as others chose hire as the recipient of their confidences. Not understanding her emotion, he had nothing to offer. and so remained si- lent He was, however, not a little puz- zled, as he had always been, at each new manifestation of Victoria's un- canny reaction of every indication or the great upheaval which marked the physical changes in the conformation of the earth's crust Ile recalled former occasions upon which his sister had confided in hina. something of similar terrors. Once in the Garden of the Gods and again during a trip through the G andi Canyon in Arizona and very vivid in- deed was t'ie recollection of Victoria's nervous collapse following the reading of the press dispatches describing the San Francisco earthquake. In alroth•- er respects his sister was an exception= ally normal, well balanced young American woman—which fact, doubt- less, rendered her one weakness the more apparent. But Victoria Custer's terror of earth* quakes was not her only peculiarity. The other was her strange contempt for the men who had sued for her hand—and of these there had been many. Her brother bud thought sev- eral of them the salt of the earth and Victoria herself had liked them too. But as for loving them—perish the. thought! Oddly enough, recollection of this other please of her character obtruded itself upon Barney's memory as the two rode on toward the Clayton bun- galow. and with it he recalled a per- sistent dream which Victoria had saisil recurred after each reminder of a great convulsion of nature. At they thought he broke the silence. "iIas your—alai—avatar made iris customary appearance'?" he aslud. smiling. The girl extended her hand toward her brother and laid It on his, where it rested upon his thigh as he rode, look-. leg up at him with half frightened.' half louring eyes. "Oh, Barney," she cried, "you are finch a dear never to have laughed at my silly dreams! I'm sure I should go quite mad did 1 not have you in whosal to confide, but lately I have hesitated to speak of it even to you—he has been coming so often! "Every night since we flat taunted in the vicinity of the hills I have walk- ed hand In hand with him beneath al great equatorial moon beside a rest- less sea, and more clearly than ever in the past have I seen his form and fee- Wren. ee-W en. "8e la very handsome, Barney, :ant very tall and strong and clean litnbed.i 1 wish that I might meet such n mart hs real life. I know it is a ridiculous' Using to say, but 1 can never love any elf the pusillanimous weaklings whir ars forever failing in love with me— sot after having walked band in handl with such as he and read the love be Ids clear eyes. "And yet, Barney, I ata: afraid Of Attu:..1i it not (Ail?" - (To be Continued)