Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1915-09-16, Page 7September 16th, r915 THE WINGHAM . TIMES Copyriisatt. 1914, by W. se. Chspmsa lire Story by Chapters Chapter 1.-A Hundred Thou- sand Years. Chapter 11. -Today. Chapter ill. --Toe Young Hunter. Chapter IV. -The Dream Mate. Chapter V. -The Zebra Killer. Chapter VL -The Ancient Trail. Chapter VII. --The Lonely Mon. Chapter VIII. -A Prisoner. Chapter IX. -The Hunt. Chapter X. --The Death Dance. Chapter XI. -Happiness? SYNOPSIS H's.: the son of Nu, is shut up in a cave by an earthquake 100,000 years ago. He has a. sweetheart, Nat:ul. Near his cave 100,000 years later Miss Victoria Custer and her brother are on a bunting trip. She in haunted by a dream man and also by a real life lover. An earthquake releasee Nu. The is a case of suspended animation. ate does not know he has been asleep. Victoria Custer has strange dreams that a savage man is seeking her. CHAPTER IV. The Dream Matt. Tan following morning the mirth - quake found Victoria Custer abed. bed. She told Lad • 7 G5eystoke that she felt weak ifsenli effects of the nervous shock, but the truth of the matter was that • Abe dreaded to meet•Curtisa and Mader- . the ordeal which she knew coo- t mated her. How was she to explain to him the ..effect that the subterranean rumbling* and the shaking of the outer crust bad had upon her and her sentiments to- ward him? When her brother came in to see her .she drew bis head down upon the pil- low beside hers and whispered some- -.thing of the horrible hallucinations that bad punted her since the previous even g. "Oh, Barney," she cried, "what can it be?• What can it be? The first deep grumbltngs that preceded the shod: -seemed to awake me as from a leth- argy, 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. Cur- • ties or any other. "It is awful to bare to admit it even. to you, Barney: but I-1 knew when I -saw him that I loved him -that 1 was his. Not his wife. Barney, but his woman -his mate --•and 1 had to tight with myself to keep from rushing out • into the terrible blackness of the night to throw myself into his arms. "It was then that 1 managed to con- trol 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 a strange . and hostile world to find and claim me. "You cannot know. Barney, how tea! he is to me. It is not as other dreams, but instead [ really see hint -the satin • texture of his smooth, bronzed skin. • the lordly poise of his perfect head, the tousled shock of coal black hair that I have learned to love and • through which I know I have lovingly run my fingers ns he stooped to kiss *me. "He carries n great spear, stone tip- ped -1 should know It the tv,oment that I saw it -and it knife and hatchet of •-the same flinty in: serial. and In hire left hand he bears the severed head of a mighty beast. "He is a noble figure. Int of another worIastir_ of un^thes_a,.. _. Sgmewt_,re SUFFEa E® FROM Catarrh Of The Stomach FOR 3 YEARS. t llbferri's Laxa.. Iver Pills Cured Her. Mrs. Agnes Gallant, Reserve Mines, N.S., writes: "I take great pleasure in writing you. I have been a great sufferer, for eight years, from catarrh of the stomach and tried several, so called, catarrh remedies without relief until a friend of mine advised are to try Mil - burn's Lara -Liver Pills, which I did, and four vials completely cured are." lie sure and get Milburn's Lasa -Liver Pills when you ask for them as there are a number of imitations on the market. The price is 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. Se wan ers, so-ltaoe�jlrM is $iie"iLat my heart weeps at the thought of him. 01, Barney, either he Is true and I shall find him or I am gone mad. Tell me, Barney, for the love of heaven. you believe that I am sane!" Barney Custer drew his sister's face close to his and kissed her tenderly. "Of course you're sane, Vic," he reassured her. "You've just allowed that old dream of yours to become a sort of obsession with you, and now it's got on your nerves until you are commencing to believe it even against your better judgment. Take a good grip on yourself, get up and join Cur- tiss in a long ride. "Have it out with him. Tell him just what you• have told me, and then tell him you'll marry him, and I'll warrant that you'll be dreaming about him instead of that young giant that you have stolen out of some fairy tale." "I'11 get up and take a ride, Barney," replied the girl, "but as for marrying Mr. Curtiss -well, I'll have to think it over." She did not join the party, however, that were riding toward the hills that morning, for the thought of seeing the torn and twisted stratum of a bygone age that lifted its scarred bead 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 ac- company the other men, she was left alone at the bungalow with Lady Grey- stoke, the baby and the servants. As the party trotted across the roll- ing land that stretched before them to the foothills they sighted a herd of zebras corning toward them in mad stampede. "Something is hunting ahead of ns," remarked one of the men. "We may get a shot at a lion from the looks of it," replied another. A short distance farther on they' ramie upon the carcass o2 a zebra stale Bon. Barney and Butzow dismounted to examine it In an effort to dotes - mine the nature of the enemy that had dispatched it. At the first glance Barney called to one of the other members of the party, an experienced big game hunter. "What do you make of this, Brown?" he 'asked, pointing to the exposed haunch. "It is a man's kill," repliedthe ether. "Look at that gaping hole over the heart, that would tell the story were it not for the evidence of the knife that cut awny these strips from the rump. The carcass is 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 apo man, who had been riding' a couple of hundred yards in the 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 11s heard any shot." Tartan grasped the zebra by a front and hind pastern and rolled him over upon his other side. "It went way through, whatever it was," said Butzow as the hole behind Otis shoulder was exposed to view. "Must have been a bullet, even if we didn't hear the report of the gun." "I'm not so sure of that," said Tar - ran, and then he 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 ones► tioningly. "A man," he said -"a white man bas been here since the zebra 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 a man could approach one in the open presupposes a mightiness of muscle and an accuracy of aim little short of superhuman." "And you think" --commenced Brown. "I think nothing," Interrupted Tar. ran. "except that my judgment tells me that my senses are In error. There is no naked white giant bunting through the country of the Wazlrt {'Come, instead of speculating on the impossible, let's ride on to the bills and see 1f we cnn't locate the old villain who has been stealing my sheep. Pros, his spoor I'll venture to say that whets we bring him down we shall see tae largest lion that any of us has over seen." Aa the nnn'ty remnnntod , and rode "It is a man's kill." away -towar e -knit i1Tls hvo won- dering black eyes watched them from the safety of the jungle. Nu was utterly nonplused. What sort of men were these who rode upon beasts 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 Nn saw that they were merely coverings for the head and body, though why men should wish to hamper themselves with such foolish and cumbersome con- traptions the troglodyte could not im- agine. As the party rode toward the foot- hills Nu paralleled them, keeping al- ways down wind. He followed them all day during their fruitless search for the lion that had been entering Grey- stoke's compound and stealing his sheep, and as they retraced their way toward the bungalow late in the after- noon Nn lurked in their rear. Never in his life had he been so deep- ly interested in anything as he was in these strange creatures, and when halt - 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 little 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 mild from the bungalow Nu came to a halt. The strange odors that assailed his nostrils as ho approached the ranch warned him to caution. The black servants and the Waztrt warriors, some of whore were always visiting their former chief, presented to Nu's nostrils an unfamiliar scent - one which made the black shock upon his head stiffen as you have seen tine hair upon the neck of a white man's hound stiffen when for the first time his nose detects the odor of an Indian. As darkness came on Nn approached ' closer to tbe bungalow, always careful, however, to keep down wind from it Filled 'with wonder as he was, the troglodyte had become a prey to the livest sort of curiosity concerning the identity and habits of these strange beings. Particularly was he interested in some one whom he had not seen, yet of whose hidden presence he was vaguely aware. In some way this nn - known individual reminded him of Nat-ul, the beautiful girl with whom be bad walked but yesterday beneath the shade of the tree ferns-Nat-ul, the girl ho loved. Through the windows he could see people moving about within the lighted interior, but he was not close enough to distinguish features. He saw men and women sitting about a long table. eating with strange weapons upon which they impaled tiny morsels of food which lay upon round. fiat 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 in- terpret, After these Hien and women bad eat- en 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 world, thought Nu, lute the ape people; and yet, though it was different from the ways of his own people. the troglodyte could not help but note within bis own breast a strange yearning to take part in it -a longing for the company of these strange, new people. He had crept quite close to the ve- randa now, and presently, there floated down to him upon the almost stagnant air a message as clear as word of mouth, which told him that Nat-ul, the daughter of Thn, sat among these strange people before the entrance to their wonderful cave. ° And yet Nn Could not believe the evidence of his own senses. What could Nat-ul bo doing among such as these? How, between two suns, could she hate learned the language and the ways of these strangers? It was impossible. And then t malt upon the veranda, who sat close be- side Victoria Castor. struck a match fo light a cigarette and the fare of the blase litup,theztrre teatem.._r►t Was Troubled With Smothering Spells. Would Wako Up With Breath All Gone. Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills Entirely Cured Her. Mrs. Wm. McElwain, Temperance Vale, N.B., writes: "I am not much of a believer in medicines, but I must say Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills are all right. Some )cars ago I was troubled with smothering spells. In the night I would be sound asleep but would waken up with, my breath all gone and think I never\ would get it back. I was telling a friend of my trouble, and he advised me to try Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills. He also gave me a box which I tried, and I had only taken a few' of them when I could sleep all night without any trouble. I did not finish the box until some years after when I felt my trouble coming back, so I took the rest of them and they entirely cured me," Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills are 50c per box or 3 boxes for $1,25, at all dealers or mailed direct on receipt of price by The T. Milburn Co., Limited, Toronto, Ont. tue Night el ttient the cave wan invol- untarily sprang to his feet. A half smothered exclamation broke from his lips. "Nat-ul!" "What was that?" exclaimed Bar- tley Custer. "1 thought 1 heard some one speak out there near the rose hushes." He rose as though to investigate, but his sister laid her hand upon his arm, "Don't go, 'Barney," she whispered. Lie turned toward her with a cams - tinning look. Her eyes were dilated with wonder and fear, her hands were tr•enthliug and she was so agitated her brother was deeply concerned about her, remembering as he did the strange hallucinations to "which she was sub- ject "Why?" be asked, eyeing her fixed- ly. "There is no danger. Did you not hear it too?" "Yes," she answered in a low voice, "I beard 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 It carried any peculiar signifi- cance. It was merely an expression of tbe natural timidity of the civilized white woman in the midst of the sav- age African night. "It's nothing. Miss Custer," t.it said. "I'll Just walk down there to reassure you -a prowling hyena, perhaps, but nothing more." The girl would have been glad to deter him, but she felt that she had already evinced more perturbation than the occasion warranted, and so she but forced a laugh, remarking that It was not at all worth while. Yet in her ears rang the familiar name that had so often fallen from the lips of her dream man. When one 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 start- ed up as though to object, but re- alizing how ridiculous such an atti- tude would be, and how impossible to explain, she turned itstead and en- tered the house, Severalof the men walked down Into the garden, but though they searched about for the better part of half as hour they came upon no indi- cation that any savage beast was lurk- ing near by. Always in front of them a silent fig- ure moved just outside the range of their vision. When they returned again to the veranda it took up its position once more behind the rose bushes, nor until all bad entered the bungalow and sought their beds did the figure stir. CHAPTER V. The Zebra Killer. 13 wan hungry again, and know- ing no law de property rights, he found the odor of the Grey- stoke sheep as appetizing- es The Wretchedness of Constipation Can quickly be °venoms by CARTER'S LITTLE LIVER PILLS Purely vegetable —ad surely and reptly on the li. Cure Biuineae, Head. ache, Dizzi- noes, and indigestion. They do tits& dsly. Small Pill, Small Dna, Segall rate.. Genuine mutt ben Signature re' that of utTier' u2 t71a �ornu'rous Creatures that were penned within their compounds for the night. Like* supple panther be scaled the high fence that guarded the imported, pedigreed stock in which Lord Greystoke tools such just pride. A moment later there was the fright- ened rush of animals to the far side of the incloe re, where they baited to turn fear !Hied eyes back toward the. "tient beast of prey that crouched over the carcass of a plump ewe. Within the pen the killer ate his fill and then, Catlike as he had come, he glided back toward the garden before the bunga- low. Out across the plain, down wind from Nu, another silent figure moved stealthily toward the ranch. It was a huge maned lion. Every now and then he would halt and lift his sniffling nose to the gentle breeze, and bis lips lift, baring the mighty fangs beneath, but no sound came from his deep throat, for he was old, and his wisdom was as the wis- dom of the fox. Once upon a time be would have coughed and moaned and roared after the manner of his hungry brethren, but much experience with men people and their deafening thundfr sticks had taught him that he hunted longest who bunted in silence. Victoria Custer bad gone to her room much earlier in the evening than was her custom, but not to 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 tight down forever the foolish obsession that had been growing upon her slowly and insidi- ously for years. Since the first awak- ening of developing womanhood with- in her she had been subject to the strange dream that was now becoming an almost nightly occurrence. At first she had thought nothing of it other than It was odd that she should continue to dream the same thing so many times, but of late these nightly visions had seemed to hold more of reality than formerly and to presage some happening in her career -some crisis that was to alter the course of her life, 'Even by day she could not rid her- self of the vision of the black haired young g^innt and tonight the culmina -4 tion had cotne in the voice she bad heard calling her from the rose thicket. She knew that he was but a creature of her dreatns, and it was this knowl- edge which frightened her so, for it meant but one thing -her mind was tottering beneath the burden of the nervous strain these hallucinations had unposed upon it. She must gather all the resources of her nervous energy and throw MMT this terrible obsession forever. She must! She must! Rising, the girl paced hack and forth the length of her room. She felt sti- fling and confined within its narrow limits. Outside, beneath the open sky, with no boundaries save the distant horizon, was the field best fitted for such a battle as was raging within her. Snatching a silken scarf, she threw It about her shoulders -a concession to habit, for the night was bot -and, step. ping through her window to the porch that encircled the bungalow, she pass- ed on into the garden. Just round the nearest angle of the house her brother and Billy Curtiss sat stroking before the window of their bedroom, clad in pajamas and slippers. Curtiss was cleaning the ritle he had used that dry. the same that he had carried into the rose garden earlier in the evening. Neither heard the girl's light footsteps upon the sward, and the corner of the building hid her from their view. In the open moonlight before the rose thicket Victoria Caster paced back end forth. A dozen times she reached the determination to seek the first op- portunity upon the morrow to give Billy Curtiss an afiirmnttve answer to the IluestIon he had asked her the nit:ltt before -•tae trt;:ht of the earthtln:tke- hut, eats time that site thought she had disposed of the matter definitely she round herself involuntarily comparing him with the heroic figure of her dream man, and again she must neea rewage her battle. As she walked in the moonlight two sous of eyes watched her every move• meat -one pair, clear and black, from the ruse thicket; the other, flawing yel- iow green, hidden in little clump of bushes at the point where she turned in her pacing to retrace her steps at the point farthest frorn the watcher among the roses. Twenty times Nn was on the point of leaping from his concealment and taking the girl In his arms. for to trim she was Nat-ul, daughter of 'Ilia, and It had not boon a •hundred thousand years, but only yesterday, the day be - fora, that he had last seen her. Yet each time something deterred Dim -n strange. vague. Indefinable fear" of this wondrous creature who «as Nat-ul :utd yet who rens net Nnt-nl, but another made in Nat-ui's image, The strange things that covered her fair figure seemed to have raised a barrier between there -the Inst time that he had walked hand in hand with her upon thcy!hench naught but the oft skin of a reirdoe had clothed tier. fler familiar association, too, with these strange people. coupled with the fact that she spoke and understood their iangttnge, only tended to remove her further from him. Nu was very sad and very lonely, and the sight of Nat -ill seemed to ac- centuate rather than relieve his de- pression. Slowly there was born with- in him the convict -on that Nnt-til was no longer for Nu, the son of Nu. Why he could not guess, brit the bitter fact seemed inevitable. The girl had turned quite close to hitq,•_tnaw.se (Lspn9 retrnrriing„hessatteLrs 1a Children Cry for Fletcher's ASTORI The Kind You W.: Always Fought, and which bas been. in. use for over 30 yea: s, has borne the signature of and has been made under his per- sonal supervision since its infancy, itiG.eAllow no one to deceive you in this. All Counterfeits, Imitations and "Just -as -good." are but Experiments that trifle with and endanger the health of Infants and Children—Experience against Experiment, What is CASTORIA Castoria is a harmless substitute for Castor Oil, rare. goric, Drops and Soothing Syrups. It is pleasant. It contains neither Opitun, Morphine nor other Narcotic substance. Its age is its guarantee. It destroys Worms and allays Feverishness. For more than thirty years it Las been in constant use for the relief of Constipation, Flatulency, Wind. Colic, all Teething Troubles and Diarrhoea. It regulates the Stomach and Dowels, assimilates the Food, giving healthy and natural sleep. The Children's; Panacea—The Mother's Friend. GENUINE CASTORIA ALWAYS I3ears the Signature of In Use For Over 30 Years The Kind You Have Always Bought THE CENTAUR COMPANY, . ",1:5'n`J�'::tllt r_' r �:. n Yt: +,Pii..t• `x49,' N EW YORK CITY, • towaru'tne liuS fes tWea'1`�%yut•uK it«uy. Behind their screening verdure 01d Raffles, the sheep stealer, twitched bis tufted tail and drew his steel tbewed legs beneath him for the spring, and as he w:ti tedj ust the faintestpurrs of r u•rs escaped bis slavering jowls. Too faint the sound to pierce the dull senses of the twentieth century maiden, but to the man hiding in the rose thicket twenty paces farther from the lion it fell sinister upon his un- spoiled ear. Like a bolt of lightning -so quickly bis muscles responded to bis will -the cave man hurtled the intervening rose bushes with a single bound, and, raised spear in hand, bounded after the un- conscious girl. The great lion saw him coming, and, less 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 roar that froze the girl with terror, and then in the face of his terrific charge the fig- ure of a naked giant leaped past her. She saw a great arm, wielding a mighty spear, hurl the weapon at the infuriated beast -and then she swooned. As the savage note of the lion's roar broke the stillness of the quiet night, Curtiss and Barney Custer sprang to their feet, running toward the -side of the bungalow from which the sound bad come. Curtiss grasped the rifle he bad just reloaded, and as he turned the corner of the building he caught one fleeting She Saw a Groat Arm Wielding a Mighty Spear. glimpse of something moving near the hushes fifty yards away. Raising bis weapon, he fired. The whole household had been roused by the lion's deep voice and the :tsswering boom of the big rifle, so that scarcely a minute after Barney ('nrtiss reached the side of the pros1r::te girl n seore of white men '1',' 011.Slo wes'e.znthered :t nboutthenas. Children Cry FOR FLETCHER'S CASTORIA The dead body of a huge lion lay; scarce twenty feet from Victoria Cus- ter, but a hurried examination of the girl brought unutterable relief to them all, for she was uninjured. Barney lifted her in his arms and carried her to her room, while the oth- ers examined the dead beast. From the center of the breast n wooden shaft protruded, and when they had drawn this out -and it regUIred the united ef- forts of four strong men to do it -they found that a stone tipped spear bad passed straight through the savage beast's heart. "The zebra killer," said Brown to Greystoke.. The latter nodded bis head. "We must find him." he said. "He has rendered us a great service. But for him Miss Custer would not he' alive now." But though twenty men scoured the grounds and the plain beyond for sev- eral hours, no trace .of the killer of Old Raffles could be found, and the reason that they did not find him abroad was because he lay directly beneath their noses "in a little clump of low, flower- ing shrubs, with a bullet wound in his head. The next morning the men were ex- amining the stone headed spear upon the veranda just outside the breakfast room "It's the oddest thing of its kind I ever saw," said Greystoke. "I can al- most swear that it was never made by any of the tribesmen of present day Africa. I once saw similar beads, though, in the British museum. They had been taken from the debris of a prehistoric cave dwelling." From the window of the breakfast room just behind them a wide eyed girl was staring in breathless wonder- ment at the rude weapon, which to her presented concrete evidence of the real- ity of the thing she had thought but another hallucination -the leaping tig- ure of the naked man that had sprung past her into the face of the charging lion an instant before sbe had swooned. One of them turned and saw her standing t here. "Ah, ,Miss Custer!" he exclaimed - "No worse this morning, I see, for your little adventure of last night, Here's a memento that your rescuer left behind him in the heart of Old Baffles. Would you like it?" The girl stepped forward, hiding her true emotions behind the mask of a gay smile. She took the spear of Nu, the son of Nu, in her hands, and her heart leaped In half savage pride as she felt the weight of the great missile. "What a man he must be who wields such a mighty weapon!" she exclaimed- 13:n•ney Custer was watching his sis- ter closely, for with the discovery of the spear in the lion's body had come the sudden recollection of Victoria's description of her dream man; "He carries a great spear, stone tipped. I should know it the moment that I saw it" Tho young man stepped to his sis- ter's side, putting nu arm about her shoulders. She looked up into his face, and then in a low voice that was not audible to the others she whispered: "It is his, Barney. I knew that I should know it" For some time the young man bait been harassed by fears as to his sire ter's enmity. Now he was forced to en- tertain fears of an even more sinister nature or else admit that be, too, had gone mad. If he were sane then it was the truth that somewhere in this savage land a savage white man roamed in search o Victoria. Now that he had found hoe w-.0_14 he net claim seri— (To be Continued)