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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News Record, 1939-05-18, Page 2PAGE 2 THE CLINTON _NEWS•RECORI .THURS., MAY 18, 1939 Eden Phillpotts TOM AYLMER: At the time the story opens is living in Peru, man- aging silver mines belonging to his father. - FEI,ICE PARDO: A Peruvian who; although young, has been fifteen years in the service of the Aylmer mining enterprise. He is the most trusted native em iloyee; PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS Mrs. MERCY AYLMER: Tom's mother; - egotistical and exacting. JANE BRADSHAW: Toni Aylmer's fiancee. At the time , the story opens, the expectation is that these two will marry, on Tom's next leave in -England. ANGUS MAINE: A young Scot on Aylmer's close compan- ion and p ionof Tom. JACOB FERNANDEZ: A rich, eld- erly South American whose hobby is the study of bird life. He is a bachelor and is engaged upon a monumental literary work on the subject of bird life. SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS. CHAPTERS Tom Aylmer and Angus Maine are enjoying a holiday on the hills of Peru when Felice Pardo rides out to them with a cabled message announe- ing the death of Tom's father. Tom knows that his father has bequeath- ed to him the Peruvian silver ;nines of which he (Tom) is the manager. He decides to sail for England at cote and to take Angus for company. Before leaving Lima, Tom buys a parrot, to give to his fiancee, Jane The Clinton News -Record with which is Incorporated THE NEW ERA TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION $1.50 per year in advance, to Can- adian addresses; $2.00 to the U.S. or other foreign countries. No paper discontinued until all arrears are paid unless at the option of the pub- lisher. The date to which every sub- scription is paid is denoted on the label. ADVERTISING RATES — Transient advertising 12e per count line for first insertion. 8c. for each subse- quent insertion. Heading counts 2 lines. 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The bird, bought from a!parrot missed it, but it belongs all dealer whom Tom knows and trusts,' right," is according to the dealer, a very Then, very slowly, Gregory reveal- exceptional eveal. exec tional parrot,and is abouts v- olo s:— p n o ed the truth and read as f 1 w. enty years of age—no great age for GEYSER AT GORGE MANE' (A) a parrot. TER CACHE' , GALAPAGOS WEST On the liner, the. bird engages the EQUATOR ON TABLETOP."man, attention of Jacob Fernandez, as rich "There you are,! said. Jane. "Now man, of Lima, who is bound for the bouquets, please," Panama, whose life hobby is the study of birds. To Fernandez, the parrot talks, but the only words •he can detect in a 1 string of sounds are `Benny Boss." Fernandez says he- knew a man of that name, and proceeds to tell Tom backwards, why did you leave `cache' and Angus what he knows. and 'west'?" Benny was a man of mixed parent- But Gregory was able to explain age—English and Peruvian—who, for this. a time, fifty years earlier, worked A reasonable question, Nicholas, for Fernandez. They parted' company and the answer is clear. If you turned and after an interval, Benny tried, `cache' backwards, you would get the unsuccessfully, to sell to Fernandez letters 'ehcae,' which do not constitute a large ruby worth much more than a pronounceable sound in any strict the price he put on it. Piecing to-. sense, and similarly with `west' gether what Ise learned about Benny Reverse the letters and you get `tsew.' in later years, it !seems that Benny 'Neither a rudesailorman nor a primi- had been engaged in dredging on tive parrot could make anything of Lake Titicaca, and that he had dredg- these vocally, so Benny Boss left them ed up jewels thrown into the lake as they were. "Now ' he continued, at the time of the Spanish conquest. "much stands revealed and this feeble Before leaving the ship, Fernandez enigma has been advanced one step advises Tons to try to get the parrot's towards solution, but it would be idle speech investigated by an expert, to say that all is transparently clear Arrived in England, Tom does so, as yet. Did your reseaches carry you but the expert, Gregory Barbour, is any further, Jane?" baffled, despite an extensive kno'cvl- "Rather," she answered. "I knew it edge of languages. was no use expecting any of you to help, so I did it all myself." (Now Read On) "Push on then," said Tom. "Not content with, making every CHAPTER VI word go backward, Benny Boss made the whole sentence go backward," ex - THE RIDDLE READthe Jane. "The one thing follow- Mr. Gregory Barbour, like the true ed the other instantly in my acute scientist that he claimed to be, hesi mind, though none of you even saw fated to, ignore a mystery while there that. Now read the definitive and remained any hope of its reasonable complete edition, Greg." solution. She handed 'Mr. Barbour another Thus Gregory wrote to Miss Brad- paper and he read what she had'writ- shaw, directed her to take action, and ten. revived her interest in the subject. i "TABLETOP ON EQUATOR WEST "Do this, Jane, please," he said,^ GALAPAGOS CACHE. MANEATER "Follow my own procedure. Take GORGE AT GEYSER." down verbatim and with phonetic pre-, • vision ,the ten words spoken by your "Let's go," suggested Tom, and parrot (for that they are words no Jane agreed. reasonable person can pretend to "But just one moment more before doubt) and then compare your re- we start," she said. "Nothing like sults with my own." simplification when one is dealing The girl obeyed and was interested with the masculine brain. Nosy you've to find that her dictation correspond—heard how Benny boiled down his ed exactly with her friend's. secret • for the parrot; no doubt be- "Letter by letter they are alike," fore he had finished he was quite she wrote. "There is no difference sure the bird had got it right; but whatever, Greg., and I am bringing here is my last edition. A very few my feminine intuition to bear at full words will make the message clear. steam. If I don't see the meaning of "Tabletop" is an island, of course. it in the next twenty-four hours, I West of the Galapagos group there shall blow up." , can't be anything but islands till you But well within the allotted time come to China, so we get the follow- Jane arrived at the solution and ing." laughed- to find its childish nature. , She took up her final sheet of note - "All is as clear as mud, dearest paper and read it to theist. Greg," she wrote, "and the only re- ,,THE ISLAND OF TABLETOP mainiitg mystery in my mind is that UPON EQUATOR WEST OF GAL - four brilliant people, like you and APAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. C'ACHE They were all silent for a moment; then Nicholas spoke, "The revised version doesn't seem much to make a song about," he said, "and if you turned all the other words Toni and Angus and myself, were IN MANEA.TER GORGE AT GEY• nonplussed for a moment . . . The SER." Man who taught 'the parrot these words used your own language, Greg! "How simple!" said Angus. It was common English that beat "Infantile," agreed Jane, "but now you, and, of course, I shall' never the really interesting work begins." think of your learning so highly "Getting an expedition together and again in consequence. But thepar- plunging into the equatorial depths rot's old master—Benny Boss -no of the Pacific Ocean? Would you doubt wanted a repository for certain suggest anything so made Jane?" facts, and he knew they would'. be asked Gregory. safe with his bird. Everything 'falls "You're beginning at the wrong end beautifully into its place now. I've —most unseientific, darling. No; the told Torn and Angus to come to din- first thing to do is to collate all the ner' to -morrow, and S shall then ex- known facts, weigh them in the baI-' pound the thing, from basement to anee and then decide if it's good en - attic, and put on a bit of side no ough," S explained Jane. "Needless to doubt." !say I have collated all the known Angus and Tont' obeyed her man- facts;" date, but the linguist did not join. "There aren't any," declared Angus, them for dinner. It was not until and she pretende disappointment, the meal was finished that he an-, "You can say, that! And I've had rived just in time . to hear Jane's hundreds of cast-iron facts from exposition. She produced some sheets Tom's own lips. And you heard them, of notepaper. I toe. This must be the dine results of "Sit in a quiet, attentive row and relations in Aberdeen," mourned Jane. listen," she said. "It is an utterly "Now listen," she continued. "We childish cryptogram`,' but Benny Boss have next to combine all, we know had to keep it pretty elementary, of of. Benny Boss with what he taught course, since he was relying upon a his parrot, pool the results and de - bird to store it away for him." lcide, onstho findings, exactly what She read the original document. we're going to do about it," "RESYEGn TA EGRO:G REITEN'AM "If you have already: decided, as I CACHE SOGAPALAG WEST begin to suspect, Jane, then it is ROTAUQE NO PO'I'hl1.BAT." probably going to be our task to "So much for that," .said Janenmodify your decision," declared Mr. "Now all you have to do is first to, Barbour. turn each word round and read it, . "I Haven't decided at all,' she again backwards, Let Gregory do it." answered. "It's nothing to do with Mr: Barbour .obeyed. - I me. I may know what I'd like to "To do this with precision will take happen, but what does the wish of a little time," he said, "so I beg you one lone woman matter? Well, it's to bear with ate." !like this—.Mr. Boss dredged in Lake "I've put an 'a' into the fourthi Titicaca on an . understanding! with word,' explained Jane, "but you'll seethe Garcia brothers.. Then he made why in a moment when you come toa slip, as the cleverest people some - it. "The 'a' isn't sounded, so the times do, and instead of handing his big topaz to the company, gave it to his daughter. Of Course,' it's easy to see that all the time he was working in the lake 'he was;ca'refully keeping the really swagger treasures for him- self, no doubt considering that the lion's share ought to go to the man who had the wit to find them. "After all, tie Garcias only paid for the boat and dredging net, and I don't blame Benny in the least for looking after his own end. But evi- dently he. knew the fat was in the fire when a Garcia saw Julio Pardo wearing the huge topaz. So he van- ished off the may while the going was good, and, of course, he took his hoard with him, Nobody ever knew where he went (to, but presently he came back, declared his innocence, and expressed amazement that any- body should doubt it, "But we now know that on his return he must have been at great pains to teach my parrot the secret. Why he did --and chose English to do it in—I' don't suppose anybody will ever know, but the fact remains, When he fled front his home he went, sooner or Pater, to the Galapagos, and from there presently sailed due west along the equator to Tabletop — an island he must have known about in his seafaring days. And that's where he hid his treasures—in some weird place called 'Maneater Gorge,' beside a hot spring. How he got there, what he sailed in, or the reasons he gave for going, we do not know, but you may be sure the people on the ship didn't hear anything about his real purpose. ',Is that clear so far?" "A reasonable conclusion from the premises," admitted Gregory. "You cannot be sure, however, that he sail- ed from the Galapagos Island's." VISION OF ADVENTURE "I feel perfectly certain he did," she answered: "It was the inevitable starting place if he meant to follow the equator till he reach his island. You can see that on the map. To find an uncharted island in the heart of the Pacific would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack, but his seaman's knowledge embrac- ed the fact that it lay on the equator, so he had only to go ahead due west till he picked it up. Well, he did pick it up, went ashore • with his treasure, hid it, came back to the ship, and probably said that the isl- and' was no use, or something like that. Then he came home again. "He lies low for a bit, lives an innocent life, and waits for the clouds to blow away. They blow away. One Garcia brother dies, •and the other sells his fruit fat'nt, leaves Peru, and goes to Cuba, Benny Boss now feels that the coast is clear, so Off he goes again to Tabletop to get his hoard and no doubt turn it into money. But this trine he doesn't come back, He vanishes, and we can only assume that something happened to prevent him from coming back. . His wife never heard any more news of hint, and his end is unknown. Probably it wasn't peaceful, being the sort of man he 'was. He may have liked Tabletop so much that he decided to stop there. There may have been cannibals on Tabletop who liked him so much they telt they couldn't part from him. They may have eaten him, or they may have made him their king and thought the world of him. Or he may just have died a natural death before he got back to his Ireas- ure, and been buried. at sea. In that case no doubt the cache is still in- tact," "He would hardly have chosen a cannibal island," said 'torn. "He wouldn't have liked the idea of a lot of poking, prying cannibals watching him bury Isis treasure. I'll bet it was an inhabited island, Jane." "Against that, however, you must set the fact that a district of Table- top is called Maneater Gorge, Tom," said Gregory Barbour. "To me that has 'a distinctly anthropophagous connotation" "Where do you find these beautiful words, Greg?" sighed Jane. "But I believe Tom's right." "It can't bo uninhabited, my dear child, if there are man-eaters in it," argued Gregory. "The place does not get its sinister name for nothing, and many other creatures are quite ready -ndy, even willing—to eat men be- tide his fellow men." "It doesn't matter," declared Jane. "It's a detail. Benny found the island in the first' place and called it `Table- top." My feminine intuition is dead certain there is a Tabletop, and price- less Inca treasure lying snugly con- cealed upon' it." Nicholas Bradshaw made ;a sugges- tion. ' "You ought to charter a low, raking hand -hog schooner with a grim cap- tain and a cut-throat crew," he said. "That's the way to tackle Pacific islands.' Then, when you've lifted the booty and set sail for bonne, the inen mutiny and do you all in, and you are never heard of again, Probably that's what happened to, Benny Boss." "Coward!"answered Jane: "You can stop at home now, Nick, and look after the birds." "I haven't the slightest intention of coming," he said. "Will you come, Greg?" she asked. "We don't want a crowd, of course. This is a matter of business not a picnic. But if you like to share' in the expenses--". "'Maneater Gorge,'" answered Mr. Barbour. "No, Jane." "Well," she said, "that leave us three, Tom and Angus and L" "You don't waste much time, do you7" asked the Scot, "If it's going to be our honeymoon Stodgy Wanton trip, Jane, -we shan't want to bother Flowers Aylmer. "It isn't," she answered: "My idea Canada's diminishing succession of is a treasure. recovery company en a lovely wild flowers from Spring to purely financial basis. It's a gamble, Fall has now reached the point that of course: We've ,got to weigh the their _ultimata disappearance can be possible against the probable." avoided only by the care and consid- "With what result?" asked Greg. enation of the people. Throughout "With the result that the possible the years, the greatest destruction of turns the scale," she assured hire. "It wild flowers 'has been the clearing is frankly possible that we might of the forests and land' for farms draw a blank. As far as I can see and habitations, assisted by forest 5 directly from the roots, may be pick- ed at will, providing the body of `the plant is left undisturbed. Tearing up a plant by the roots to gain a bloom is wanton destruction and means, only onething—the pass- ing of beautiful flowers from the Canadian landscape. It is against this reckless plucking of wild flowers that the horticultural societies -make their apneal. • �nt{�,nm�{�{s � f�:1 �u 6xa �1.: CA s ei �, p, R�ETTE Angus to conte, shall me? asked it is purely a matter of expense. One fires and the grazing of animals. Still I doesn't want to go exploring de luxe, `later, the want of thought on thei or anything silly, like that; but part of persons, particularly in tho • against the cost of the expedition, 'vicinity of the larger centres of pop - we mayfairly set the probable re- ulation, has hastened' the possibility — turns." Id wild flowers sharing the fate of "And what da you estimate the the buffalo, the musk ox, the great eggs in the basket to be ;worth, auk, the carrier pigeon and other Jane?" inquired Angus (wild life, fair already some of the "I am counting them before they're finest specimens in the woods have hatched, no doubt," she admitted, "but disappeared. • Hence, the appeal b£ we have to consider Benny Boss horticultural societies through Canada again. He was a very able man, for the prevention of wild flowers. whatever he wasn'.t in other direr- The preservation of wild flowers tions, and he wouldn't have fled` and does not meant that no one is allowed taken all this prodigious trouble for to pick a bloom, but it does demand anything small. The thing is in a: a little thought from the picker. For nutshell, Toni; you have only got to example, some wildflowers should not inquire roughly for what we can be:.pieked sit all. Plants like the white charter a sinall steamer at the Gal -1 trillium, the floral emblem of Ontario, apagos, take it for say three months, are best left alone in all the glory and set off along the equator to huntlof their original setting, because these down the island A few thousand, flowers cannot be picked without re - pounds perhaps —absolutely nothing' moving all the foliage on which de - against the probable result." i pends the maturing of the bulbous They chattered, but found Janelroot for the following Season's crop meant all she had said. Indeed she' of flowers. Other species of wild was exceedingly firm, flowers, such as violets, hepaticas and "There is one other who will cer- the like whose flower stems rise tainly have to come," said Tom, "and that's Felice Pardo." Jane Bradshaw reflected. "It was a man eaIled Felice Pardo that Julia Boss married," she said. "D'you remember? How queer!" "That need not detain us," declared Tom. "There are hundreds of Pardos at. Lima alone and dozens of Felfees —a very common5name and Christian name is Peril. Felice would never forgive us if we tank a jaunt like this without him. He's a keen photog- rapher and will be able to immortaI- ize the island. "And he certainly ought to have a share," declared Angus. They both regarded Jane, but she offered no objections. "Then that leaves four," she said. "A nice easy number." (To be continued) "Toe purest form r, which tobacco eonbeemo!,ed" 1"Matzee3' tl rphyPaiARV®ts Will melte your he,no FIT FO:.A KING! �rwQi•'�5 n PRV i i�un�,?.tea MARVO Canada's Smartest Finish COVERS IN ONE COAT BRUSHES PERFECTLY DRIES IN NO TIME Ball & Zapfe Albert Street—Phone 195 CLINTON, ONT. WESTERN CANADA SPECIAL BARGAIN EXCURSIONS FROM ALL STATIONS IN EASTERN CANADA Going Daily May 16. - May 27th 1939 INCLUSIVE RETURN LIMIT: 45 DAYS. ' TICKETS GOOD IN COACHES at fates approximately 11/4c per mile. TOURIST SLEEPING CARS at fares approximately 1siirc ner mile. 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