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The Wingham Advance Times, 1927-10-27, Page 6WET„,LINGTON MUTUAL FIRE'' INSURANCE Co.' Established x840 }lead Off, all elph,sOnt. inst r- 1te taken on RICtC e. at reasonable rates, ABNER COSENS, Agents Wingham 'V. DODD Office in Chisholm Block ;FIRE,. x.,IEE, ACCIDENT AND HEALTH --.. INSURANCE -- --- AND REAL ESTATE P. G Box 360 ONTARIO "WZNGHAM, - J. W. BUSHFIELD Barrister, Solicitor, Notary, Etc, Money to Loan Office—Meyer Block, Wingham Successor to Dudley Holmes R. BARRISTER, SOLICITOR, ETC, ',Money to Loan at Lowest Rates Wingham, Ontario J.A. MORTON BARRISTER, ETC. Wingham, Ontario DR. O. H. ROSS Graduate Royal College of Dental Surgeons Graduate: University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry Office over IL E. Isard's Store. .IL W. COLBOR.NE, M.D. Physician and Surgeon Medical Representative D. S. C. R. Phone 54 Wingham Successor to Dr. W. R. Hambly DR. ROBT. C. REDMOND M.R.0-S. (Eng.) L.R.C.P. (Loud.) PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON , Dr. Chisholm's' old stand. D.R. R. L. STEWART Graduate of University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine; Licentiate of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. Office in Chisholm Block Josephine Street. Phone 29. Dr. Margaret C. Calder General Practitioner Graduate 'University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine Office—josephiae St,two doors south of Brunswick Hotel- Telephones: Office 28z, Residence rgz DR. G. W. HOWSON DENTIST Office over John Galbraith's Store F. A. PARKER OSTEOPATH Ail.:Diseases Treated Office adjoining residence nest to Anglican Church on Centre Street, Sundays by appointment. Hours—g a.rn. to 8 p.m. Osteopathy Electricity Telephone 272. AL Licensed Drugless Practitioners, Chiropractic and Electro Therapy. Graduates, of Canariien Chiropractic College, Toronto, and National Col- lege Chicago. Office opposite Hamilton's Jewelry Store, Main St. HOURS: 2-5, y --8.3o pen., and by appointment. Out of „town and night calls re- sponded to. • All business confidential. Phones: Office Soo;' Residence 601-13. J. ALVIN FOX DRUGLESS PRACTITIONER CHIROPRACTIC AND DRUGLESS PRACTICE ELECTRO -THERAPY Phone xgx. • Hours: to -x0 azo.., 2-5, 7-8 pin., or by appointment. D. H. McINNES CHIROPRACTOR ELECTRICITY Adjustments given for diseases of all kinds; specialize in dealing with children. Lady attendant. Night calls, responded to. Office orS Scott St,; Wingham, Ont. Phone xso GEORGE A. SIDDAL : ---Broker---- Phone 13. I.ucknow, Ontario Money to lend on f rest . and second mortgages on farm and other real es- tate properties at a reasonable rate of interest, also on first Chattel mort- gages on stock and on personal notes. A .few farms on hand for sale or to rent on easy terms. THOMAS FELLS — AUCTIONEER — REAL ESTATE SOLD A thorough knowledge of Farm Stock — Phone Phone gat, Wingham -- ‘+m,r"ro+rr rme,",mrm"i+e,u,+w0r,unu„i,rr[r1n,"n"nr Phones: Office zo6, Resid, 224 A. J. WALKER FURNITURE DEALER axed--- . :- FUNERAL DIRl CTOR' tE lifetox u nae t z E i n. p ,,� ii I Gil Ai 11K, ONTARIO eY1YidNWrYlYYY1fi>tirYHliq)YieY1l11n"iu,11dYeY,H4"01060,000,ieNj WINGHAM ADVANCE -TIMES By Percival Christopher Wien THE GREATEST MYSTERY STORY EVER WRITTEN Our visit to Agades was a very dif ferent affair from that, to tlte impreg nettle city on the hill. Ie the latter place we felt no real fear and little anxiety, In Agades we walked very warily, our hearts in our mouths and our 'heads loose upon our necks.To the obi sheikh we had been objects ee wonder and interest, To the Sul- tan Tegama ' the were objects --of the most intense suspicion. There was nothing of the simple out -of -the -world dweller -apart, about the swashbuckling ruffians of this City of the Plain, nor about the arch - ruffian Tegama, their leader (execut- ed later by the French for treachery), nor would the pose of pious Senussi emissaries have been of any avail in these circumstances. In the idiom of Buddy, there was no moss upon the - litany another inquisitive wayfarer, - but he had decided to altei his tale for the private ear_ of the Sultan as soon as we learnt that it was to so important and well-informed a person that we were to be taken. Whispering together at night, we decided, that Hank and i3udd`r must, of course, remain dumb, and that we must put up a terrific bluff of mys- tery. It would be worse than hope- less to pretend - to be Senussi from Kufra, in a place like Agades, where it was quite possible there were spec- imens of the genuine article, and where our stories would rapidly be tested and found, wanting. And so we took the high hand with Tegama; so far as we dared; told him that we hadno definite message'for him -yet, but that on our return jour- ney he would hear things, that would surprise him, and so forth.. Agades proved to be a very ancient, clay -built, • sand -buried, walled town, containing a remarkable mosque with a tower like a church spire, and al- though so utterly lost in the very heart of the Sahara, still in touch with the outside world by reason of being on the pilgrim -route -to Mecca, and on the: great caravan -route that crosses Africa. The onlyother building that was not insignificant was the Sultan's palace, a big two -storied building of baked clay, surrounded by at high clay wall, the gateway through which was practically a short tunnel: Through this tunnel, and past very strong gates made of palm -trunks nailed solidly together upon cross- pieces; we were led into a dirty square, of desert sand and stones, two sides of which were formed by mud huts that backed against the high'enclos- ing wall teeth of the Sultan Tegama and his gang. In the idiom of Digby there were no flies upon these gentlemen. We owe our lives to the fact, that we escaped before the worthy Tegama had quite placed us, and was quite certain 'that- we were not what ,,.we pretended to be — seditious mischief - makers from the north, bent upon raising the desert tribes of the centre and south against the French in a great pan -Islamic jehad. Not that Tegama had the slightest objection to being so "raised"; far from it. Nothing would' have suited him better, for there was nothing he enjoyed moree and if to rapine and slaughter, fire and sword, robbery and massacre, he could add the heaven -gaining merit of the destruc- tion of the Unbeliever and the over- throw of his empire in Africa, the cup of happiness would be full. But we puzzled him undoubtedly, Our accent, manners, habits, ignor- ance, eyes, complexions, faces, and everything about us puzzled him. Certainly we spoke Arabic fluently and knew menand cities; -we seemed to be hadjis all right; we inveighed with convincing bitterness against the French;. we were ,upstanding desert fighting -men with nothing whatso- ever European about our clothing and accoutrements; we were too small a party to be dangerous, and there was no earthly reason why we should be French spies (for the emissaries of France came perfectly openly in the shape of extremely well-equipped mil- itary expeditions, pursuing the well- worn way of peaceful penetrators, and were a source of fear and bitter hatred to the Sultan) -but, we had no -credentials; we gave absolutely no in- formation whatsoever about the strength, disposition, and movements of the French forces; we had no cut- and-driedplay p ai for an an -Tali; and the dumbness of two of us did not seem to rnark them out as born emissaries of sedition, ,unrest, and rebellion! When Tegama voiced these suspi- cions, Digby, with fine courage, tuck the high hand and, as tactfully as pos- sible, hinted that there might be things in the minds of the Great Ones, our masters; that' were not to be compre- hended byevery petty desert chief- tain. and that one thing about their minds was. the certainty of a powerful and dangerous resentment against anybody who hindered the free move-. ments.of their messengers, or behaved a thr;;uglt they were the friends of the very Infidels frons whom these Great Ones were endeavouring to free Islam: . And the gentle Tegama halted long between two opinions, whether to im- pale us out of hand, or whether to put off till to -morrow what lie would like to do to -day, in case we were what we said we were. It was an unpleasant time, and though we were not ill-treated nor imprisoned, our rifles and . camels were "minded" for us, and, we never found ourselves alone -- particularly when we walked abroad, although it was obvious that no one could escape from Agades, on foot. We felt that at any moment 1'e�auta might decide that we were genuine delegates and emissaries from those who were then so busily stir- ring the fermenting brew of pan -Is- lamic discontent in :northern Africa— and let us go; and also that at arty moment we might so betray ourselves that he would decide we were impos- tors—and forthwith impale us, living., . an the 'sharpened stump of a young tree.... We had been caught at dawn, in an oasis eolith -west of the I3aguezan mountains, by a harka of Tegama's that had evidently been raiding and robbing to the north, and, .for a week` or so, we rode south as the prisoner. guests of the emir in commanda magnificent specimen of the best type of desert Arab, . Hint Digby had told the same tale that he had told to the old sheikh and One side of the square was occupied by a mosque. Camels, goats, chickens, and dirty men ornamented this palace courtyard or backyard. We were invited, • to enter the palace and through another small tunnel, came into a big windowless -hall, with unornaniented clay'evalls, clay ceiling and clay floor. Here we were kept waiting with our escort, and stood in haughty- silence aughtysilence until conducted across a small inner courtyard to the presence -cham- ber of the Sultan of Agades. This was another windowless clay room with great arched ceiling beams and a door, ten feet from the ground, up to which ran a slay staircase. In the middle of the wail opposite the door by which we entered, was a throne, also of clay—a base material for so exalted a symbol, but at least it was of honest clay, which its occu- pant was not. Cross-legged on this bed -like throne, in dirty white robes sat Tegama, who carried on his face the stamp of his ruling passions, greed, cruelty, lust, savagery and treachery. Around him stood a small group of wazirs, shcil.lis, soldiers, and what I: uncomfortably took to be execu- tioners. The Sultan glared at us and I, felt sorrowful to the tips of my toes. I knew by now all the ways that such gentlemen have of putting to death those of whom they do not approve, and I liked none of them at all. Im- paling, a favorite one, I liked, per- haps, the least. Digby took the bull by the horns, greeted Tegama politely, hoped lig;; was well, professed pleasure at seeing him, and said he had a good deal to I , say to Rini later on, when he had made some arrangements further south and had taken the political tour perature of one or two places in Dani- erghou and Darncrgrim. Digby took it for granted that we were honored guests, and, that noth- ing so silly as the idea of molesting us would ever occur to so wise and great a rtiler as the good Tegatna of Agades. The good Tegama of Agades con- tinued to eye us coldly. "And who ?night you be, with your talk of El Senussi7" he enquired con- temptuously. "That is for your rear alone," replied Bigby, "I have told the sheikh whom we--er—met, in the Bag[uezatt oasis, such: things as are fitting to be told to underlings, I come front those hose business w s Hess is not shouted in every dollar' and quasr and chatted about to every wayfarer." "No, id'deed! Allah forbid!" and smiled at the idea,, "Oh, you can talk, cats yotr?" sneer - ad Tegatna, who had evidently been told that some of us were dumb, "Salaam aleikutn wa Rahntab Allah," I intoned piously. "Otir Abe- ter :wter in the north--..Rahrnat uliahi Allahirr -=(ani he relay be in Moraceo, and he may he in Algiers, and he may be near here with a mighty army of the Faithful)— is not one of whose affairs his messengers babble, nor is lie one whose messengers are de- layed" 'I, "And what„ishis message?" asked Tegama, with, .1 thought, less sneer in his voice. "That comes not here yet," replied Digby. 'The word comes to the great and goad Sultan of Agades later, when the .time is ripe ..." and much more of bluff and mystification that sufficiently iinpressed Tegama to lead film to wait and see, He waited but he did not see, for we escaped—this time, I must admit, thanks to Buddy's irrepressible in- terest in " squaws," What he could have "achieved had he had the free use of his tongue I cannot say. In this case, although love was not only blind, but dumb as well, it contrived tolaugh at lock- smiths, and we other three benefited by the laughter. We got away and on good camels, but we had not a rifle among us, nor any other weapon of `any sort what- ever. I' ani tempted to tell, in full the story of this evasion, for it was a most romantic business, with all the accessories of fiction and melodrama. 'I have said that the story of this journey alone would fill a large vol- ume, acrd it would be small exaggera tion to say that a complete account of our sojourn in Agades would fill another. I wish I had, space in which to tell of the incredible things we saw in this place,` whose atmosphere and ways ands deeds were those of a thousand years ago. I have read that the first Europeans to set foot in Agades were the mem- bers of the French Military Mission, (which came with the great annual salt -caravan from the south in i9o4), but T could tell of a fair -bearded man who stared at us with blazing eyes, a man whose tongue had been cut out, whose ears and fingers had been cut off, and who was employed as, a beast of burden. I could also tell of a Thing that sat always, in the Sok, mechanically swaying its body to and fro as it crooned. .Its lips, eyelids, ears, hands and feet had been cut off, it wes blind, and. it crooned in German. I could tell of such scenes as that of the last hours of a very brave man, who was bound face downward on a plank that was thrust over the edge of an enormously deep dry well. At the other end of the plank was a big stone and a jar of water that slowly leaked, either by reason of a crack or its porosity. When the water had leaked away to such an extent that the weight of the 'jar and stone was less than that of the Haan, be and the plank would go headlongdown into the dark depths from which he would never return. There he lay staring down into horrible the:1 to bte place, while round about sat citizens of leisure who told him to hurry with his ,last prayers, for the 'water was nearly gone, while others bade hinx to heed thein not, for -be had hours longer to wait. . . I should like to tell :of. Tegaina's executions, four negroes who were the most animal creatures I ever saw in human form, and not one of whom was less than seven feet in heignt. The specialty of their leader was the clean, neat flicking -off of a head or ,any required limb, from a finger to a leg, with one stroke . of a great sword; while that of another was the infliction of the maximum number of wounds and injuries without caus- ing the death of the victim. They were, skilled labourers and their work was their, hobby...., I coulrl tell of some very remark able adventures, risks, dangers, and escapes inAge.des, and of some very strange doings in that horrible "palace" with its plots and intrigues, jealousies and hatreds,;, factions and parties, if space permitted. And when our time and opportunity carne (and we were led one dark night to where four cancels, with water and food for two or three days, awaited us) we would not have taken advant- age of the chance, being weaponless, had we not felt that we ran a greater manger by remaining. °. Tegama was growing more suspi- cious and more truculent, and I rather think that the dumb Hank and Buddy had been overheard in fluent converse. Probably we gave ourselves away ton (whenever we ate, drank, prayed, sat, stood, sneezed, or did anything else whatsoever), as the weirdest kind of. weird Mussulmans who ever said, Bismiilah araltinan aralimin: , . It was time to"go and we went, aided by a young person of magnifi- cent physique, magnificent courage, and negroid, ancestry—probably the daughter of some negro slave -woman from Lake TTchad, Unfortunately it was 'utterly impos- sible for her to get us weapons. We escaped from Tegantas, but not from the consequences of our en counter with hint. He slid not destroy us, but it was to !ting. that we owed our destruction, Riding as hard as we could, we fol- lowed the tactics of our escape from d euf feeling that ern l g stXre if Tegama pursued and recaptured, us, our fate would be sealed and ciir deaths lingering and unpleasant. We therefore avoided the cart.,t'.n-. route that runs from Agades, ;.. struck out into the desert, hoping that, as hitherto, we should, sooner or later, discover someone or some- thing that would lead us to water. After three days of painful wander- ing, we chanced upon the wretched encampment of some aboriginal Seri.- Bert busltinen, black, almost naked, and armed only with bows and arrows. They apparently lived by .trapping ostriches by means of''tether- ed foot -traps concealed beneath the bushes and trees, thorns and acacias, on which the birds feed. . These primitive •People were en- camped bes;de an inexplicable pool of water among colossal boulders as big as cathedrals. Here we rested ourselves and our camels for a day or two, and then set out, with our leather water -skins filled and our food -bags nearly empty. A couple of days later we were rid- ing in a long line, just within sight of each other, and scouting for signs of human beings or water., Hank was on the right of the line, 1 next to him and half a mile away, having Buddy on my left, with Digby at .theefar end. Looking to my right, I saw Hank, topping a little undulation, suddenly wheel towards me, urging his camel to its topmost speed. As I looked, a crowd of - riders sir armed over the skyline, and, two or three of them, halting their, camels, opened fire on us. Buddy rode at full speed. toward me and Hank. Digby was cut off from view by a tor of rocks. "Dismount and form square" yelled Hank, riding up. ".knew what he meant. We brought our camels to their knees, made a pretense of getting out rifles from under the saddles, crouch- ed behind the camels, and levelled our sticks as though they were guns, across the backs of the animals, and awaited death. "This is war we gits what's comin' to us," said Buddy. -- "The Burned galoots niay not call our bluff," growled Hank. The band, Hoggar or Tebu robbers by the look of them, bore down upon with yells of " U1-ui-ul-ul-ullah Ak- bar," on pleasure and profit bent- the pleasure of slaughtering us and the profit of taking our camels— brandishing swords, lances and rifles as they went along. (To be Continued) The two children of _Mr. and Mrs. Carl Walker, Harriston, narrowly es- caped fatal injuries when oneof the children c accidently dent! y overturned a kettle of boiling water, causing se- vere scalds to both children about the head. and shoulders: . When YOUR bell rings Cy. —a personal service When the bell on your telephone rings, somebody has a personal message for you. It means that someone is making use pf a personal equipment which we -have provided, and that he has secured connection with the per.- sencxl .equipment reaching you. iVfore than this, lib has secured the personal use of the, necessary connecting equipment iiia central . office and the personal services of one or more telephone opera- tors. Wheno uare re talking with him you are using hundreds or even thousands of dollars' worth of telephone equipment, . And in order that this equipment may always 4e ready for your personal use, it is closely watch- ed, tested, checked. It's a personal servieo. LLk;, m Thursdays, eteber 27th, x927 'est it Yourself! rrso Write Salado, Torotato, for free sample... You'll notice that well' caressed men wear- 1rBfiST GOCD S; rl i cadflecod & .� . W. J. 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