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never heard' such imitations.'
"Breehmann got tired of chasing
him after a day or two", and he went
back to his camp, leaving me with the
' difficulty on my-hands.
'"Three weeks after he had bolted.,
a mail came up from the' coast. There
wa's a letter for Hanslaw from that
place., Baltimore, that he came from
Pf over there in the United States, and I
, opened that letter. Never have Iread
sucn a letter. It made me feel sorry
to think that I had no one to write
me letters like that. I think I could
have worked as Hanslaw worked if I
had. 'I think so. Hanslaw said I that
Love was the big lever that moved
the world. I believe him now.
"I read that letter eight, twelve,
twenty times, then I sat down and
wrote an answer to it It was the
first time I had written to a girl since
I left Bonn. That is funny, is it not?
But I tried my best to write that girl
a good letter. You are wondering
if I told her everything, are you not?
Yes, I did telLher all that I knew.
Ja, I did. 1 told her how he had work
ed through the days and through the
tropical nights when the hot smells
get up off the ground and take you
with their cursed fingers till you drip
with perspiration, and I told, her how
the little belt had slipped from the fly
wheel in his brain. My, I never did
such a bit of writing in all my life.
When I had finished it I sent it down
to the coast with two of the Dyaks.
"But that madman tried to make
me as much of a lunatic as the Fates
had' made himself. He would come
down here by the river at night and
howl at me, and then he would sneak
softly up to the windows of the bun
galow and send rocks flying among
my specimens. It was the devil.
""He bombadred this place till the
volleys of stones took my memory
back to Gravelotte when the French
Chasseurs tickled us some. I could
"not open a window to get a breath of
air, and if I sat in the "dark with the
door open he seemed to know.
"Jt'.went-on like $hat " for three
months, hen one morning while' I
was sldnning a crocodile down, on
the banks of the river I saw a boat
coming up the stream. There were
four Dyaks pulling Jt, and some one
else was sitting in the stern. I stood
up and watched it, and I don't know
what I felt like just then.' Something
came up in my throat tnat was big
ger than the ball on Strasburg Cathe
dral. Ach Gott!
"I think I helped her out of that
boat when it grounded on thetink
ing mud. I am doubtful to this day
if I did. Can you think what a task
that woman set herself in coming
from Baltimore to this hell? Can you
imagine it?
" 'You are Mr. Hochdorf,' she said,'
when she put her little hand into my
big, dirty paw. "I want to thank you
for your letter.'
"That was .all she said. You would
think that I was expecting her, and
that it wasnot six 'thousand miles of
a track between the United States
and Borneo.
"She did not ask any questions.
"Do you know, she never mention
ed Hanslaw all that day? She just
sat by that little window and stared
at the trees. Only once she looked
at me, and I said: 'Some time be
fore midnight,' before I could stop
myself. And she nodded when I
said it.
"She did not eat anything much.
She just nibbled like a canary, and I
knew that she was praying for the
night.
"When the darkness' fell like a
blanket, she stood up and walked to
the door, and I stood up, too.
" 'Miss Ieslie,' I said, you must not
go far. You are in a wilderness.'
" 'I am only going into the clear
ing;' she said. 'I promise you that .1
will not go further.'
"But I was nervous.
"About an hour after the girl went
out I called to her", and she answered
me from that big tapahg tree in the
dealing. 'I am all right,' she said,-.
,
