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For the most part the soil was of a light alluvial nature and presented no formid able problems." This task would occupy ten days with all hands busy, and as food sufficient for four days alone remained, some understanding with the Inhabitants of the land and Pomba, their chief, must needs tm come to as soon as possible. The Batoncas still held aloof and as yet scarcely one had been seen. The need for a visit to Bangillo became the more ur gent, therefore, and the scouts, thrown out daily to bring Instant notice to Mel drum's "Btronff camp in event of the en emy's approach, were told to capture any stray Batonca If they possibly could man age to do so. On the following morning a regular system of operations was instituted and alternate shifts of men either worked under Meldrum's . direction or stood guard, heavily - armed, to cover the re treat of the operatives upon any sudden attack. Th© camp was only a hundred yards' distant and a stout double zareba had been erected about it, while upon one side the cliff face effectively protected the party from any surprise. The work progressed steadily, and Mel drum and Bessie watched each spade of earth as it was thrown up from the foun dation of the most promising ruin', while Wlnstone remained In camp, overhauling his cherished guns, and Fain, free of sentry duty for the time being;, strolled away alone upon private ends toward the waterfall. - . • . . . He alon© realized th© waste of time and labor before the little company; he alone could guess at the weary hours and days of toil that must be thrown away during the forthcoming fortnight, and be alone ¦¦•-.'¦¦ JB rcctly as now. they pained detail, op ; pressed even Meldrum's sanguine spirit,' and towered tremendous as the vast'en circling cliffs themselves. As yet no sign of the Batoncas had been reported, although their capital lay but a few miles distant, ajid Winstone's ad\ ice to his friend was to waste no time. "Pursue your quest for the hidden gems and convince yourself of its futility as quickly as possible; then retreat from a territory wherein it is very sure we shall receive no friendly welcome,"- he said. The point to make for was the house of the dead man— that described In the manuscript as lying outside the bounda ries of the old capital. Upon the morn- Ing after their arrival, therefore, a reg ular search was Instituted, and the puz zled Zanzlbaris and Soudanese were bid to skirt about the confines of the old vil lage to poke and probe the underwood for evidences of any solitary ruin of indica tions of a bygone dwelling place. Several of Fuch outlying habitations were found in varying distances from the camp and within half a mile at most of the Golden Falls, but none of them stood under an umzimbete tree, a point specially mentioned in the manuscript. As dead Btumps and old, time-bleached fragments of vanished forest giants abounded, how ever, and many young shoots and sap lings were rising about the deserted vil lage to take the places of their dead an cestors, no certainty of^ being upon the wrong tack followed from the absence of a big tree. Young examples of the um zlmbete abounded and both Roy and Fain were soon familiar with the shape and itize of the "stony seed pods" mentioned In the dead man's direction. "Close at hand" were the words he had employed, and upon the strergti; of this direction Meldrum planned his future ac-_ tions. In all six fallen dwellings and the foundation of one other, from which evi dence of the fabric Itself had vanished, were discovered within a radius that might fairly include the habitation of the bygone pioneer: and around and about each of these ruins, to a limit of 100 yards every way and to a depth of three feet, Roy determined to explore. - • \ Even then Meldrum was for returning In the face of this tragedy ar.d battling It out with the enemy, believing as ho did that It was Ongasse's horde that they had to deal with. Better death, he si!d. than the maddening uncertainty of what bad been his sweetheart's fate, but Lord But when the gathering blackness of "night overtook them and made further progress Impossible no eight of the raid er*' had been seen. MeJdrum was in a fuming race at his inability to proceed farther, and was the only one awake when the next disaster overtook them In the ehaae of an unexpected attack froth all Bides of the camp by a grcal horle of blacks, who by their overwhelming num bers and the unexpectedness cf their as- Fau'.t. completely overran the sleeping travelers, and in almost less time than it takes to narrate It had killed half of Meldrum's force and taken the oth*r half prisoners. Only Meldrum. Lord Winstone and Tracy Fain, who formed a 6mall group In themselves when the at tack came, escaped the awful slaughter »n4 that only after they had fought Ilk* ddGjcns. For two days Meldrum pushed steadily forward through a country almost desert ed. -All the fighting men were to the east, and In their train had passed many women and children. There were some vague rumors of a body of COO or 700 epcars, said to be pushing rapidly through the Lunda country to join their fellow warriors against Ongasse, but no sign of these appeared, and in three villages nothing was found but aged men and wo men and young children. Such apparent security led to some slight relaxation of the rules of march, and, the roads being fair and danger ap parently remote, the people often scat tered a little after camp was formed and foraged or amused themselves as they pleased. , On the third day while Lord Wlnstone, Meldrum. BlaAbird an«l two Zanzibar! bearers went out to hunt, Bessie, accom panied by Dan Hook and an escort of come six or seven followers, including BunganI, proceeded back along the water course they had been following to gather some peculiarly fine orchids she had seen, leaving Tracy Fain and the rest of the xn»Tr. bers of the party In camp. Two hours isKor Bungani, freightent<t and exhausted, crept back with the awful tTaings that Bessie and her party ha.l not only been surrounded and rapiur*o, but that the attacking force was none other than, a band of Onrasse's picket warriors. Consternation reigned at once and tho hunters returned presently 10 find the camp in an uproar. Mcic-rum was like one distraught when he heard the terrible news, and vowed vengeance of the direst ««rt upon the head of ilia young monarch whose profuse friendship and subsequent rubtle treachery were responsible for this last overwhelming disaster. Overruling all council he ordered camp struck at once and began the pursuit on the double quick, bent upon savins Bessie If she were still alive or pun.sMr.g Ongasse if evil had befallen her. CHECK TO THE WHITE QUEEN. "On the frir.Re of the Lur.da country Ongasse bade h'.s friends farewell. He had no desire that Moflrum should be embroiled with the natives through wl.oso dpmain he must now pass, but it proved to be a case of Kanatto ar.d L'nyah over and as eoon as the Masstgi heard &&t Roy's expedition had traveled in 5>eace through Ongasse's territory they assumed that the whites must be their enemies and held aloof from all Inter course. Little, however, was seen of them, though they were known to be a strong tribe. Luckily, they now had the Nangatto warriors upon thtlr hands, for. after leaving his white friends. King Ongasse etarted for the eastern borders of his kingdom, whtre the Massegl were making head and giving trouble. CHAPTER XVIII CHAPTER XXL ,, THE WHITE ANTS'\NEST. Fain soon found himselfupon the ledge of the cliff and there waited impatiently for the rainbow's descending arch to lead him to the goal. It was long, however," before the critical moment came, and meantime' the young man "had opportunity to scan the sur rounding scene, note how the river turned sharply, below Antelope Head bluff, and observe : that, immediately beneath, him and on- the same side of the stream as himself, Ithough beyond the abrupt bend of -the river, there extended a consider able tract of forest land. - If it. should happen that, the rainbow fell here,' ail chance of Meldrum securing his' prize without Fain's intervention was practically; lmpossiule,' for the woods lay half a mile at least from camp and more than a quarter of a mile from any of the ruined houses that Roy" had determined to explore.. •'. ' ¦'": Slowly the sun ascended, and- s the Gold .en Falls justified their name • as *" they 'trembled and tossed In a streak of sheer, radiant 'glory down the face of the clifC. From. the tremendous impact, where the water, struck tho surface of the river after, Its- last long leap, arose a fine mist 'of vapor, and upon this It was that Tracy Fain -nxdd his eager eyes as It began to brighten '. under the. advancing sunshine.. Af last ahe masfc colors trembled out ¦ in' sparks and gleams upon the mist, and arion" the "fraction j'of a shlning^bow ap peared opposite the; watcher. *¦ Fain waited and watched the rainbow. It endured but a brief space, and as the sun rose and the angle of refractions was changed the brilliant iris tints disappeared and- the splendid moment .was gone by for that ;day.- ', Like a 'gorgeous - flower . _tKa phenomenon' withered'- and died, leaving . only. gray. ml st ; behind" iC . ' But I Fain had seen all j that he needed, and very I soon. ' afterward, I marking his route and destination carefully 'upon a little map that he had sketched from his bird's-eye point of view, the : man de scended to the Wambasl River, followed It round a wide j bend until he cams abreast of the forest' land, then struck in ward . and , presently sighted one tree ; of special size that bad : towered above the spot where the purple ring of the rainbow before, him. ,W»" v" . .; ¦ . • -. . ¦¦ ¦• •. There, aloft, breaking V through the strata of the country/", appeared a crag of limestone," and ~. its crown, '•'• sharply lifted up In twin peaks, .exactly resem bled the lofty horns of an animal, while the rock below - had' •. toeen", outlined 5 and carved by the storm and stress of ; ages into striking semblance of an antelope's head and neck. The whole efflgy was upon a colossal scale, but to mistake this jutting crag- appeared impossible, and that he now stood befqre Antelope Head Bluff, Tracy Fain felt well assured. •".-;• . For more than a year he had known by heart the secret message cut from -ths manuscript, but now with shaking fingers he opened his j pocketbook j that his \ eyes might read the actual words and the di rection . contained In them. V . . "Stand where - the peaks • of the .Ante lope ; Head -bluff are in one line. .Then wait ; - till the hour when : th© rainbow shines upon the . mist of the falls, and where the purple of the arch touches the forest— there— In » white ants* nest" : Nothing could be clearer than this dl- His eyes roamed eagerly toward." west and south, then ha lifted them up to the tremendous forehead of the cliff. . The crown of the precipice was "clothed with lofty vegetation, dwarfed by' distance to mere scurb; and here; no bigger than ants, as it seemed, Fain -'observed, a dozen or more natives. They, ; werq: perched .upon the very edge of the Golden FallB, ;and from their gestures, -thd -.Englishman per ceived that they had observed him. . At the most liberal computation," how everf'he judged that the savages could not reach him in less than five minutes, and as their road - mus^,! lie upon the jagged and precipitous face of the crags to the "north of the waterfall, he knew that ample time would '-"suffice for "re treat if tho Batoncas -threatened.. v. A moment later an.d-an Incident caused him' to dismiss the ¦ distant' foe from his mind and forget, all 'about them, .'for, while roaming forward, he. opened up a further scrap of thV'cllff and gasped be fore what was revealed. •' The thing that he had desired, v longed for and looked for, '.now quickened his pulse-beat by Its .' sudden appearance, and so astoundingly like 'its name. was this lofty bluff, jutting, forth ; from • the cliff at an elevation [of ;,' 200 'feet above the river,* that Fain '/could scarcely' be lieve the work of nature alone appeared foresaw the fever of dying hope, the bit terness of a gigantic ' and ruinous fail ure that awaited Roy Meldrum and Bessie In the immediate future. -But such re flections weighed nothing with him, for his heart was hardened against, one who had done him no wrong at any time. Now, passing beyond the outlying ring of sentries, he proceeded upon his own secret quest- and- speedily reached the. Golden Falls. rection, and, dead to any, danger. Fain -set forth in frantic haste. to find a point. : from which one vast antler of the stone antelope should conceal the other. But, this proved a difficult task, and after.*/, dozen attempts to obtain such a position* the:; treasure hunter fell back fifty yardsi "or so and began to realize that the neces-*, saryr«pplnt of view" must lie . considerably I 'himr 1 on saomer. ledge or in some ' 'cranny of the cliff-face. ' '; '-'. Now he essayed a series of climbs, and It was not until after an hour of rough and fruitless work that he at last reached a solitary' shelf, perched high above the river, from which the great stone ead . presented the necessary appearance. Two , fish eagles, frightened from their eyrie, screamed in the* air so close that he could see their crooked. beaks and golden eyes,* but his mind was not upon them. - ,- As he lay panting and weary under a cloudless sky, he took in the bearings of his position and realized two things— that the mist of the Golden Falls, could only throw a rainbow soon after the sun had risen, and that the point which' he now occupied was the sole spot on his side of . the river ¦ from which Antelope Head bluff might be seen In the necessary po- . sltjon. .• .. ..• • - An hour, later' Fain was back in camp. He explained his fatigued condition as" the result of a stiff and difficult ..climb; and the next morning, having declared over night that he designed another .ex piration on tho cliff face, set off alone with his rifle and a day's prbvlsloni' . The enterprise somewhat mystified Roy, and- Fain's lack of interest In the great search nettled "him; but, the -leader of the band had plenty to think about, so he contented " himself .by ... warning his cousin to keep within call of the scouts . and incur no unnecessary risks ' or dan- ' gers. . . : '. '"¦¦/..¦ . ¦, The usual noise .of the men pitching camp was drowned by the tremendous and reverberating -echoes of the Golden Falls, and as light waned and all detail vanished from the solemn - scene, Roy turned away and sought his friends that he might escape for a little space from his own thoughts. For one brief moment there came Into his mind a shadow of the skepticism that Wlnstone and Fain openly professed. Seen afar off the difficulties appeared small enough; viewed closely, faced di- The Golden Falla of the manuscript proved easy enough' to discover; but upon reaching the district Meldrum found, that the capita] of the tribe l'ad been shifted two miles farther ud the Wambasl. The ruins of the old, settlement were not dif ficult to trace, however, and Roy gazed upon the desolate scena with singled emotions as It spread before him at the end of the first day's march through Ba tonca country. Beneath his standpoint lay the desolate spot where a fellow Englishman had yielded up his life. A wide slope extended to the river, and It was covered with grass-grown tracks between the bleached skeletons of ruined huts. Above this plain huge cliffs rose, jagged and peaked, under a red sunset sky, and down the eternal faces of them leaped. In a suc cession of sharp and gushing cascades, the Golden Falls. The cliff front Inclined In ward at a distance of a hundred feet from Its base In the river, and the tor rent, crossing this gulf at a bound, fell with endless rosr upon the broad bosom of the stream beneath. A fittir.sr answer was returned to tfie young ruler. Winstone and the other Englishmen took his hand, British fash ion, and Hook, when his turn came, made the royal finger-bones crack with a shake like a vise. Then Meldrum went upon his way. and the expedition, after some ten days' progress by short marches, at last arrived on the banks of the Lua pula. "Now farewell, thou Queen of the Sliver Sunrise; farewell. Bana Mkuba; farewell, ye great man of the white Quren. May the unknown be kind to you, may death forget you till you cry to him and remind him that your turn has come; may pros perity attend you: and may your eyes presently grow bright when they mirror once more the mountains and hills, the rivrrs and grass lands, the forests and villages and the head kraals of your own country. "Pomba. King of the Batoncaa, has a demon— a familiar spirit — who works evil aeainst the nations. No man has seen the demon, yet his deeds are known, for he has strengthened the hand of Pomba apalnst his enemies and mightily in creased the strength of the nation at the expense of the nation's foes. Be guarded therefore, and trust not the honey voice, for it comes from a bitter throat, and Pomba's tongue is but the fair shield that hides a foi:l heart. "Ec cautious." he eaid, "and even though the friendship of Pomba, King of the Eatoncas, is offered«to you, trust him not and believe him not. He and I have never met, and I am glad that mountains ar.d rivers and the wide lands of the Lur.da country separate us; but my father knew him before me, and loved him not. and trusted him not at all, cl thouph there was always peace between them. Food f= ufiicicni both for Me'.drem's party and Ongasst's" warriors appeared in abundance, however, and Roy, whose ex pedition now numbered thirty-two men all told, with thirty guns, net Including the sporting weapons of Lord Wlnstone and Meldrum, prepared to set out for the Luapula, now distant but ten days' march. Or.rasse's march through the Massegi country wan how a mere triumphal pro cession. He hail shattered the enemies' forces, slain 'many of their foremost men. destroyed several of their large villages by fire and-^l^rt the rival monarch- at his mercy- rp^^.e day, 4 fortnight later, when MeldrumV. company prepared to bid him a sritcful farewell.' the -.King of the Nang?t0s, arrived before the kraals of the Massetf capital to find that his rcyal enemy had f!ed. THfe GOLDEN FALLS. CliAFTER XX. of lior.cr In Central Africa, if strange. Is strict ui:ilrr certain conations, and, as the joint forcts proceckd day by day to gether toward their parting place, no iurther trouble was experienced. • ¦perfect friendship between both parties had resulted from the ceremony of the previous morning, for the aboriginal code A day ar.d a night of feasting completed the function cf blood brotherhood, and, on the i;;-;rrow, soon after the leveil o v.oke the cchots, both Mtldrum's expedi tion tnu Ou black hosts of his fricnJa u«re on the move or.ee more. «^-r T THIS point In the ceremonial f I Roy and Ongasse appeared and I I equatted together upon the leaf- I strewn dais. The priestess then began her mad song acain, and the cr.ant was participated in by the natives, who yelled a eort of savage cho rus. Presently Ongatse tared his left arm. and a hum of admiration followed as Meldrum did the earce, and showed a tremendous llnib, tanned rosy red to the elbow, but white as marble above. His huge biceps rolled up like a wave as he doubled his elbow. ¦ Then the King and Roy held each other by the left hand, and the eibyl with the glittering Unife approached ar.d upon the .shoulders of both made four light gashes. A lozenge-shaped epace was left in the midst, and upon this the hag poured a little ealt from her ehell. Now came the most trying part of the operation— and Ongasse, whose arm had "many cicatrices, indicating similar ope rations in the past, bent over to M.'idrum. put forth a red tongue and licked biood end salt from Roy's sreat shoulder. Then it was the other's turn, and the repre >er,tative of Queen Bessie performed his jfti.nibai feat with perfect good grace, whereupon the Nar.gattos how:eii. and the f.red their guns and all was rejoicing and good fellowship. PriStntly Uddruxn wutjiitew and had a nip of whisky in the seclusion of his tent, but for the rest of the day he was forced to be rery rauch in evidence. Splendid presents came from Ongasse In The shape of various foodstuffs, chiefly plan lain. He offered some really fine ivory s-Ifo. but this was gratefully de clintJ, «t to carry it must be out of the Question. Copyright ISO*, by Efien Philpotts. Fourth and Last Installment. It's a Thriller, TKE MASTER OF APPLEBY. Begins Next Sunday. Meldrum's story was soon told, and On gasso. who two days befcre had given battle and a murderous beating to those of the Massegi who opposed him on his own frontiers, now undertook to engage the cr.nr.ibal regiment from which Roy and his friends. bad so miraculously es caped. \\ Inslone s urgent counsel that notning couM be done till daylight flu illy pre vailed, and then a wonderful thing hap pened. 1 IVIth th* first streaks of dawn the thrc« men found themselves between two rr>e iile forces. One was frngasse's,' but net Tihere they had lo<5k^d:*D see it. The oth er, which was the tribe^ftat had made the attack in the night, "wiia.- an army of blacks they had never beheld before. The whole situation was puzzling to a degret until Ongasse charged, and out. of the ter rible slaughter of^he en«ny that ensued case to the amazed travelers with great er protestations cf friendship than ever before. The blood brotherhood had been kept, he announced triumphantly, -'and when he brought forth Besslo and her whole escort safe and unharmed, Mel drum ccu!d have wept with the unexpoot ed joy ar.d the strang-entsa of it all, and la the mutual explanations which fol lowed found new cause for admiration for the boy king. "Two cay3 after you departed," he tald, "it came to my ear through scouts that the reserve forces of the Massegi, full 600 spears etror.g, were pushing rapidly for ward to join their friends before ..they should meet my warriors. Then I knew that the Masaegl roust surely fall in with the White Queen, and, holding her and her subjects as my friends, they' would most surely offer battle and perhaps achieve a victory by force of numbers. I'i'on this subject I debated for- the space of or.e night, but in the morning I dis covered that my uncle and first man of state had set forth, with a small, swift band, upon the track of the White Queen, intending to reach her before she should be attacked by her enemies. My uncle Is a mar. of a single thought and he said to himself, as he proceeded at a jackal trot through the dawn, that as my will was to rescue the White Queen at all costs, so fhould his ba. And, therefore, when his men of war fell In with a handful of the White Queen's folk they only satisfied thems'eives of her safety and in no way troubled concerning the safety of her peo ple. Among the Nangattos was no man who could understand the White Queen or make himself understood. There fore, until now she has not known that my action was one of kindness, In that I desired to save her and her people from a superior and unfriendly force. Now tell me how It fares with you and how you come before, ir.e unattended, unprotected and alone. Ytt I can guess of your raw wrists and fcur.k«*n cheeks that it was as I foretold. Ycu have fallen in with the Massegi and escaped with bare life. That much indeed is clear." Fhow him the black and the red ants. He will like them better than the white.** The rest roared with -laughter and in a few moments started to put In fore* the hideous suggestion of their comrade. Better had It been for Fain— a thou sand times better— had the black fiends, whose prisoner he now was, thrown him to a hungry lion or before & charging eiephant. Then, though death had come In shape horrible enough, it had been speedy and merciful as the lightning; but for the wretched man, now strapped with living vines, his cruel captors designed an end unutterably horrible, and a moment later, almost before Fain bad realized their intentions, they threw him on the earth beside a low, black mound. Here, in shape of a St. Andrew's cross, they stretched him; then pegged down hands and feet so that no effort could free the tortured sufferer, and, that done, h* dozen with their spears backed and tore at the •Jark mound hard by, then Jumped nimbly away as a - black and enraged swarm— relentless and savage as the Eatoncas themselves— crawled forth to lir.il the cause of this earthquake In' their citadel. Very quickly the pinioned soul upon the ground knew what depths of torment v ere reserved for him, and he stared Into the unpltylng cky ar.d prayed as he had never prayed before that death might hasten to him In any other shape than this. But the black army of soldier ants fell upon him in their myriads; he felt them upon every inch of his exposed skin and knew they were burrowing beneath his garments. He shuddered under this literal formication, and ice-cold shivers shook him to the deep sources of his life. The:i btgan a universal stabbing — now cn his feet and leg.*, now upon his arms and fingers, now over his heart, his breast. Us noc6. On they swept la Irre sistible legions. lie clenched his fingers and slew 600, but 2J0O crawled over the corpses of their fellows. In live minutes he was a writh ing, heaving mass of ants, a mere brute lighting for its life and bellowing In agony, with the cur3ed things in his eyes and nose and mouth and ears, with a mil lion cf them simultaneously burying their pincers in his tortured skin. To smother a man to death in mustard, leaves would be a. similar death. The end could net have been long delayed; but Providence had further work for Tracy Fain, and it was half a dozen of his tor mentors not the maddened, choking wretch himself who passed- at that mo- ment into the Land of Shadows. The Batoncas, intent on their devilish pleasure, had not heard or seen the ap proach of ileldnim and his little force; und now, at a range of barely a hun ¦ dred ya:d3, a very effective volley was poured into the savages and six of them ,. fell. Their wild laughter choked in their ¦, throats. Two others were wounded and '.dispatched without a thought by Black .*birii when he reached them, while thirty .inore, who stood. firm for a moment and •flung their spears ? were charged by Mel drum and the Zanzibarls, as Wlnstone, with his cranelike gait, ran to the man upon the ground and at the cost of a "terrible biting himself loosened the bonds and bid him rise. \ Fain for the time appeared msane. He screamed and laughed In a fit of frenzied hysteria, and Jt was long before his nerves eVen approached tranquillity. His awful experience made his cousin mad also, but with anger, and three of the Batancas fell t» his fury, while the Zanzibarls an swered for four more. •Thus In the space of five minutes no less than fifteen of the savages were dead and the rest had vanished to carry the news of their defeat to their King. Wlnstone's chief fear was for Tracy Fain's eyes, but. though his head was much swollen and his features almost un recognizable from the action of the ant •¦ poison, he could see. They half led. half, carried him to the river, and there strip ped and immersed him to the chin. This . course served to allay some of the ex cruciating torment from which he suf fered, but he still raved and babbled in " coherently, and It remained to be seen whether his life would be spared or whether the terrifio shock endured by his Bi-stem was more than nature could repair. Presently they took him back to camp, opened a can of tinned milk and dressed the whole of his fevered body with the stuff. A little very weak Btlmulant 'was also given and every effort mads by fanning and sprinkling of water, to keep the air In the tent as cool as possible. Through the night Dan Hook. Bessie and Roy took turn and turn about to watch the sufferer, who now tossed and cried aloud. In the delirium of fever dreams; no tc sank , into silence; now spoke of strange ''matters*' and, bid the ll&teners for God's love keep' his tiecre,t: now moaned. In sheer physical agony and cried helpless tears or swore hotter curses on his enemies. Presently, the watcher then, being Meldrum himself, a thread of sense and coherer.ee began to wind through tha fever-stricken man's wild utterances. "Not there." he said, "not there; and "I've been a knave, a traitor, u. rogue for this. God of Justice! was ever a sinner punished so flulckly upon his sin? Yet— yet— the words were plain enough. And the purple of the rainbow fell upon th« very spot, mad© it a fairyland fit to har bor gems and hide the richest Jewels ever bred In the earth. But the white ants* nest was empty, and I have the crime on my heart without the diamonds la my pocket. Why did they rescue me? One ircre pang and I should have been oat of It all— but— this— this is the punishment; to walk shoulder to shoulder wtta th« man I would have robbed, to see him toiling and wasting hl» heart away. Now all Is vain, all labor useless. The whit© ants' nest has been robbed, and heaven knows where the precious stones are. W« shall never see them. 1 ** --»•.»*,» t lie was silent asaln, then rambled on upon other topics. Suddenly he ¦ turned to where Meldrum rat "with wide, hor rified eyes, fixed upon him. v A sort of unconscious mesmerism- on the man's part- appeared to have dragged Fain round to look at him; but now the de mented' sufferer failed to recognize his nurse : and \ thought a woman ministered to him. 'Tfou; • Bessie?" he said. "H»v« yen come to me then after all and thrown Bana'lfkuba over? I thought you'd find out you loved me best sooner or later; but it's too late row, sweetheart, too late, too late, too' late. Curse the words! They ring 1 In my ears like a knelL They ara the" full :«0P3 that block my road, turn which way I will. Too late. It's always too late with me. ,1 was born too late; I have lived too late; I shall die too late. You Iau"gh, ' I see you laugh; but you should cry, for there'll be no glimmering sky blue, sea green, blood red stones to deck your bosom now; there'll be no dla< monds, like the white, eternal stars for brightness, no opals, as full of color and nre as the tears of the fallen angels. All gone — all '-stolen *by ." some devil — may : "Ho Is ours .by right of capture. The ' day -is yet young. Wo will hart our pleasure with him and none shall know It." cried one.' "So be it, bo bo It," shouted another. "This grubber in * ants' nests— wo will heaven Bend . him, nl3 reward. Not there— vanished— hidden, deejs deep down by tha earth spirits or the wood spirits. Too lata again, though, by the throno of tha high est archangel. I swear you should hav« had them all. Not on* for Boar *n toe What he saw, however, quickly dragged his mind back to reality. The Batoncaa were upon .him. Silent as snakes they "had; crept In on every side, and._now, find ing themselves discovered, -theyS raised a simultaneous cry and leaped forward. Seeing his deadly peril Fain .dashed for his rifle, but he was; tao late 1 to . reach it and in. a moment the yelling mob closed in. Now, face to ;face . with death and powerless to fend a. single " stroke of the spears poised round; him or 'held at his throat, Fain dropped: his hands and. bent his head to th'etblow he" knew must fall; but ¦ no merciful and stroka at short range ended his life. * : • '; Hl3 captors h"ad other ideas^and clearly desired' no such speedy termination of their 1 amusement as the Instant death of their, victim. ;"¦.*-**,'* ¦ ¦ :\ Fain was bound hand, and foot with the tough and trailing vine of the wild grape. Thep four men picked him up and bore him some hundred yards distant. A swift Interchange of^vlews followed; some of the savages were In. favor, of- carrying the prisoner to Pomba, their King, while others of the younger 'bloods < held that the monarch need know nothing of the matter. \ :'•'/_ ¦[-, Fain's heart throbbed wildly, for it was r white ants'" nest. Its base was draped in green things and grass sprouted upon it. A part had crumbled away and the de caying' mass presented many evidences of. disintegration, but that it was an , ants' nest Fain knew without question, and that it must be the identical structure i ho^sought seemed also certain, for no' tftner similar erection appeared within ifhe" radius of the trees. [t To- the deserted nest he went and his beat high as he stood beside it ' and knew that the treasure might be— nay, must b«— within reach of his ex , tended hand. ¦ < The base of the nest was coated with moss and it rose from. wild undergrowth. Tq cut this away was the man's first task, and, setting down his rifle, he pulted out- a heavy knife and began to clear the r - base, of the.earthen pillar. This task was quickly accomplished, and f" Fain j found himself before a smooth but soft erection »of fln« fcarth. That it must be hollow in ¦ side-she knew and doubted not that the adventurer, who trusted his treasure to It In the past, had cut a hoi© somewhere at the bottom or in the side of the .mound, then dropped In the umzlmbete seed pods and afterward made all secure again. For a moment he reflected as to what course was the most simple, ¦ then set to work at* the base of the cone, and soon had a hole, big enough to creep through, driven to the center. Then he discov ered what had not appeared from the surface; there was another entrance from underground Into, the nest. The -channel ran a foot beneath the earth and came out. ten yards • away. That the deserted dome had been used by some small beasts . of . prey for a lair was evident, and now Fain began digging down through a«mass : of bones and fragments of moldy fur to reach the umzlmbete seed, which he knew must be hidden beneath. .The soil was light and he made rapid progress, but never a sign of what he de sired-was-there, lie sweated on* but his heart almost hurt him with its thump- Ing, bis head was throbbing and his eyes aching 1.3 failure came nearer and nearer. v He threw aside, the. stick- .he. had been using and buried his hands in the , soft mold. He tore it up, and as the subsoil gfew harder he still used his fingers unlil they were torn, one of his nails Vwbs broken and both of his hands began to bleed. Then he stopped and stared blank ly before him,, while' the sweat .dripped from bis face into' the great hole .he had dup. . "\ v • The precious stones were not; In the ants* nest. They had vanished ; from It, and Fain stood faced, not only with his own -treachery, but \ with, the knowledge that it had utterly failed. His sin was vamrthe sting of the memory might last forever; but there was nothing to make him bear the bitterness of his wicked ac tion with Indifference. Absolute failure stared him in the face, and' In that black moment he cursed his existence and wish ed that he 'was dead. The wages of sin is death, indeed, oftentimes; and now it seemed that the traitor was to be taken at his word. V Dazed and stricken by his te?rible dis . appointment, shattered before this crush- Ing reverse, the man moved blindly away and lifted his eyes to scan further and satisfy himBelf that In reality- there was no other white ants' nest within the In dicated space. *Fhere, in shape like a huge but clumsy r.r.d broken 'sugar loaf, reared the circle, Fh»rnly- down acros.i the distant woods. Then Fain realized how necessary had bren the special directions of the dead m;t.n. for the breadth of the rain'oow em braced the whole tract of forest; but the innermost or nurple ring of the arch fell upon a narrow snot— a small, separate clump of trees as it appeared— divided by a Kelt of grass land from the acticent forest. Meantime the diamond huviter. innocent of-any ftar, preyed 0:1 to the very hiding V'a'ce cf the treasure. AVlthin the clump of trees he passed, move carefully for v"aru, with sharp glances to right and left,' then cnir.c upon the objtct of his F*arch planted at the heart of the little Meldrum, a-1 anxiety for hi3 cousin, ri'.kkly gave the alarm and ten minutes Inter, with V.'instone. Blackbird and nine nrmc/d 1 ZanzlbarlF, he was pushing rapid ly' in the direction Kain had been seen to follow. luckily Lord Wlnstone, for it was he. had observed the scene we have de scribed. He liked Fain little enough, but h? felt that a comrade's life was now in .Vfry real danger and he hastened to Mel drum with information^ of what he had srenv through his glasses at a distance of about helf a mile from canip. "'The' bes^ars have cut him cff." his I-or«i3hip explained, "and it will go hard Vwith him if we are not pretty quickly ion our lego. There are about fifty niggtr^— no more, T think. A dozen of us, inciud- Irg you and me, wil! answer for them. Ami if we can get speech vnitli the brutes r.r.J come to some agreement, so much the Letter." It was not long,, before the explorer found himself In the narrow band joC grass that separated the tree clump lrom the main wood, and on the lofty preojpice above, watching as before, full fiXty^Ba toncas followed his movements, obseg-ved him reach his destination, then sl*feik>cat like down the cliffs behind him and in tercepted hl3 retreat. Elsewhere- another pair of eyes had Ti itnessed the ** scene, had observed Fain .scrambled down from his post on the face of the cliff, had watched him disappear in the direction of the woods and ; had marked half a hundred dark shapes sneak and slip quickly down the hill as soon as the Englishman retreated from It. ' ' ¦ fell. - So Tracy TFaln, inspired with one Idea, and one alone, pushed rapidly for ward, dead to danger.' THE GOLDEN FETCH Sunday Call Literary Section