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About Lincoln County leader. (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987 | View Entire Issue (July 8, 1910)
The Quest of etty Lancey Hy MACHA. F. WEST Copyrlfht, 1909, by W. 0. ClupmAB. Copyright In Great Britala 41 CI1APTEII XII. (Continued.) But Betty now tried her wiles on Meta. English, her smattering of French and a base maceration of Ger man were hurled at the black girl's ears. Meta pretended to understand nothing Betty said to her. Tyoga was absent, Le Malheureux apparently had disappeared into thin air, and Betty was like a caged lioness. She was per mitted to "wander through the castle, Yor such the edifice proved to be, but with Meta ever at her side. The ar chitecture of the castle was of non descript type, and It was rudely fash ioned of granite, moss and vine grown and surrounded by parked gardens filled with tropical foliage and flowers. At the end of the gardens was a mias matic river, thickly green and vile of odor, filled with rank reptiles and nau seous water plants. Beyond the river stretched the desert, yellow and hard. All this you could see from the upper windows of the castle, farther than a radius of fifty yards around the por ticos Betty nor her handmaiden was not allowed to set foot. Within the castle was a small sandpacked court with an asthmatic fountain and heat wrung plants. There Betty and Meta sat and Betty read the few books that were available, tried to teach Meta to -dance and learned dances of her in re turn; tried, .too, to learn Meta's gut tural speech and failed sadly in teach ing English to Meta. Which, along with certain other occurrences that happened as time went on, made Betty fairly certain that Meta already spoke English, or else understood It so per fectly that the girl was under Instruc tions to betray no familiarity with the foreign tongue. A favorite game of these two girls became a variation of lawn tennis, a native game, which they played seated, hurling over a low net celluloid balls of light weight and gay colorings. The evening of the third day Betty grew overwhelmed with such an un controllable loneliness that she could not help crying;. Meta, who had just brought her supper of cocoanut, fresh ly cut, mixed with pineapples and guavas, a trussed pigeon, figs, dates, -and fell gobbing, too, and tried inar tlculately to find out what she want- -ed. "Tyoga, Tyoga!" walled Betty. Her nerves were at breaking point and the Jackal who howled in the hills to the north was crazing her with his yowl ing, and she was sick, so sick, of it all, of the mystery, the silence, the loneliness. Meta hesitated and then ran away like a deer. She came back troubled after an absence of a quarter of an hour or so, bearing In her hand a wax tablet on which wis written In an old- fashioned slanting hand: "Tyoga cannot come to you yet Will .you be patient but a little longer? She Is very busy. She will try and come m a few mornings." Betty took the tablet to bed with tier, telling herself that she was get ting positively foolish. meia went along, caressing her as much as she dared. Betty began to lose sight of the fact that Meta's skin was black. She had already done this with Tyoga. As Meta aided Betty to disrobe the slave's hand caught In the slender chain of the little gold locket that Betty wore always round her throat, and snapped its links asunder. une chain fell to the floor, and as It nit the tiling the locket flew open, disclosing Larry Morris' face. Meta picked It up, sighted the face, and lrl-like, scented the trouble. She gazed Intently at Larry's counterfeit presentment, studying It closely. Then she nodded her approval and shook an accusing finger at Betty, which moved Hetty to tears again. Meta laughed, and with much sim pering began to finger around within the capacious flounces of her striped kilt. With much perspiration, and with what might have been blushes on a fairer skin she finally produced an "dd little hand, painstakingly curved from Ivory with Inlaid nnlls and volns of gold. She held this high for Unity to gaze at, then pointed (lllpninlnly to , herself and Larry Morris' picture with uch Illuminating pantomimes that Betty immediately CNtlmiitnt thnt the Ivory hand was the trolli-nlun of Mu and of a somewhere dunky-btilovedl Tyoga was three diiys In coining. Then she was much distraught and looked like a ragged edition of nor once buxom self. First Alio cnllocl Meta aside and spoke with hor Ion and earnestly Betty would have vow ed It was In French. Then Tyogn. camn to Betty. "Tou are In danger of your life," she said, simply. "We all are, We are sorry for this, MIhs I.nricny, wo hnd not expected it. We lind thought nil dangers were well guarded against, that all precautions hnd henn tnknn. You and Meta must be luft Mono lioro In the castle for weeks, Hut be not afraid. Besides the secret entrance which none knows but Mela, there Is no approach to the cattle save from that river on the south and to cross that" she shuddered "to cross that Is to swallow death. I have nromlsed you a safe return to your people, and 1 go now to make that assurance doubly sure. Le Malheureux sends vou his best wishes, and is sorry he cannot come In person, and now. farewell!" The negress turned and left the two girls together, Betty terror-stricken. homesick, unnerved, Meta stolid, Im mobile as the castle Itself. For several weeks the weather was fine, almost supernatural In its beauty and glow. Betty trolled the castle over for hint or trace of any electrical ap paratus, but none did she find. There were dozens of chambers similar to the one she occupied, what miirht be a throne room, a great dining hall, a mammoth kitchen, and one big room that possibly was an observatory, but which was most securely bolted, barred and cemented sftut Kven American prowess dared not tamper with such solidity of masonry. Meta and Betty had finally accom plished a species of pigeon dialect that like Crusoe and his man Friday per mitted them to signify their wants and dislikes but prohibited the dangerous conversation of confidences and per sonal communications unto which women are so prone to fall! Betty had given up the idea of the note in a bot tle, the sensational wireless message and such like methods of communica tion with the loved ones at home, and those of the newspaper fraternity In particular ever since she caught sight of the pigeons. She surreptitiously carved this message, "Betty Lancey, Africa," on the wing of many a poor suffering bird and vainly tried to shoo it briskly away In the direction that she thought housed civilized people. This carving was a work of perspiring labor but it diverted Betty more suc cessfully than anything else might have done. This occupation amused and exhilarated because It revolved around the constantly diminishing germ of Hope that so was near to dy ing in Betty's bosom. First of all, she had nothing to scratch with but a hairpin. And with tropical sun, and sea voyaging, hair pins had become scarce enough to be valuable. Second, Meta was always watching, and thirdly, you never could finish a bird at one sitting and it was terrible to try to catch any of the birds, and worse yet to get hold twice In succession of the same bird you had been working on last Frequently there would be as many as three dozen birds, half bedecked with Betty's carving, hopping around at one time. Betty held the thought that If one of these birds should perchance be picked up it might send people within a continent of finding her. There was something romantic about living In this desert and swamp-bound castle until the rains came on. Then it was more aggravating than anything Betty could ever have imagined. "Worse than any city editor I know starting out to play wrecking crew with an entire office," she commented, grimly. For an African rain in the central part of that shadowy continent is not a rainstorm as we know it The lakes, the rivers, the sea Itself seem to have risen and to be descending in fiat lay ers and sheets of the wettest wet that ever mortal knew. Lightning in more varieties than Betty had dreamed might ever have been patented broke round the grim old castle, and the two lonely young girls loved the goat hard cr than ever. Later they had an addition to their family. A decrepit old lion, a beast so mangy, worm eaten and toothless that one longed In pity to kill him then and there, crept In from the jungle one cold, rain-pelted night He frightened the two girls half to death at first sight, then they both laughed heartily at sight of his Infirmities and took him in and made him royally welcome. He expressed his gratification in croupy rnnrs that caused Betty to long to fend him lard ond sugar, the same as her mother had given her when she was a croupy, wheezy kiddle. Hut as a burglar alarm those roars were tho best of all Inventions, as I Icily expressed it in the Journal she wus protending to keep. "As a perfectly proper property lion, City Editor Burton Is a peach." Dotty had named the Hon "City Edi tor Burton" after the one being in the Inquirer oftlce whose very voice was calculated to Instantly remove the scalp of any cub reporter whoever sharpened a pencil In a newspaper of- II CO. Between City Editor Burton and the pigeon Butty found less opportunity for worry than did Meta. Perhaps that was because Tyoga had not told Betty the same tnlo she had whispered that hot morning Into the awe-struck ears of Meta. The black girl knew of the danger threatening, and feared In si lence. Ho strong had grown the attachment between Met and Betty that th young Nubian, who, truth n tell, spoke English with rare perfection, had much ado to keep up their fcurce of pigeon English and to refrain from outpour ing her soul to the white skinned, but now sadly-tanned Betty. CHAPTER XIIL Johnny Johnson and Larry Morrti arrived in Algiers early In August It was hot and the dust wus equalled only by the files. Larry spuke a little French, Johnny nothing but English. They were both seasick and both tired of the task they had set themselves upon. li Chicago parkest Africa had looked to ".hem rather a small and un important vrovlnce, a shrunken Rhode Island. In Algiers darkest Africa over lapped every continent on the globe. The apparent futility of the undertak ing weighed them down. Night fell. Then followed stars and a subdued rumble of the city life for a brief and restful interlude. Later the mirth and ribaldry of the cafes Al giers at her worst This was Africa. Bad enough on the coast But to ship for the inland! It was an Impossibility. They sought forgetfulness in the cafes. Before one In particular the crowds were swarm Ing like flies over molasses. Within, a woman, she looked to be an Ameri can at that, blonde and full-figured, singing an atrocious French song with an even more atrocious Maine accent Between verses she mingled the cake- walk. "Let's get out of this," said Larry, "John, look at the negrt -er there. Did you ever see such a Colossus In your life?" More than the two newspaper men were watching the negro in question. He was nearly seven feet high, mag nilicent in ins piopoi iluim, and dressed in immaculate white duck. His fea tures were typically African, but ne had the bearing of ancient kings and high Intelligence lurked in his eyes, and was planted at the .corners of '.lis mouth and In the lines along his nos tills. Standing in the corner close to the stage, he was regarding the pitiful thing that gamboled there with the snme impassive pity that a man watches a butcher kill a little squeal ing pig. The pig is not worth much in the asthetic scale as life goes, but through him life may be sustained. One pig more or less to feed the mass es benefits the masses, and Is very good for the pig. It lets him out of being a pig, and provides for his trans mogrification into another shape. As the two Americans turned to look at the negro he was leaving the caftv All eyes turned from the dancer to his coal-black pulchritude. The dancer, noting this waver of allegiance, lurch ed forward and kicked Into the air with deft aim. One gaudy red satin slipper flew directly through the crowd and grazed the giant on the back, fail ing within a foot or two of the two Americans. "That was a good shot!" ejaculated Johnny. Larry Morris was watching the muscles working in the African's face as he stooped to pick up the slip per. "Because I'm black," he heard the man mutter, in pure English. "Be cause I'm black." Straight through the crowd strode the black man, and up to the stage, overturning half of the tables In his way as he went At the footlights he leaned over, held out the shoe and beckoned for the dancer to place her foot within It But the women, with the whimsicality of her sex, turned her head away and smote the African twice across the cheek. The black man straightened himself up like a steel bar, uncurved In a white hot furnace. He took the shoe and flung It at the dancer, lightly but accurately. It struck her across her painted mouth, and the steel plate on the heel tore the gentle skin of her full lip. The blood streamed down In a tiny thread over her chin and drop per on her white shoulders. The habitues of the cafe could not endure this treatment of their favorite. Pandemonium was loosed. Bottles, lamps, glasses, even chairs, they hurl ed at the retreating figure of the Afri can. He was cut and bruised In dozen places and almost overcome, for the strength of a Hercules could not have resisted such onslaughts. John son and Morris had gone out of the door when the riot began, and were turning down the street when the black burst out, winded, panting, and closely pursued. By the curb stood an automobile a great red touring car; It belonged 'o Suiveler, the Associated Press man at Algiers. A weak, dissipated little fel low, Suiveler was at that moment the foremost In consoling the dancer. Larry Morris thought quickly. He knew Suiveler well; they had worked together In the States, and the negro Interested him. "Crank her, Johnny," he cried, point ing to the automobile, and while John ny cranked the machine Morris hus tled the black within the car, threw from his perch the dazed chauffeur and In three minutes the black, Larry Mor ria and Johnson, In Sulveler's car, were headed for the desert with the mob howling hyena-like behind them. "All right old fellow; we'll help you," Larry had whispered In the black's ear as he hurried him towards the motor. Larry had had to do It for downed as he was, the black Instantly made a motion of resistance towards anything that smacked of captivity, (To be continued.) SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY lteckleaa Drtvla. "What is the matter with your wife! I see she's got her band In a ling.' "Reckless driving." -Horse r "No; nalL Aden makes ten million cigarettes a year at a very low cost of production. Wages are 16 cents a day. New 8 paper Is made by machinery at the rate of from 150 to 400 feet a minute, according to width and quality. The Peruvian Indians are credited 1th having the pi ea test range of vision of all races. Cases nave been recorded of their distinguishing human beings eighteen miles away. None of the monarchies of Europe, with the exception of Russia, tan show a larger area than that of Texas he possess 57,000 squar. miles more of territory than the kai ser's realm. James M. Henderson killed a horned make at his home, near Bush river, on the Belfast road. It was about two feet long and lying on a stump in the field. At the end of Its tall was a horn, something like a rooster's spur. Newberry (S. C.) Ob server. Despite Its shortness. Downing sueet, London, contains not only the pilme minister's residence, but also the treasury, foreign office, colonial office, the office of the chancellor ot the ex iequer and that ot the privy I'ouncil. It was built on a swamp and the ground under the big houses 1? sown inW kly with age blackened wooden I lies. Tar water was a cure-all in the ,ehtpenth century. It was prepared I y pourng a gallon of water on a quart cf tar, and the dose was half a pint in the morning and a second glass in the afternoon. Its use became so rtBuionable that a contemporary noted: It's as common to call for a glass of tar water In a coffee house as a dish of tea or coffee." The modern French letter box has the shape of a pillar, profusely orna mented with the conventional lily. The whole box or. stand Is fashioned after a plant, and the top lesembles a bud. The body Is surrounded by floral wreaths or festoons, and the base Is formed by large leaves The boxes are placed against buildings hnd have a very r.retty effect. Another victory for woman and an other argument to strengthen the as sertion that she can gain distinction lii any field of mental activity, says a wilter in the Theater Zeltung, is the ruccess of the opera "Die Dort Kom f.8e" at the Berlin Thalia Theater. The tomposei is Frau Danziger, a .young "talented musician, "who will Jisauredly contribute more to the inu tital wealth of the world." King Edward, as is generally known, has a weakness for walking sticks, but a writer In Women at Home tells of another collection in his majesty's possession which nlll have a unique interest in the future. This consists of rlics gathered from every war In which British roldiers have fought since the early days ol Queen Vic toria. The king has also a quaint as sortment of the programs of every op era, play and concert which he has at tended since he came to years of dis cretion. Trenton, N. J., has recently reported fifteen business women whose occupa tions are scarcely feminine. They in clude bartering, wholesale tobacco, real (.-state, undertaking, pharmacy, Jewelry, piano dealing, insurance, shoe repairing, banking, charcoal, etc. South Chicago's situation Is more spectacular, if less creditable. In addition to wo men doctors and police, a woman runs 'he worst saloon and another the best undertaking establishment, so that, from birth to death, even by "the broad way which leadeth to destruction," a feminine hand may guide. The De lineator. Bushido, is a word, is the popular literature of the mikado's realm. II Includes country theatricals, tales of story tellers, and musical compositions. It is not only a literature; it is an Idea and an ideal. The word means loyalty, fidelity, devotion, and it may be expresed in dozens of different ways. Nor Is it only a system of mental de velopment; it is a means of soul growth as well. "What," asks Okuma, "is the best mode of spiritual culture for the people of Japan?" His answer is, To let them understand buRhldo and realize Its principles in them selves." New York Press. Khartum is not yet a century old and it owes its existence to an ori ental form of treachery. When Khe dive Mohammed All invaded the Su dan in 1820 he marched triumphantly to Shendl, where his troops were en tertained at a banquet by the submis sive natives. But while the khedlve's high officials were seated at the feast they shared the fate of the viands and were themselves reduced to funeral baked meats. Full of fury the army fell on Shendi and demolished it. Marching south, the Invaders reached the Junction of the Blue Nile and White Nile. With the conqueror's In stlnct they recognized that the strip of land, with its new fishermen's huts of straw, formed ideal strategical head quarters. So Khartum finally grew Into the most sensitive part of the Sudan organism, Old age Insurance is compulsory in Germany, Sweden and Spain have the fewest alien residents. Four and a half million gross boxes of matches are used in London in a year. A watch ticks 157,680,000 times In a year, and the wheels travel 3,558 -miles. As a general rule, a man's hair turns gray five years earlier than a woman's. During the year 1909 the London dog-catchers caught 44,900 and dis patched 21,253. More women marry between the ages of twenty and twenty-five than at . any other time of life. A rosebush in a garden at Freiburg covers ninety-nine square yards and bears ten thousand buds. It is estimated that the coal mines already developed contain enough coal to supply the world for a thousand years. The natives of Korea carry visiting cards which measure about twelve inches square, and when their use Is required they are merely shown. Bahla Blanca, Argentina, is now the largest wheat shipping port in South America. It has a population of forty thousand and is growing rapidly. The Farthing Gazette, probably the cheapest dally newspaper in existence, has been started lu iyIobcuw, auj Laa already a considerable circulation. There was to be an attack by night. The darkness was Impenetrable. A sergeant addressed his section as fol lows: "Now, pay attention, No. 2 sec tion. We are going to do a night at tack; there'll be no talking or smok ing; if there are any orders to be passed down I will Just tip you the wink!" Peter the Great, Russia's famous czar, when he was staying In England had a particular liking for the com panionship of Halley, after whom the comet Is named. After carousing with him at Deptford one evening, Peter wheeled the astronomer In a barrow through a yew hedge and did such dam age that he had to pay handsomely to John Evelyn, the owner. Edward FitzGerald, the translator of the Persian poet, Omar Khayyam, was a more or less genial opponent of mat rimony as a state. One day he said to his friend. Miss Ellen Churchyard, ot Woodbridge: "Do you know, Nell, what marriage is?" Miss Churchyard thought not. "Then I'll tell you," said he. "Marriage is standing at one's desk, nicely settled to work, when a great big bonnet pushes in at the door and asks you to go for a walk with It." - It is proposed to establish a wireless telegraph station at the meteorologi cal observatory on Mt. Mirador, in. the Philippines, to give warning of ty phoons to vessels In the China sea and points along the China coast. A sim ilar station will probably be estab lished later at Santo Domingo de Basco, on the island of Batan, for com municating information of the pres ence of typhoons in that vicinity to the headquarters of the Philippine weather bureau at Manila. Tin holds chief place in Slam's metal resources and is found through out the Siamese portion of the Malay peninsula. The average annual pro duction Is about 5,175 tons, valued at $4,110,000. English mining companies and the Chinese are the chief workers for tin. Gold stands second to tin In the country's mineral resources, but thus far Its working has not proved profitable. Copper and lead mines have also proved a failure. Transportation cost is enormous, but railways are be ing extended north and south. When the British square at the bat tle of Abu Klea, In the Nubian desert, was penetrated by the dervishes one of them attempted to spear a gunner who was In the act of ramming home a charge. The Briton brained the Sudanese, but the rammer bead spilt on. the man's hard skull. Next day the gunner was sent for. Mistaking the reason, and knowing from experience that soldiers are charged for govern ment property which they break, be led off: "Please, sir, I'm very sorry I broke the rammer, but I never thought the fellow's head could be so hard. I'll pay for the rammer so as to hear no more of the case." It Is a somewhat curious fact, if It Is a fact, that the last of the terres trial continents to be explored is the largest mass of raised land In the world. The concentration of attention upon the South pole since Commander Peary landed the other end of our axis makes it highly probable that the antarctic antipodes will soon be dang ling from some explorer's belt. Inci dentally, the south polar continent will be opened, if not to the settler, at least to the mapinaker. We already know something of Its fringe at a few points, and Lieutenant Shackleton pushed into It south of Mounts Erebus and Terror for several hundred miles, but the greater portion of its surface in tlll terra Incognita. Collier's.