wound on the dead man s left arm did ever man see such a thing before there was no longer any doubt about the matter which i confess for my own part perfectly appalled me there he sat the dead man whose directions written some ten generations ago had led us to this spot there in my own hand was the rude pen with which he had written them and there round his neck was the his dying lips had kissed gazing at him my imagination could the whole scene the traveller dying of cold and starvation and yet striving to convey the great secret he by ic king solomon s mines had discovered to the world the awful loneliness of his death of which the evidence sat before us it even seemed to me that i could trace in his strongly marked features a likeness to those of my poor friend his who had died twenty years ago in my arms but perhaps that was fancy at any rate there he sat a sad of the fate that so often those who would penetrate into the unknown and there probably he will still sit crowned with the dread majesty of death for centuries yet to the eyes of like ourselves if any such should ever come again to his loneliness the thing overpowered us already nearly done to death as we were with cold and hunger let us go said sir henry in a low voice i we will give him a companion and lifting up the dead body of the he placed it near that of the old don then he stooped down and with a jerk broke the rotten string of the round his neck for his fingers were too cold to attempt to it i believe that he still has it i took the pen and it is before me as i write � sometimes i sign my name with it then leaving those two the proud white man of a past age and the poor to keep their eternal in the midst of the eternal we crept out of the cave into the welcome sunshine and resumed our path wondering in our hearts how many hours it would be before we were even as they are when we had gone about half a mile we came to the edge of the for the of the mountain did not rise out of its exact centre though from the desert side it seemed to do so what lay below us we could not see for the landscape was in of by king solomon s mines morning mist presently however the higher of mist cleared a little and revealed some five hundred yards beneath us at the end of a long slope of snow a patch of green grass through which a stream was running nor was this all by the stream in the morning sun stood and lay a group of from ten to fifteen large � at that distance we could not see what they were the sight filled us with an joy there was food in plenty if only we could get it but the question was how to get it the beasts were fully six hundred yards off a very long shot and one not to be depended on when one s life hung on the results rapidly we discussed the of trying to stalk the game but finally reluctantly dismissed it to begin with the wind was not favorable and further we should be certain to be perceived however careful we were against the blinding background of snow which we should be obliged to well we must have a try from where we are said sir henry which shall it be the repeating or the expresses here again was a question the � of which we had two carrying poor s as well as his own � were sighted up to a thousand yards whereas the expresses were only sighted to three hundred and fifty beyond which distance shooting with them was more or less guess work on the other hand if they did hit the express bullets being were much more likely to bring the game down it was a point but i made up my mind that we must risk it and use the expresses let each of us take the buck opposite to him im by ic king solomon s well at the point of the shoulder and high up said i and do you give the word so that we may all fire together then came a pause each man his level best as indeed one is likely to do when one knows that life itself depends upon the shot fire said in and at almost the same instant the three rang out loudly three clouds of smoke hung for a moment before us and a hundred echoes went flying away over the silent snow presently the smoke cleared and revealed � oh joy � a great buck on its back and kicking furiously in its death agony we gave a yell of triumph we were saved we should not starve weak as we were we rushed down the intervening slope of snow and in ten minutes from the time of firing the animal s heart and liver were lying smoking before us but now a new difficulty arose we had no fuel and therefore could make no fire to cook them at we gazed at each other in dismay starving men must not be fanciful said good we must eat raw meat there was no other way out of the and our hunger made the proposition less distasteful than it would otherwise have been so we took the heart and liver and buried them for a few minutes in a patch of snow to cool them off then we washed them in the ice cold water of the stream and lastly ate them it sounds horrible enough but 