The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-02-03
A TALE OF THREE LIONS.
BY n. RIDER HAaoARp.

eihio obot uitu WnO uitti Wdfu tttiitc W hNo III
England near his friend, Sir Henry Curtis.
He has gone back to the wilderness now, as
these old hunters almost invariably do, on
one pretext or another. They cannot endure
civilization for very long, its noise and racket
and the omnipresence of broadclothed hu-
manity proving more trying to their nerves
than the dangers of the desert think that
they feel lonely here, for it is a fact that is
too little understood, though it has often
been stated, that there is no Loneliness like the
loneliness Of crowds, especially to those who
are unaccustomed to them
"What is there in the world,n old Quater-
main would say, $50 desolate as to stand In
the streets Of great city and listen to the
footsteps falling, falling, multitudinous as
the rain, and watch the white line OF faces
as they hurry past, you know not whence,
you know not whittier. They come and go,
their eyes meet yours with q cold stare, for
moment their features are written ON your
mind, and then they are gone forever. You
will never see them again, they will never
see you again; they come up out of the un-
known, and presently they once more van
ish into the unknown, taking their secrets
with them. Yes, that is loneliness pure and
undefiled; but to one who knows and loves
it, the wilderness is not lonely, because the
spirit of nature is ever there to keep the
wanderer company He finds companions in
the winds-the sunny streams babble like
natures children at his feet high above
him, in the purple sunset, are domes and
minarets and palaces such no mortal man
hath built, in and out of whose flaming doors
The glorious angels of the sun seem to move
continually. And there, too, is the wild
game following its feeding grounds in great
armies, with the springbok thrown out be-
fore for skirmishers, then rank upon rank of
long faced blesbuck marching and wheeling
like infantry, and last, the shining troops of
quagga and the fierce eyed, shaggy wilder
beeste to take the place of the Cossack host
that hangs upon an army's flanks.
"Oh, no. he would say, 'the wilderness is
not lonely, for, my boy, remember that the
further you get from man the nearer you
grow to God" and, though this is a saying
that might well be disputed, 1t is one am
sure that anybody will easily understand
who has watched the sun rise and set on the
limitless, deserted plains, and seen the thun
der chariots Of the clouds roll in majesty
across the depths of unfathomable sky.
Well, at any rate he went back again, and
now for many months I have heard nothing
at all of him, and, to be frank, greatly
doubt if anybody will ever hear of him again
[ fear that the wilderness that has for So
many years been mother to him will now
also prove his grave aud the grave of those
who accompanied him, for the quest upon
which be and they started is a wild one in
deed
But while he was in England for those
years or SO between his return from the sue.
cessful discovery of the wise kings buried
treasures and the death of his only son, saw
great deal Of old Allan Quatermain. l had
b,,e hofo to- A fr,,
b. came home, whenever had nothing bet
ter to do, used to run up to Yorkshire and
stay with him, and in this way at one time
and another heard many Of the incidents OF
bis past life, and most curious some Of them
were.
No one can pass all those years following
the rough existence of an elephant hunter
without meeting with many strange adven-
lures, and one way and another old Quater-
main has certainly seen his share. Well,
the story that / am going to tell
you is one of the later of these ad-
ventures, though 1 forget the exact year
which it happened. At any rate know that
it was the only one of his trips upon which
he took his son Harry (who is since dead)
with him, and that Harry was then about IA.
And now for the story, which l will repeat
as nearly as l can in the words in which
Hunter Quatermain told it to me one night
in the old oak paneled vestibule of his house
in Yorkshire. We were talking about gold
mining.
"Goid mining" he broke in "Ah, yes;
once went gold mining at Pilgrims Rest in
the TIansvaal, and,it was before that that
we had business about Jim-Jim and the
| lions. Do you know it'll Well it is-or was
one of the queerest little places you ever saw.
| The tuwn itself was pitched in stony valley,
with mountains all about it, and in the mid
| die f such scenery as one does not often get
the chance of seeing. Many and many is the
time that / have thrown down my pick and
| shovel in disgust, clambered out of my claim
and walked a couple of miles or SO to the top
of some hill Then would lie down in the
grass and look out over the glorious stretch
of countryside smiling valleys, the great
| mountains touched with gold-real gold of
\ the sunset, and clothed in sweeping robes of
bush, and stare into the depths of the perfect
sky above; yes, and thank heaven had got
away from the cursing and the coarse jokes
of the miners, and the voices of those Basutu
Kaiirs as they toiled in the sun, the memory
of which is with me yet Well, for some
months dug patiently at my claim till the
very sight Of a pick or Of washing trough
became hateful to me. A hundred times q
day lamented my own folly in having in
vested $500, which was about all that was
worth at the time, in this gold mining. But,
like other better people before me, had been
| bitten by the gold bug, and now had to take
the consequences had bought claim out
| of which man had made a fortunes, GOO
or $4,000 at least-as thought, very cheap;
that is, l had given him $500 down for it.
1t was all that / had made by a rough
years elephant hunting beyond the Fam.
besi, and l sighed deeply and propheti-
cally when ! saw my successful friend who
was a Yankee, sweep up the roll of Standard
bank notes with the lordly air of the man
who made his fortune and cram them into
his breeches pockets. WELL / said to him
the happy vendor-'it is magnificent prop
erty, and ! only hope that my luck will be as
good as yours has been, lie smiled; to my
excited nerves it seemed that he smiled ON
inously, as he answered me in a peculiar
Yankee drawl: Il guess, stranger, as l aint
the one to make man quarrel with his food
more especial when there amt no more 60
ing of the rounds; and as for that there
claim, well, she's been good Niger to me
but between you and me, stranger, speaking
man to man, now that there amt any filthy
lucer between US to obsculate the feathers o
the truth, guess she's about worked outr
81 gasped the fellows etrrontery took my
breath out of me. Only five minutes befor,
he had been swearing by all his gods-ant
they appeared TO be numerous and mixed
that there were half dozen fortunes left il
} the claim, and that he was only giving 1t VI
bee use he was downright weary of shovel
ing tho gold out.
"'Dont look SO vexed, stranger went oi
my tormentor, perhaps there is some shin
in the ola girl yet; any way you are down
right good fellow, you are; therefore yo'
will, guess, have real AL, old jam, plat
glass opportunity Of working on the feeling
of Fortune ANY way it will bring tn,
muscle up on your arm, for the stuff is un
common stiff, and what is more, you will II
the course Of year earn sight more thai
$4,000 in value of experience
Sand he went just in time, for in anothe
minute / should have gone for him, and
saw his face no more.
swell, set to work on the old claim wit
my boy Harry and half dozen Kafirs +
; help me, which, seeing that had put nearl
all my worldly wealth into it, was the leas
could do. And we worked, my word W
did work-early and late we went at it-bu
; never bit of gold did we see; no, not eve
q nugget large enough to make scarf pi
out of. The American gentleman had Sc
cured it all and left us the sweepings.
"For three months this went ON, till q
last paid away all, or very near all, tina
was left Of our little capital in wages an
| food for the KaAra and o,,raalxyac Whan