Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-04-11
The Stary Teller.

The Stury Teller.
A TALE OF Three LIONS.
BY a. RIDER HAGGARD.
Most of you will have heard Of Allan Qua
termain, who was one of the party that dis
covered King Solomon's mines some little
time ago, and who afterward came to live in
England near his friend, Sir Henry Curtis.
He has gone back to the wilderness now, az
these old hunters almost invariably do, o,
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. I think that
they feel lonely here, for it is 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 unaccustomedto them. rf fA
7ssWhat is there in the world" old Quater-
main would say, so desolate as to stand IN
4 the streets of q great city and listen 20 the
I fo0tsteps falling falling, mnltitndi dinouss 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 60,
their eyes meet yours with cold stare, for
q amoment their features are written on your
mind, and then they are gone forever. You
will never see them again, they will never
bee 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
undefled; but to one who knows and loves
1t, 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 as 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 shrmishers, 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 Wider
beeste to take the place Of the Cossack host
that hangs upon an army's hanks.
''Oh, no." he would say, ''the wilderness -
not lonely, for, my boy, remember that the
further you get from man the nearer you
grow to God," and, though this is saying
that might well be disputed, it is one am
ure that anybody win easily understand
who has watched the sun rise and set on the
imitless, 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 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 and the grave Of those
who accompanied him, for the quest upon
which he and they started is 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, I saw
great deal of old Allan Quatermain. I had
known him years befuro in Africa, and after
be 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
his past life, and most curious some Of them
were.
No one can pass all those years following
the rough existence Of an elephant hunter
lures, and one way and another old Quater-
main has certainly seen his share. Well,
the story that I am going to tell
you is one Of the later Of these ad-
ventures, though forget the exact year
which it happened. At any rate know that
it was the only one of his trips upon which
be took his son Harry (who is since dead)
with him, and that Harry was then about IA.
And now for the story, which will repeat
as nearly as I 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.
''Gold miningn he broke in. "Ah, yes; I
once went gold mining at Pilgrims Rest in
the Transvaal, and it was before that that
We had business about Jim-Jim and the
lions. Do you know its Well it is-or was
one Of the queerest little places you ever saw.
The town itself was pitched in stony valley,
with mountains all about it, and in the mid
die Of 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 couple of miles or so to the top
- T $Io
grass and look out over the glorious stretch
Of country-the 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
Kafirs 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 pick or Of a washing trough
became hateful to me. A hundred times O.
day lamented my own folly in having in
vested eSCO, 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 a claim out
Of which man had made fortune-e5, 900
or $4,000 at least-as I thought, very cheap;
that is, had given him $500 down for it.
It was all that had made by rough
years elephant hunting beyond the Fam
besi, and I sighed deeply and propheti-
cally when l saw my successful friend, who
was 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-iti Is magnificent prop
erty, and only hope chat my luck will be as
good as yours has BEEN He smiled; to my
excited nerves it seemed that he smiled om-
inously, as he answered me in a peculiar
Yankee drawl: 4 guess, stranger, as amt
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, we'll, 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 OF
the truth, guess she's about worked out!
II gasped; the fellows effrontery took my
breath out of me. Only five minutes before
he had been swearing by all his gods-and
they appeared to be numerous and mixed
that there were half dozen fortunes left in
the claim, and that he was only giving it up
because he was downright weary of shovel
ing the gold out.
"'Don't look so vcxed, stranger went on
my tormentor, perhaps there is somc shine
in the old girl yet; any way you arc down.