Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-02-09
A TALE OF THREE LIONS.
BY H. RIDER HAGGARD.

He has gone back to the wilderness now, a
these old hunters almost invariably do, Of
one pretext or another, They cannot endur
civilization for very long, its noise and racke
and the omnipresence of broadclothed hu
mainly proving more trying to their nerve
! than the dangers of the desert i think tina
they feel lonely here, for it is a fact that
too little understood, though it has Otter
been stated, that there is no loneliness Like thu
loneliness of crowds, especially TO those wh'
/ are unaccustomed to them
what is there in the world,n old Quater
main would say, $50 desolate as to stand il
the streets of great city and listen to thu
footsteps falling, falling, multitudinous a.
the rain, and watch the white line of face.
as they hurry past, you know not whence
you know not whittier. They come and go
their eyes meet yours with a cold stare, fol
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
lsh into the unknown, taking their secrets
with them. Yes, that is loneliness pure and
indebted; 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 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 sllirmishers, 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 TANKS.
ooh, 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 Cod" and, though this is a saying
that might well be disputed, it is one am
sure that anybody will easily understand
who has watched the sun rise and set on the
hmitless, deserted plains, and seen the thun
der chariots of the clouds roll in majesty
across the depths of unfathomable sky.
| Wen, at any rate he went back again, and
now for many months 1 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, | saw
great deal of old Allan Quatermain. had
known him years before in Africa, and after
! b. came home, whenever / had nothing bet
ter to do, l 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
| We're.
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 adj
ventures though / forget the exact year
| which it happened. At any rate l 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 A.
And now for the story, which 1 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.
'Gold miningl" he broke in. 'Ah, yes;
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 it? 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 # 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 Countrywide 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
| 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
tho consequences. had bought claim out
of which a man had made fortune-e5, 900
or $4,000 at least-as | thought, very cheap;
that is, had given him $500 down for it.
| 1t was oil that / had made by o rough
J years elephant hunting beyond the Fam
best, and ! sighed deeply and propheti-
| cally when | 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-'it is magnificent prop
| erty, and only hope that my luck will be as
good as yours has been.' He smiled; to my
excited nerves it seemed that he smiled ON
inously, as he answered me in a peculiar
Yankee drawl: L guess, stranger, as l amt
the one to make man quarrel with his food,
more especial when there amt no more go
! 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 Of
| the truth guess she's about worked outp
! 81 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
bee use he was downright weary of shovel.
| ing the gold out.
"'Don't look SO vexed, stranger went on
my tormentor, perhaps there is some shine
/ in the old girl yet; any way you are down
right good fellow, you are; therefore you
viii, guess, have real Al, old jam, plate
! glass opportunity of working on the feelings
/ of Fortune ANY way it viii bring the
muscle up on your arm, for the stuff is I'M
/ common stiff, and what is moro, you will in
/ the course of a year earn sight more than
/ $1,000 in value of experience
ssAnd he went Just in time, for in another
/ minute / should have gone for him, and |
/ saw his face no more