The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1890-05-28

that it fell senseless. Thrice Stella made
an attempt to escape, for sometimes even
Hendricks giant waned and she
had to set them down. But on each oc-
casion she caught them, and it was in :
these struggles that Stella's clothes were
SO torn.
At length before daylight they reached
the cliff, and with the first break of light
the ascent began. Hendrika dragged
them up the first stages but when they
came to the precipitous place she tied
the strips of hide, of which she had a
supply wound round her waist, beneath
Stella's arms. Steep as the place was
the balloons assembled it easily enough.
springing from a knob of rock to the
trunk of the tree that grew on the edge
of the crevasse. Hendrika followed
them, holding the end of the hide rein
in her teeth, one of the balloons hanging
down from the tree to assist her ascent.
1t was while she was ascending that
Stella bcthought her of letting fall her
handkerchief in the faint hope thatsome
searcher might see it.
By this time Hendrika was on a tree.
and granting out orders to the balloons
which clustered about Stella below. Sud-
denly these seized her and little Tota,
who was in her arms, and lifted her from
the ground. Then Hendrika above, aid
ed by other balloons, put out all her great
strength and pulled the two of them up
the rock. Twice Stella swung heavily
against the cliff. After the second blow
she felt her senses going, and was con-
will 1oc% IL, H. 4
Tota. But she managed to cling to her,
and together they reached the cliff.
''From that time" Stella went on, 81
remember no more till | woke to find
myself in a gloomy cave resting on bed
of skins. My legs were bound, and Hen
drika sat near me watching me, while
round the edge of the cave peered the
heads Of those horrible balloons. Tota
was still in my arms, and half dead from
terror; her means were pitiful to hear
spoke to Hendrika, imploring her to re-
lease us; but either she had lost all under
standing of human speech, or she pre-
tended to have done so. All she would
do was to caress me, and even kiss my
hands and dress with extravaganza signs
of affection. AS she did so, Tota shrunk
away closer to me. This Hendrika saw
and glared SO savagely at the child that
feared lest she was going to kill her. /
diverted her attention by making signs
that wanted water, and this she gave
me in a wooden bowl AS you saw, the
cave was evidently Hendricks dwelling
place. There are stores of fruit in it
and some strips of dried flesh. She
gave me some of the fruit and Tota a
little, and made Tota eat some. You
can never know what went through,
Allan. | saw now that Hendrika was
quite mad, and but little removed from
the brutes to which she is akin, and over
which she has such unholy power. The
only trace of humanity left about her
was her affection for me. Evidently her
idea was to keep ME here with her, to
keep me away from you, and to carry
out this idea she was capable of the ex-
ercise of every artifice and cunning. In
that way she was sane enough, but in
every other way she was mad. More
over, she had not forgotten her horrible
jealousy. Already saw her glaring at
Tota, and l knew that the child's muir
der was only a matter of time. Proba-
bly, within few hours she would be
killed before my eyes. Of escape, even
if l had the strength, there was abso-
lutely no chance, and little enough of