San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-02-07

Tried 10 DO so, ana she seized a dead
stick and struck it so heavily on the head
that it fell senseless. Thrice Stella made
an attempt to escape, for sometimes even
Hendricks giant strength waned and she
had to set them down. But on each &C.
casion she caught them, and it was in
these struggles that Stella'S clothes were
50 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
supply wound round her waist, beneath
Stellas 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 hethought her of letting fall her
handkerchief in the faint hope that some
searcIIcr might see it.
BY this time lIendrika was on tree,
and grunting 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 lIendrika above, aid
ed by other balloons, put out all her great
strength and pulled the two of them up
the rock. IWic" Stella swung heavily
against tue cliff. After the second blow
she felt her scI.arS going. and WAS con-
summed with terror lest she should drop
T"ta. Bat she managed to cling to her,
and to-";.:"r they reached the cliff.
"From that time" Stella went on. Il
remember no more till | woke TO find
| myself in Il gloomy cave resting on a 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 III my arms, and half dead from
terror; her moan, were pitiful to hear. |
spoke to llendrika, imploring her to re-
lease Us; but either She had lost all under
standing of human speech, or she pre-
tended to have don" 50. All She would
do was to CIrcSs me, and even kiss NV
hands and dress with eXtravagant signs
of affection. AS she did so, TOta shrunk
and S2rn'i 50 sav&gely at the child that
| feared lest she was going to kill her.
diverted Ter attention by making signs
that | wIl:.rd water, and this she gave
me i'll wooden bowl As you saw, the
cave va 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 l 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 l saw her glaring at
Tota, and | knew that the childs MUIR
der was only matter of time. Proba-
bly, within a few hours she would be
killed before my eyes. OF escape, even
if | had the strength, there was abso-
lutely no chance, and little enough of
our ever being found. No. we should
be kept there guarded by a mad thing,
half ape, half woman, till we persisted
miSerably. Then thought of you, dear,
and of all that you must be suffering,
and my heart nearly broke. | could
only pray to Col that | might either be
rescued or die swiftly.
AS prayed, dropped into a kind of
dOZo from utter WEAKNESS, and then |
had the strang2St dream. | dreamed
that lndaba-zimbi stood over me nod
ding his white lock, and spoke to me in
katfir, telling me not to be frightened
for you would soon be with me, and that
meanwhile must humor Hendrika, pre-
tending to be pleased to have her near
me. The dream was so vivid that |
actually seemed to see and hear him. as
see and hear him now"
Here looked up and glanced at old |
lndaba-zimbi, who was sitting near But |
it was not till afterwards that | told |
Stella of how her vision was brought |
about
"At any rate" she went on, when
I