The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1890-05-10

When got near the graveyard me,
one of the natives, who, by my orders,
had been set round the kraals to watch
the place, and noticed that he was rub
bing his eyes and yawning. Clearly he
had been asleep Iasked him if he had
seen his mistress, and he answered that
he had not, which under the circun.
stances was not wonderful. Without
stopping to reproach him, ordered the
man to follow me, and went on to the
graveyard. There, OH Mr.. Carson's
grave, lay the dropping flowers which
Stella had been carrying, and there in
the fresh mold was the spoor of Tota's
veldschoon, or hide slipper. But where
were they?
Iran from the graveyard and called
aloud at the top of my voice, but no an.
swer came. Meanwhile the native was
more protitably engaged in tracing theil
spoor. He followed it for about a hun.
dred yards till he came to clump OF
mimosa bush that was situated between
the stream and the ancient marble quar-.
ries just above the waterfall, and at the
mouth of the ravine. Here he stopped,
and heard him give startled cry. ]
rushed to tho spot, passed through the
trees, and saw this. The little open
space in the center of the glade had been
the scene of u struggle. There, in the
soft earth, were the marks of three hu.
man fcet-two shod, one enaked-Stclla's
Tota's and Hendricks. Nor was this ALL
There, close by, lay the fragments of the
two dogs-they were nothing more-and
one balloon, not yet quite dead, which
had been bitten i'll tic throat by the
dogs. All round us was the spoor OF
numberlcss balloons. The full horror OF
what had happened flashed into my mind
My wife and Tota had been carried of
by the balloons. AS yet they had not
been killed, for if SO their remains would
have been found with those of the dogs.
They had been carried off. The brutes.
acting under the direction of the woman.
monkey, Hendrika, had dragged them
away to some secret den, there to keel
them till they died-or kill theml
For moment literally staggered be.
meath the terror of the shock. Then
reused myself from my despair. l bade
the native run and alarm the people al
the kraals, telling them to come armed,
and bring me guns and ammunition. He
went like the wind, and l turned to fol.
low the spoor. For few yards it was
plain enough-Stella had been dragged
along. could see where her heels had
struck the ground; the child had, pre-.
sumcd, been carried-at least there were
10 marks of her feet. AT the waters
edge the spoor vanished. The water was
shallow, and they had gone along in it
or at least Hendrika and her victims
| had, in order to obliterate the trail
could sec where moss grown stone had
been freshly turned over in the water
bed. ran along the bank some way uI
the ravine, in the vain hope of catching
a sight of them. Presently l heard a
bark in the cliffs above me; it was an.
swered by another, and then saw that
scores of balloons were hidden about
among the rocks on either side, and were
slowly swinging themselves down to bal
the path. To go on unarmed as l was
would be useless. should only be torn
to pieces as the dogs had been. So
turned and fled back toward the huts.
| AS drew near could sec that my mes
scngcr had reused the settlement, for
natives with spears and kcrries in Their
hands were running up towards the
kraals. When reached the hut l met
old lndaba-zimbi, who woro a very seri-
GUS face.
$50 the evil has fallen, Macun,azahn, ,
he said.
SIT has fallen," answered.
"Keepa good heart, Macumazahn, :" he
said again. "Sle is not dead, nor is the
little maid, and before they die we shall
find them. Remember this, Hendrika
loves her. She will not harm her or al
low the babyans to harm her. She will
try to hide her away from you-that is
ALL"
"Pray God that we may find her."
groaned. "The light is going fast"
"The moon rises in three hours" he
answered. 1--WE will search by moon.
light. 1t is useless to start now; see, the
sun sinks. Let us get the men together,
eat and make things ready. Hamba
gachle. Hasten slowly, Macumazahn.
AS there was no help took his advice.
l could eat no food, but packed some
up to take with us, and made ready
ropes and a rough kind of litter. If we
found them they would scarcely be able
to walk. Ahl if we found them! How
slowly the time passed! 1t seemed hours
before the m,on rose. But at last it did
rise.
Then we started. In all we were about
hundred men, but we only mustered
five guns between us, my elephant roer
and four that had belonged to Mr.. Car.
| son.