Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-04-25
The Strange Story
OF
ALLAN QUATERMA|N'S WIFE.
BY 4. RIDER HAGGARD.
A NEW AFRICAN ROMANCE.

So lay and thought with heart full
of gratitude, and as l did so saw old In
daba-zimbi sitting by the fire and going
through some mysterious performances
with bones, which he produced. from his
bag, and ashes mixed with water. spoke
to him and asked him what he was about.
He replied that he was tracing out the
route that we should follow. | felt in
clined to answer ''bosh," but remember
ing the very remarkable instances which
he had given of his prowess in occult mat
tiers held my tongue, and taking little
Tota into my arms, worn out with toll and
danger and emotion, went to sleep.
| woke just as the dawn was beginning
TO flame across the sky in sheets of prim-
rose and of gold, or rather it was little
Tota who woke me by kissing me as she
lay between sleep and waking, and call
ing me papa" 1t wrung my heart TO
hear her. | got up, washed and dressed
the child as best | uld, and then we
breakfasted as we had supped, on biltong
and biscuit Tota asked for milk, but |
had none to give her. Then we caught
the horses and | saddied mine.
well, Indabazimbi," said, now what
path do your bones point to-"
ncy will be hard, but in four days we shall
come to the kraal Of white man, an En-
glishman, not a Beer. His kraaI is in a
beautiful place, and there is Il great
peak behind it where there are many ba-
bOous."
looked at him "This is all nonsense.
Indaba,mbi," / said. whoever heard
of an f Iglishman building a house in
these wilds, and how do you know any
thing about it? l think that we had bet
ter strike east towards Port Natal"
''As you like, MacumaZahn," he an
swered; but it will take us three months
journey to get TO Port Natal, If we ever
get there aud the child will die on the
road. Say, Macumazahn, have my words
come true heretofore, or have they not?
Did not tell you not to hunt the ele-
plants on horseback Did | not tell you
to take one wagon with you instead of
two, as it is better to lose one than two?"
You told me all these things" | an
swered.
And 80 tell you now to ride north,
Macumazahn, for there you will find
great happiuess-yes, and great sorrow.
But no man should run away from happi-
ness because of sorrow. AS you villas
you whip
A"ain looked at him. In his divina-
tiOns did not believe, but yet | came to
the conclusion that he was speaking what
he knew to be the truth. 1t struck me as
possible that he might have heard of some
white man living like hermit in the
willis, but preferring to keep up his pro-
phctic character would not say 50.
Very well, Indaba-zimbi," | said; ''let
us ride north"
Shortly after we started, the river we
had followed hitherto turned off in a
westerly direction, so we left it. All that
day we rode across rolling uplands, and
about an hour before sunset halted at a
little stream which ran down from range
of hills in front of us, BY this time | was
heartily tired of the biltOng, so taking my
elephant rifle-for | had nothing else
| left TOtl with Indaba-Zimbi, and started
to see if | could shoot something. Oddly
enough we had seen no game all the day,
nor did we see any on the subsequent
days. For some mysterious reason they
had temporarily left The district. | cross
ed the little streamlet in order to enter the
belt of thorns which grew upon the hill
side beyond. for there | hoped to find
buck
As did so, / was rather disturbed to
see the spoor of two lions in the soft, sandy
edge of II pool. Breathing hope that
they might not still be in the neiehbor-
hood, went on into the belt of scattered
thorns For long while | hunted about
without seeing ANYTHING. except one
dinkcr buck, which bounded Off with
crash from the other side of Il stone with
out giving me II chance. At length, just
rs it grew dusk, | spied a Petite buck,
graceful little alure, scarcely bigger
than a large hare, standing on II stone,
about forty yards from me. Under Or
diuarv circumstances | should never have
dreamed of firing Mt such a thing, eSpe-
cially with an elephant gun, but we were
hungry. So ! sat down with my back
against a rock, and aimed steadily at his
head did this because if | struck it in
the body the three-Ounce ball would have
knocked it to bits. At last | pulled the
trigger, the gun went Off with the report
of small cannon. and the buck disap-
peared.
| ran to the spot with more anxiety than
I should have felt in an ordinary way,
over koodoo or an Gland To nv delight
there the little creature lay-the huge
bllllti Utt'l 'lttt llltttlt'A H. NplSNlCIluH an
the circumstances do not think have
often made better shot than this, but
If any one doubts. let HIM try his hand at
a rabbits head fifty Yards away with an
elephant gun and a three ounce ball
picked up he Petite in triumph, and re
turned to the camp. There we skinned
him and toasted him over the fire. He
just made good meal for Us, keeping the
hind legs for breakfast
There was no moon that night, and so
# CHANGED that when | suddenly remem-
hered about the lion spoor, and suggested
that we had better tie up the horses quite
close to MS, we could not find them, though
we knew that they were grazing within
fifty yards. This being So we could only
make up he fire aud take our chance
Shortly afterwards | went to sleep with
little rota in my arms. suddenly | was
awakened by hearing hat peculiarly pain
full sound, the scream of horse quite
close TO the fire, when was still burning
brightly. Next second there came noise
of gallouiug hoofs, and before | could
even rise my poor horse appeared In the
ring of freight As in flash of light
ming | saw his staring eyes and wide
stretched nostrils. and the broken rein
with which he had been knee-haltered fly
ing IN the air. Also saw something else,
Tor on his back was a great dark form with
glowing eyes, and from the form came n
growing sound. 1t was a lion.
The horse dashed on. He galloped right
through the fire. for which he had run in
his terror-fortunately, however, without
trtIdinG on us-and vanished into the
night. We heard his hoofS for a hundred
yards or more; and then there was sill
ence, broken now and again by distant
growls. As may be imagined, we did
not sleep any more that night. but waited
anXiousiy till two hours later the dawn
broke
As soon as there was sufficient light we
rose, and, leaving Tota still asleep. crept
cautiously in the direction IN which the
horse had vanished. When we had gone
fifty yards or So we made ont his remains
lying on the veldt, and canght sight of
two great Cat-like forms sinking away in
the gray light.
To go any further was useless; we knew
all about it nov, and we turned 20 look
for the other horse. But our cup Of mis-
fortune was not vet full. Ii was nowhere
to be found. Soon we came upon its
spoor, and then we saw what had hap
pened.
Terrified by the sight and smell of the
lions, it had with a desperate effort, also
burst the rein with which it had been
s.uee-haltered and galloped far away
For now we were left alone in these