Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-06-16

as well as theirs; but you forget that
if we reached Colombo without you, our
chances of remuneration would be dis
agreeably curtailed. You see, we are
not undertaking the adventure for chiv-
airy, but are selling our services for
vulgar currency
81 know it. Campignon,' Dunbar said,
.'but 1 have provided against such a
contingency. 1 have left your pay Sc
cured to you in the bank at Colombo
and enough to make these faithful fell
lows happy for the rest Of their lives in
case anything happened to me-"
For few minutes the Frenchman
walked on in silence Suddenly he
turned to Arthur and said, eagerly:
what made you tell me that? Have
you no fear that I should play you
false? What is to hinder me from
abandoning you in this wilderness?
Why, man, you cannot even speak
word of the native language, while I
could talk these natives into any plot
before your very eyes, and you be none
the WISER
ST know it, Campignon, but
''But?'
'sBut, trust myself to you without
thrill of misapprehension, for know
that though you would stoop to tricl1ery
and deceit in.small things, you will be
true as steel to the man who trusts you,
when once you have bound yourself to
follow his fortunes
Campignon's eyes glistened.
''And you have implicit confidence in
me-" he said, with tremulous tone
''Then, by the Lord, young man. you
shall never have cause to regret it.
There is prevalent idea that most
tropical forests TEEN with wild fruits,
which nature is supposed to produce
spontaneously. Nothing can be more
erroneous. 1t is true our adventures
sometimes found the gnava and katum-
bile, which served to slack their burn
ing thirst, the blacl1berrieS and the
acid goose berries, and very rarely the
sweet mora" which grows in grape
| like clusters, but none of these were
plentiful. The beautiful ''jambo' apple
hung temptingly over their heads, but
though it is exquisite in appearance,
being snow-white with pink bushes on
! it's side, they soon discovered that it
was vapid and tasteless-a Dead sea
| fruit But if the wild bushes did not
| pander to the sense of taste, they graft
! fed those of sight and odor, for on
| every side the most exquisite flowers
dropped, ladening the heavy air with
| their delicious perfume.
For five days the wearied men fol-
lowed the mysterious path, becoming
| hourly more exhausted with their toll,
| yet without having met with any adven-
ture worth recording. During the ex-
IRENE heat of midday and in the dark
ness which overshadowed them like a
| curtain before the moon rose, they
slept, stretched on light hammocks
which they hung to the branches of
trees.
1t was during one of these resting
spells that the first disaster of conse-
quence occurred. One among them had
been accustomed to watch over the
sleeper, the vigil beng shared in turn
by European and native. On this oc-
| casion Campignon had been on duty.
No noise had aroused the tired s1eepers,
yet when they woke it was to find the
Frenchman missing = the Frenchman
| and the dog. In vain they cried aloud
till the woods reechoed their voices; in
vain they fred off their rifles and
waited q response. The Frenchman
was gone from their midst, and, what
was worse, he had taken their best rife
and their dog with him.
''Oh, the false-hearted traitor! to
leave me like this for q few paltry
pieces of goldl'' Dunbar groaned, when
the natives who had secured the woods
returned after vain search He could
| not communicate TO them his sus-
picions. He could only sit upon the
trunk of a fallen tree and give way To
despair. Somehow his memory seemed
to be falling him; he forgot where he
was; the trees assumed fantastic shapes;
the rocks seemed to be perpetually
wheeling round, and his head was
heavy as lead. He had an indistinct
idea that he was falling, a blurred
vision of tawny ccolic twining his
arms around him, and lis senses failed
him utterly.