Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-11-03

guard, and that he had but five feet OF
space to cross before he reached me.
/ almost closed my eyes lest he should
be able TO see that was awake, breathed
deep and loud, inviting him to be at ease
and take his time, and narrowly watched
the dim shadow stealthily moving toward
me.
He stood beside me, paused for mo-
mcnt, muttering u native prayer, then
slowly bent over me- That was the last
ceremony. / knew the end was near,
but fought myself in vain for some sug-
gestion of self-defense.
He sank upon one knee, and his broad
shoulders came between me and the mar
row line of moonlight. / heard him
breathe with that hard. cultural rasp
which with the half-civilizcd is always
indicative of desperate earnestness.
even felt his breath against my face as he
bent lower over IL, piercing the shadows
with eyes that glistened even in the dark
ness, to assure himself that there was no
mistake.
Life may be short enough at some
times, but moment like that seems like
eternity. There was light enough il the
tent to see the simmer of the polished
blade he held, and fixed my eyes upon
it and watched it as never watched any
thing before or since.
Slowly it went up, up, up, into the
darkness. 1t could not go very high, for
he was kneeling. 1t would fall like
lightning when it turned, and he was
planning carefully to accomplish his work
without rousing a soul in the sleeping
caravan
The blade seemed to glow with pale,
electric light as it rose over me. There
were faithful servants sleeping not fifteen
feet away. Even at that moment, heard
one of them muttering in his dreams !;
but cry for help would only cause that
blade to fall the q ticker.
Inch by inch / saw the blue sheen ris-
ing, and in Imagination saw, too, the
sullen set of that savage jaw with its
lobeless ear, and the frightened muscles
of the arm that held the knife.
He was moving slowly, for he proposed
to be accurate and let that one blow do
1t all another instant and it would be
too late. | saw the blade give a little
shiver in the air as though he were chang
ing his grip. knew that every faculty
he possessed was centred in that arm and
upon my throat, and quick as thought
drew up my feet, caught him in the alb
domen and gave one kick, for life or
death, at the same instant throwing my
head away from him.
With savage yell the knife came
down. found it afterward, buried to
the hilt in my sleepingmat, just below
my pillow. His aim was excellent, only
that did not chance to be there when it
fell. At that moment, however, / was
much more interested in the result of my
life-saving experiment; for before the
yell had died away bright light flashed
in my face. For an instant it daZZled
me. The next / saw the blue black sky,
the flashing stars and the clear, white
moon, and realized that with the strength
of last extremity had thrown the huge
Kaffir off with such violence that he had
taken the tent and all with him.
Isprang to my feet to take advantage
of what had gained. The tent lay in a
pile few few feet away. Several sleepy
Arabs were thrusting their heads out of
their blankets; a camel opened his drowsy
eyes and looked over his shoulder, won
dering what had occurred to disturb his
sleep, but the Kaffir was nowhere to be
seen.
He could not possibly haze gone far,
but there was not sign of him anywhere.
1t would not do to try to sleep again
while he was in the neighborhood, but
while 1 rcvolved the eurious situation in
my mind, wondering who he was, where
/ had seen him, and what possible motive
he could have for killing me, / directed
an Arab who had gained his feet to help
me straighten out my tent.
We took up the loose ropes that were
dragged from the sand and began to
pull.
Was it caught upon something? l
stopped to investigate and started back.
The unconscious body of the giant Kaffir
was still rolled IN the tent-clo
He was too powerful man to allow us
to run any risks, and before invcstigat-
ed to see how badly he was hurt we
bound him hand and foot.
He revived during the operation, but
with the logged resignation to the mex
in the barbarian, he realized that he was
trapped and offered no resistance.
When he was we'll secured sat down
on the ground beside him and tried to
talk, but he was sullen. Indeed, / was
not sure that he understood what said,
for spoke in Arabic, knowing very
little of any South-African language.
At sunrise, however, when placed a
cup of coffee to his lips he looked up
sullenly, and in excellent Arabic asked
''Is it poisonedp
Laughed, drank little, and he drank
the rest.
'You had better kill me, " he muttered.
at is all you will ever get from me-"
'I'm not sure that care to take the
trouble replied, "till know why you
tried to kill me. You do not know me,
do you?"
A savage fire cleaned in his eyes for
moment, as he answered.:
"You are Add ell Ardavan. Oh, yes,
l know YOU"
"You evidently know my name, " / re-
piled, "but what do you know that
should tempt you to kill me? Why,
there are not Kaffirs enough in all Africa
to iniurc n hair on the head of Add ell Ar
davan. If you know me you must have
known that, too"
Such sentence does not bristle with
conccit when spoken in Arabic as it does
when put into English. 1t is IN Oriental
custom to blow ones OWL horn in that
fashion, and there was look of real
honest admiration in the Africans eyes
as he replied: