The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1892-06-02

lies some distance up this wooded
wilderness"
This being agreed upon, they put the
project into execution, and each man
carrying a rifle, pistols, n limited sup
ply of ammunition and few days ra-
tions, they turned their footsteps TO
the winding path, which led to un-
known dangers.
Every step they took was fraught
with peril. The forest and jungle were
alive with the distant cries of wild ami
mails, strange reptiles lurlscd in the
grass beneath their feet, and thou
sand smaller pests retarded their prog
ress and drove them nearly to madness
with their persistent annoyance. Thus
rnyriads of "eye flies" no bigger than
pins heads, half blinded them, any
every now and then one of the party
would have to stop 20 pour oil on some
tick or leech which had buried itself in
his flesh.
Oh, for one breath Of fresh air; one
drsught of clear water! Days Of burn
ing heat, nights rocking with malaria,
and not drop of 1uid for the parched
thront but the shiny water they got
from some stagnant pool, which they
could only drink after straining IL
through piece Of linen. and which
was warm and bitter to the taste, and
brought the strongest among them to
the threshold Of deaths door. And the
strongest among them was not Arthur
Dunbar, with his massive frame and
limbs of Hercules, nor the two M
tives who might have been expected to
endure the niserics with less suffering
than the Europeans; but Capt Cam
pignon, whose stout frame shranl from
the exposure, but whose tread was the
most elastic, and whose chccry words
animated his companions TO fresh eXer-
ton.
You bear charmed lifc," Dunbar
said to him, fretfully, one day. "As for
myself, I feel as though this cursed eli
mate was stealing my very manhood
from me. If we do not end our journey
soon there will be nothing left for me
but to lie down and die"
(which you must not think of do
ing" Campignon observed, with smile
which showed every one of his gleam-
ing teeth, ''for if anything happened to
you, what would become of these
brave fellows who are trotting along
with their tongues lolling out of their
mouths like dogs?"
"You would lead them back again,
suppose" was the weary reply.
"Assurcdly would for my own sake
as we'll as theirs; but you forget that
| if we reached Colombo without you, our
| chances of remuneration would be dis
agrecably curtailed. You sec, we are
not undertaking the adventure for chiv-
airy, but are selling our services for
vulgar currency"
II know it. Campignon," Dunbar said,
''but ! have provided against such a
contingency. 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 q few minutes the Frcnchman
walked on in silence. Suddenly he
turned to Arthur and said, eagerly:
"What made you tell me that? Have
you no fear that ! should play you
false? What is to hinder me from
abandoning you in this wilderness?
Why, man, you cannot even speak a
word Of the native language, while
could talk these natives into any plot
before your very eyes, and you be none
the WISER"
II know it, Campignon, but"
| "But?''
''But, trust myself to you without q
thrill OF misapprehension, for I know
that though you would stoop to trickery
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"
| Csmpignon'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. Il Is true our adventures
sometimes found the gnava and katum-
billie, which served TO slack their burn
ing thirst, the blaclsberries and the
acid gooseberrics, and very rarely the
sweet ''morra" which grows in grape
like clusters. but none Of these were
plentiful. Tho beautiful ''jambo" apple
hung temptingly over their heads, but
though It is exquisite In appearance,
being snow-white with pink bushes on
its side, they soon discovered that it
was vapid and tasteless-a Dead sea
fruit But Il the wild bushes did not
pander to the sense of,tastc, 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-
treme heat Of midday and in the dark.
ness which overshadowed them like o
curtain before the moon rose, they
slept, stretched ON li0ht hpmmocks