The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-07

I stone-hours Of effort in which be toiled
. Liked a mailman. Then the night again,
| with It's lead sleep and brsakage into happy
Z dreams and hideous swaking.
TN the third day, on T. sudden, light, and
thinning Of the forest. and a wild break
lng iato a space comparatively OPEN II
I his throat. parched IS Il was by thirst and
I torn with shouting. could have given forth
[ the sound. he would have called aloud for
/ Joy u see the blessed sun again. Every where
I about him were signs Of the late presence
I OF man Tn every hand the trees were
I ring-barked, and the underground had been
burned away. The gray skeleton monsters
I ranged before him in uncOunted thousands,
! and dssolate as the prospect was, he hailed il
/ In has heart as il he had been lifted straight
! from hell to heaven.
! HIS JOY was but short lived, for the mid
I day sun struck down on him with a heat
which seemed intOlersble to his weakened
/ frame, and before an hour was over, he was
faln TO rest In the shadow cast by one
Scared and ruined trunk, and there realized
/ the fact that be was as lost, and as far way
/ from the chance of rescue as before
| Every where the gray skeletons writhed be-
| fore him In an infinite monotony Of variety
| To his tevered fancy the leahsss arms
| mopped and moved 10 thousand
! grotesque attitudes Of Difference and be-
| seeching-menace and defiance. Here a
/ fire-scarred monster lifted two great writh-
ing arms of bony white as il the torment
of its burning had left it fixed in that pos
ture OF agoDized death, and there another
| dropped Its skeleton limbs in the sheer hor-
ror OF despair. and a third seemed fixed in
| some wild attitude Of the dance, and every
| one about him, far as his bloodshot eyes
could see, took some human semblancs.
But IL the scene were dreadful in midday
to mind and eye distempered by great
| suffering, what YVES it in the night time,
w ar hn k-roI TT.,., i
down on that great desert of dead timber.
and every knot, and wart, and elbow took
| some tendish, animal or human.
shape. Then every desolate trunk Knocked
| at his miseries with a score of impassive
faces; loftily serene, sedately scornful,
grotesque with devilries and animalisms un-
! speakaDle ;gap-mouthed, with eyes hidden in
wrinkled daughters. hoggish, doggish, fiend-
lsh; moonlit hell peopled with such tribes
OF scorn, Indifference and 'mockery as never
| eye beheld, or horrOr-ridden fancy dreamed
of till that hour.
The spirit which could have endured the
mockery of this desolstion was never
clothed in clay. In the course of that long
night the mans reason toppled from its
place, aud the rising sun looked down upon
raving madman, VINO struck attitudes 70
Initiate the twisted tortures of the tree
trunks, and grinned and gibbered at the
faces which derided him from all their knots
and wrinkles. And yet through every
thing the love or life remained, and he
| staggered on not knowing whittier his foot
steps led him. At length the final phase of
the lost bushman's madness fell Upon him.
Wild with thirst and frantic
with long fears, he began to
travel round and round. and to disrobe
himself as he went. He tore of his tat.
tered shirt and cast it to the ground, and
pausing hundred yards later threw away
his undervest. Five minutes later boot
was thrown away, and little later yet its
fellow followed it. So piece by piece he
parted with his raiment, stumbling round
in his DEVILS circle all the while, and at last.
stark naked, lay down to wait for death.
CHAPTER VII.
There was a noise of wind in the trees.
and sound of running water near at hand.
de seemed to have heard both for hun
dreds of years and to have waited in an
sgonized impatience until some invisible
bar between his aching forehead and the
cool air, and his thirstIng lips and the
water, should be- removed. A voice had
been talking monotonously all the while
for hundreds and hundreds Of years. It
was maddening to think that any human
creature should have been near him
through all that dreadful lapse Of time and
should have done nothing TO relieve his
pain. There was weight upon his limbs.
clog upon his tongue, and he could neither
move nor speak. He was muffied in thick
darkness, but he knew that light was
somewhere near, though, like the fresh air
and water, it was barred for him. The
voice went on in a monotonous hollow
murmur level and remorseless His own
miseries, and the callous indifference of the
talking fend so pricked him that he broke
through his own heavy lethRrgy and
groaned aloud.
The voice stopped suddenly and after a
pause somebody said:
1.-The bloke's thirsty again. Where's his
tipple"
He heard faint splashing noise as If a
vessel had been dipped in water, and a while
later, he felt his head raised by a strong
arm, and the cool wet rim Of a pannikin
touched his burning lips. He drank
greedily. The arm gently withdrew itself
and allowed his head to fall back into his
former attitude. He savored the after
taste of the draught doubtfully. Why should
any one bring him cold tea in the middle
OF this inhOspitable desert? His eYelids
weighed like lead, but he contrived to raise
them for an instant. A gush of light daz-
zled him. and his eyes involuntarily closed
again. Everything went preternaturally
quiet, and he either slept at once or
swooned into INCONSISTENCIES. When he
recovered himself after what seemed an
enormous interval of time, the noise of the
WIND In the trees, and the bubble of tho
running waters, and sound Of the level
1nonotonous voice. were all twined together
as before. He felt faint curiosity as to his
whereabouts and his surroundings, but was
too tired and careless to crafty it by a
look. he felt no bonds, but was sure that
he was bound, for be could not move SO
much as dngor, though he made an idle
experiment in that direction. Something
within himself said very lazily and feeble
that it didn't matter. The woven noises
of the water, and the trees, and the voice
had grown TO be pleasant and restful, and
in while they made a sort Of lullaby for
him. They slipped away and returned again,
and when this had happened twice or thrice,
they left him altogether, and he fell into a
deep and dreamleSs sumber
1t was daylight when he awoke again,
and the first thing of which he was con-
scious was an odor of frying, which was
peculiarly grateful TO his nostrils. Some
thing fizzled briskly In pan close at hand,
and the sound and the scent together were
so appetizing that he tried to lift up his
head aud look about him. He abandoned
the effort with a groan, but his eyelids
seemed less heavy than they had been the
night before, and he took cognizance of the
place he lay in.
The light streamed in through the open
doorway and showed him the interior walls
of hut. roughly built of the trunks Of
sapliugs, and rooted with sheets OF CORFU
gated zinc. The earthen floor was bare,