Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-03-12
CHAPTER I.

bs Of my old friend, Allan Quarter
main, or Hunter Quartermain, as we
used 20 call him In South Africa. de
told il to me one evening when L was
stopping with him at the place be
bought 10 Yorkshire. Shortly after that
the death Of his only son so unsettled
him that he Immediately LETT England,
accompanied by two companions, who
were fellow vOyagers or his, Sir Henry
Curtis and Captain Good, and has now
utterly vanished into the dark heart or
Africa. he is persuaded that white
people, OF whom he has heard rumOrs
all his life, exist somewhere on the
highlands In the vast, still unexplored
interior, and his great ambition Is to
find them before he dies.
This is the wild quest upon which be
and his companions have departed, ana
from which I sbrewdly sus01St, 49,
never will return. One lSeeD-oDIr. 49,
u received from ~ oIJ sentiemaD
NsR@aVirom a 49, 1ns s., Vlo stgb Dtb 1
Tana, 49, on the east coast, about
three hundred miles north Of Zanzibar.
In IL he says they have gone through
\ many hardshiDs and adventures, butare
y alive and well, and have found traces
which 60 far toward making him hope
that the results OF their wild quest
might be a magnificent and uneX-
ampled discovery" ! greatly fear,
however, that all he has discovered Is
death, for this letter came a long while
ago, and nobody has heard a single word
of the party since. They have totally
vanished.
1t was on the last evening OF my stay
at his house that he told the ensuing
story 10 me and Captain Good, who was
dining with him. lie had eaten his din
ner and had drunk two or three glasses
of old port just 70 help Good and myself
20 the end OF the second bottle. 1t was
an unusual thing for him 70 do, for be
was a most abstemious man, having con
ceived, as be used 10 say, great horror
OF drink from observing It's effect upon
the class OF men-huuterS, transport
a riders and Others-amOng whom he had
passed so many years Of his life. COnse-
Quently the good wine took more effect
on him than IL would have done on most
men, sending a little flush into his
wrinkled cheeks and making him talk
more freely than usual.
Dear old man! / can see him now as
he went limping up and down the vesti-
bule, with his gray hair sticking up To
scrubbing brush fashion, his Shriyeled,
yellow face and his large dark eyes that
= were as keen as any hawks and yet soft
IS bucks. The whole room was hung
with trophies Of his numerous hunting
expeditions, and be had some story
about every one OF them, X only you
could get him 10 tell them. Generally
he would not, for he was not very fond
OF narrating his own adventures, but to-
night the port wine made him more
communicative.
"Ah, you brute" be said, stopping
beneath an unusually large skull OF
lion, which was fixed just over the man
tel-piece beneath long row OF guns, its
Jaws distended to their utmost with.
sAh, you brute, you have given me a
lot OF trouble for the last dozen years,
4 2Rd-will, suppose, 70 my dying day. "
'Teri-Crs the yarn, Quartermaln, SAID
Good. ''You have often promised TO tell
me, and you never have.
''You had better not ask me 10, ne
answered, "for il is longish one.
''Al right" / said; ''the evening Is
Young, and there is some more port.
Thus adjured, he filled his pipe from
lar Of coarse cut Boer tobacco that
was always standing on the mantel-
niece. and still walking up and down
the room began:
1T was, / think, in the March OF
, 1869 that was up in the SlSukunl $
countrv. Ii was Just after old SeQuatfs
time and Sikukuni had got into power
II forget how. Anyway l was there.
had heard that the BaDedi people had
cot down an enormous quantity Of ivory
from the interior, aud so I started with
wagon load of goods and came
straight away from Middleburg to try
and trade some Of 10. II was a risky
thing 10 90 into the country so early on
account of the fever, but 1 knew that
there was one or two others after that
lot Of ivory, so I determined TO have a
try for 10 and take my chance Of fever.
had got so tough from continual
Knocking about that I aid not set it
down for much. Well, / got On all right
for awhile.
at is a wonderfully beautiful piece
of bush veldt, with great ranges OF
mountains running drought IL and
round granite peoples starting up here
and there, looking out like sentlnels
over the rolling waste of bush. But II
is very hOt-hOt as a stewpan-and when
was there that March, which OF
course is autumn In that part Of Africa
the whole place reeked Of fever. Every
morning as trekked along down by the
Olipphant river l used 20 creep out OF
J the wagon az dawn and look out. But
there was no river to be seen-Only a
long line OF pillows of what looked like
the finest cotton or wool tossed mp light
with a pitchfork.
ait was the fever mist. Out from
among the scrub, too, came little Spirals
of vapor, as though there were hun
dreds OF tiny fires alight ia it-reek ris-
ing from thousands OF tons OF rO.ting
vegetation. 1t was a beautiful place,
but the beauty was the beauty OF death.
and all those lines and blOts OF vapOr
wrote one great word across the sur
face OF the country, and that word was
fever
/ II had trekked from dawn till eleven
O'clock long trek-but l wanted to
y get on, and then had the oxen turned
out 10 Craze, sending the vOOrloOper TO
look after them, meaning 10 inSpan
again about six o'clock and trek with
the moon till ten. Then / got into the
wagon and had a good sleep Till half
mast two or so in the afternoon, when l
got M and cooked some meat and had
nv dinner, washing it down with pam
/ njkin Of black cotIee-fOr 10 was din
cult TO get preserved milk in those days.
lust as had finished and the driver, a
man called Tom. was washing up the
things, in comes the young scoundrel Of