Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-06-29
SH E..
A History Of Adventure.
BY H. RIDER HACCARD. !
" CONTINUED }

fecting on the Mysterious stone work,
made no direct reply.
"A country ike Africa. said, ii
sure to be full OF the relics of long deaC
and forgotten civilization. Nobod,
knows the age of the Egyptian civilization
and very likely it had oGshoots Their
there are the Babylonlans, and the PH~-
uicians. and the Persians, and all manner
of people. all more or less civilized, Il
saw nothing of the Jews whom everybody
wants nowadays 1t is possible that
they. or any one of them, may have had
colonies or trading stations about here
Remember those buried Persian cities
that the consul showed Us at Kilwa.
Quite so, said Leo but that is mol
what you said before.
"Well, what is to be done now | ask
ed, turning the conversation,
As no answer was forthcoming we pro
ceeded TO the edge of the swamp, aud
looked over IT, 1t was apparently bound
less, and vast focks Of every sort of water
fowl came flying from its recesses Till 1t
was sometimes difficult TO see the sky.
Now.lhat the sun was getting high, il
drew thin sickly looking clouds of poison
Gus vapor from the surface of the marsh
aud from the scummy pools of stagnant
water
Two things are clear to me, said,
addressing my three companions, who
stared at this spectacle in dismay, first:
that we cau't 90 across there" Il pointed
70 the swamp, land secondly, that if we
stop here we shall certainly die of fever. W
"That's as clear as hay stack, said
Job.
Every well then; there are two alter.
natives before US One IS to bout ship,
and try and run for some port in the
whale.boat, which will be a sufficiently
risky proceeding and the other to sail or
row on up the river, and see where we
come to "
81 don't know what YOU are going to
do" said Leo, setting his mouth, but |
am going up that river.
Job turned up the whites of his eyes
and groaued, and the Arab murmured
"Allah" aud groaned also. As for ne, |
remarked. sweetly, that as we seemed TO
he between the devil and the deep sea,
it did not much matter where we went.
But in reality was as anxious to pro
coed as Leo. The colossal negros head
and the stone wharf had excited my
curiosity to an extent Of which | was
secretly ashamed and | was prepared 10
crafty it at any cost. Accordingly, hav-
ing carefully fitted the mast, restowed the
boat. and got out our rifles, we embarked
Fortunately the wind was blowing on
shore from the ocean, so we were able 10
hoist the sail Indeed we afterward
found out that as general rule the wind
sets on the shore from day break for some
hours and off shore again at sunset, and
the explanation thai. / offer of this that Is
that when the earth is cooled by the dew
and the night the hot air rises, and the
draught rushes in from the sea, till the
sun has once more heated it through. At
least that appeared to be the rule here.
Taking advantage of this favoring wind,
we sailed merrily up the river for TIN &c or
four hours. About midday the sun grew
intensely hot and the stencil drawn up by
it from the marshes which the river drains
was something awful, and caused US in
stantly to swallow precautionary doses of
quinne. Shortly afterwards the breeze
died away altogether, and as rowing our
heavy boat against steam in the heat was
out Of the question, we were thankful
enough to get under the shade of group
Of trees-a species Of willow that grew
by the edge of the river, and lie there and |
gasp till at length the approach of sunset
put period TO our miseries Seeing what
appeared to be an open space of water
ahead of us, we determined TO row there |
before settling what to do for the night. |
Just as We were about to loosen the boat, |
however, beautiful water buck, with
horns curYing forward, and a white trip
across the rump, came down TO the river
to drink, without preceving Us hidden
away within fifty yards under the willows
Leo was the first TO catch sight of it, and
being an ardent sportsman, thirsting for
the blood Of big game about which he
had been dreaming for some months, he
instantly stlffened ali over, and pointed
like setter dog Seeing what was the
matter, handed him his express rifle, at
the same time taking my own.
Now. then, | whispered, mind you
don't miss.
"Missp he whispered back, contemp.
tously; II could not miss it if / Ued.
lie lifted the rifle, and the roam }rcolored
buck having drunk his I'll, "a Aped his
head and looked out across the rvl 1r. lie
was standing right against the sun BET sky
On a little eminence or ridge Of kround
hat ran across the swamp, evideStly q
avorite path for game, and tberet was {
very beautiful about him |
apOi ba roac xritb hfv |