Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-10-05
SHE.
A History Of Adventure.
IBy H. RIDER HACCARD.
(XvI coNTINUED)

mutes hold the lamps On the wall sohnC-
thing was painted with red pigment IN
similar characters to those hewn beneath
the sculpture of Tisno, King OF hor'
This she proceeded to translate TO me, the
pigment still being quite fresh enough to
show the form of the letters.
Il Junis, a priest of the Great Temple
Of Kor, write this upon the rock IN the
wear four thousand eight hundred and
three from the founding of hor hor Is
fallen. No more shall the mighty feast
in her halls: no. more shall she rule the
world and her navies go out TO com
merce with the world kor is fallen; and
her mighty works, and all the cities OF
Kor. and all the harbors that she bullt ana
the canals that she made. are for the woi
and the owl and the wild swan, and the
barbarian who comes after. 1wenty-and
five moons ago did a cloud settle upon
Kor. and the hundred cities OF Nor, ana
ont of the cloud came pestlence that
slew her people. old and young, one win
another. and spared not. one with apoth'
er they turned black and died-the young
and the old, the rich and the poor the
man and the woman, the prince ana Tue
slave. The pestilence slew and slew ana
ceased not by day or by night, and those
who escaped from the pestllence were
slain of the famine No longer could the
bodies of the children of kor be preserved
according TO the ancient rites, because OF
the number of the dead; therefore were
they hurled in the great pit beneath the
cave. through the hole in the cave. hen,
at last. remnant of this great people the
hoht of the whole world, went down TO
the coast and took ship and sailed north
ward and now am |, the priest Junis' who
write this. the last man left alive out OF
this great city of men, but whether there
be any yet left in the other cities know
not This do | write in misery OF heart
before I die. because kor the Imperial is
no more. and because there are none 10 wor
ship IN her temple, and ali her palaces are
empty, and her princes and her traders ana
her fair women have passed of the face OF
the earth"
I gave sigh of astonishment, the utter
dissolution depicted in this rude scrawl was
so overpowering. 1t was terrible to THINK
Of this solitary survivor of mighty peo'
ple recording its fate before he, too, went
down into darkness. What must the Ola
man have felt as, in CHASTITY terrifying
solitude, by the light of one lamp ieeoIy
illumining a little space of gloom, he IN a
few brief. lines daubed the history OF his
nations death upon the cavern wall!
What a subject for the moralists, or The
painter. or. indeed, for any one who can
think
followed her to a side passage opening
ont Of the main cave, then down great
number of steps, and along an under
ground shaft that can not have been less
than sixty feet beneath the surface OF the
rock. and was ventilated by curious Dor
inps that ran upward, | do not know
where. Suddenly the passage ended ana
she halted. and babe the mutes TO hold up
the lamps. and saw such scene as anl
not likely to see again. Viewer standing
in an enormous pit, or rather on the edge
of il for il went down deeper don
know how much-than where we were
and was edged in with low wall OF roc *
So far as | conld judge, the pit was aoou'
the siz9 of the space beneath the dome OF
St Pauls; and when the lamps were helc
nm saw it was nothing but one vast char
mel house. being literally full OF thousands
Of human skeletons, which lay piled vi
in an enormous gleaming.pyramid, formed
bv the slipping down of the bodies IRON
the apex as fresh ones were dropped II
from above Anything more appalling
than this iumbled mass OF the remains OF
danarted race | can not imagine, ana VIVA
made it even more dreadful was that II
this dry air good number OF the podle
had simply become desiccated Win IN
skin of them. and now, fixed in ever.
conceivable position. stared at one out
the heaps of white bones, grotesqueiy hoi
rible caricatures of humanity. In ID.
astonIshment made an ejaculation, an
the echoes ofmy voice ringing IN the vault
ed place disturbed "a skull that had bee
accurately balanced for many thousand
Of wears near the apex of the pile. Dow
Il came with a run, bounding along meTl
w toward us, and ofcourse bringing a
avalanch of other bones after it, till at las
the whole place ratified with their move
ment. as though the skeletons were gettln
up TO greet us.
Come" said Il have seen enough
These are the bodies of those who die
of the great sickness, suppose? added
as we turned away
Yes. The people OF hor always en-
balmed their dead, like the Egyptians, b'
their art was greater than the arr of Il
Egyptians, because whereas the Egyptian
d,sembowled and drew the brain, the pc
ple of Kor injected fluid into the vein
and thus reached every part. But sta.
tbou shalt see," and she halted at hal
hazard at one of the little door.ways ope
-. -, Of the massage along which y