Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-08-24
SHE:
A History Of Adventure.
by H. RIDER HACCARD. !
(xL CONTINUED )

plain, and was examining with delight
the varied beauty of It's semi tropical
flowers and trees, the latter of which grew
singly, or al most in cumps of three or
four, much of the timber being Of large
size, and belonging apparently TO IA variety
evergreen oak. There were also many
palms, some of them more than one hun
dred feet high, aud the largest and most
beautiful tree ferns that ever saw, about
which hung clouds of jeweled honey
suckers and winged butterflies.
Wandering about amoug the trees. or
crouchng in the long and feathered grass,
were all varieties of game from rhinocerOs
down. | saw rhinoccrOs, buffalo Ga large
herd, Gland, quagga, and sable antelope,
the most beautiful Of all the bucks, not to
mention many smaller varieties of game,
and three ostriches which scucded away
at our approach like white drift before
gale SO plentiful was the game that at
last could stand it no longer | had a
single. barrel sporting Martini with me il
the litter, the Express being too cum
bersome, and, espying albeauuful fat Gland
rubbing himself under one of the oak like
trees, / jumped out of the litter, and pro
ceeded TO creep as near to him as | could.
He let me come within eighty yards, and
then turned his head, and stared at me
preparatory TO running away. lifted the
rifle, and taking him about midway down
the shoulder for he was side on TO me,
fired. | never made cleaner shot or a
better kill in all my small experience, for
the great buck sprung right up into the air
and fell dead The bearers, who had all
halted to see the performance, gave
murmur of surprise-an unwonted compli-
ment from these sullen people, who never
appear to be surprised at anything, and a
party of the guard a: once ran off to cut
the animal up. AS for myself, though !
was longing TO have a look at him, !
sauntered back to my litter as though had
been IN the habit of killing Gland all my
life feeling that | had gone up several
degrees in the estimation Of the Amahaggcr
who looked on the whole thing as "A very
high-class manifestation of witchcraft.
As matter of fact, however, had never
seen an Gland in wild state before. Billall
received me with enthusiasm.
1T is wonderful, my son the Baboon,'
he crled-"wonderful Thou art very
great man, though so ugly Had | not
seen, surely would never have believed
And thou sayest that thou wilt teach me
to STAY in this fashion
Certainly, my Father, said, airily;
cit is nothing
But all the same, firmly made up my
mind that when my father Billali began
TO fire. | would without fail lie down to
take refuge behind a tree.
After this little incident nothing hap
pened of any note till about an hourt and
a half before shutdown, when we arrived
beneath the shadow Of the towering
volcanic mass that have already described
1t is quite impossible for me to describe its
grim grandeur as it appeared to me while
nv patient bearers toled along the bed of
the ancient water-course toward the spot
where the rich brown.clad cliff shot up
from precipce to precpice till its crown
lost itself in cloud. All | can say is that
it almost awcd me by the intensity of its
lonesome and most solemn greatness. On
we went up the bright and sunny slope,
till at last the creeping shadows from above
swallowed up its brightness. and presently
we began to pass through cutting hewn
in the living rock Deeper grew this
marvellous work, which must | should
say. have employed thousands Of men for
many years Indeed, how II was eyer
executed at all without the aid of blasting
powder or dynamite can not to this day
imagine. 1t is and must remain one OF the
mysteries of this wild land. can only
suppose that these cuttings and the vast
caves that had been followed out of the
rocks it pierced were the state undertah-
ings of the deople of Kor who lived here
in the dim lost ages Of the world, and; as
in the case of the Egyptian monuments,
were executed by the forced labor Of tens
of thousands q captives, carried on
through an indeh. lumber of centuries
But who were the people? AT last we
reached the face Of the precipice itself,
and found ourselves looking into the
mouth of dark tunnel that forcibly
reminded me Of those undertaken by our
nlneteeth century engineers in the con
struction of railway lines Out Of tins
tunnel flowed considerable stream of
water. Indeed. though | do not think
that have mentioned it, we had followed
this stream, which ultimately developed
into the river have already described as
winding away to the right from the spot
where the cutting in the solid rock com.
menced. Half of this cutting formed a
channel for the stream, and half, which
was placed on a slightly higher level
eight feet, perhaps-was devoted to the
purposes of roadway. At the termina-
ho ofV