The record-union., 1896-02-08
WOURALI.
A TALE OF BRITISH GUIANA.


you like" said Mackay, "but tell you
that for a day and a night 1 have
known what it is to be dead
ooh, come, Mac, that's too much. The
Major has given US some pretty tall
ones, but we can't quite swallow that. !"
Perhaps" suggested the Major,
''Mackay refers to a state of alcoholic
saturation. I have heard
Shut up Major!" interrupted High
field. Don't be feeble"
"Oh, all right said Mackay. Only
you said it was my turn for a yarn; but
of course if"
Fire away, Mac; never mind the
Major; he's an unbelieving Jew when
his own tales are bested. Well believe
you. Observe the childlike innocence
of our countenances.'
Very well, then, you shall have the
yarn.
| 1T happened out in British Guiana.
Phil Egerton and I had been knocking
about that district in a yacht. Phil
| was bit of a scientist; had dabb1ed
| in the ologies when he was at Oxford,
and he found something to interest
| him in the shallow waters round the
coast The buckets of mud and Shiny
/ things he fished up weren't very ex-
citing for me, so put in a good deal of
time hanging round the bars and bill
lard rooms of Georgetown. Poker is a
| good game in the other hemisphere.
You fellows don't rise to its possibili-
| ties here.
Take you on at half-a-sov. ante
interrupted the Major.
mo, thanks, Major You've been
there, l know. bar you"
Il don't think I could mention the
place." continued Mackay, that I've
| spent more than a month in without
| contriving to make a fool of myself
| over some girl. She was a barmaid
this time, and, by Jove! she was pretty.
We called her The Queen and I never
knew her by any other name What
nationality she belonged to I don't
| Know. l think she had a dash of most
| of them in her, but English, Spanish,
| and Indian were perhaps the most
| prominent-English in business Span
ish in love, but pure undiluted Indian in
hate. 1t was a dangerous mixture, but
| you've no notion how fascinating /
wasn't by any means the only fellow
| who succumbed to her charms, but /
| believe | was the only one she cared a
| gin-cocktail about You'll admit that
| the position had its dangers. OF course
| knew perfectly well that l was MAX
ing an ass of myself, but 1 couldn't help
| it. The only thing for me to do was to
| bolt. If / stayed another week l should
| marry her, and then there'd be the
| deuce to pay.
Look here, Egerton,' / said one
night, you've got to take me away from
here. Leave those confounded weeds
OF yours and let's weigh anchor and be
Off.
What's the matter, Mac?' said Egg
| erton. Got the fidgets? I'm sorry, old
man, but I've discovered a new species
| among these said weeds, and 1 want to
work it up
We'll, Phil, my boy. if you won't
leave, you'll have to be my best man,
that's ALL
THAT frightened him a bit 1 told
him the whole story, and he saw there
was no time to be lost if / was to be
saved. Phil Egerton knew me pretty
we'll in those days.
" I'll tell you what we'll do Mae he
said. You know Wilson, the sugar
planter. He tells me there is some capt.
tai shooting to be had in the interior;
any amount of birds and a chance at a
stray jaguar or two. He's going to have
a month of it, and has asked me to join
him. We can take the yachts boat and
go up the Demerara until we strike the
woods. What do you say?'
Anything you like, so long as you
get me out of this mess
I'VE went in the morning and saw
Wilson about it. He was delighted, and
said he would start as soon as we could
get ready.
"Of course any sensible man in my
position would have had the common
prudence to employ the intervening
time in cleaning his guns and looking
out various odds and ends for the expe-
dition, but as I tell you, where women
are concerned, I'm not to be counted in
the class of sensible men. 1 went to see
The Queen, and naturally she wormed
the whole thing out of me.
Phil / said, when L got back, if
we can't start tomorrow we needn't
go at all. 1t would spoil the party if I
took wife with me-.
"'We'H start tonight, if you like,
Mac I'm ready; and if Wilson isn't, he
can follow us. But what's the hurry?
You haven't told her you're going, have
your
Il
do for me to stay here longer
"'We1l, Mac, of all the laundering
idiots it has been my privilege to know,
1 do think you're about the biggest
Why on earth couldn't you vanish
quietly and leave her - find out about
it afterward?'
I" I meant to, but when I started talk
ing to her, out it all came
"a rOCCaGqod won fo fharo at
all to-day?'
" oh, come, Phil, be reasonable. You
couldn't have kept away yourself, if
you'd been in my place
/" You had a scene, l suppose?'
Well, slightly She accused me of
wanting to get rid of her, trying to run
away, in fact; and as it was perfectly
true, fancy I didn't show up very well
in the argument that followed
Oh, you great bearded infant; put
your hat on and we'll go and see Wilson
at once
eve started next morning. I was feel
ing a bit hipped, of course. but the
others were jolly enough. AS think I
told you, Phil had a weakness for pot
tering about in scientific messes, and he
found kindred spirit in Wilson, whose
hobby was birds. 1t was really to get
some specimens that he had originally
proposed this expedition.
"By the way, Wilson, said Phil,
have you ever managed to get hold of
any cuTare?
.Curare? said Wilson. don't
know it; what is it?'
q Probably it has got some other
name out here. We called it curare in