Evening star., 1896-08-22

I had rot been mistaken. The wagons
We're there. drawn to one side of the road
and there. too. In the full light of the
blaze were eight or ten dark, turbaned
ngures, standing or lying. their dark faces
fixed in terrified establishment their white
eyeballs cleaning and startled at the ap-
parlt1cn as 1 swept out of the shadow
ABOVE and plunged into that below them
one sharp. astonfshed cry, that sounded
like wall. was all that I heard, and then
l was past them and the road gaped be-
fore me like the entrance Of some black
cavern. For some moments 1 held nv
bullet or at least to hear the report of a
gun. 1 did neither. The glow that follow
ed me died away. I had passed the out
post and was free.
1t had been a near thing and II WAS
some time before had fully recovered my
self. By the time / could think calmly
once more Of what lay before me 1 felt
that / must have put several miles ba
tween me and the spot 1 had made splen-
did progress, and now the road was clear
ly visible in the new white light that filled
the eastern sky-the moon was rising. BY
its light / could see that the forest through
which 1 had been passing had changed its
character. The stately trees had for the
most part given place to tall clumps Of
bamboo. graceful, dropping palms of
dozen sorts. and great plumed masses Of
jungle grass that bent and trembled in the
scarcely perceptible night breeze 1t flash
ed into my mind that must have reached
the great gorge of which had heard such
tales. With the thought a cold feeling
passed down my spine. and involuntarily
l threw quick. startled glance over my
shoulder-tigers,
rush of blood that tingled ali over me
from head to foot, and I shook myself to
throw off the feeling, which 1 knew to be
one of fear: 1 partly succeeded. but 1t was
creepy still. The moonlight on which
had been congratulating myself so heartily
only a few moments before, seemed now
to make 1t worse. The gray, livid light
had something about 1t that was surely
ghastly: the little trembling shadows that
were thrown by the gray clumps and
palms suggested something alive: there
was something ghostly in the whisper of
the night air through the leaves. AS the
thought passed through my mind / start
ed hardly knew why, but yet started
and again that cold shiver ran down INV
limbs There was nothing to be seen
nothing. that Is. but the moving panorama
heard but the soft sigh Of the night wind
listened! Listened with the intensity
which Is impossible except In moments
when the nervous tension is almost too
ly something-there must have been-I
knew 1t, though I could see nothing and
couldn't even fancy I had heard any sus-
picious sound.
Yes. There was something-some-
thing that was net so much alarming
as strange-a soft, low, rustIing sound
that was not the movement of the tall
bamboos, nor the whisper of the breeze
in the jungle grass. My heart stood still
onIv doI RSment none H. e9, i was for moment
through my veins in a fiery tide 1 didn't
think, but I knew that my one hone of
escape lay in the speed Of my bicycle. I
fattered myself that l might do wonders
II / chose on a track but no racing tranb
could possibly have held out such a nrize
as was before me now.
1 bent forward over the wheel. I strained
each nerve and sinew to its utmost tension
and still each nerve and fiber of nv body
seemed to listen. could hear 1t stillNswift
stealthy. untiring. cruel as death, it seemed
to Hit through the tungle-a sound-only a
soft brushing sound, but more terrible in
its stealthy Quietness than the loudest and
most startling noise. On! On! The slope