The record-union., 1897-01-17
THE TOMB AMONG THE PINES.

shooting in Thibet."
"Well,' Jack Carteret said, 4 have
been a wanderer ON the face Of the
earth for eighteen months, and |
thought it was time for a taste of civ
iliEation again.
Come along up to my rooms, then
and tell me all you've been doing since
l saw you"
We had been great friends at Cam
bridge in spite of many differences be-
tween US; he was a fair haired giant
and double Blue" while | was never
much good in a boat or on the football
| field. But the laws which govern friend
| ship are strange, and ours had been a
| close one, though l had not seen him
since our last night together in his
rooms in Clare two years before.
so you have been buried among these
musty old books all this time he said,
when we were settled in the chambers
where I vainly waited for briefs, while
/ have been after bear in the Rockies
and moufflon in Thibet, and elephants
had after all, was in the Danube coun-
try"
| What was it 2" / asked.
| w Gil, L IoIuly llhe W ltil dliS OIiG,
he answered. for l shouldn't be in any
hurry to believe it myself. But I'll risk
it with you, for you krpw me better
than most people. First of all, what
do you make of this? You We're a
swell at the classics in the old days,
and I never could do much with them.
you know.
| He took out a pocketbook, from
which he carefully brought yellow
strip of parchment with some faded
letters in pale ink.
| You're the only man that's seen it
yet he went on, Except Lindsay.
Did you ever hear of him-Oswald
Lindsay, a painter? l met him out in
Moldavia, and he was in at this ad-
venture with me. He thought it was
some kind of Greek, but he couldn
make it out; perhaps it has something
to do with what happened. See if you
can read it, and then I'll tell you the
story
| l looked at the parchment closely; it
was a thin strip, with letters faint but
perfectly legible, except the last, where
a dull red stain ran across the end.
Yes" l said, 'it is certainly Greek,
but some of the characters are peculiar
L. looks to me like the Etruscan-G Greek
writing, and if so, it must be consider
ably over 1900 years old. How on
earth did you get it? Do you know
what it means?"
mo, that's why I showed 1T to you. -
"Well, it is a Greek verse, and a
rather strange one. 1t means. HE who
kisses me is mine forever"
| ssCroat ba ,,,1rt{arod. go nj
he very nearly was, poor beggar"
What ON earth do you mean?"
asked. Whoever wrote this-if it's
genuine-has been dead at least twenty
centuries"
We'll, you know I'm not scholar
enough to forge it, and I'll tell you how I
got it. Three months ago / was shoot
ing in the Danube country, right away
| from all towns, UP among the forests
| and gorges. OF course 1 had a guide,
a clever beggar who could patter away
in all the tongues of those parts, Czech
and Bulgar and Rornany and all the
rest. He told me lots of their legends
| queer tales about devils and We're
| wolves and vampires-at which I used
| to laugh; but, by Jove! I've given up
| laughing at that kind of thing. Oh, you
| may smile your cynical smile here, in a
| civilized Christian country, with the
| hum of London in your ears; wait until
| you get out into a savage land where
| they still keep healthy belief in a very
| personal devil.
| Then l came across Lindsay, paint
ing in the Oarpathians and we got very
| friendly. He wasn't a bit of a sports
man, you know-a dreamy poetical
kind of fellow-not at all my sort. you'd
| fancy; but ones heart always goes out
| to an EngliShman away in an outland-
| ish country. So one day / thought |
would have a day off shooting, and go
out with him; he talked awfully well
| when he was painting. We went with
out guide, for he knew the way to the
place he was going to paint II was a
grand scene, about five miles from the
| nearest village, a mountain stream
| tumbling down a narrow gorge, boil
ing and foaming in its twisting rocky
| channel, and pine-clad cliffs on each
side rising steep and high from the
rivers edge. He painted hard till about
| :, when we had lunch, and then the
light had changed and it was too hot
to go back for some time so we smoked
and talked, and finally fell asleep under
the trees.
| Il suppose we We're both fairly tired
for we must have slept good time:
when 1 woke the sun was beginning to
go down. a chill wind sighed through
the pines. and black clouds swept
threateningly across the sky. We
started off through the woods at a good
rate, but the storm came quicker. first
| a n 10, l.;
the dead leaves, and then as if the very
heavens had opened. I never saw such
rain out of the tropics; it fell in sheets
of solid water 50 that we could not see
a yard before us, but we could only
Srope biindly among the trees for shell
ter The thunder and lightning We're
SIMPLY awful; it was Like great pits OF
fire suddenly opening in the sky. Very
soon we were hopelessly lost, drenched
to the skim and bruised with stumbling
among the trees.
AT last the storm seemed to abate a
little, and the flashes became less fire.
quent, and we found ourselves. strain.
ing our eyes through the gloom. on the
edge of what looked to be a small
clearing IN the forest. In front we could
dHniy make out a looking rock
oVergrown with creepers, about twenty
feet high. when suddenly there came q
binding blue flash and a deafenine
roar the lightning leaped across o1r,
eyes and the air was heavy with q
choking sulphurous smell There we
crouched in the drenchng rain, hardly
daring to move while for another half.
hour the jagged lightning hurled across
: the black sky, and the thunder Doomed
and beloved among the ravines Their
the storm ceased, almost as suddenly
as 1t began, and the full moon stole ol,t