The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-05

darkness a fiaring torch, and then an
I other and another. BY that glare the
/ lads, now lying on their faces, peering
! IN terrified curiosity, saw that beneath
them jutted into the lake a rocky, flat
topped point of land, moss grown. on
+ whose preciptious edge stood rude
altar, broad, rough stone, and fling
out on that plateau came many men,
black and naked, each bearing one OF
the torches, except a few who carried
the instruments of music.
None of these weird figures uttered a
Sound, but round and round the outer
edge of the plateau they began TO
move in step and time, gradually
quicker, as the music walled more
loudly, until at last they were all sway
ing IN the swift motions of a dance
wherein their shadowy forms twined
IN and out and about and circling In
serpentine curves. For a long time
that lasted, the dance becoming at last
a OewilderinS maze of limbs and
torches. The music then ceased of u
sudden, and the dancers stopped with
It, standing mOJiOnlesS in a ring about
the edge, their torches aloft. From the
blackness of the woods there came
into the circle a solitary man clad ali
IN white. His back was to the friends,
and they saw that he was tall and lean
and white-haired. his locks hanging
thickly on his shoulders. while round
MS neck hung a thick chain or great
comforter Very slowly and with state
( illness Re stepped to the center. and
then. as suddenly as it had ceased, the
barbaric music began again. and the
dancers commenced. But now they
chanted hymn SO wild. so savage and
delivered with such frantic motions
that 1t seemed a triumph of devils In
they closed With dash on the center
hgure; back they rushed with a shrill
howl; in and back, and round and
round, their torches always harfng.
their arms and legs a tangled maze as
they twisted in endless chains but the
white-robed old man stood firm and
motiOnless.
The Puritan-bred boys from staid
Boston town shut their eyes and grip
ped each others hands at this horrid.
savage sight. They were oppressed as
with nightmare, and il would have been
relief TO scream out had they dared.
The sweat ran from them. and the
closeness Of the night scarce allowed
them TO breathe. As though to add to
their despalrinS sense of being aban-
doned TO powers Of evil the rumblingS
of distant thunder muttered angrily
amid the mountains, and. if it We're not
their fevered fancy, a tremOr shook the
earth.
a shout more excited and prolonged
than any previous ones from the dane
ing negroes forced them to look uD.
The savages had fallen back and the
old man, alone again in the center. drew
quickly the thick chain from his neck
and held it uD. and behold IL writhed
and twisted and Kissed in the air. and
was huge serpent, and the dancers
fell on their faces and beat the ground
with their hands and groVeIed before it,
worshipinS their awful god
Justin and Oziel could not now with
r. . 1,T.sr-
motlonlesS with amaZemenC and horror.
when the old man turned about the
snake at arms length above his head,
so that his face, lighted by the glare of
torches was TO the lads 1t was white,
the face Of a white man. and gentle and
peaceful, with the sadness of one whose
memory and mind are gone. vet who
resignedly seeks to regain them It
was written in his vacant, yet troubled
eye, on his pathetic, questioning lips
That both lads saw at a glance. but
justin saw something more, something
he had not seen since days long ago in
another land when he smiled up at that
face with baby's Drattle. In all these
years he had remembered it as a dream
and now he recognized that look at
once.
Father" he called. and, rising 10.
dashed down the slope
At that call the face of the old man
trembled and he dropped the snake
and looked up with a CLEAN in his eye.
Father"
The old mans face opened, as if a
mask had been torn from it, and he
called back with a great shout:
My boy"
In an instant the torches were dash
ed out and the place was dark Justin
heard a tumult of angry voices as he
ran Then a gigantic black rose w
beside him and caught him up like a
child and bore him swiftly away into
the depths of the jungle.
ITO Pc Continued