The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1900-06-09
DICK RODNEY:
Or. The Adventures of
An Eton Boy. 5
ny JAMES GRANT !

BY JAMES GRANT,


its neck, lying dead, with a bullet in it's
throat.
He brought it to the hut, where the
wound was cut open and the bullet
extracted. 1t was small, and had evil
IDENTIFY been fired from a pistol: this
event caused the most exciting specu-
l%ations, amid which the carcass vas
hastily buried, as none of us would eat
of it.
What or who could this person be?
were the prevailing questions; and
what was his reason for %concealing
himself from us, In the thick woods of
the island?
In the thorough exploration Of the
latter, caused by these episodes, u
people fortunately discovered a fine
grove of banana trees, and returned
laden with their yellow and luscious
fruit.
At the same time Tattooed Tom
found some letters Gin a foreign lingo"
as he said, cut on the face of a steep
rock, overhanging the river, which
- AASo VIZ ooCdu at liz DSdCh. IL
this rock he conducted Hislop and me
the next day, and after tearing aside
some masses of creepers and scraping
Off a rich coating of moss, we found
this old legend on the smoothed face of
the basalt:
Ell Noble Caballero, D. Alphonso de
Albuquerque;
A. D. 1906.
Rvgven a Dios por ell"
THE year of the discovery Of the is
land!" said Hislop.
Have other eyes ever seer this in
scription since?" added l.
TT is very doubtful. This Alphonso
also discovered the Albuquerque Rays,
as he named the three islets which lie
off the Mosquito shore in the Carib-
bean sea-"
Hislop copied the inscription in to
his notebook, and just as we turned to
leave the spot a large stone, about
sixty pounds in weight, came crashing
down the cliff, hurled, apparently, from
its summit, and, if SO, by no inexpert
e"HN " A. SIl y Tx IOth VI IlC
legend within a foot Of where Hislop
stood, and was shivered into a hun
dred pieces, covering him over with
dust.
Had it struck him instead, he had
been slain and mangled on the spot.
Had a fragment broken any Of his
limbs. in how miserable a plight would
he have been on that desolate island,
without proper shelter or surgical aid?
Looking up to the summit of the
cliff, which was about a hundred and
fifty feet in height, l perceived among
the dense fringe of wild gourds shrubs,
leaves and plantain trees, then waving
in the wind, something like a human
face, that, after peering wei at us, was
suddenly withdrawn.
THAT stone was never d~islodged,
either by goats or by accident" said
Hislop; there is not a vestige of clay
upon the fragments-besides, all the
face of the cliff is smooth and solid
rock!"
"And it is the only place we did not
overhaul yesterday, Master Hislop,"
said Tom Lambourne.
"Then there must be the thief of
our biscuits-of our goats"
"Of our stun'sail boom and my old
guernsey. Let US have all hands
turned up for a hunt again." exclaimed
Tom.
l now mentioned what I had seen.
"a man!-do you think it was a
mans head?"
81 can not be certain, Hislop," said
I; "it seemed a face of some kind, and
a very hairy one, too"
ut might be an old pumpkin" sUg-
gested Tom, in his matter-of-fact way.
COR a goat-at all events, it could
not have been a baboon!" said l.
"No. no; there is nc such animal
hereabouts, Master Rodney" replied
Tom.
MAN or monkey, goat or devil, we'll
overhaul the place this very after
noon" exclaimed Hislop, with increas-
ing energy, and anger; "but first we
shall return with all expedition to The
hut.