Willmar tribune., 1902-04-09
. > The q 3 Q
Lost Continent
BY CUTCLlFFE HYNE.
Pub by Harper Bros. Copyright 1901, BY Cutcliis 1a
CHAPTER XV.-CONT1NUED.
Pub hy Harper Bros Copyright 1s BY Cutoliis Hyaa

Indeed, I will own plainly that did
but sorry credit to my training in
calmness that night. But she lay in
my arms cold and nerveless as y
corpse, and by degrees my sober wits
returned to me.
This was no place for either of us.
Let the earth's tremors cease (as was
plainly threatened), let daylight come,
aud let few of these nerveless peo-
pie round recover from their panic,
and all the great cost that had been
expended might be counted as waste
We should be seen, and it would not
be long before some one put name
to Nais; and then it would be an easy
matter to guess ut Deucalion under
the beard and the shaggy hair and
the Drowned nakedness Of the. savage
who attended on her. Tell of fright?
BY the GODS, was scared as the veri-
est trembler who blundered among
the dust-clouds that night when the
thought came to me.
It was hard to find directions: it
was hard to walk in that inky dark
ness over the ground that was tossed
and tumbled like frozen sea; and as
the earth still quaked and heaved, it
was hard also to keep footing. But
if I did fall myself score of times.
my dear burden got no bruise. and
presently I got to the skirts of the
square and found street knew. The
most venomous part of the shaking
was done, and no more buildings fell,
but enough lay sprawled over the road
way to make walking into climb.
and the sweat rolled from me as I
iabored along my way.
There was no difficulty about pass
ing the gate. There was no gate.
There was no wall. The gods had
driven their plow through it, and it lay
fiat, ard proud Atlantis stood as de-
fenseless as the open country. Though
I knew the cause of this ruin, though
in fact I had myself in some measure
incited it, I was almost sad at the
ruthlessness with which it had been
carried out. The royal pyramid might
go. houses and palaces might be lev-
eled. and for these I cared little
enough; but when saw those stately
ramparts also filched away. there the
soldier in me woke, and I grieved at
this humbling of the mighty city that
once had been my only mistress.
But this was only a passing regret,
q mere touch of the fghting-man's
pride. I had different love now, that
had wrapped herself round me far
deeper and more tightly. and my duty
was towards her first and foremost.
The night would soon be past, and
then dangers would increase. None
had interfered with US so far, though
many had jostled us as I clambered
over the ruins; but this forbearance
could not be reckoned upon for long.
The ,earth-tremors had almost died
away, and after the panic and the
storm, then comes the time for the
spelling.
All men who were poor would try to
seize what lay nearest to their hands,
and those of higher station, and any
soldiers who could be collected and
still remained true to command, would
1uthlessly stop and strip any man they
saw making off with plunder. I had
no mind to clash with these guardians
of law and property, and so I fed on
swiftly through the night with my
burden, using the unfrcquented ways,
and crying to the few folk who did
meet me that the woman had the
plague, and would they lend me the
shelter of their house, as ours had
fallen. And so in time we came to
the place where the rope dangled
from the precipice, and after Nais had
been drawn up to the safety of the
Sacred Mountain, put my leg in the
loop of the rope and followed her.
Now came what was the keenest
anxiety of all. We took the girl and
laid her on a bed in one of the houses,
and there in the lit room for the first
time I saw her clearly. Her beauty
was drawn and pale. Her eyes were
closed, but SO thin and transparent
had grown the lids that one could al
most see the brown of the pupils be-
meath them. Her hair had grown to
inordinate thickness and length, and
lay as cushion behind and beside her
head.
There was no flicker of breath;
there was none of that pulsing of the
body which denotes life; but still she
had not the appearance of ordinary
death. The Nais I had placed nine
long years before to rest in the hol-
low of the stone was a fine grown
woman, full-bosomed and well-boned.
The Nais that remained for me was
half her weight. The old Naisit would
have puzzled me to carry for an hour;
this was no burden to impede grown
man.
In other ways too she had altered.
The nails of her fingers had grown to
such great length that they were
twisted in spirals, and the fingers
themselves and her hands were so
waxy and transparent that the bony
core upon which they were built
showed itself beneath the flesh in
plain dull outline. Her clay-cold lips
were so white that one sighed to re-
member the full beauty of their car
mine. Her shoulders and neck had
lost their comely curves, and made
bony hollows now in which the dust
of entombment lodged black and
thickly. E.i-
Reverently I set about preparing
those things which if all went well
would restore her. L heated watertand
filed a bath, and tincturedS it heavily
with those essences of the life of
beasts which the priests extract and
store against times of urgent need
and sickness. I laid her chin-deep in
this bath, and sat beside it to watch,
maintaining that hath at "a constant