The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1904-04-02

inspiring presence of our only lady.
Our manners had distinctly improved
under her short regime, and our con
yersation sometimes bordered even on
brilliancy,
Suddenly, in the midst of our jests
succession Of piercing screams from
the direction of the klOof. and through
the open window saw vision Of Ser
geant Jones running swiftly past,
while the blare Of an agitated bugle
call intimatCd surprise. We hut
ricd from the table, to find the men
hastily assembling in obedience to the
call and were informed by one. Pri-
va-e ,Iago with all the asperity Of a
blignted existence, that While Ser.
eeant Jones had been fooling with
that deccitful girl. a troop of balloons
had swoopcd down, upset the peram-
buiator, and carried off the neglected
baby.
This was horrible. Our baby-our
pet Buffles-at the mercy Of brute
apes. Mrs. Murdo stared with terri
fed incredulous eyes at the empty
perambE!ator the sobbing girls and
The pcnitent and bewildered Jones. In
hot haste, armed search parties were
started off on the Spoor of the baD-
0ons. but the darkness was gathering,
their traces soon became indiStin-
auishable, even their direction was
lost and after a few hours the baffled
rursuers began to straggle back to the
fort. bitterly lamenting their failures.
1t has fallen to my lot 10 remain
behind. and in the absence of her hus-
band, perform the painful duty OF
comforter to Mrs. Murdo. Her agony
of mind was pitiable; she stood hour
after hour at the gate-a slim, glrllsh
figure in her white dresS-watchIng
in dry-eyed, stony grief for the re.
turn of the rescuers. AS the men
came in ,one after another, and Buff
fles was reluctantly abandoned for the
night to the gruesome perils of the
bush and the balloons, she paced up
and down. wringing her hands in an
inconsolable anguish of tears.
MY darling baby, my darling boy;
what will Jeff say? On, what will jeff
say?'
The arrival of Captain Murdo was
hourly expected; the kraal he had
gone to visit on a diplomatic mission
to the chief was fifteen miles distant;
he would be certain to wait for the
coolness of the night and the rise
Of a waning moon before returning.
1t was near midnight. the search par
ties had all returned. elaborate plans
for Systematically securing the Will
Gerness at the first CLEAN of daylight
were being discussed and arranged,
and | was deputed to ride off to the
nearest kraals and obtain the valuable
assistance of the Katfirs. | hoped to
meet Murdo on the way and be able
to break the tidings to him. My or
derly brought round my horse, and
rode away at a hard gallop, making
for fountain, landmark about half
way on my proposed journey. | reach
ed it without seeing or hearing a llv-
ing thing. and dismouted for few
moments to slacken the girths and let
my good animal regain his wind and
dip his muzzle in the water. The
fountain was in the centre of dark
clump of trees: outside. the veldt was
lit I'D by a pale moonlight; the lone
illness of the place was weird, the
silence OF the solitude quite awe-in-
spring.
A creepy feeling, almost OF fear,
came over me when saw man on
foot, and in his shirt sleeves, carry
ing a dark bundle and advancing
stealthily towards the clump. He
walked around it in circle, peering
upwards among the trees apparently
in search of something. To my ut
ter astonishment l recognized the
man as Captain Murdo. Presently he
stopped beneath a branch, pulled it
downwards by the twigs, then care
fully deposited his burden in the fork,
let the branch rise again. and started
running swiftly back in the direction
from which he had come.
I was momentarily too astonisned
and hesitant to call after him or make
my presence known; so impatiently
awaited events. There was soon the
sound of pounding hOofs, and he rode
up. his bay stallion Sultan fighting
for his head and bounding about in
a great state of excitement and fright.
His rider urged him toward the
clump. the big horse snorting with
rage. and as they passed under. the
branch Murdo. who was a splendid
equestrian, rose in his stirrups. clever
" snathced the bundle from the fork
gave Sultan his head, and sped away
at a stretch gallop homewards. ! was
after him like a shot. but a mile or
two Of veldt swept under us before my
shouts arrested his attention, and he
reined up.
!. JEFF" I gasped out, "Jeff-bad
news-awfully sorry, old man-Buf-
fes is lost, our baby, our dear baby,
carried off by baboons. Mrs. Murdo
is frantic-everybod at the fort heart
broken. We've done everything we
could-I was on my way to put the
kaffirs to work when l saw you per