Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-07

Mighty Shupersteetious."
Pleasant hole" said KislIngbury, as he
stumbled over bowlder and knee deep in
to an unobserved pool One OF the soldiers
appreciated the sarcasm, for he said. II
don't care to go in there, Ieftenant, an you
dent order me- So he left us, and our
party was reduced to three, the third men,
Der being Irish corporal of the 18th,
who announced: Il am so mighty shipper
steetious, just mustn't see ut out We
CROPPED and felt our way for probably half
mile and to another sharp turn. when
kslingbury. who was ahead, stopped Short
and in an awed whisper, said:
For heavens sake. look up there.'
Truly 1t was a weird thing that greeted
us around the bend. Fully 400 feet up the
side of the southern cliff, horizontal In
general direction, though zizzagged and
broken along it's width of four OF five feet
and its length of several hundred yards
ran glowing line of fire. As we watched
1t paled, and the wind died down. A few
moments brought another gust and another
awful glare. Now and again we heard dull
rumblings as of masses of earth falling
into great depths, and more rarely a faint
Kissing, as when little water is poured
upon a great bed OF Goals.
It's the grin Of the Lightning God, sure
enough, said the lieutenant at length his
tones hushed and a tride tremulous Il
don't wonder the Indians shun this place.
What in the world do you suppose it is7"
Before We could answer q particularly
angry wave Of wind roared down the abyss
and right over our heads streak of vivid
yellow scanned the dark frontal of the cliff.
The corporal gave yell and started back
We could hear him stumbling and falling
but running when he could for some time
and then again was silence, accented by
the wind means and the faint hissings.
"Vivid Serpentine Flash"
After while we got sufficiently accus-
tnr mod 70 thn
and speculate to its cause, but beyond
the suggestion that 1t was volcanic In orr
gin-which seemed absurd-we could not
reach a reason at all satisfactory. To say
We were not Unconstitutional perhaps
would be better word-would be to lie.
We were. The precedent knowledge that
the Indians dreaded the place, the conduct
of the usually fearless U-su-su-pi, the
gloom of the night and the shadows the
shrieks and means of the chilling wind
the CHASTITY recurrence of that angry glow
ing. fnexplicable blast of light-none of
these was conductive to calm reason and
temperate pulses. l thought Of Meredith's
lines:
"a vivid, vindictive and serpentine flash
Gored the darkness and shore it across with
CASH
1 quoted them and Kislingbury said:
"Oh, let UP on that; the things bad
enough as it is
Just then pack of coyotes on the north
erly brink let off conglomerate howl, and
we incontnently turned and fed, Kising-
bury m -tering something about .fnyesti-
gate in the morning"
When we reached camp we found
U-su-su-pi sitting In the shadows from the
campfire, with his head completely en-
shrouded In his blanket and singing In
low monotone what may not have been
I.acoath dirge, but neither was 1t we'd
ding march.
The corporal was telling his companions
In low tones about 1.-The domdest apporee-
shun me eyes liver WITNESSED" and the
general air Of the camp was lugubrious.
Lair Of the lightning God"
Morning brought nerve and instant de-
termination to solve the mystery. The read
er may have guessed the cause but we
did not until, after a long ride around
arroyos and over high bluffs. we reached
the brink of the canyon above the place Of
the nights queer spectacle.
Burning Ignite. by all that's queerp said
kislingbury, after we had climbed over the
edge in a possible place and could look be-
low US. And that is what it was All YES
tige of the inexplicable disappeared when
we made thorough examination. The re-
currence and subsistence OF the glare was
explained by the presence Of a thick
curtain of creeping plants and swing
ing vines-bare OF foliage for the
most part, but nearly opaque-which the
strong wind blew aside at will, while II
famed into brightness the smoldering car
bon of the vein. That the fire had been
burning for years-as are similar ones to-
day In the Dakota Bad Lands-was shown
by the masses of rock and earth which had
fallen. both from above and from below the
vein into the canyon beneath.
The explanation was prosac enough, of
course and we tried to make U-su-su-p
grasp its commonplaceness. But he would
not, simply shaking his head and saving
no good would come of our trespass into
the very lair of the Lightning God. 1 don't
blame him for his unbelief. In the bright
sunlight we were all brave enough but
none urged night repetition of visit into
the mysterious canyon of the Moreau