Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-02-15


Sheep cried Thrackles. where
did they come from?"
Golden Horn / suggested. Ere
member that wide, empty deck for
ward? They carried sheep there"
The men separated, intending fresh
meat. The affair was ridiculous. These
sheep had become wild as deer. Our
surrounding party with its silly barred
knives could only look after them
open mouthed as they skipped nimbly
between its members.
Get gun off the old man, Mr..
Eagen," suggested Pulz, land We'll
have something besides salt horse and
fish"
l nodded.
We continued. The island was like
this as far as we went. When we
climbed Il ridge we found ourselves
looking down on spider web OF other
valleys and canyons Of the same ma
ture. all diverging to broad downs
and Il jump into the sea. all converginS
to the outworks that guarded the vol
cano with its canopy of vapor.
higher country and the heads of the
canyons until we found ourselves look
ing down on me valley and DR.. Scher-
merhorn's camp. The steam from the
volcanic. blOwholes swayed below us
Through its riffs we saw the tops Of
the buildings. Presently we made out
Percy barrow. dressed in overalls, his
V.-,1 y TO-
tort He walked. very preoccupied.
to one of the miniature craters, where
he knelt and went through some opera
ton ipdistinguishable at the distance.
looked around to see my companions
staring at him fascinated, their necks
craned out, their bodies drawn back
into hiding. In a moment he had fin
ished and carried the retort carefully
into the laboratory. The men sighed
and stood erect, once more themselves.
AS we turned away PerdOsa voiced
what must have been i'll the minds of
all
"a man could climb down there"
said he.
why should he want to-" 1 de
HlaDueu Sharply.
"Quien sabe?" shrugged he
We turned in silence toward the
beach. Each brooded his thoughts.
The sight of that man dressed in over
alls. carrying on some mysterious bust
ness, brought home TO each of us the
fact that our expedition had an OBJ
ject as yet unknown to us. The
thought had of late dropped into the
background. For my part / had been
so immersed in the adventure and the
labor and the insistent need of the
hour that had forgotten why | had
come. Dr. Schermerhorn's purpose
was as inscrutable to me as at first
What had | accomplished?
The men. too, seemed struck with
some such idea. There were no yarns
about the campfire that night. Percy
Darrow did not appear. for which
was sincerely sorry. His presence
might have created Il diversion For
some unknown reason all my old ap-
prehensions. my sense of impending
disaster, had returned to me strength
ened. In the freight the nigger's
sullen face looked sinister, Pubs merry
Gus white couutenance looked vicious
/ Thrackles' heavy, bulldog expression
/ was threatening, Perdosa's Mexican
cast fit for knife work in the back
! And Handy Solomon, stretched out
leaning on his elbow, with his red
headGear his snaky hair. his hook
nose, his restless eye and his glitter
| ing steel claw-the glow wrote across
his aura the names of Kidd, Morgan
Blackboard
They sat smoking. staring into the
fire with mesmerized eyes. The ST
lence got on my nerves. arose i'm
patiently and walked down the pale
beach, where the stars glimmered il
splashes along the wettest sands. The
black silhouette of the hills agains
the dark blue of the night sky, the
white of breakers athwart the indis
tinct heave of. the ocean, faint ligh
marking the position of the LAUGHING
Lass-that was everything in the
world I made out some object roll
ed about in the edge of the wash. A
the cost of wet feet l rescued it.
was an empty brandy bottle.