The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1909-03-12

ana tne creature IN u 860ro BE-
low. What vas ny horror to see .
moon. huge. siivery. riae like . bubble
from between his angers. mount high
| er. higher into the still air and hang
aloft In the midnight sky. while an
other moon rose from his Angers. and
another and yet another until the vast
span OF Heaven vas set With moons
and the earth sparkled like . diamond
In the white glare.
A great wind begaa to blow from
the east and it bore to our ears
long mournful howl cry 10 I'M
earthly that for . moment our hearts
stopped.
The Yeth-hounds!" sobbed Ysoude;
do you hear!-they are passing
through the forest! The Kin II near"
Then all around Us in the dry sedge
grasses came . rustic ~ II some small
animal were creeping. and Q damp
acrid Odor nlled the air. knew the
smell. l saw the spidery. crab-like
creatures swarm out around me and
drag their soft yellow hairy bodies
across the shrinking grasses. They
passed. hundreds Of them. poisoning
the air. tumbling. writhing. crawling
with their blind. mouthless heads
raised. Birds. half asleep and con-
fused by the darkness, nuttered away
before them In helpless night; rab-
bits sprang from their forms, weasels
giided away like flying shadows. What
remained Of the forest creatures rose
as,l AAA
l heard the squeak of q terrified hare.
the short stampedinG Of q deer and the
numbering gallop of q bear; and all
the time was choking. half sufY0cated
by the poisoned air.
Then, as I struggled to free myself
from the silken snare about me, cast
a glance Of deadly fear at the sorcer-
er below. and at the same moment I
saw him turn in his tracks.
Halt" cried voice from the
bushes.
"Barris!" l shouted. half leaping up
In my agony.
l saw the sorcerer spring forward.
l heard the bang! bang! bang! of
revolver. and as the sorcerer fell on
the waters edge, l saw Barris jump
out into the white glare and fire again.
once. twice. three times. into the
writhing figure at his feet.
Then an awful thing occurred. Up
out OF the black lake reared a shadow,
a nameless. shapeless mass. headless,
stghtless, gigantic. gaping from end
to end
| A ufr por bo
fell. another washed him up on the
pebbles. another whirled him back into
the water and then-and then the
thing fell over him-and tainted.
This, then, Is all that know con.
corning Yue-Laou and the Kin. l do
not fear the ridicule of scientists or of
the press for I have told the truth.
Barris 10 gone and the thing that killed
him is alive to-day, in the Lake Of the
Stars, while the spider-like satellites
roam through the Cardinal woodS.
The game has ned. the forests around
the lake are empty Of any living crea-
lures save the reptiles that creep when
the Kin moves in the depths o! the
lake.
Gen. Drummond knows what he has
lost in Barris, and We. Pierpont and
I. know what we have lost also His
will We found in the drawer, the key
Of which he had handed me. 1t was
wrapped In . bit Of paper on which
was written:
Yue-Laou, the sorcerer, In here In the
Cardinal Woods. I must kill him or he
will kill me. He made and gave to me
the woman I loved-he made her-I saw
lotus bud. When our child was born. he
came again before me and deman deA
| from me the woman I loved. Then when
I refused, he went away. and that night
my wife and child vanished from my
side. and found upon her pillow a white
lotus bud Roy. the woman Of your
dream. Ysonde. may be my child. God
help you II you love her. for Yue-Laou
will Give-and take away as though he
were Xangi. which IL God. will kill
Yue-I.aou before I leave this forest-oe
| he will Kill me.
FRANKLIN BARRIS
Now, the world knows what Barris
thought Of the Kuen-Y YUM and of Yue-
Laou. see that the newspapers are
just becoming excited over de
glimpses that Li-Aung Chang has n.
forded them Of Black Cathay and the
demons of the Kuen. YUM. The Kuen-
, YUM are ON the move.
Pierpont and have dismantled the
shooting box in the Cardinal Woods.
We hold ourselves ready at a mo-
ment's notice to Join and lead the frst
government party to drag the Lake Of
the Stars and cleanse the forest of the
crab reptiles. But 1t will be necessary
that large force assemble, and we'll
armed force. for We never have found
the body Of Yue-Laou, and. living or
dead, fear him. ID he living?
Pierpont, who found Ysonde and
myself unconscious on the lake shore,
the morning after. saw no trace Of
corpse or blood on the sands. He may
have fallen into the lake. but fear.
and Ysonde fears, that he is alive. We
never were able to ind either her