Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1910-07-08
CHAPTER XII.-(Continued.)

French and a base maceration of Ger
man were hurled at the black girls
ears. Meta pretended to understand
nothing Betty said to her. Tyoga was
absent, LIE Malheureux apparently had
disappeared into thin air, and Betty
was like a Gagged lioness. She was per-
mitted to wander through the castle,
for such the edifice proved to be, but
with Meta ever at her side. The ar
chitecture of the castle was of nom
descript type, and 1t was rudely fash
ioned of granite, moss and vine grown
and surrounded by parked gardens
filled with tropical foliage and flowers.
At the end of the gardens was a MAS
matte river, thickly green and vile of
odor, filled with rank reptiles and nau-
seous water plants. Beyond the river
stretched the desert, yellow and hard.
All this you could see from the upper
windows of the castle, farther than
radius of fifty yards around the por-
ticos Betty nor her handmaiden was
not allowed to set foot. Within the
castle was a small sandpacked court
with an asthmatic fountain and heat
wrung plants. There Betty and Meta
sat and Betty read the few books that
were available, tried to teach Meta to
dance and learned dances of her in re-
turn; tried. too, to learn Meta's gut
tural speech and failed sadly in teach
ing English to Meta. Which, along
happened as time went on, made Betty
fairly certain that Meta already spoke
English, or else understood it so per-
fectly that the girl was under instruc
tions to betray no familiarity with the
foreign tongue. A favorite game of
these two girls became a variation of
lawn tennis, native game, which they
played seated, hurling over a low net
celluloid balls OF light weight and gay
colorings.
The evening of the third day Betty
grew overwhelmed with such an un-
comfortable loneliness that she could
not help crying. Meta, who had just
brought her supper of cocoanut, fresh
ly cut mixed with pineapples and
guavas, a trussed pigeon, figs, dates,
and fell sobbing, too, and tried mar
ticulately to find out what she want
ed
"Tyoga, Tyoga!" walled Betty. Her
nerves were at breaking point and the
jackal who howled in the hills to the
north was Grazing her with his yowl-
Ing, and she was sick, so sick, of it
all, of the mystery, the silence, the
loneliness.
Meta hesitated and then ran away
like deer She came back troubled
after an absence of a quarter of an
hour or so. bearing in her hand a wax
fashioned slanting hand:
Tyoga cannot come to you yet. Will
you be patient but little longer? She
is very busy. She will try and come
In few mornings"
Betty took the tablet to bed with
her, telling herself that she was get
ting positively foolish.
Meta went along, caressing her as
much as she dared Betty began to
lose sight of the fact that Meta's skin
was black. She had already done this
with Tyoga. AS Meta aided Betty to
dlsrobe the slaves hand caught in the
slender chain of the little gold locket
that Betty wore always round her
throat, and snapped its links asunder.
Inc chain fell to the floor, and as it
nit the tiling the locket flew open,
disclosing Larry Morris face. Meta
picked it up, sighted the face and
girl-like, scented the trouble. She
gazed intently at Larry's counterfeit
presentment, studying 1t closely. Then
she nodded her approval and shook an
accusing finger at Betty. which moved
Betty to tears again.
Meta laughed, and with much sim
pering began to finger around within
the capacious flounces Of her striped
kilt. With much perspiration, and
with what might have been bushes on
fairer skin she finally produced an
odd little hand, painstakingly carved
from ivory with inlaid nails and veins
of gold She held this high for Betty
TO gaze at, then pointed alternately to
herself and Larry Morris picture with
such illuminating pantomlmes that
Betty Immediately estimated that the
ivory hand was tho troth sign OF Meta
and Of somewhere dusky beloved
Tyoga was three days In coming.
Then she was much dlstraught and
looked like a ragged edition OF her
once buxom self. First sho called
Meta aside and spoke with her long
and earnestly-Betty would have VOW
ed 1t was in French. Then Tyoga came
to Betty.
You are In danger Of your lifo," sho
said, simply. I'VE all are Wo are
sorry for this, Miss Lancey, wo had
not expected It, We had thought all
dangers we're we'll guarded against.
that all precautions had been taken.
You and Meta must be left alone horo
in the castle for weeks. hut be not
afraid. Besides the secret entrance
which none knows but Meta, there In
no approach TO the castle save from