Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-01-27

fro Of excited men? More omnibus by
far was a second rifleshot, awakening
crashing echoes In the mountains. This
l believed one of my own yachts COM
pany had fired. Plainly, our men had
either stumbled upon an ambush or
fallen In some snare set upon the road
we must follow. The truth of the issue
could not but be momentous to US.
Either we must find them prisoners or
free men who stood in instant danger.
There could be no moment OF delay
which was not hazardous, n we per-
mitted none, directly our foothold had
been secured and the rope drawn in.
did you come alone, Okyada?" l
asked my servant presently.
He dissented as he gathered in the
coils of rope.
The honorable ~Scotchman, he is
waiting with the lantern, ex~cellency."
l smiled, but did not offend his sense
Of that which vas due to so great a
person as Balaam, the Scotch boat
swain.
Would 1t be far from here, Okyada7'
THAT which your excellency could
walk in a minute"
1 said no more but followed hin up
the cliff side, scrambling and slipping
like a boy upon a holiday jaunt and no
less eager for the heights. To the
A@A NNAASOS VI AO . d1io lilO duASh-
ness Of our movements my faithful SER
want and I undoubtedly owed our lives.
Remember that the valley now raised
the cry of alarm from n end to the
other. Whistles were blown, bells were
rung, rifles fired wildly. That the bull
lets struck the rocks both above and
below US, by ears told me Enthusiastically.
Had we been an open mark moving III
the clear light OF day the suspense Of
this flight, the doubt and the hazard of
II, had been easier to support. AS it
was, we went on blindly, u hands
clasping the rough powders, our feet
scattering the pebbles Of the path, and
conscious through it all that a wild bull
let might and a lucky billet, and grass
either Of both Of us as though we had
been hares in a tricky covert. Never
was a man more thankful than I when
a vast fissure in the cliff side appeared
before us suddenly. Nature herself
had here cut a path, and it appeared
to lead into the very heart Of the
mountain.
Now this path we followed, it may
have been, for some 200 yards in q d.
rection parallel to that of the valley we
had quilted. Its gentle declivity brought
us, in the end, to a low cavern of the
rock, and here we found the boatswain,
Balaam, sitting with his back to the
cliff, smoking his pipe n guarding his
ships lantern as calmly as though the
scene had been Rotherhithe and the
day a seaman's Saturday. Hearing our
approach, he bestirred himself sufd-
GENTLY to fend the light and to ask q
question.
Would It be the doctor and the wild
man." he asked; n without waiting
for an answer he ran on: II kennel
your step, doctor, and said you were
doing finely. There's firing on the hill,
sir, and ye would be wise not to bide.
I'm no gleg at the running myself, but
yon nanny can take the LIGHT, and I'll
make shift for myself"
/ told him to show the way and not
10 talk, though l was glad enough to
near the good rellow's voice. His name
| was Mackie, III q donkey ride at
Cowes christened him Balaam ~irrevoc-
ably aboard the White Wings. Very
methodically now, and with a seaman's
| widening march. he set out to cross the
cavern, Okyada and / upon his heels,
and all the mesh of subterranean won
der about us. Here, for a truth, a man
might have feared to go at all. lantern
or no lantern In his hand; for the
cavern revealed the source Of the boil
ing springs, and there was one great
| chamber of the rock so dreadful to
breathe In, so white with steam and
boiling spray, that my own courage
would nave recoiled from II but for the
example set me by these brave fell
lows. They, however, held straight on
without: q word spoken and, coming to
a clearer air presently, they indicated
to me that we were approaching some
place Of danger and must nov go with
circumspection. Then I saw that the
cavern roof narrowed rapidly, until we
stood In q passageway sc regularly
nodded that the hand Of man
might have excavated It. And
beyond this was the Atlantic,
plainly visible, though the night was
moonless. Never did a glimpse Of the
open water cheer my heart 30 brave
ly! Liberty. home, my friends-a mar
Is a man upon the sea. though every
/ port but one be shut against him. And
the breath of life is in his lungs, and
the desire Of life al his heart. Nay,
who shall deny It?
A sharp exclamation from the
Scotchman, a sudden halt upon my
servants part, quickly tempered these
reflections upon liberty and brought
me back to a sense of u situation
and it's dangers. That which they had
seen / now perceived to be nothing
less than the figure of a mar stand
ing with his back to the rock, as
though guarding the entrance to the
tunnel and there keeping watch, not
only upon the path, but upon another
figure which lay prone in the fair way
and was, / had no doubt whatever,
a figure of the dead. To come in
stantly to the conclusion that the dead
was one of u Owl n hat he had
been killed by one of the rifles whose
report we had so recently heard, ]
found natural enough. Not only was II
my thought, but that of the others with
me, and together we halted in the
cavern and asked what we should do,
To be sure. we were not to be af-
frighted by a single sentry, though he
carried a rifle in his hand; but the
certainty that others would be with
In call. and that a single cry might
bring them upon us. robbed us for tbs
moment of any clear idea and held us
prisoners of the cave.
"'Twould have been the firing tina,
I heard syne," h boatswain whis.
pered.
i turned to Okyada and asked him
what we should do. His own uncer.
tainty was reflected In his attitude. He
stood as still as a figure of marble.
THE master wait" he said present
ly. II think hat / shall know IL the
master wait. Let the lantern be Gov.
cred. I shall see by the darkness"
/ told hin that / forbade him to e.
and that II was madness to suppos'
that the sentry would stand there