The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-01-19

crashing echoes in the mountains. This
l Delleved one of my yachts COM
pany had fired. Plainly, our men had
elIner upon an ambush or
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.
Ihere could be no moment of delay
Wnlch was not hazardous, and we per-
mltted none. directly our foothold had
peen ecure and the rope drawn in.
Did you come alone, okyada?" j
asked my servant presently.
He dissented as he gathered in the
coils of rope.
The honorable Scotchman, he is
waiting with the lantern, excellency."
smiled. but did not OFFEND his sense
OF that which was due to so great a
person as Balaam, the Scotch boat
swain.
Would 1t be far from here. okyada7'
ina which your excellency could
walk in a minute"
I said no more but followed him up
the cliff side, ~scramb!ing and slipping
like a boy upon a holiday jaunt and no
less eager for the heights. To the
darkness of the night and the quick
ness OF our movements my faithful SER
want and ! undoubtedly owed our lives,
remember that the valley now raised
the cry of alarm from one end TO the
other. Whistles We're blown, bells We're
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 pen mark moving in
the clear light of day the suspense of
this flight, the doubt n the hazard of
IT. a been easier to support. AS it
was, we went on blindly, our hands
clasp1ng the rough powders, our feet
scattering the pebbles Of the path, and
conscious through it all that a wild bull
let might find a lucky billet, and grass
either OF both of US as though we had
peen hares in a tricky covert. Never
was a man more thankful than I when
a vast assure 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
nave been, for some 200 yards in a d.
rectlon parallel to that Of the valley we
had quilted. Its gentle declivity brought
US, In the end, to a low cavern of the
rock, n here we found the boatsWain.
Balaam, sitting with his back to the
cliff, smoking his pipe and guarding his
SHIPS lantern as calmly as though the
scene had been Rotherhithe and the
day a seaman's Saturday. Hearing our
~ N~~>1Ag 3hS GU IL SlI1 -
GENTLY to fend the light and to ask a
question.
Would it be the doctor and the wild
MANI" he asked: and without waiting
fnr an answer he ran on. 81 kenned
your step, doctor, and said you were
doing finely. There's firing on the hill,
Sir, n we 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."
l told him to show the way and not
to talk, though 7 was glad enough to
hear the good fellows voice. His name
was Mackie, but a donkey ride at
Cowes christened him Balaam ~irrevoc-
ably aboard the White Wings. Very
methodlcally now, and with a seaman's
widening march, he set out to cross the
cavern, Okyada and I 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 have recoiled from it but for the
example set me by these brave fell
lows. They, however, held straight on
without a word spoken and, coming to
IL All ltotIllly, lney Indicated
to me that we We're approaching some
place of danger and must now go with
clrcumspection. Then 1 saw that the
cavern roof narrowed rapidly, until we
stood in a passageway so 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 so brave
ly! Liberty, home, my friends-a man
Is a mar 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 at his heart. Nay,
who shall deny it?
A sharp exclamation from the
Scotchman, a sudden halt upon nv
servants part, quickly tempered these
reflections upon liberty and brought
me back to a sense of our situation
and it's dangers. That which thew had
seen | now perceived to be nothing
less than the figure of a man stand.
ing with his back to the rock, as
.aeas; s"afalis the entrance to the
tunpel and there keeping watch. NOT
only upon the path, but upon another
figure which lay prone in the fair a
and was, l had no doubt whatever
a figure of the dead. To come in.
stantly to the conclusion that the dead
WAS one OF our own, and that he had
been killed by one Of the rifles whose
report we had SO recently heard. I
found natural enough. Not only was it
my thought, but that of the others with
me, and together we halted in the
cavern n asked what we should do.
To be sure. we We're not to be af-
frighted by q single sentry, though he
carried a rife 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 the
moment of any clear idea and held us
prisoners of the cave.
"'Twould have been the firing that
heard syne," the boatswain whis-
pered.
l 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 watt he said present
ly. Il think that I shall know if the
master wait. Let the lantern be COW
cred. | shall see by the darkness
/ told him that I forbade him to go
and that 1t was madness to suppose
that the sentry would stand there
alone. He did not hear me, disappear
ing Immediately upon his words. and
being lost to our view as completely
as though the earth had opened and
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