The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-22
CHAPTER I. In the WiIds.

no business to tell 1t to me or to
 any other. I may credit the se-
 ductive influence of an old vim tage upon the narrator for the begin ming of it and my own skeptical in creduffty during the days that follow ed for the balance of the strange tale. I do not say the story is true, for did not witness the happenings which it portrays.
 The yellow, miIdewed pages of the diary of a man long dead and the rec orC1s of the colonial office doyetai1 per fectly with the narrative of my con yivial host, and so give you the story as I pieced it out from these several various agencies.
 If you do not find it credible, you will at least be as one with me in ac- knowledging that it is unique, remark able and interesting.
 From the records of, the colonial of flee and from the dead mans diary we learn that certain young English no bleman, whom we shall call John Clay ton, Lord Greystoke, was commission ed to undertake a peculiarly delicate investigation of conditions in a British west coast African colony from whose natives another European power was known to be recruiting soldiers for its
 
 the forcible collection of rubber and ivory from the savage tribes along the Kongo and the Aruwimi.
 We learn also that on a bright May morning in 1888 John, Lord Greystoke, and his bride, Lady Alice, sailed from Dover on their way to Africa.
 A month later they arrived at Free town, where they chartered a small sailing vessel, the Fuwalda, which was to bear them to their final destination. And here John, Lord Greystoke, and Lady Alice, his wife, vanished from the eyes and from the knowledge of men
 Two months after they weighed an cfor and cleared from the port of Freetown, a half dozen British war vessels were securing the south Allan tic for trace of them or their little yes sel, and 1t was almost immediately that the wreckage was found upon the shores of St Helena which convinced the world that the Buwalda had gone down with all on board, and thus the search was stepped ere it had scarce begun
 We know now that the crew of the FUwalda m1tinied, slew her officers and spared John Clayton and his wife because ef a favor done to the leader of the n1ut1neers by Clayton Later the crew, fearing discovery. set John Clayton and his wife ashore on the wild west coast of Africa, giving them sufficient arms and tools to enable them to maintain life with work
 NeaB the shore Clayton built a little cabin for himself and his wife. They endured much hardship, seeing no hu- man creature, but watched often by n One day Clayton imprudently left his wife alone, and she was attacked and injured by one of the great apes. Clay ton slew the beast and bore his wife back to the cabin
 That night a little son was born in the tiny cabin beside the primeval for est, while a great tiger screamed be- fore the door and the deep notes of the lions roar sounded from beyond the ridge
 Iady Greystoke never recovered from the shock of the great ape's at tack, and, though she lived for year after her baby was born, she was nev- CT again outside the cabin. nor did she ever fully realize that she was not in England
 In other ways she was quite rational, and the joy and happiness she took in the possession of her little son and the constant intentions of her husband made that year very happy one for her, the happiest of her life.
 Long since had Clayton given up any hope of rescue, except through acci- dent With unreEitting zeal he had worked to beautify the interior of the cabin.
 Skins of lion and tiger covered the floor. Cupboards and bookcases lined the walls. Odd vases made by his own hands from the clay of the region held beautiful tropical flowers. Curtains of grass and bamboo covered the win dows, and, most arduous task of all with his meager assortment of tools, bA-hnd fashinned1 1umbeE to neatly seal