The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-05-03
CHAPTER XIV.
4 Chief Borrorcs From O Chief.


a IL through the remainder of the night Lucille
- chung TO the child she had nursed through
her illness. And the situation between the
pair was strangely reversed and she, the COM
petent white woman became the child, racked
and well nigh broken by the pertinacity and
boldness of Hugo Loubeque's pursuit of the sack
she had in her possession, while the little brown
savage, recognizing with that feminine instinct
common to all races and creeds that consolation,
comfort and sympathy was the panacea which
was most needed by this wonder woman of the
fair skin, sat beside her silently all through the
night her hand clasping the trembling one, her
lips silent but her eyes speaking words which
would have put to shame any service the lips
might have performed.
Sleep was out of the question. There could
be no sleep while the mighty spy logged her
steps, knew where she was. Morning came and
passed, the striking obliquely down upon
the village before she dared stir outside the
hut the little daughter of the chief at her side,
silent and shy but always comforting by her
presence.
Lucille felt a great desolation upon her. a
sense of fighting useless battle that day. What
had it all amounted to, the risks, the situations
she had managed to handle, long Hugo
Loubeque was undeterred in his efforts.
mighty wave of nostalgia seized her in its grip
and she felt she could willingly give over every
thing to be back in Manila.
Hurriedly she went back to the hut, signify
ing to the child that she wished to be alone
Inside, she flung herself upon the pallet of
rushes, giving vent to uncomfortable sobs. Her
father-She could him transacting the duties
of his Office like the grim old warrior he was,
but with broken heart at the absence of the
girl he had been father, mother, everything to;
Lieutenant Gibson-she longed for the tender
tones of his voice the caress of his fingers
they twined about her own; the friends-the
friends and the gayeties and the hops and all
the little trifes dear to her woman's heart. How
she missed them all! How she longed to be away
from this savage village, this unclean place with
never a voice lifted in her own tongue save the
dreaded voice of one who would stop at nothing
to wrest from her the thing which hau brought
her here!
She took the sack from her bosom and wept
upon il. For the first time she wondered wheth-
er it had all been worth while, wondered wheth-
er the grief her madcap enterprise had caused
those dear to her would not be greater than any
joy at her coming Safely through the ordeal with
the stolen papers intact could ever be.
1t was the only natural outlet for the strain
under which she had been so long time and,
when she dried her tears, it was the Lucille who
had urged her little across the parade
ground to the aviator to plead with him that he
land her aboard the Empress who smiled brave
" out upon the world She was shamed for the
weakness which had taken hold of her, shamed
and doubly determined that she should not fail.
Only weak girl, only the refined product OF
prominent ancestry-yet would she prove that
under all the fragility composition which
had needed but the ordeal of love denied to turn
IL into steel, steel against which even such
one Hugo Loubeque might hurl himself IN
vain.
She had determined to get away immediate
ly. There nothing to gain and everything
to lose by remaining here. Primarily, she wished
to find some method of getting back to civiliza-
ton. The papers meant nothing to anyone save
Loubeque here, and Loubeque with his infinite
resources could undoubtedly manage to get away.
Secondariy, Loubeque knew where she was and
his futile, Inscriptions brain would find a meth
cd of gaining them. She must get away.
She quite positive some difficulty would
present itself in making an escape from the
native friends who had fairly deied her from
the moment of the child's recovery But they
should be easily eluded, that should be a readily
surmountable difficulty in the light of what she
had already accomplished.
On going into the little street she noticed
the chief in earnest conference with his daugh-
ter and an old native woman whom Lucille had
no recollection of seeing about the village be-
fore. Had she but known this was but another
seville tool of Hugo Loubeque's what future dan
gers she might have been saved. Coming closer
she knew that it was stranger; moreover, from
the light upon the crone's wrinkled countenance
and the furions gesticuations she made toward
her. she felt that she the object of controversy.
And the daughter of the old chief seemed adding
her pleas to those of the old woman with effect.
Lucille stood little apart, watching the
conference as it disbauded. She had picked up