The log cabin Democrat., 1914-10-09


 "A continued. Lucille shuddered / as, from the black Businesses A = of the semijungle that hedged them in, the glow of yellow eyes gleamed.
 Fire balls they might have been. so steady and silent were the animals who watched the procession. but the pat of stealthy feet, the crunch of broken twigs. an occasional growl oi cry told her what they were. It was we'll into the day when their party was met by a native coming from the opposite direction. Lucille was attracted by the rapid converse. ton he held with the chief. noticing the perturbation which showed SC strongly on the old mans face when he turned away and redoubled his pace. It was we'll nigh impossible for her to keep up now. Worn out by ex posture and this tramp through the 1 jungle there seemed times when she could not drag herself along. when the tired muscles kinked and refused to work.
 Then quite unexpectedly through a 1 wall of vegetation the party emerged | into great clearing upon which the I sun beat fercely. A few old men squat ted before the openings to the hundred or more huts that filled the open space set down here in the midst of the jun gle. Many children played about dress ed only in the garments of their birth. From a hut many times the size of | any other and set at the extreme head of the clearing facing down the double | row as would an officer scan his files i of men came a droning sound, the low l pitched wailing of many women's voices. never varying in its dreary monotone. A terrible sound 1t was sorrOwful, dirgelike. Instinctively Lu- i ellie lifted her eyes to those of the chief, her finger tips brushing against his bare forearm sympathetically. l A swift gleam crossed his stern face At few sharp words the party dis banded, disappearing in the huts. Come with me-" said the chief. And. although she did not understand the words, she followed his swift stride toward the great hut from which the sound came
 The interior of the hut was crowded with women, the atmosphere so close es to fairly drive her back toward the tiny door through which she had en- tered. And to the ears of the girl dominating the dirgelike wall. came nmple note-the crying of a child.
 Impulsively she brushed through the women. stopping over the pallet Of .ushes where the patient lay Even with the cancellation which her illness had caused. despite the blaze of dellr- ium in the widened eyes, the black splotches of fever in the cheeks, Lu- ellie would have known the girl for the daughter of the old man.
 By signs she made 1t clear to the old man that the hut must be cleared be- fore anything could be done to assist his daughter. Gradually it dawned upon her that the crowding of the hut was a custom of his people, which re- quired vast faith to go against. She watched him eagerly, her very heart crying out for the sick child, whose last chance for recovery was being stolen by this crowd of women using up all the oxygen in the room when 1t was the most necessary thing for her recovery.
 The chief made his decision quickly He overruled the women's protests and drove them from the hut, leaving the opening wide
 Lucille opened her mouth, laying her throat with the intoxicating air that drove out the odors the congestion had left behind. Then she turned her at. tentlon to the child,