Bisbee daily review., 1915-10-14
Copyright. 1914. by W C Chapman

terrible obsession forever. She mustl
She mustl
Rising, the girl paced back and forth
the length Of her room. She felt sti-
cling and confined within its narrow
limits. Outside. beneath the open sky
with no boundaries save the distant
horizon. was the Geld best fitted for
such a battle as was raging within her
Snatching a silken scarf, she threw
It about her shoulders concession to
habit, for the night was holland, step
ping through her window to the porch
that encircled the bungalow. she pass
ed on into the garden.
Just round the nearest angle Of the
house her brother and Billy Curtiss sat
smoking before the window of their
bedroom. clad in pajamas and slippers.
Curtiss was cleaning the rife he had
used that day. the same that he had
carried into the rose garden earlier in
the evening. Neither heard the girls
light footsteps upon the sward, and the
corner Of the building hid her from
their view.
In the open moonlight before the
rose thicket Victoria Custer paced back
and forth. A dozen times she reached
the determination to seek the first op-
portunlty upon the morrow to give
Billy Curdss an affirmative answer TO
the question be had asked her the night
before-the night Of the earthquake
but each time that she thought she had
disposed of the matter definitely she
found herself involuntarily composing
him with the heroic figure Of her
dream man. and again she must need
rewage her battle
AS she walked i'm the moonlight two
pairs of eyes watched her every move
ment-9se pair, clear and black. from
, the rose thicket; the other, flaming vel
low green, hidden in a little clump of
bushes at the point where she turned
in her pacing to retrace her steps at
the point farthest from the watcher
among the roses.
/ Twenty times M was on the point
Of leaping from his concealment and
taking the girl in his arms, for to him
she was Nat-ul. daughter of Tha, and
it had not been hundred thousand
years, but only yesterday, the day be-
fore, that he had last seen her.
Yet each time something deferred
him-a strange. vague, indednable fear
Of this wondrous creature who was
Nat-ul and yet who was not Nat-ul, but
another made in Nat-ul's image.
The strange things that covered her
Fnfr IN
barrier between them-the last time
4. that he had walked hand in hand with
her upon the beach naught but the soft
skin Of a red doe had clothed her.
} Her familiar association. too. with
these strange people, coupled with the
fact that she spoke and understood
their language, only ten9ed to remove
] her further from him.
M was very sad and very lonely
and the sight OF Nat-ul seemed TO ac
p centuate rather than relieve his de
f preston. Slowly there was born with
in him the conviction that Nat-ul was
no longer for M, the son Of M. Why
be could not guess. but the bitter fac
. seemed inevitable
= The girl bad turned quite close t
him now and was retracing her step
toward the bushes twenty yards away
e Behind their screening verdure Oh
Rallies, the sheep stealer, twitched hi
tufted tail and drew his steel thewe'
e legs beneath him for the spring, and al
e be waited just the faintest Of purr
escaped his slayering jowls.
Too faint the sound TO pierce th
e dun senses of the twentieth centur
ri maiden. but to the man hiding in tn
rose thicket twenty PAGES farther fror
s the lion it fell sinister upon his VI
N spoiled ear
Like bolt of nghtning-so quickl
his muscles responded to his width
ID cave man hurtled the intervening ros
a bushes with a single bound, and, raise
spear in hand, bounded after the NJ
conscious girl
The great lion saw him coming, anC
less be be cheated OF his prey. leape
into the moonlight before his lntende
'r victim was quite within the radius {
Id his spring.
m The beast emitted a horrid roar tbs
AIoet AhH XII WIN ANlAbif NAN NANA
ls the face of his terrific charge the iii
ure Of a naked giant leaped past he
She saw a great arm, welding
mighty spear. hurl the weapon at Il
n- Infatuated beast-and then she swoone'
M As the savage note Of the lions ro'
broke the stiffness OF the quiet nigh
ls Curtiss and Barney Custer sprang
their feet, running toward the side
the bungalow from which the sOuI
had come.
GER Curtiss grasped the rife he had ju
'ul reloaded. and as he turned the corn
of the building he caught one deetii
glimpse OF something mo poteino /
- oushesSlfty yards away.
40 weapon, he fired.