The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-04-29

quick-firer, and had to be reloaded.
The troops closed up. Bransome, who
had by some miracle escaped I'm
scathed, put himself at their head
again. Advanced" he shouted.
And again he was conscious of
Travis in his white helmet, cool and
smiling, beside him.
1t was a mad rush toward the walls.
Just as the foremost mar set foot in
the breach the cannon roared again.
The files were swept away. And
again Bransome found himself unin-
jured
Now, boys!" he shouted, amazed to
ind that he was still alive.
The attacking party, which had re-
coiled, heaped one man against his
neighbor, and. the dead all about,
rushed forward, cheering. Like a cata-
ract the khaki-clad column swept over
Ito breach, driving the logged negroes
before them, ~pinioning them with the
bayonet. In a moment the fort was
carried.
r hut to hit the flying Krus
were pursued. They fell in writhing
heaps, their own gun turned against
them. For perhaps half an hour the
bloody struggle lastsd. Thea the Brit
ish were in possession of the village.
Bransome stopped; he had forgot
ten everything in the excitement of
the battle. His sword was bloody, and
yet he could not remember having
struck down a man. A trickle of blood
was running down his face. He limped
from a slug in his leg that he had
never felt.
where's Travis?" he demanded of
his surviving captain.
The agent could m be found. Yet
it was Travis who represented the
majesty of the British raj, and it was
Travis who must interview the trem-
bling old king, now a prisoner IL his
own mud hut, guarded by a sullen, de-
fiant chief wife, and a younger one,
who held the royal red parasol over
him.
Bransome went back, searching
among the fallen. Travis was not in
the town; he was not anywhere within
to fort. Bransome came upon him
at last just outside the breach. He
had been struck down by a dozen
slugs from the brass cannon the Sec
ond time the weapon was discharged.
Travis lay under a pile OF dead Krus,
but he was alive. He recognized Bran
some
Bransome hailed the stretcher-
bearers and had two men place him
upon a stretcher and carry him into
the town. They brought him to the
kings hut, and Travis pronounced
sentence. The king was to go in exile
to the coast, to spend the last of his
days there.
The surgeon came up, looked at the
agent and shook his head. There may
be a chance for him. he said. Get
him out of here. Put him in a hut that
hasn't been used. There's smallpox
everywhere among the Krus."
Travis did not catch smallpox. but
it became clear, after a week of de-
lirium. that he was dying. His mind
grew clear toward the end. He mo-
toned to Bransome to open the little
satchel he carried with the govern.
ment papers.
Bransome did so and found in it the
little box coma ming Mary's ring. He
looked at Travis and cav that the
agents eyes were fixed upon 1t. He
put it in Travis hand.
With fingers that almost failed him
Travis slowly pulled off the cover and
held up the diamond ring. 1t was in.
congruous to see the gem sparkling
in the dying mans wasted hand.
Travis motioned to Bransome to bend
down.
The engagement ring I gave her"
he whispered. She is as true as
gold, old man"
YES" agree Bransome.
I'VE were to have been married
when this cursed business was over.
Now w shall w marry. l want
you to marry her, Bransome. You're
about the only nan that's fit for her."
Bransome WINGED and tried not to
show the emotion on his features. But
Travis was too lar gone to see any
thing except the face of Mary Starr
that fioated before him.
II wrote to her telling her how /
longed for her in the silence of the
brush" Travis whispered. 81 said ]
had looked at her photograph and her
mementos again and again. l wanted
something else to bring her wildly
before my eyes. And she-she sem
me this. Nothing could have been a
truer pledge of her love. A girl doesn't
like to part with her engagement ring.
Bransome."
mo-" Bransome agreed.
And the irony of the situation struck
into his soul. Travis had lived in the
belief that his sw ,etheart was true
to him, and he would die not knowing
what the return of the ring meant.
They buried him the following dawn
under a cairn of stones, And Bran
some, having done his duty to the dead,
allowed his thoughts to turn toward
the living. Fhe past seemed obliter-
ated-at least it seemed to be SYM
bolized in the gem that sparkled in
the dead hand under the damp soil
of Africa.
Ancient Fertilization.