Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1916-07-08

"Ths moon, by Georse!" cried Lord
John.
Seventeen from the right and second
from the left. This Is the cave, sure
| enough"
l looked at the mark to which his
finger pointed, and l gave u sudden
cry Of JOY.
81 believe | have It'll Follow me, fol.
low mel"
I hurried back along the way we had
come, my torch In my hand. "Here,"
said I, pointing TO some matches upon
the ground, "ls where we lit up"
Exactly"
"Well, 1t is marked as forked cave,
and In the darkness we passed the fork
before the torches were lit. On the
right side as we 60 out we should 6nd
the longer arm"
| 1t was as / had said. We had not
gone thirty yards before a great black
opening loomed In the wall. We turn.
ed into 1t to find that we were In a
much larger passage than before. Along
1t we hurried in breathless impatience
for many hundreds Of yards. Then
suddenly, In the black darkness of the
arch In front of us, we saw CLEAN of
dark red light. We stared in amaze.
ment. A sheet of steady flame seemed
to cross the passage and to bar our
way. We fastened toward it. No
sound no heat no movement came
from it, but still the great luminous
curtain glowed before us, silvering all
the cave and turning the sand to pow
dered jewels, until as we drew closer
1t discovered circular edge.
"The moon, by Georgev cried Lord
John. "We are through, boysl We are
throughp'
1t was indeed the full moon which
shone straight down the aperture which
opened upon the cliffs. 1t was small
rift, not larger than window, but 1t
was enough for all our purposes. As
we craned our necks through It we
could see that the descent was not a
very difficult one and that the level
ground was no very great way below
us. 1t was no wonder that from below
we had not observed the place, us the
cliffs curved overhead and an ascent
at the spot would have seemed so i'm.
possible as to discourage close inspec.
ton. We satisfied ourselves that with
the help Of our rope we could find our
way down, and then returned, rejoic.
ing, to our camp to make our prepara
| tiOnS for the next evening
What we did we had to do quickly
and secretly, since even at this last
hour the Indians might hold us back
Our stores we would leave behind us,
save only our guns and cartridges. But
Challenger had some unwieldy stun
which he ardently desired to take with
him, and one particular package, of
which l may not speak, which gave us
more labor than any. Slowly the day
passed, but when the darkness fell we
were ready for our departure. With
much labor we got our things up the
steps and then, looking back, took one
last, long survey of that strange land,
soon, fear, to be vulgarized, the prey
Of hunter and prospector, but to each
Of us dreamland OF glamor aud ro-
nance, land where we had dared
much, suffered much and learned
much-our land, as we shall ever fond.
ly call it. Along upon our left the
neighborlng caves each threw out its
ruddy, CHEEKY frellght Into the gloom
From the slope below us rose the
voices OF the Indians as they laughed
and sang. Beyond was the long sweep
OF the woods, and In the center, shin.
mering vaguely through the gloom,
was the great lake. the mother of
strange monsters. Even as we looked
a high whlckering cry, the call OF
some weird animal. rang clear out Of
the darkness. 1t was the very voice OF
Maple White Land bidding us goodby,
We turned and plunged into the cave
which led to home.
Two hours later we, our packages
and all we owned were at the foot of
the cliff. Save for Challenger's lug.
gage we had never difficulty. Leav.
ing 1t all where we descended, we
started at once for Zambo's camp. In
the early morning we approached It,
but only TO find, to our amazement. not
lone fire. but dozen upon the plain. The
rescue party had arrived. There were
twenty Indians from the river, with
stakes, ropes and all that could be