The Spectator., 1916-02-29
tim, since the end would be the same.


 no matter what the reason for it?
 But now they added the last touch of cruelty in their torture of her, that of delay. They did not carry her, rs- signed to the worst, at once to mest her fate but on the contrary led hor away and left her alone for a time, prey to her own reflections, the vic tim of her own imaginations.
 Only at times her strong will, her strong body. rebelled at the thought of death. Then she would cry out. "Roleau! Roleau!" she would exclaim, raising her hands; Help, help! Come to mel" But more often than his name, she invoked that of another. She heard her own voice, almost with out her own will. calling aloud for Count Frederick, the man so late her enemy, yet so ready and so powerful in any time of stress or danger!
 Frederick" she moaned, again and again. Where are you? Why do you not come?"
 But to all this. only the bowling derision of her captors made answer. She must. then, die,
 In the last moment of their caprice, or in the full time of their decision, | they haled her once more forth from the hut, up to the brink of the sacri- ficial pit itself. where now she saw the awakening flames.
 Facing this continuation of their | heather rites. whatever were their purposes, their innocent victim again made such battle as she could against | her captors. Shrieking she called | again and again upon those names with which once she could conjure- called also upon the last name | spoken by human hearts in despair Who shall tell whether or not there | be higher powers controlling circum- stances such as these? At least, at this crucial moment there came a rescue, if rescue it might be called. There burst from the corner of the | nearby forest a strange, ill-shapen, | half-clad figure, whether or not human l Kitty scarce could tell. It was man | white man. clad in tattered frag- ments of what once had been white mans garment. Brawny, hairy, re- pulsive indeed, of guttural and inco- | herent speech. he seemed like no white man Kitty Gray ever had seen. l A swift conviction came to her that l he was uemented, that he was luna tic-perhaps preserved from death by | the very reason of his lunacy. Whoever or whatever he was. his | design now seemed not unfriendly to 1 the victim of these savage ceremonies already i'll progress. Sweeping aside with blows of his great arms the saw ages who clustered about her, he caught Kitty up in a gorillalike em- brace, and with hoarse cries of de- fiance made his way with her to the l cover of the woods.
 The natives did not pursue them Kitty could not tell why. Indeed, she scarce had time to reason, in this new terror at the formidable appari- tion which now had her in charge. Then slowly. finding him not un- friendly, she found time to ponder and to plan Certainly this being was. or had been, a white man. Certainly he could or once could have employed in telligible speech-night again be able to 3o' so.
 But speech of intelligible sort she | did not hear Only he bore her away to some distance, until at length safe in the cover of the forest, he set her down.
 Kitty locked about her. She found herself in a situation which she could ! liken to nothing else in ell her eXpe- rience.
 A steep trail led down the declivity of a craterlike opening, evidently the mouth of a great cavern reaching back under the hill. The opening would not easily have been guessed by a stranger in those parts, even | though passing close by in the forest. It was. in short. the mouth of one of the vaultlike series of caverns formed in the lava rock of what had once been volcanic hill.
 Below, within, ell seemed dark, cold, silent. It was g refuge-though what a refuge. She was rescued-but by what a rescuer,
 He beckoGed to her now, and she followed him down the steep slope. Came then long stretches of under ground passages. how many, how long
 Kitty could not tell.
 At least she lived. In spite of all her terrors. in spite of all these addi tional doubts, she still lived. She might have been more disposed tc make some effort in her own behalf had she not felt full upon her that strange oppression always experi enced by any human being finding himself deep beneath the surface O. that earth upon which. and not under
 which, he was born to walk.
 So far as she could see, her captol had no plan save that of safety frcr pursuit. And she still lived-she coult | say co rouch aS that if m r1Nral