Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-02-23


the Ivory Child.
on she came quietly her wide. empty eyes |
fixed upon Jana. As she advanced the mon |
ster seemed 20 grow uneasy. Turning his |
head. he lifted his trunk and thrust II along |
his back until IL gripped the ankle of the |
King Smba, who all this while was seated |
there in his chair making no movement
with slow, steady pull he dragged
Smha from the chair so that he fell upon
| the ground near his left foreleg. Next. very
| composedy he wound his trunk about the
body of the helpless man, whose horriled
| eyes | can to this day, and began to
whrl him round and round in the air. gently
| at first but with a motion that grew ever
| more rapid, until the bright chains on the
| victims breast flashed in the sunlight like a
silver wheel. Then he hurled him to the
| ground where the poor king lay--a mere
shattered pulp that had been human.
| Now the priestess was standing in front
Of the beast god, apparently quite without
fear, though her two attendants had fallen
back. Ragnall sprang forward as though
to drag her away. but a dozen men leapt
4, on TO him and held him fast, either to save
| his life or for some secret reason of their
own which never learned
Jana looked down at her and she looked
up at Jana. Then he screamed furiousy
and, shooting out his trunk. snatched the
Ivory Child from her hands, whirled it
| round as he had whired Simba and at last
dashed Simba, so that it's substance, grown
dashed II TO the stone pavement as he had
brittle In the passage of the ages, shattered
into 10000 fragments
At this sight great groan went up from
the men of the White Kendah. the women
| dressed as goddesses shrieked and tore their
robes, and Harut who stood near, fell down
in fit or faint
once more Jana screamed. Then slowly
he knelt down, beat his trunk and the
scattering metal balls upon the ground
Al, 4.
TO the beautiful prestess who stood before
him, shivered throughout his mighty bulk
and rolled overhead
The fighting ceased. The Black Kendall
who all this while had been pressing into
the court of the temple saw and stood
stupefled. II was as though in the presence
of events to them so pregnant and terrible
men could no longer lift their swords in
war.
voice called: THE god is dead The
king Is dead Jana has slain Simba and
has himself been slain. Shattered is the
Child: split is the blood of Jana! Fly,
People of the Black Kendah fy, for the
gods are dead and your land is a land of
ghosts :"
From every side was this wall echoed.
Fly People of the Black Kendah. for the
gods are dead :"
They turned; they sped away like shad-
ows carrying their wounded with them
nor did any attempt 20 stay them. Thirty
, minutes later, save for some desperately
hurt or dying men. not one Of them was
left in the temple or the pass beyond. They
had all gone leaving none but the dead be-
hind them.
The fight was finished The fight that
had seemed lost was won!
dragged myself from the ground As
! | gained my totterng feet for now that all
was over felt as II ! were made OF running
water, ] saw the men who held Ragnall
loose their grip of him He sprang to
where his wife was and stood before her
as though confused, much as Jana had
STOOD Jana against whose head he rested
MS left hand holding to the brute's gigantic
tusk' FOR ! think that he also was weak
with toll. terror, loss of blood and emotion
Luna he gasped Luna"
Leaning on the shoulder of a Kendall
man. l drew nearer to see what passed be-
tween them for my curiosity overcame my
, f5intness. For quite a long while she stared
: at him. till suddenly her eyes began To
change. 1t was as though a soul were aris-
! ing in their emptiness as the moon arises in
the quiet evening sky, giving them light and
llfe. At length she spoke in a slow, hes-
, tating voice. the tones of which I remem-
bered well enough, saying:
oh. George, that dreadful brute" and
she pointed to the dead elephant has
killed our baby. Look at II Look at II
We must be everything to each other now
n dear, as we were before il came-unloss
\ God sends us another"
Then she burst into n flood of weenine
I and fell into his arms, after which turned
4 away. So to their honor be II said, did the
Kendah, leaving the pair alone behind the
\ bulk of the dead Jana.
! Here ] may state two things first that
( Lady Ragnall, whose bodily health had
! remained perfect throughout. entirely re-
covered her season from that moment 1t
was as though on the shattering of the
Ivory Child some spell had been lifted of
D hnr hot Ia
1 quite unable TO explain, but presume that
in dim and unknown way she connect ed
| this effigy with her own lost infant and
| that while she held and tended IL her in.
tellect remained in allegiance. If so, she
T | must also have connected its destruction
with the death of her own child which
E | strangely enough It will he remembered
was likewise killed by an elephant. The
first death that occurred in her presence
took away her reason, the second seeming
: death, which also occurred in her presence
: brought II back again
Q Secondly, from the moment of the de-
o struction of her boy in the streets of the
= English country town 10 that of the shat.
terng OF the Ivory Child in Central Africa
her memory was an utter blank, with one
exception. This exception was a dream
which few days later she narrated to
| Ragnall in my presence, That dream was
| that she had seen him and Savage sleeping
together in a native house one night In
/
| history / leave the reader TO draw his owr
conclusion as TO this curious incident
, have none to offer. or II havs prefer
to keep It to myself
Leaving Ragnall and his WIFE stag,
eered off 10 look for Hans and found him
lying senseless near the north wall Of the
temple Evidently he was beyond human
help, for Jana seemed TO have crushed most
of his ribs In his iron trunk We carried
him TO one OF the priests cells and there
I watched him till the end. which came Al
sundown.
Before he died he became quite conscious
and talked with me good deal.
, "Dont grieve about missing Jana. Baas.
! he said for II wasn't you who missed hin
but some devil that turned your bullets
You see, Baas, he was bewitched agains
| YOU white men. When you look at hin
| closely you will md that the Lord Igezi
missed him also" (strarge a. Il mny seem