The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1917-11-23

II forgetting MS Ulsclptlne Tor the urSl
time. "And Clouts, too. They sort
Of edged us in here. We we're afraid
you were dead"
'sThey gave us little longer res.
pite," answered Donald. Davies, an
! 1 mad or dreaming, or are we breath
ing under water?"
"If you're dreaming, then Clouts
and / are too" said the little MILDLY:
"Helloi There Clouts goes again !
I've tried to keep him resigned, but
he gets frantic occasionally"
With a sudden howl that seemed to
rise from the depths Of an outraged
nature, Clouts, lowering his head,
rushed like gathering ram into the
doorway. The watchers saw him re-
coil as If he had butted feather bed.
He looked up, rubbed his head in per-
plexity, and then, retiring few
PAGES, repeated his experiment more
furiously than before.
Again he was hurled back, as ball
rebounds from the cushion of a bill
Hard table. The monsters bodies
blocked the entrance as effectively
as If they were of rubber. :,
Slowly Sam Clouts withdrew, look
ling back with a puzzled expression.
Meanwhile the three glanced about.
They were in huge natural cave,
in which the sea monsters had evil
IDENTIFY been at work, for the interior
was coated with mud, hardened in
some peculiar manner to resist the
water. And yet Donald had the same
impression of a beehive. There was
something of sameness everywhere,
the same sense of automatism.
It was quite bare, except at one
end, where arose mud mound, deco
rated with seashells, and upon this
was what looked like the upright
skeleton of small mammal.
"Lookw exclaimed Donald.
/ ut came from-from behind the
curtain!" said Davies in awe. "Don.
aid, the air was thicker some
thing keeps rolling back 2"
They looked at each other, still I'M
convinced that they were awake and
alive. Then they went toward the OBJ
ject at the end.
Sam Clouts, who had preceded
them, fell back with an exclamation
of horror.
"Yes, Clouts" said Donald.
ST beg your pardon, sir, but don't
you see that it's meant to be a per.
son, STRIP
! He spoke the truth. The figure was
a rough pile of bones, but high above
! them a grinning human face, made of
the same plastered mud, looked down.
It was the first sign Of conscious
process among the monsters, and
some devil craftsman had contrived
to catch, not so much the form as the
humanness Of it.
It was upon larger scale, precisely
such figure as child or a savage
might have made in its first efforts to
reproduce the human figure. There
were even the dawnings of art in the
shape of whales ear-bones, strung,
braceletwise, across the breast.
The mound beneath the figure con-
sisted of innumerable bones, a sort OF
kitchen hidden such as Neolithic man
left behind him as a testimony to his
oyster feasts.
Davies picked up one of the bones
and looked at 1t intently.
'Donald!' he said softly, not to at
tract the attention of Ida, who, seated
on the floor against the mound, seemed
on the point Of falling asleep from
WEAKNESS. He held out the bone.
Both looked at it. It was the bone
of ripper heel. The monsters were
cannibal, beyond any doubt.
"Davies!" cried Donald, a moment
later. "Don't you see what that figure
is? It's an idol. And the bones ara
those of creatures Of their own spe-
cies, and others, sacrificed to it by the
monsters in their abominable feasts.
It's the first dawnings of self-con-
seriousness. the awakening Of the re-
ligious perceptions!"
There could be no other interpre-
tation. They looked at each other in
horror and something Of awe.
The thing had been fashioned, per-
chance some forgotten ancestor, cast
| up on an lnnaDlteQ Snore, naO seen
man and returned, to embody him in
his remembered guise.
So these half-blind and voiceless
devils of the sea were cropping slowly
upward. as our ancestors had done
many hundred thousand years ago,
toward hope and endeavor. The Spirit
of God stirred in the dull souls OF
these cannibal monsters, as every
where.
Donald felt somehow immensely
elated at the thought. Even here they
were not cut off from the sheltering
hand of Providence.
Look. STRIP Clouts exclaimed sud-
denly.
(To BE CoNTINUED.>
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