The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1919-12-13

| front. They stood in the sparse shade
| of big tree, their eyes sweeping the
ground beneath their feet and rising
to meet each others gaze with swift
intelligence and swifter understand
ing. Here was great reading. the
antl-climax of suspense. the pregnant
moment Of final premonition. The
three elephants had come together
they had milled beneath this tree. they
were even now individually beneath the
next they had encountered--for when
feeding elephant walks In a circle
Tor no apparent reason It Is because
his thoughts are entirely fixed on tnk-
ing his monday nap promptly.
The trucker stood unbelievably
erect, heels off the ground. II was ms
though by an effort of Will he had sus-
pended himself in air. so still was he.
so wholly was his body consecrated to
the act of listening. Suddenly his
wilde nostrils urlIvered with visible
fluttering and distended till their out
" iithS SiibNPfI NIlIIh. n HOOK Oh
sensual and ineffable content spread
over his face as he drew down into
bis lungs that breath of tainted breeze
lie smelled the prey the wind was
right.
Presently Andrea caught the odor
and her whole body trembled as from
an oyermastering physical contact.
This smell was unlike all others: the
mind gave It color and substance. It
crept through the forest like a dark
cloud, an ominous warning 10 all frail
creatures to get out of the way. She
felt suddenly cold and glanced over
her shoulder with half-formed notion
of retreat. then her eyes fell on
M'sungo and she forgot all else in an
absorption that was above fear.
He had become filed with an es-
sence of youth, rs though years of life
had rushed from past and future to fill
to overlooking the cup of this one
transcendent moment. His face was
tense but alight and his ordinarily
gray eyes had attained to an unfathom-
able blue that seemed to deny meas
thin lips were drawn in the crooked
line of fixed smile-a smile that
struggled on the verge of an infinite
solemnity. When he moved he gave
an indefinite impression of disem-
bodied action as If spirit alone passed
on, leaving flesh behind. Like black
monitor the tracker went before him.
Andrea was suddenly aware that
Msungo carried the big gun. It's dead
weight of eleven pounds lay in his
hands lightly as though it also were
sustained by spiritual force. She had
not seen him take 1t and there was
something ghostly In the mere fact of
his possession of it, Her mind was in
a turmoil; she knew that upon the
taking over of the big gun had hung
some vital instruction to herself but in
that primal moment of suspense, mem
DRY was an agonizing blank and moth
ing more. She followed blindly in the
cautiously pausing footsteps of the
single gunbearer that crept before her,
close on the heels of his master.
Infinty seemed to come and go be-
forexthey had advanced twenty PAGES.
Shesscame to the bare trunk Of a big
tree whose top had been felIed by
lightning and at that moment M'sungo
looked back, terrible frown on his
without foi
his she leaned against the stump of
the tree and put her arms around It, |
Memory came tosher. She remembered
what he had told her to do. She |
Rugged the tree in great relief while |
her eyes still followed the white man
md the two black shadows that he |
seemed to throw, one before. one be- |
hind.
Suddenly the tracker paused with an
finalitv. His hands went !
~ In an even, swift gesture Of warn I
ing. His body sank gradually lower I
and lower till II stretched fiat and still t
as log Mt the side of the narrow
trail. With long-studied. cautious
tie Wnitt 1lHft puSStu over
him and stood erect, at once steady |
and quivering, as heat waves culver
steadily in the air arising from
Darched soil.
Not forty PAGES from where Andrea
rugged her protecting trunk and
scarcely twenty In advance Of M'sungo,
he domes Of two trees topped the
wen mass of the saplings about them.
INTO the shadows beneath these trees
le was peering with an intensity that
communicated itself to Andrea. She
90 stared desperately as though by
in effort she might send light into
darkness with her gaze.
Presently she was rewarded; three
hadows within the shadow slowly
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