The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1920-01-24

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
artl-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 circle
Tor no apparent reason it is because
his thoughts are entirely fixed on TAX
ing his monday nap promptly.
The tracker stood unbelievably
erect. heels off the ground 1t was as
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
wide n0Sirils uulvcrcd with visible
flutterirg and diStended till their out
cr rims showed white. A look of
sensual and ineffable content spread
over his face as he drew down into
his lungs that breath of tainted breeze
He smelled the prey; the wind was
right.
Presently Andrea caught the odor
and her whole body trembled as from
an overmastering physical contact.
oil ell
mind gave it color and substance. 1t
crept through the forest like a dark
cloud, an OminOuS warning To all frail
creatures to get out of the way. She
felt suddenly cold and glanced over
her shoulder with Il 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 filled with an es-
sence of youth. as though years of life
had rushed from past and future TO fill
to OverflOwing 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
ure to the depth of his emotion. His
thin lips were drawn in the crooked
line of a 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 a black
monitor the tracker went before him.
Andrea was suddenly aware that
M'sungO carried the big gun. Its dead
weight of eleven pounds lay in his
hands lightly as though ii also were
sustained by spiritual force. She had
something ghostly in the mere fact of
his possession of it. Her mind was in
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.
Infnity seemed 10 come and go be-
fore they had advanced twenty PAGES
/ She came to the bare trunk of big
/ tree whose top had been felled by
! lightning and at that moment MsungC
looked back, terrible frown on his
face. Without taking her eyes from
his she leaned against the stump OF
| the tree and put her arms around it
! Memory came to her. She remembered
what he had told her to do. She
Rugged the tree In a great relief while
her eyes still followed the white mar
and the two black shadows that hi
seemed to throw, one before. one be
hind.
Suddenly the tracker paused with an
unmistakabie finality. His hands wen
up in an even, swift gesture of warn
ing. His body sank gradually lower
as log at the side of the narrow
trail. With long-studied, caution.
movements the white man passed ovel
him and stood erect, at once steady
and quivering, as heat waves Quivel
steadily in the air arising from
parched soil.
Not forty PAGES from where Andres
Rugged her protecting trunk anC
scarcely twenty in advance of Msungo
the domes of two trees topped the
even mass of the saplings about them
Into the shadows beneath these tree:
he was peering with an intensity thai
communicated itself to Andrea. She
too stared desperately as though by
an effort she might send light into
darkness with her gaze.
Presently she was rewarded; three
shadows within the shadow slowl!
took form. Once seen, they advanced
in distinction until they stood out t.
7 vision nc does the Coal PIT on starry