Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-03-19

By GEORGE AGNEW CHAMBERLAIN
Author Of oe" Through Stained Glass "JOhn BOgardu
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customed weakness in her knees. He
entered the monster Gaia and waited
for her. For some moments the gloom
was impenetrable to her eyes but as
their pupils dilated she began to dis
cover shadows within the shadow until
she was able to make out the entire
scheme of Interior arrangement. The
ground floor, with the exception of an
open space around the trunk of the
tree, was devoted to series of vast
sleeping rooms into which, She gath
cred from mattered phrase of Mac
Closters, We're herded nightly all the
girls of marriageable age, accompa-
MED b. few of those old harridans
who in certain tribes act as govern
esses with the qualification that it is
their duty to instill all the knowledge
which the mentors of the young of
civilized peoples are supposed to with
hold.
Around the trunk of the tree, which
was twelve feet or more in diameter,
a rough spiral stairway had been con-
structed to give access to a platform
which was built on and around the
main intersection of wide-spreading
limbs This platform was inclosed
and lighted by oil lamps. A glance
within told her that it was the abode
of Manchester himself, the well-nigh
impregnable center of the spiders web.
From every side of it extended the
sturdy limbs of the tree and up each
of them climbed a series of projecting
cleats which served as ladders to reach.
vast system of smaller platforms,
built wherever the natural disposition
of the branches afforded adequate sup
port. These lesser rooms were used
as stOrehouses for merchandise, pro-
visions and ivory; and few of them.
near the very top of the tree, were
fitted out as guest chambers especially
adapted to the safe-keeping of doubt
full strangers as also for the effective.
hiding of chattel, human and other
WISE which for one reason or another
/ Manchester desired to keep out of
sight.
Into one of the latter Andrea was
finally ushered, breathless from her
climb On its floor was a fresh grass
mat, a clean blanket, clay pot of
drinking water with a dipper made out'
of coconut shell and square box
filled with sand, evidently intended for
the bed of a cooking-fire. The only
light came from cotton wick laid in
an open vessel filed with oil from the
castor bean.
There you are, Sissie." said Mac
Chester, in his new oily voice, every
thing you can possibly need and when
ever you want to go out, all you have
to do is to climb down and go through
my room. You won't have to do your
own cooking for day or two I'll send
your scott up
Andrea's heart sank to depths that
it had never reached before her lower
lip trembled and drew down at the
corners.
''Now, don't look so glum," said Mac
Closter, leering at her. "JuSt remem,
Der that you couldn't be safer in HI
than you are here!'
He turned and left her with laugh
at his own joke. The measured "Ha ]!
Ha! Ha!-Ha! Ha! Hal" reverberat-
ed through tie interminable mazes of
the entombed tree. More than ever 1t
seemed the mocking laugh OF thirty
voices, chanting in unison. She threw
herself full length, face-down, on the
grass mat and covered her ears with
her hands. Presently bodily exhaus-
ton came to her aid and she merci-
fully slept
Hours later she awoke to feeling
that she had been definitely summoned
by her subconscious self to face an i'm
minent danger. Night had fallen and
its peace had settled on the craal in
general, but there was no peace in the
great Gaia. Out of MacCloster's room
arose through the whispering stiffness
a series of monstrous sounds, mon
strously magniied gurgling, rumbling
curses, mutterings, the occasional
crash of a shattered empty bottle.
Then came a silence more ominous
than the noises, for it was alive,
creeping thing with tentacles that
seemed to be writing I'D the limbs Of
the tree.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)