Evening star., 1921-08-14

rolling through the waves Of time to
me-
whether there is or is not. I may
as we'll sleep" / thought, and SO
slept again.
woke a little before dawn and had
the carriers out of their blankets and
boiling their morning rice just as sun
rise burst like red volcano flame
through the seas of mist that tossed
about our peaks. Willis and l had
food. packed up and got away. He
was anxious. l remember, and could
not hurry me enough.
What am 1 going to see" he said
And again with that fiuttering eager
ness strong on him: What am
going to see?"
I'll tell you.' said, when we are
back again tonight"
But l did not, and to this day dc
not know. although / shall.
The village where Nambu had said we
should find the dim-dim girl was one
that I had known long ago; I needed
no guide to the lifting precipice
plumed with dangling trees. up which
our pathway lay.
Rothery. though he had as plucky
a soul as every small. weak body held
seemed somewhat daunted at the sight
of this typical Papuan road" with its
faint streak of Llama ladder, half rot
ten, dropped from ledge to ledge and
waiting in the wind raised by the
waterfall that summed beside t.
"It looks bad" he said. Can we
take long timer
Not if we are to get up before
dark to the village" I said. Don't
you come if you feel it too much"
"I shan't let myself feel 1t toe
much" he said. II wish you had q
shred or two more soul. Simon. Can't
he af o.
is simply a sacred duty to ones race"
II don't mind taking it SO from
you," 1 assured him; indeed, ! had
considerable respect for Rothery's
odd fancies. little though l understood
them at times.
A FTER that it was impossible to
talk-not on my account, since
Of the difficulty Rothery found in as
cending the rock faces and the
straight-up banks of bush. where
you hold on by roots and by your
toes-unless, like him, you wore ham
pering, inconvenient boots. I went
first and showed Rothery where to
trust it.
'Lord!' he said. pausing half way
up to wipe the streaming sweat Out
of his eyes. You are perfect
Pithecanthropus. When that rune
simply hiccupped with one foot and
went on: whereas, by all the laws OF
gravitation you ought to be lying al
the-I can't get my breath"
"Give it up" 1 advised. IF she's
lived fifteen years among these peo.
pie. she might as we'll go on living to
the end"
For answer he began to clint
again. reached down for him and
half-dragged him on to the top.
don't think he could have done II
otherwise. At the summit we sat fol
long time, staring back and down
the view was one on which a disem
dering why Heaven was called the
fairer of the two.
Mountains and forests and riffs
through the heart of the hills; pure
wreaths Of foam floating above water.
falls unseen: tree tops felted to green
and golden velvet and fiowing-fiow::
ing-to the verge OF the horizon and
beyond, seamless robe Of exceeding
beauty; the crystal sun and the pale
bright maiden blue of high-level
skies; airs Of Paradise blowing.
How can 1 tell in words the soli.
tary, unstained wonder Of 1t all?
"Does no one live hereT asked
Rothery when he had caught his er-
rant breath again.
"You may say no one. The village
is the only one for a long way. There
you can see 1t now"
'aThose brown toadstools on the
queer little truncated cone Of a hill?'
"Yes. They probably cut on the tor
Of the hill to build on it. We shall
have to keep OH the high points after
this"
'whyf
'T shouldn't have welcomed strange
white people myself when I was liv-