The St. Johns herald., 1922-04-27

|
 on the point. Benjy kept him headed
 off successfully, and I began to edge
 up, watching my chance for a shot.
 Suddenly the pig came flashing
 straight toward me-oblivious, sup
 pose, to everything but the white
 snapping terror at his heels. Taken
 by surprise, fired-and missed. The
 pig shot between my knees, Benjy
 after him. withstOod the shock of the pig, but not of Benjy. I fell,
 clawing wildly, into matted mass of creepers that covered the ground be- side me.
 "I got to my feet quickly, dragging the whole mass of vines up with me. Then saw that they had covered a curiously regular little patch of ground, outlined at intervals with small stones. At one end was a larger stone.
 ''The patch was narrow, about six feet long-instantly suggestive of a grave. But swift beyond all process of reason was the certainty that flashed into my mind. I fell on my knees beside the stone and pulled away the torn vine-tendrils. I saw the letters B. Fl. and an attempt at cross-bOnes rudely cut into the sur face of the stone.
 "I closed my eyes and tried to steady myself. thought, I am see ing things. This is the mere projec- tion of the vision which has been in my mind so long,
 '1 opened my eyes, and To, the fan tasy, if fantasy it were, remained. smote with my fist upon the stone. The stone was sOlid-it bruised the flesh. And as saw the blood run, screamed aloud like a madman, It's real, real. realr
 Under the stone lay the guardian of the treasure of the Bonny Lass And his secret was within my grasp.
 "I don't know how long I crOuched beside the stone, as drunk with joy as any hasheesh toper with his drug. l reused at last to find Benjy at my shoulder, thrusting his cool nose against my feverish cheek. l sup pose he didn't understand my ignor- ing him so, or thought I scorned him for losing out in his race with the pig. Yet when think of what 1 owe that pig could swear never to taste pork again.
 Brought back to earth and sanity, 1 rose and began to consider my surroundings. Somewhere close ,<at hand was the mouth of the cave-but where? The, cliffs. as have already said, were too steep for descent. Nothing but fly could have crawIed down them. I turned to the craggy face of the mountain. There, surely, must be the entrance to the cave For hours 1 clambered among the rocks, risking rnangled limbs and sun stroke-and found no cave. l. came back at. last, weariIy, to the grave. There lay the dust of -the, brain that had known all-and wild impulse came to me to tear away the earth with my bare hands. to dig deep, deep-and then with listening ear wait for whispered word.
 T put the delirlous fancy from me and moved away to the edge of the cliffs. Looking down, saw a narrow Sloping shelf which dropped from the brink to distance of ten or twelve feet below, where 1t met slight pro- jectiOn of the rock. had seen 1t be- fore, of course, but it had carried DO significance for my mind, Now stepped down upon the ledge and fol- lowed 1t to its end in the angle of the rock.
 "Snugly hidden in the angle was low doorway leading into blackness.
 Now, of course 1 ought in prudence to have gone back to the hut and got matches and a lantern and a rope before 1 set foot in the darkness of | that unknown place. But what had I | to do today with prudence-Fortune | had me by the hand In I went bold | Iy, Benjy at my heels. The passage turned sharply, and for a little way we walked in blackness. Then it | veered again, and a faint and far-off | light seemed to filter its way to us through a web woven of the very stuff | of night The floor slOped little downward. I felt my way with my feet, and came to step-another. | was going along a descending passage, cut at its steepest into rough, irregu- lar stairs. With either hand 1 could | touch the walls. All the while the | light grew clearer. Presently, by an- other sharp turn, found myself in cave, some thirty feet in depth by eighteen across, with an opening on the narrow strip of beach had seen from the top of the cliffs.