Evening star., 1922-12-16

thin face and steady gray ewes where
Tragedy lurked! His conferees said that
barclay had no interests outside Of his '
work. But they were wrong
He had one thing that was more 10
him than his own life; tiny. velvety-
eyed. golden haired daughter.
He had come outsto northwest Africa
In quest Of forgetfulnessN
At twenty-three. although he WAS
only a penniIess lieutenant. the beauty
OF the London season. the prospective
hefress of millions. had thought we'll 10
marry n MIN. 1t was a runaway mater
FOR MIS- sake Pansy Darlington had
risked losing both wealth and position.
She was only nineteen. and her guar
oian and godfather. whose acknowl-
edged hefress she was. had disapproved
he was nnadly in love with her himself
senior.
However. whether this was so or not,
Henry Langham had forgiven the girl
He had taken her back into his good
graces; and. in due course. had become
godfather TO the second Pansy. Grand
sodisaher," ssa s the child called him as soon
as sne could tank.
1t had seemed to George Barclay that
no no mans life could be happier than his.
ihen. without any warning. tragedy
came upon him after five years Of Bliss
for one day his girl-wife was brought
Sacs daos 10 MN dead the result Of an acci-
Win Der death all light had gone out
vL MS NE To escape from himself he
nao gone out TO Gambia; and his TINY
ue:aughter now lived as her mother had
Henry Langham.
But IT was not of his daughter Bar
cay was thinking at that moment:
oener matters occupied his mind.
re stoou on the roof of a little stone
Tort, gazing at the landscape In a specu
lattye manner.
The building itself consisted OF four
rooms set on a platform Of rock some
nind .nree ieet from the ground, All the
WINDOWS were small and high up and
barred. One room had no coirmnnic.
Ion with the others. il was a sort OF
guardroom entered by a heavy wooden
ooor. To the other three rooms one
sSiio ,n door gave entry. and from one OF
the roof, which had tattlements around
Below was a large compound, rudelr
s.ockaded. in which half dozen natiy..
huts were built
In that part Of Gambia Capt, Bar
cay represented the British govern
ment; He had to administer iusti,t.
a. anu Keep tne peace, and In this task
ne was aided by a white suba tern
! twenty Hausa soldiers. and a co,,,ic ~
maxim guns. "
On three sides of the little Brit,si1
outpost an endless expanse of fores,
showed. with white mist curling like
srhake s,G about IT. On the fourth was 4
on either side. alive with dog-faced ba
noons: The valley was patched viii,
sWamps and lakes, and through n :.
river wended an erratfc course. its
panks heavily fringed with reeds and
i mimosa trees: valley from which
with approaching evening. strean, a..
| miasma rose -
ct. narc,ays gaze. however never
| valley. Vi 'iie SWALLOW
Il He looked to the north.
A week or SO ago word had com.
| .nroush that notorious raider was u,,
.IIe move: a man whom the Frencl,
eose.nment eve, had been endeavorng 10
what he was doing SO far south a.
Gambia. the district officer did NOT
know; But he knew he was there
& only the previous day news had
MS. Barclays. Jurisdiction had bee
praclicaiiy wiped out. a similar fate
might easily fall to the lot of tho
british outpost. considering that the
Arao chiefs force outnumbercd Rsr-
clays ten to one
r, From the roof of his quarters the
Ehslishman saw the sun set. IL
seemed to sink and drown in a lake
OF orange that lay like blazing fur
; mace on the horizon: a lake that
spread and scattered when the sui
! disappeared: drifting of I'm islands OF
cIouos, gold. rose. mauve and vivid
red, sailing slowly across a tense blue
SKY, getting ever thinner and more rag.
Ged. until night came suddenly and
swallowed up their tattered remains.
a dense purple darkness fell upon
the land. soft and veIvety. that re-
minded Barclay of his little daugil-
! ter eyes. And in a vault as darkly
purple most of great stars flashed
Away in the forest an owl hooted.
FROM the wide valley came the
coughing roar of a leopard. Every
now and again some night bird pass
ed, vague shadow In the. darkness.
! In silver showers the firefies danced
in the thick. hot air. Down in the
compound glow-worms showed, look
ing like a lot of smouldering Rigar-
cite ends cast carelessly aside
Upon the roof. with gaze fixed on
!, the misty bafi1ing darkness that
soughed and Missed around him, Bcr-
clay stayed until the gong took him
There his Junior waited. a round
faced youngster of uDout nineteen.
The meal was a poor repast OF
timed soup, hashed timed beef. yams
and coffee, all badly cooked and in
differently served.
During the course of the meal the
youngster remarked:
What joke if we nabbed the Sui
tan Casim Ammeh. or whatever he
the French johnnies."
1T would be more than joke. 1t
would be jolly good riddancc,"
Barclay responded.
ITS queer nobody knowing where
he really comes from" =
You may be sure he doesn't play
his tricks anywhere near his own
headquarters. More likely than not
he and his cutthroat lot start out
disguised as peaceful merchants in
separate bands and join up when
There are vast tracts of Senegal
practically unexplored. 1hey would
give endless cover to one OF his kid,
ney.""
what would you do?"
Shoot him straight off, knowing
the earth was well rid of a villain
But whats his idea in coming as
far south as this. He's never been
| heard of on this side of the Senegal
river before"
"Plunder Guns, most, likely. He's
heard we're none too welcome and
hardly settled here and thinks We
shall prove an easy prey
However, the little English force
was not to prove quite the easy prey
came south In quest Of new weapons.
The next night, without any warn
ing, he attacked Barclays head
quarters.
He struck at an nour when all was
darkest: not with the usual swoop of
wild horsemen. but stealthily.
Cnchallenged ana unmolested, he
and his following scaled the stockade
and crept toward the tiny fort.
vague shadows moving silently in the
purple darkness.
But each night Barclay had laid q
trap Tor his expected foe.