Evening star., 1925-01-09

branches beginning to shoot out only
at a good height. These locked with
the branches Of the others around
Until the foliage above was a thick
canopy unpicrced by the rays of the
sun. The underground was thick and
! luEuriant, but not nearly 50 high as
I thought it would be. The prevail
ing color was a dusty green, un-
broken. unrelieved. except for the
browuer gray Of the tree trunks. or
when some big butterflies. gaudily
painted and amazingly wide of wing
spread, would futter swiftly by.
Now and then there would come
the shrek of a bird. shattering the
stiffness and intensifying it. / have
said stiffness, but il was not so much
that. A weird hushed murmur clunG
to the place. the hum of insects, the
sound of myriad life-and under
it all a mysterious deep chatter and
whisper, whisper and chatter, SO dead
in tone as to be almost undefinable
as sound, The place gripped. 1t all
most sickened one with it's intensity.
And one could not tell what il was
that gripped. what brought the sick
ening intensity. Here man was ter
Iibly puny in the face of immutable
nature, and my lovely Merlin in her
modernity was an offense.
I think my companions felt much
as did, but it wasn't a thing to talk
about. We looked at each other with
a sickly kind Of gayety. like a lot of
boys stolen into a cathedral in pro-
hibited hours.
MilIiken. the practical, made the
first attempt TO break the spell. He
bit the stove and brought out the
frying pan. We had q, sort of second
breakfast, and then Dan and / clam
bered ashore, leaving Milliken. who
would not be persuaded to leave the
Merlin, to keep watch and ward.
For our adventure, Danny and ]
took with us an automatic apiece and
q pocket compass Both of us had
flying boots on, SO we felt safe
enough about snakes, which were all
we thought we had TO dread. 1t
seemed impossible that there could
be any. human beings in that wilder
ness.
We pushed our way westward
through the underground, making for
the bluff chat overhung the plateau
of the red scar, and, although the
going was heavy, it was not superla
lively difficult With half an hour
of scrambling we were on the bluff,
and the oppression of the dark forest
left us as we breathed the sweet air
tableland, perhaps 40 meters beneath,
and we could see the red outcrop
plainly. Water lay on either side
OF the plateau: to the south a wind
ing river, with a creek running up
to the cliff of the highland, and to the
north small lake we had barely
noticed in our approach by the air
from the south,
This lake was drained, it seemed.
Is,r ,xriv1 limo ~ 4l,nt
through a little gorge into the
marshland surrounding the toe of
the plateau. We found place
where the limestone was not so sheer
and a way down that promised
fairly easy return.
Trees hugged the base OF the bluff
but we soon were quit of them as
we worked toward the red scar, for
they thinned out until we were
among bushes of the nature of myr-
tie. As we got nearer the outcrop
even these myrtles thinned, until
they were far apart and strangely
stunted in growth. Then our feet
crunched on the red earth.
To me that earth seemed to be liv-
ing! 1 felt the hair prickle on my
scalp, and I had a foolish impulse
to Jump back to the blacker-and
somehow cleaner-soil,
Nothing grows on this red stuff"
whispered Dan. See, Jimmy, there's
not plant or n blade of grass
on it, and look how these myrtIes
are thinned and stunted until they
are away back from it,"
Lets get off it, Danny" i said.
"I don't like it,"
You feel that too?" he muttered.
"I suppose it's the desolation of it,
but I have just the same feeling"
Lets work round it, them l said.
Danny did not seem to hear me
He was frowning at the earth and
scrabbling amongst it speculatively
with the toe of his boot He turned
over a piece of rock and stopped to
pick it UP. When he Strengthened
himself his face was red, but the
color came from some suppressed ex-
citement.
Look at this, Jimmy" he said,
holding out the rock. DO you know
what it is?'
1t was a cindery kind of rock, blue
black in color. with facets that shone
family. and n dusty layer. saffron
to deep rose in tint clung to a side
of it. / had never seen rock like 1t
before.
No I said
"Tll eat my hat if this-the red
stuff-isn't rhodolite," said Dan, his
eyes dancing.
Continued in Tomorrow's Star)