Evening star., 1925-01-11
CONTINUED from Yesterdays star.)
CHAPTER 1.
The Litter in the Clearing.

II patience and determination hav.
brought readers thus far IN a par
ticularly haphazard and ill-knit story
apology from me for taking then
back three years Will be superf1uous
Pertinacity SO singular-though it bt
grown but from an irritated desire
to finish a penance-will find nothing e
daunting in even so drastic back
ward leap. Yet, by way of apology
for the retracing. 1 am fain to say
this much. If 1 am to achieve rea-
sonable accuracy in my share of the
history, and if l am to make myself
properly understood by the patient
reader, I can do no other.
In the matter of introducing my
self, the flattering analysis of my
character, and the slight sketch OF
my history, given by Maj. Boon in
his narrative, like the wound OF
Mercutio, though they are neither as
deep as d well nor as wide as a
church door," they will serve" In
deed, they must serve, faute de mieuX
since have wasted much breath and
time in urging Boon to alter them
or delete them altogether, and L can
not begin here to give my own
version.
In justice to myself and you, 1 am
compelled to say, further, that the
pen is a most unfamiliar implement
70 me. My widest hope is that |
may spin plain yarn. True, l have
gained a measure of courage for my
task through watching the airy in
saGciance with which Boon has been
pounding out chapters on his type
writing machine, and l tell myself
that If he can be without bowels of
compassion for his readers, so, surely,
a.
vamp something of a technique from
him, and from other great writers,
and so win through with what credit
] may.
Three years, then, before that
morning in March when the Ark of
the Covenant dropped silently from
the skies upon the financial center
of New York, l was, with two eX-
petty officers of his majesty's royal
navy and a handful of Indian bear
ers, among the upper reaches of the
Rio Negro, that northern tributary
of the Amazon. OF the reasons and
the urges which took me into such
an isolated and labyrinthine tract of
are personal, and might easily be
tedious. I was seeking what 1 might
find in unexplored country.
Higgins, Grumstock and myself
came upon many things of a strange
nature in that wilderness. but by far
the Strangest thing that happened to
US was the finding of him whom we
afterward were to know as THE Mas
ter"
1t was toward nightfall of teem-
ing hot day. We were about to make
camp by the side of an unnamed river.
tributary to the Negro, and were
looking for some place suitable, when
suddenly We broke into a small clear
ing in which were the remains of a
recent camp. So recent, indeed, were
these remains, that there, where a
nights growth will obliterate any
thing but the deepest of mans hand
prints, the undergrow We're still
trampled and awry. About the clearing
empty boxes with smashed lids were
scattered, and these brought to the
scene such evidence of haste and con-
fusion that interest was at once
deeply stirred. l knew of no party
ahead of my own, nor was there wind
of any coming down from the borders
of Venezuela or Colombia 1t was
unlikely in the latter case that the
explorers had passed US, since it was
improbable that they had crossed un-
necessarily to the other side of the
river or had strayed far from its
bank.