Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1925-01-07


eminence, quite bare of trees, black
ened by the weather and SCARED in a
manner that attested the attacks of
fighting.
He whistled softly. "By Jove!" he
said. Volcanic, and highly mineral
lied"
The intervening belt was sparsely
dotted with trees, casurinas, pooh, and
other woods he did not know, re-
sembling ebony and cedar. A number
of stumps showed that the axe had
been at work, but not recently. He
passed into the cleft and climbed a
tree that offered easy access. AS he
expected, after rising a few feet from
the ground, his eyes encountered the
solemn blue line of the sea, not half
a mile distant.
He descended and commenced a
systematic search. Men had been
here. Was there a house? Would he
suddenly encounter some hermit Ma
lay or Chinaman?
At the foot of the main cliff was a
cluster of fruit-bearing trees, plan
tains, areca-nuts, and cocoa-palms. A
couple of cinchonas caught his eye.
In one spot the underground was
rank and wildly green. The cassava,
or tapioca plant, reared its high, pas
sion-fower leaves above the grass,
and some Sago-plants thrust aloft the
thick-stemmed trunks.
sHere is a change of menu, at any
rate" he communed.
Breaking a thick branch off a pooh
tree he whitfield away the minor
stems. A strong stick was needed to
explore that leafy fastness thorough
ly.
A few cautious strides and vigorous
whacks with the stick laid bare the
cause of such prodigality in a soil
covered and drifted sand Jumps of
black and white speckled coral. The
trees and bushes enclosed we'll
guarded it, in fact, from being
filled with sand during the first gale
that blew.
Delighted with this discovery, more
precious than diamonds at the mo-
ment, for he doubted the ACCESSIBILITY
of existing on the water supply of
the pitcher-plant, he knelt to peer in
to the excavation. The well had been
properly made. Ten feet down he
could see the reflection of his face.
Expert hands had tapped the secret
reservoir of the island BY stretching
to the full extent of his arm, he man
aged to plunge the stick into the wa
ter. Tasting the drops, he found that
they we're quite sweet. The sand and
porous rock provided the best of fill
ter-beds.
He rose, we'll pleased, and noted
that on the opposite side the appear
ance of the shrubs and tufts of long
grass indicated the existence of a
grown-over path towards the cliff. He
followed it, walking carelessly, with
eyes seeking the prospect beyond,
when something ratified and cracked
beneath his feet. Looking down, he
was Mortified to find he was tramp
ling on a skeleton.
Had a venomous snake coiled it's
glistening folds around his leg he
would not have been more startled.
But this man of iron nerve soon re-
covered. He frowned deeply after the
first involuntary heart-throb.
With the stick he cleared away the
underground, and revealed the skele-
ton of man. The bones were big and
strong, but oxidized by the action of
the air. jerks had injured the left
tibia by his tread, but three fractured
ribs and a smashed shoulder-blade
told some terrible unwritten story,
Beneath the mournful relics were
fragments of decayed cloth. 1t was
blue serge Lying about were a few
blackened objects-brass buttons
marked with an anchor. The dead
mans boots were in the best state of
preservation, but the leather had
shrunk and the nails protruded like
fangs.
A rusted pocket-knife lay there, and
on the left breast of the skeleton
rested round piece of tin, the top or
canister, which might have reposed
in a coat pocket. jerks picked it up,
Some curious marks and figures were
punched into it's surface After a hasty
glance he put it aside for more le1s-
urely examination
No weapon was visible. He could
form no estimate as to the cause or
the death of this poor unknown, nor
the time since the tragedy haG oc-
Cured.
jerks must have stood many min
uteS before he perceived Indt Inc Shell
eton was headless. At first he mag
ined that in rummaging about with
the stick he had disturbed the skull
But the most minute search demon
strated that it had gone, had been
taken away, in fact, for the plants
which so effectually screened the
lighter bones would not permit the
skull to vanish.
Then the frown on the sailors face
became threatening, thunderous. He
recollected the rusty kriss Indistinct
memories of strange tales of the China
Sea crowded unbidden to his brain.
"Dyaks!" he growled fiercely. "A
ships officer, an Englishman prob
ably, murdered by head-hunting Dyak
pirates!"
If they came once they would come
again
Five hundred yards away Iris
Deane was sleeping. He ought not to
have left her alone. And then, with
the devilish ingenuity of coincidence,
a revolver shot awoke the echoes, and
sent all manner of wildfowl hurting
through the trees with clamorous out
cry.
go -,,;Id ox1od Tanks was