at the chattering carrier! nl si
lence held the hrtlit 'ade for
minute. ' . , ,
"Vn," he answered presently. I
lieard it. I don't reckon il'i any
thing to worry over."
-Why?" . , ,
"Because when a nig 1 out lor
business he doesn't let you hear
him." , , ,
"Then you think." asked Gault in
low tone, -that thcrc'i somebody
hanging about?"
,"l reckon so."
What do yon"
Irvine pointed at the carrier.
They were leaning forward, month
open, eye staring, each one ol
them "registering" curiosity and in
terest vividly.
"Irtrl, for a tanner.
"A girl? What would ahe be do
intf about our camp?"
"I shoul suppose." laid Irvine,
calmly, "that ihe'a either surveying
for a projected railroad, or collect
in K taxes."
"I dare aay you think that's fun
ny" "Well, what doe your wide ex
perience lead you to think a gitl
doca want, hanging about lot of
men?"
"I suppose the want one of the
men." . .
"You aeem," observed Irvine,
leaning comfortably against a rock,
to be growing up, Kid."
"Ask 'em about It," suggested
Cault. The carriers were begin
ning to buzz among themselves like
a hatful of flies.
Irvine asked a question or two,
In one or two native languages.
"They say," he explained, "that
there's a woman somewhere, be
cause they smelted the flowers the
women wear, and heard her mov
ing." "What are they looking so un
comfortable about?"
"O, that'a because tncy think
that she's ghost woman, and up
to mischief. If any of them fol
low her into the bush, she turns
into a fiend and eats them."
"Well, it's pretty simple; if they
think that, they'd better stop wheic
they are."
"But the trouble is," explained
Irvine, "that they don't know till
they find out. You see, the devils
and the common or yam-garden
girls look alike. Seems to me I can
remember dreaming of the same
sort of notion among people who
weren't black.
"She's let them go for this night,"
. observed Cault, interestedly, his
eyes fixed on the carriers, who
seemed suddenly to have lost in
terest in the dusk wall of scrub and
' were turning their attention to the
circling bamboo pipe.
One of the carriers nodded.
"Eo, Taubada" (yes, sir), he said.
"Debit girl him go home. Me no
like debit girl Me flight along
him."
"If you pay attention to all the
yap of the carriers, you'll not have
much to spare for anything else,"
was Irvine's comment Did I
think there was anyone really
there? Yes; I don't know who or
what she was. No, village girls
don't generally wander off to the
bush when there's strange people
about; they're too scary. No, I
don't believe in devils. I don't think
at all about it. Is this the longer,
or the shorter catechism? And are
you going to turn in?"
From girl or devil, no further
sound was heard. The carriers
laid themselves out, one by one,
upon the stage of branches they
had put up; each man wrapped, ob
livious of the heat, in his blanket.
The white men slung mosquito
nets, and crept beneath the. tents
that sheltered them both. The
night went by.
Next day it appeared that biriii
of paradise were very plentiful in
this area of dense forest, also that
they were somewhat less wild,
somewhat easier to stalk with Phil
Gault's splendid guns than they had
been hitherto. Je was agreed that
a star of two or three days should
be made. Irvine spent an hour or
two rcconnoitering and carr.e
back with the news that there was a
big village about three ntiles away
but that the people seemed to be
long to the tribe who had attacked
the expedition, and he thought, on
the whole, it was better to leave
them alone.
"We've got tucker enough to do
till we get down to the coast
again," he said, "and mixing with
natives when you've a mob of cat
riers al. ng means rows, and rows
mean Mischief. If we let them
aloiie, I reckon they'll let us alone."
Cault was well pleased to stay on
in the forest: apart from the chance
of sport, he confesed to himself
though not to Irvine that the
ghostly happening of the night had
waked his interest. He could not
rest tilt he had found out the cause
of it.
"Devil-giit my eye," he thought.
"It was a live woman, and I want
to know what she was up to."
Something told him that Irvine
would not entourage his curiosity.
The bushnun treated all forms o(
native superstition wuh fine con
tempt eru though he and Can It
THE SUNDAY
had on that Journey been witnessre
of "manifestations" among the soi
cercrrs of the great towns that'
would have puttied a circle of
spiritualists and a team ol conjur
ors combined. "Native rot" was all
that Irvine bad to lay after trans
lating and explaining, as fur as ex
planations could go. tie would
certainly call this rot. Neverthe
less, Cault was determined to fiid
out; he didn't know what, but fin J
out anyhow.
In the middle of the night lis
slipped quietly away front the tent,
and was gone a couple of bonis.
Irvine woke once or twice, and
missed him.
"What bit you last night?" he
asked suddenly, a he was helping
himself to baron at breakfast.
"There's yours," he added. "Don't
want any? Hals. Fever again?"
"No, I'm all right," was Cault'i
reply. He did t answer the first
part of the question, and Irvine was
not minded to press him. Neverthe
less, he noted the odd, pinched look
that the face of the "Kid" set mid
to bear that morning took that,
during the day, scarce lessened at
all.
"Not fever," thought the bush
man. "Looks more like scare ci
some kind. I wonder what he
thinks he's up to?"
On the next night, being tike
other seeming simple men of the
wilds, very full of guile, he lay still
and pretended to sleep, while se
cretly watching. Gault waited un
til he thought it was safe, and then
erept noiselessly out of the tent.
Through a hole in the aide canvas
Irvine watched hit shadow, dusk
among shadows, melt into the ashy
velvet of the forest wall. The bush
man swore softly to himself, softly
and with determination. Then he
lay down and waited.
Near morning Cault came back,
treading cautiously but breathing
hard with haste and exertion. He
lay down very quietly and seemc I
to listen. Then he gave a sigh of
relief and composed himself to
sleep.
It was at this point that Irvine
wrecked his comfortable persua
sion! of secrecy by remarking, ir
a characteristic drawl:
"What the etcetera dash do you
etcetera well think you have been
doing?"
"By Jove, you're awake, are
you?" was all that Gault could find
to say.
"Of course I'm (decorated and
embroidered) awake. Where have
you been? Playing the giddy goat
about the village?"
Gault did not answer; his chest
was heaving with some unex
pressed elation. One would almost
have thought had he not been a
man, and a millionaire, and a pro
spective husband that he was very
near crying.
"Here, Kid," said Irvine Irrever
ently, but kindly, "spit it out; thia
is a devil of a queer country, and
if you got any sort of a scare, yoa
aren't the first. What's happened?"
Gault, rolling over so that hlj
face was turned away Trom Irvine,
mattered into his camp mattress:
"I saw a woman."
"Well, if you did. What was she
doing?"
"She was In a tree."
"In a tree I" Irvine knew as well
as Gault better that native girls
do not climb trees. A thought
crossed his mind. Gault might be
going insane. In the Papuan bush.
But the Kid had not done. "Hon
or bright," he said, suddenly roll
ing over and sitting up Irvine
could see his face in the clear, late
moonlight. "I did see her. I've seen
her two nights. And she was up in
a tree. High up. And she looked
at me down through the leaves.
And her hair was all gold, like
gossamer or silk; it stood out and
flew. Her face was white."
"That's clean impossible," ob
jected Irvine. "No white woman
could possibly be in the country
without everyone knowing. You
dreamt it."
"Did I? Did the carriers dream
there was some one about the other
night when they said there was a
girl in the bush? Why, you heard
something yourself."
"Might have been a dog: or a
pig," declared Irvine, who knew
very well it was nothing of the
kind. "And anyhow, if they did
hear a girl, it must have been a
native. And if there was a girl
there, and if you really saw some
thing or another up a tree, what
are you chewing the rag about?"
"Because I rttn't understand it."
"What can't you understand?"
"You won't listen till I tell you.
She was in a cage."
"A how much?"
"A cage, I tell you. Barred in so
that she couldn't get out."
"Well, if she couldn't, how was It
she was walking about the camp in
the dark?"
"She wasn't. I hid myself and
watched. And I saw a woman
come, a native woman in. a grass
petticoat, black woman or
rather brown; that's what they are.
She had a banket In her hand, and
it was full of stuff food, ! think,
wrapped p lit green leaves and
she had one of thone bamboos they
REE: OMAHA, SKPTKMBKH 10. 1922.
carry water in. She called out, and
the woman in the cage let down a
bark ladder. So then the one who
had the bakrt climbed up it, and
I couldn't see her among the
leaves. And by and by she came
down, and the basket was empty."
"If you had a dream, you
had a blaukcty long one,
muttered Irvine, who began to
look pusrled. "Sounds almost as
if there w'as something in it. I'll
lay yon saw a tree house one of
the ordinary tree hou.ru, and the
rent you fancied."
"I did not fancy it. I tell you.
Yes, it seemed like what 1 ve
heard about trerhouc, but she
was caged in. And she was while
at leai-t "
"Yes at least now, we re get
ting at it."
"She was so very white. More
than a while woman. Our women
are pinky, or sallow, or tale, or
something they're not while pa
per color. She was, and it didn't
look it didn't look alive."
Irvine, staring out through the
triangular door of the tent into
the moon flooded clearing, seem
ed to consider things in general.
"Night middle of - the night's
bad time for thinking," was his
verdirt. "Y.pu go to sleep and I'll
go to sleep and we'll talk it over
in the morning. Perhaps you can
dream a little more before sun
up." "It wasn't a dream," persisted
the Kid, rolling over.
In the daylight, as Irvine had
foretold, things looked different.
Cault was inclined to allow after
breakfast and after a bath in the
creek, wilh two carriers on the
lookout for alligators that the
mysterious woman mightn't have
been so verv w'e after all. He
: ; v v. ' '
"Glad you like her," aaid the Kid.
even agreed, under protest, to Ir
vine's suggestion that she might
have been in native mourning
which sometimes expresses itself
by a face and body painted over
with white wood ashes. But he
was quite clear that he had seen
her and that she was beautiful.
"We'll leave the boys to look
after our camp and you can take
me to the place," Irvine declared.
"There'll be no peace till we know
what the thing really is. It sounds
like somebody gone crazy to me,
but this country is full of things
that can't happen and do."
'This has happened, anyhow,"
said Gault, leading the way. Ir-
vine noted that he was hurried
and eager, in spite of his sleep
less night; that he slashed at the
layer vines overhanging the nar
row track as if they were human
enemies, and hurried tip and down
the gullies scanning the way at
a pace that left both of them
breathless and wet through. Yet
the road was not long, in 20 min
utes they came to a huge red ce
dar tree beside which Gault turn
ed off into the uncleared bush, mo
tioning, as he went, for silence.
"It's quite close," he whispered.
"Stoop down under those bushes.
I found it by following the sound
the other woman made; you could
never see it. Now. Look up."
Irvine looked up and, as he after
wards said, received the shock of
his life. Some 30 feet above him,
among the clotted leaves of a great
Barringtonia tree, a face looked out
and down. And it was, as Gault
had said, white white as stone
and it was beautiful. The eyes were
large, half hid bjf very deep, curved
eyelids; he could not sec" fTicir col
or, but they were not dark. The
mouth and nose were nothing in
particular; the neck was glorious,
a column of pure marble. In that
and in the deep, carved eyelids, and
in the hair gold, sparkling, float
ing, so fine that it looked less like
hair than mist the woman's beau
ty lay. He could not account for
the dead-white color; European in
whole or in part, he was certain
she was not.
An idea struck hint, and he
slapped hi leg. crying, "I have it.
Kid I" The woman drew in her
head, at a startled bird draw hark
ilj V...J
w
into it net, but he did not heed
her, though Cault nudged him in
dignantly and said in a hissing
whisper:
"Now you've done itf
"I'll tell you what she Is," said
Irvine. "She's a while Papuan."
"What I 1 don't-"
"Albino same as a while mouse
or while blackbird. They're very
uncommon ; I've never seen one
myself and, li's an odd thing,
they're mostly always men but
they have thai dead while skin and
they have wonderful gold hair like
feathers. See how hers grew not
hanging down, but standing up,
like a"
"It doesn't stand up; it floats
like like the halo of an angel in a
piiitirel"
"(, you're there, are you?"
thought Irvine to himself; but
aloud he went on: "It's a bit finer
than the ordinary Papuan hair, but
it doet stand up, or would If it was
stiff enough. Yes, she's an Albino
all right. Looks a if they didn't
fancy her much, sinking her up in
a tree house by herself."
"She can't get out. I walked
around the tree when the moon
was shining right on it, and I saw
the house has bars all round It,
heavy bar lashed wilh bark rone,
and the lashings are put so that
they're out of her reach. She'd
need an ax, or at least a good knife,
to get out of that. It'i a cage."
That's queer, damned queer,"
aid Irvine, and fell to thinking. ,
"1 don't know the ways of these'
tribes very well," he told the Kid.
"I-ooks as if she'd made them wild
over something or other. But it
might be they re keeping her for
some big chief. I've known them
toand yet, that was in a house
in the middle of the village, with
people on the watch all round. Thia
is another business altogether. It
interests me. Let's wait to see
the woman come with her tucker
tonight; we might find out some
thing that way."
"Yes, let's agreed the Kid. hit
eyes looking suddenly very big
and bright. Theft, after a moment's
silence: "Irvine, would you mind
going out of sight for a minute?
You scared her you I want "
Irvine nodded, without a word,
and dived under the screen of bush.
He did not go so far but that he
could see, while safely hidden, any
thing that might be going on at
the loot of the great Barringtonia.
He counted himself more or less re
sponsible for the Kid, and it seemed
to him that there were the elements
of trouble, ripe for gathering, not
very far away.
Gault, standing beneath the tree,
began to call, in his own language,
for he knew no other, to the gold
haired creature hidden above. He
used soft words; he whistled like a
bird. There came no reply; the
leaves brushed fingers with the
winds; a locust, loud and wooden,
chirred in a betel nut tree. Else,
in the pauses, there was silence.
"It's no go," he said at last, turn
ing away. "Just close on dark is
the time the other woman comes.
I'll be there a little before."
"We will," corrected Irvine.
In telling the tale years after,
Irvine was used to say that the
day they spent in waiting was the
worst of the whole trip.
"We'd had leeches in the range,"
he said, "that hung all over us like
bunches of tassels dropping blood
that was a nuisance and in the
sago swamp country we were never
dry night or day; that wasn't agree
able, either. And when we camped
a day and a night at the Angabun
ga we were eaten alive by mos
quitoes. There were bad days all
those times, but the cap sheaf of the
lot was the day the Kid hung round
waiting to see that girl. You see,
he was dead, mad in love with her,
because he'd thought her a spirit
or something at first, and because
of her face and the goldy hair and
the way she looked down out of the
tree O, because of God knows
what it don't matter what, when
a man's got it bad. Well, he had
it bad for the first time, and it had
knocked him clean over. He
wouldn't have his dinner and he
wouldn't have let mc have mine, if
yarning and yapping would have
kept me from it. He wouldn't stop
in the camp, and he wouldn't stay
out of it; he would take the car
riers off shooting and come back
in a quarter of an hour with one
old crow and lie down on the
ground and kick his toes and say
he wished he was dead and get up
again and start smoking and let his
pipe go out and throw it away. All
day he went on like a poisoned dog;
it just about made me sick. When
it was near dusk he tried to get
away without me, but I was on to
him and went after, -and I put his
revolver and mine, too, into my
fielt,- because when a white man
gels to fooling around native girls
in cannibal country well, you
know "
"Keep quiet," whispered the Kid.
"There's the woman with the food
at last. I can hear her."
Irvine nodded. The last spears
of sunset were sinking tow in the
forest; huge violet mock plum
lying among dead leaves; red,
nniso ion mork apricots; w hite
toadstools, lily shaped, green
snakes of ihoto act citrper were,
for a moment, enchauied into
fruit, flowers, stems of magic gold,
and blotted, almost iniamly, by
the diik. You could still see. as
a man swimming sees under water,
I lie shadowed stems of trees, the
feathers of the ferns iiiotioulcse,
outspread. Then came a moving
shallow and stood still at the foot
of the great tree.
Like a cal walrhing a mousrhold,
Cault watrhed his r tuner. It came
when the basket of lo had hern
Uken up and the woiiwn descend
in to earth had just let go her
hold. Then Cault sprang up out
ol hi rathe ol leave and with
out hesitation or parlry flung him
self upon the end of .he Udder.
The woman lt out a rrram and,
crying, ran away,
Vp In the tree the while, caged
creature pulled at the ladder, and
when it refused to answer her hand,
lraned forth. The men rnuld not
see her, but thev could hear her
voice, asking, remonstrating. Cault
answered her as if he knew what
she was saying:
"It's all right. Don't be afraid of
us. VS'e only want to help you."
"O. do we?" muttered Irvine in
the background. "Some of u are
a lot more concerned about help
ing ourselves out of the mess
you're likely to get us into."
The woman seemed to under
stand, at least, the tone of Gault's
speeches. She murmured some
thing indefinite, wilh a note of en
treaty in it.
"She's asking us to set tier free
I'll swear she is. Where's that
ax?" demanded Gault. He had
brought one with him: he found it
in a minute and was away with it
in hia teeth, up the bark ladder,
before Irvine could do anything to
stop him.
"Three miles to the village."
thought that worthy, drumming a
little tune on the butt of his re
volver. "A native girl in a hurry
will make half an hour of if. Na
tive buck in a damned hurrv. with
their fighting kit on. wilt make
rather less. Something under an
hour to get the carriers off and
clear, if we don't want to make
pot roast for the village. What'a
he alt"
There was a sudden crash among
the branches above; a heavy beam
or two fell whooping through the
dark. Irvine jumped aside.
"Done it now, evidently," he said
to himself. "And what the several
unpleasant things he means to do
next. 1 should very much like to
Hi, Kid, what are you up to? We'll
have the whole village in our hair
inside of an hour."
"I've made her understand,"
came triumphantly from the brok
en tree house. ("I'll go bail," was
Irvine's comment.) "She knows we
want to help her. Shes' coming
with us."
Irvine, to himself, down among
the dank smelling leaves and
thorny creepers, swore as.few of his
friends had ever heard him swear.
To the other he said not a word.
He, who was above all things, a
fighter, knew when fighting was
no use.
In another minute two came
down the ladder Gault first,
scrambling and hanging by his
hands; the girl after, moving with
less activity than one might have
expected from a native.
"She's stiff and cramped, poor
little soul," said the Kid, swinging
lymself to the ground and watch
ing the descent of the half seen,
shadowy form above him. "My
God, did any one ever hear of such
beastly cruelty? Whatever she's
done and it couldn't be much,
anyhow to shut her up like a bird
in a cage away by herself in the
bush, and I suppose to leave her
till she died! Thank heaven we
came along."
"Is it any use." said Irvine,
blocking the way before him, "to
tell you that you've time, just time,
to get out of the maddest trick
you've ever played in your life?
Any use telling you that you're
probably throwing away your life
and mine, and the carriers', poor
beasts, to help a damned little
hussy of a native girl who just as
likely doesn't want any help at all?
Kid, put her back where you got
her and get on as fast as you can.
Don't you see she can look after
herself, since she's done it so far?
She"
"You can shut up," came sharply
through the dusk. "She's coming.
I I don't believe what you said
about Albinos I I believe she's
white. I'm going to take her with
us, and when we get to a mis
sion "
"O. Lord! O, Lord!" was Ir
vine's only comment.
There was no quiet steep, rolled
in blankets by the fire, that night
for the carriers. Insted they spent
the hours from dusk to dawn going
hard, relentlessly driven, along the
narrow, root encumbeered track
that led. by compass, toward the
distant sea. Irvine calculated that
it was just possible for the party to
do the ditanee to the eoat In a
nijht. and he wa determined that
thry should. They had the best
part of an hour's start, and they
ICmObmmI m Pat BiM I
