THE KLONDIKE GOLD MYSTERY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9108, 8 March 1898, Page 4

THE KLONDIKE GOLD MYSTERY.

BY JOHN _.. MUSICK. CHAPTER VII. When Patii Miller regained con_"_iou_ness he was lying on a pile of skins and furs in a cavern. An antiquated lamp, which gave out a smoky, greasy light and the fumes of sperm oil, sat on one of the natural niches in the rough, uneven wall of the cavern. A man clothed wholly in bear and sealskins stood over him, gazing at him with a pair of strange gray eyes. His hair was long, falling to his shoulders, and his beard, which was almost white, came to his waist, He had a half-savage and half-civilised appearance. His features, tanned by mountain winds to the consistency of leather, he found it impossible to read. Paul gazed into tho strange, wild face and asked : ' Who are you ?' The stranger, without taking his eyes off him, asked : ' Who are you ?' ' I am a miner from the Klondike who was robbed. I was in pursuit of the robber when some accident be.ell me. Let me see, how was it'? Ob} yes, I remember now ; I was climbing a tree on the mountain side. I had reached a great height when it suddenly gave way beneath me, and I fell with a craßh to the ground. You found me?' 'Yea.' • And brought cae here ?' ' Yes.' The strange host answered in monosyllables, and always with hesitation, as if weighing each word. Paul at first supposed tbat some of his limbs were broken or dislocated, and dared not move, bat after a few moments he discovered that he had suffered no greater injury than a severe shock. He had fallen into a deep snowdrift, which had broken the fall, and no doubt saved his life. The stranger, with long hair and beard, stood over him, gazing at him with eyes and face full of strange emotion which the injured man could not understand. At one moment he thought his feattireß beamed with sympathy, and at another he interpreted the look to mean hate. 1 Am I seriously hurt 7' he asked. His rescuer shook hi 3 head and added : ' You'll be up in a day or two.' ' Won't you tell me who you are V asked Paul after a few minutes' gazing into the face of the mysterious and at the same time superstitious stranger. The man turned away for a moment as if he wished to avoid the answer, and then slowly turning back answered : * I am a hermit; will that, suffice ?' Though his manner was savage and his costume that of an exile or Crusoe, his language denoted education and refinement. 1 Do you live here ?' Paul asked. 'Yes,' after another moment's hesitation, as if weighing his words in mental scales before he uttered them. ' How long have you lived in this mountain V Then came a longer silence than usual, when tho hermit of tho cave answered : ' What difference can that __.._.. I. you ? I found you in a perishing c v dition and brought you here and savea your life. Is that not enough without telling all the secrets of my life ?' He turned slowly about and went to a small fire that smoldered oa tho stones some distance away, and began to toast some slices of moose stake. Paul closed his eyes for a moment, and then opening them found the stranger gazing at him. His eyes seemed to gleam like the orbs of a _orpent, and Paul was sure the man could be no friend of his. He silently watched him, thinking. ' The man must be a confederate of my enemies. Can it be possible that in my eagerness to capture them, I have fallen into their bands.' Then he closed his eyes and tried to reason that he could be in no immediate danger. If the man had intended to kill him, he would no doubt have done so while he was unconscious. He also reasoned they might have some design in saving his life. The riddle was beyond his power of solution, and he turned his head once more to watch the man at the fire. The great cold, gray orbs were on him, and the light within tbem wag still such a puzzle he could not tell whether they gleamed with hate or suspicion, though he sometimes thought they were softened to a look of friendship. ' It's my head that's wrong the young man thought. I will sleep, and when I awake I will feel better.' He closed his eyes, and in a few moments was unconscious. When he awoke he found the strange hermit at his side, bending over him and gazing eagerly into his face. He turned slowly away and went back to the fire. A moment later he brought him some meat, and said : ' You had better eat ; you are weak!' This was quite a long sentence for the hermit, and be paused after speaking to rest. Paul's first thought was that his host might have some intention of poisoning him, but a second thought convinced him that if the hermit had designs on his life, he would have slain him while he slept. He took the broiled steak and ate sparingly. It was very juicy and nutritious, and he began to feel stronger in a few moments after he had finished. The hermit meanwhile had resumed his seat on a large stone in front of the lire. There was now another expression on his face. It was an expression of sadness. The more Paul studied the features of this strange man the more mysterious they teemed. He lay for a long time looking at him and asking himself a thousand questions. Then ho grew weary of gazing and thinking and closed his eyes. In his weak, dreamy state ho seemed almost oblivious to surroundings and reckless as to his own fate. Consciousness had almost slipped away when a movement in the cavern caused him to again open his eyes. The liermst was preparing to leave. Ho went to a shelf of stono and took from it a short gun of antiquated stylo and proceeded to load it. In his belt lie stuck a largo pair of boat pistols and took up a spear. Then ho gave ono cautious look about as if

he dreaded to have his actions known. Paul closed his eyes. The hermit came to his side, and bonding over him listened for a moment to his regular breathing. 1 He sleeps !' he said in a low tone. Turning about, he walked toward the mouth of the cavern for a moment, and then came back, and stood over him again, and again murmured : 'He sleeps !' Paul, though listen- j ing to every word, feigned sleep so thoroughly that no one could have told it was counterfeit. ' He will sleep until I come back.' He took up the rude lamp, in which burned some kind of oil, and went to the opposite side of tho cavern. He set the lamp on a flat stone, and putting his hand into a sort of crevice in the rocky wall pulled forth something. It was in a roll. He unrolled it and gazed at it intently. From where he lay Paul saw that the object when unrolled wa_ part of a tanned bide of some sort of an animal. What animal it was he could of course draw no conclusion. The oil lamp at best was a poor affair, but at this distance the smoky, flickering flame gave forth an imperfect light, which made it impossible for bim to tell what the hide j contained. ' I hopo he will leave it,' thought Paul. 'If he does I will examine it. There is writing on it, and it may contain some clue to this Klondike mystery that so nearly drives me mad.' Long the hermit stood gating upon the writing on the skin, then with _ sigh he rolled it up again and thrust it back in its place. With the smoky oil lamp he once more approached tho couch where Paul lay, feigning sleep. ' Yes, he sleeps,' the strange man said in a lew tone. eHe will not awake before I return.' All the movements of the hermit were slow and deliberate. He went carefully toward the entrance of the cavern. Long Paul lay on the couch listening for tho slight tread of the moccasined feet, but be came not back. ' He has gone 1' said Paul. Ho rose to a sitting position and gazed about the cavern. 'I am alone !' The strange, deep, sepulchral echoes which seemed to hurl his own words back to his mouth were almost deafening, and might have frightened a superstitious person. Paul was a little dizzy at first. He found one shoulder a little bruised, and there was a slight cut on his left wrist, but both injuries were trifling and neither would detain him long. After a few moments he rose to his feet. He found he could stand much better than he at first supposed. With wildly beatiDg heart he began his tour of exploration. The oil lamp had been left burning on a square stone, and he picked it up and went along the great natural corridor for some distance until he came to a small stream of clear, cold water. He bent down and slaked his thirst at this subterranean fountain, and turning came back and went the other direction. Two or three hundred paces further he came upon a great chamber with lofty ceilings. Lying on a large flat stone were his rifle, pistols and snow-shoes. A wild desire for freedom came over him, and he was tempted to seize his weapons and make a rush for the mouth of the cavern. He buckled his cartridge belt about his waist, put his pistols in their scabbards and began to buckle on his snow-shoes. Then a new thought entered his mind. He removed his snow-shoes, laid his weapons and ammunition where he had found them, and taking up the lamp returned to the chamber in the cavern where the cot and fire were. He began to search for the crevice in tho rock where ho had seen the man place the skin on which was the writing. Paul had determined to know more of the mystery before leaving the cavern. Ho found the roll and drew it out. It proved to be a piece of walrus hide covered all over wtth strange pictures and hieroglyphics such as the Indian picture writers use. It was almost round, and he could find no beginning nor end to it. The report of a gun near the mouth of tho cavern caused him to thrust the walrus hide into tho crack and hasten into the deeper recesses of the cavern. [to be continued.]