FOR THE CHILDREN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13214, 27 June 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOR THE CHILDREN.

The ill-fated Belgian training-ship; Comte de Smet de Xaeyer, which capsized and foundered in the Bay of Biscay on April 19. The news arrived three days later. Captain Fourcault, with 36 of the naval cadets. and crew, went down with the vessel. She was a full-rigged ship, 270 ft long, built by the Greenock Dockyard Company, and launched in October, 1904. She was on her way'to Australia and New Zealand when she sank, having 59 persons in all on board. The loss has caused great grief and consternation in Belgium, which country is only just now contemplating a navy, though it has over 10 miles of board. ■ * The cadet ship had on board at cargo for Durban, valued at £30,000, most of which was insured at Lloyd's. The vessel had huge ballast tanks on board, and it. is suggested that light bulky cargo may have been stored in these, and *0 rendered her top-heavy.

Popocatepetl, the "Smoking Mountain," an active volcano in the State of Pueblo, Mexico, in whose shadow Dr. Dowie ..had proposed lo establish a new Zionist movement: > £ : : * • P'". *

CORNERED . TWO AGAINST A VILLAIN. "Itis - gold! Good, yellow gold; and wS are rich for life!" "Hush! Not so loud." " Whywho can hear lis?" "Will you speak softer'/*' Ralph Kestoh laughed, and drew a heavy log upon the camp fire. An immense shower, of sparks rose and was swallowed in the African night. " Now. wo have made this discovery," said Fred Keston, "1 somehow feel more nervous concerning the fellow Henriik Spootz than before. Look at. the facts. We started alone on this long trip, keeping its object, as wo thought, to ourselves. No one ever j dreamed of finding gold so far north of the Zambesi River. What had wo to go upon? Simply a legenda native legend. l.iUo fools we gave up-our ranch and started—" Like tools!" interrupted Ralph, warmly. " Considering that we have found gold—" "This morning we followed (tie dried course of a river, with hanks like precipices in" places, and we found the gold we Had corno for. Part of the river bed is lined with it." It is in the- bani'.cs tc-o-; vein-gold in quartz. 1' am sure of it; but, whore i suspect it to be, the hank rises perpendiculady thirty feet over the. rivvr. True, there is 110 water to fall into, but there is half a mile of deadly, shuddering quicksand. We mean to get some of that quartz, but it will be terribly dangerous work. - "In the meantime we must keep the sharpest look-out for Henrik Spoof/,, for if lie gets the faintest idea— Hark!" There was a long silence; Ralph ''slowly released the rifle he hail snatched up. "I hoard nothing." said he, uneasily, straining his eyes into the pitch gloom lieyond t.he fireglow. • " I. heard a twig snap," said Fred, in a whisper. He rose and took up his gun. ""There's no one there," growled Ralph. " Bet ter have your supper. Confound the follow !• Ho is too suspicious," he added, as Fred disappeared into the dark. Ralph continued his work of preparing the evening meal. Fifteen minutes passed, but his brother did not return.

Half an hour dragged by. A suffocating sense of danger lay heavy upon the watcher. He left the camp fire and stepped out into the darkness. It was so black that lie could not see a foot beyond himself. , His loud cry pierced the tense silence. "Fred! Where have you got t.o?" He -was answered by a nerve-shaking roar which made the ground tremble. It was the hungry voice of a prowling lion. Ralph leaped back into the light. The night passed, long and frightful. -Madness for him to venture into that black pit with a. lion waiting for him! What had be : come of Fred? Ho dared not find an answer to the question.

Willi the first streak of dawn Ralph set out to discover his brother's trail; but the sun-baked veldt gave him little sign of it. Half mad with fear and grief ho had spent the best part of tho day in a vain search, when lie perceived a herd of long-horned antelopes drinking at a stream a mile ahead. The sight made him remember thai he was hungry, and he abandoned his search to stalk a possible supper. Mounds of earth and thornbush-covered hillocks gave him the advantage he wanted. The wind was blowing from him, and approaching to within three hundred yards he fired at a splendid buck.

"Well, that settles you," said Ralph, pressing the trigger when the antelope was within a. score, of yards. But the cartridge was jammed. The gun. missed fire!

the furry sides. In a few moments they had disappeared, leaving Spoots staring open-mouthed and shaking with some strong emotion, and white as death. " Ourso me! I might have settled that one, too!" said he.

Maddened with fear and rage, the antelope was bearing Ralph swiftly over ho plain. But ifc could not keep up such, an effort for long, and soon began to stagger in its gait, and labour hoarsely for breath. During the twenty minutes that- his wild rido lasted the sun had been setting under the glowing rim of the vast plain. The African night fails abruptly. Darkness came with great suddenness, without any interval of twilight. 1. ... "I'd better slip off, perhaps." thought Ralph, "if the beast puts its foot in a hole—"

He never finished that sentence. Out of the gloom came an awful cry—the fullthroated roar of a ycllow-nianed' lion, and /< tawny body came flying through the dusk. The lion landed full upon the antelope's back, and Ralph, with terrific force, was hurled a dozen yards away into a. thornbush, where for a few minutes he lay insensible.

Ralph shivered with horror. He began to move away, using the utmost caution. Suddenly he rolled down a six-foot bank into a, gully. "Hi! Get away, you beast!" yelled a, voice, the words followed by a series of appalling yells that made 'Ralph's". blood run cold.

For a few minutes lie remained where ho was. on his batik in the dry, big ditch, listening to,those frenzied cries, and shaking all over. Then suddenly he leaped to his feet with a tremendous shout of delight. "Fred! Fred! Is that you," dear old fellow?" he called.

There was a moment's silence,- then he heard his own name cried by his brother. Rushing forward he found Fred Keston a prisoner, hushed arms and legs to a younp tree on the side of the gully. a "Whose work is this?" demanded Ralph, hut he knew the answer before his brother spoke it with dry lips. " Heni'ik Spoor-/. But free me before I explain. J heard a lion prowling about here, and when you tumbled into the gully I thought the boast was coining for me end yelled to scare it off." - "You would have- scared it into .1 fit," replied Ralph-. " Such ear-splitting howls may 1 never listen to again!" "Iv« been tied there for twenty hoars," said he. When f left the camp -o>v> last night it was to feel the cold muzzle of a revolver suddenly pressed into mv throat. Spootz was waiting for mo. Ralph, he overheard our conversation. ll© told mo to mount his horse, and ho got behind me, his pistol against m.v neck. So we rode' for mile=—to this spot. "Ralph, Spootz . means to murder us I am certain of it. lie would nave «>iot me last night only lie wants to get our gold secret. I- was obliged to tell :ii<n; it was that or a bullet but I could see tha'. ho didn't altogether believe me. He hr.s gone off to satisfy himself. When he finds the gold, either lie will leave me here ro starve or to fall to a lion, or he will eon.e back and settle me."

Both boys looked at each other. They had been talking a. long while, and the veldt was already pallid with dawn. Their faces showed white.

"What an unearthly sound!" said Ralph, shivering. Then once more they heard it—a high, shrilf. agonised calling. " It's a man's err ! It must be Spootz himself. Come along!" said Fred.

They hurried forward, pausing -every now and again to listen for the sound which guided their footsteps. Suddenly they came to an even, deep dip in the plain," where a river had onoe foamed, but which was now but a mere trickle of water.

Ralph looked at his brother. The, same thought had flashed upon both. "The quicksand!" said Ralph, swiftly. Fred nodded. "I did not warn him of that," said he. "If Spootz has fallen into it. heaven help him!"

A gasp of horror broke from his lips as the sable antelope lunged at him with itsterrible horns that could have- impaled a lion. All his nerve was needed to avoid the stab. The horns passed 011 either side of his body, and in desperation Ralph gripped the immense, curved weapons. At that instant he heard a loud shout, of mockery. A horseman had dashed round tho big rock. It was Henrik Spootz, the Boer.

Once more the cry sounded: it wa* for the la-=t- time. The boys lore along the hank, which became more and more precipitous. Suddenly tliev stopped, leokintr downward. The sun had risen, and its beams flashed upon tho glistening surface of a stretch of yellow sand which lay between the high banks of tlv stream. It was beautiful to look noon, for it had the colour of gold, and cold powder was mixed with its grains: but it was deadly treacherous, having the power of drawing into its depths anything which touched it.'

"Fire! Quick!" yelled Ralph. The Boer slowly lifted his gun. There was & deathly look in his eyes,' and his face had turned pallid under the tan. He took aim, but not at the antelope ! Before hi? finger could press the trigger an astonishing thing occurred. Exerting a mighty effort Ralph ICeston had vaulted, with the aid of rhe -beast's horns, upon the back of his adversary. The brute leaped, reared, plunged madly: Ralph had broken in a wild horse or two, and was not to be dislodged. Finding his efforts useless, th- now terrified antelope darted over the- plain, its rider gripping it tightly by the horns., his knees driven into

"Too late!" said »d. in a fearful whisper. ."See there! That's where his foot slipped on. the , bank. Spootz is under the quicksand." " Awful !" said Ralph, turning away. Fred Keston took a final glance. Was it his imagination, or did he really perceive a sudden "shiver pass over the surface of that terrible morass, as if its victim still struggled for air and life?