THE MONEY STONES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18689, 21 April 1924, Page 3

THE MONEY STONES.

BY JACK McLAREN. Author of "Iffy Odyssey," "Fagaloa's Daughter," "White Witch," "Savagery of Margaret Nestor," "Feathers of Heaven," "Skipper of the Roaring Meg," "Red Mountain,'' "The Oil Seekers," etc., etc.

(Copyright.) CHAPTER XL (Continued.) After a cursory inspection of the double row of thatched houses facing the river,* which formed the village, they took a bridle-path which ran directly inland, and which led them over a grassed flat, a narrow ridge, and into a beautiful little valley, whose sides were covered with dense jungle. "Here we are," said Peter, leading the way to the bottom, where a small stream flowed, and indicating a peg driven into the* ground. "This is the beginning of my boundary line. The centre of my operations will be here in the bed of the stream. Now, where shall we have the house?" ''Oh, I think there's only one place for —on the top of the ridge," said Ruth. "It's an ideal spot." Peter nodded. "I had it picked out in my mind, I'm glad you like it." For a while they wandered about the valley, discussing the shape and size of their house to be, while Peter now and then picked up pieces of white stone, and explained that it was gold-bearing quartz. It pleased him immensely that Ruth displayed an intelligent interest in his plans for developing the area, that she quickly grasped the more or less technical details.

"Oh, I do hope you strike it rich, and make a fortune," she said on the way back to the village. "You certainly doserve it. You are going to do a lot of work here." "The mining regulations demand it,'' said Peter. "And it's just as well too, that it is so. Otherwise, speculators and others would be grabbing every , scrap of country that showed traces of valuable minerals, and be keeping genuine miners out. It's the rule compelling them to work the properties, that keeps speculators out." "Still, three months is not very long in which to do all that work, is it?' asked Ruth. "I mean it doesn't sound very long to me." "I'll do it easily," said Peter confidently. "You see, I have a whole vil-lage-full of labourers." They were now at the spot where they had met Iko, the sorcerer. The old roan was still there; and as they passed, he looked up, but made do sigD of recognition, save a gleaming of his vicious eyes. "Ugh!" exclaimed Ruth, and Peter felt a shiver go through her as her grip upon his arm tightened. ".The horrible old beast."

CHAPTER XII " I have decided," said Ruth, '* to lake over the cooking and general domestic arrangements of this establishment. You •'ire going to work very hard, and you will need good food and looking after." It was their first morning in the house — neat, three-roomed bungalow, constructed entirely of palmthatch and native timbers, built high off the ground for coolness, and standing squarely on the centre of the ridge. The furniture consisted of packing-cases and other odd timber ingeniously transformed. The floors were covered with r.ative mats purchased at the village. The kitchen was a small lean-to hut on the ground a little at the rear. "As a start,' she went on, " I've made you a meal which I hope is somewhat different from the awful stuff that cook-boy of yours used to dish up on the cutter." And they sat down at their rough table to a meal so delicately cooked and* cunningly blended that Peter barely recognised it as being made from materials so unappetising as tinned meats and insipid native vegetables. " I want fo do my share," she said when he had expressed his appreciation. " Now, what are your plans ? You will start on the work of developing the Area at once, I suppose? " _ " This morning," said Peter. " I have selected a number of the young men of the village as labourers, and agreed to pay them a monthly wage in trade-goods— co, tobacco, hand-mirrors arid such like." " You had no difficulty in obtaining them?" Ruth asked.

' " None whatever. I could have had the whole village, if I had wanted them." Ruth poured out a mug of coffee and passed it to him. " Except one," she said. " I mean Iko, the sorcerer. I'm sure he positively hates you." Peter laughed. " That old scoundrel! Most certainly ho doesn't like me. I think he is jealous of my power over the natives, though my power is founded on their affections, while his is founded on their fears." He glanced through the open doorwav down the sunlit path leading Co the village. A number of brown forms were approaching, their "hatterinsr voices curing clearly on the stillness of the early morning air. " Here's my brand-new miners coming now," he said, and, the meal being finished, he rose, went out on _ to the verandah, and served them with axes, picks, shovels, and ofher tools. A few minutes ls,ter he led them down the path through the jungle-clad slope to the bottom of the valley. Then he set them to work at & spoC upon which he had decided before leaving for Samarai. From various observations he had made, Peter judged the gold-bearing reef to be a little distance in under the slope of the valley's side. In fact, his skill and experience as a prospector told him it could be nowhere elan. To reach the roof, he proposed to run a tunnel straight in under the slope. . It was no small task he was setting himself. First, a considerable portion of the jungle immediately, above fhe line of the proposed tunnel had to be cleared away, as the weight of the immense-trees would be apt to damage the tunnel, if not cause it to collapse. Then, there was fhe fact that, while the. first part of the tunnel would be through • soft earth and rubble, the remainder would be through hard rock, to displace which the use of drills and dynamite would bo necessary. He had brought! these things with him from Samarai: but the natives were entirely unskilled in their use, and would have to be carefully trained. He realised that close attention and a lot of work lay before him. Buff the fact did not depress him. He knew he could, unless something entirely unforeseen happened, complete the work within the specified period. Wherefore, it was with a light heart that he listened to the axe-strokes disturbing the aee-old quiet of the valley, and looked at the brown backs of his labourers bending to their work. A wave of optimism swept over him. He felt he was on the brink of something big. A fortune lay awaiting his grasp! He was certain of it! And Ruthshe would get over the strange fascination she had for the big man she feared; and he, her protector, would convince her that iC was not chivalry that prompted him—but love ! To share his fortune with her! To have her with him always!. The thought thrilled him, sent the blood surging through his veins. Visions of a gloriously happy future crowded upon him, blofting out the events of the com-mon-places present. So much so, indeed, that he almost jumped when he felt someone gently touch his arm, and turned to find beside him a native girl Ruth had engaged to assist with tho housework. She was a good-looking young creature, with a cotton leaf in her hair, and circlets ipf -woven orchid-stems about ft*"***.***.

In her big eyes was an expression of fear. " What it is, Amona ? be asked, a little irritably. " Master," Amona answered in the soft tones of her native tongue. " Master, I have come because lam afraid. lam afraid, Master." "Are you?" said Peter, gently. " Afraid of whom ? " She turned her big eyes full upon him. A little tremor shook her brown body. "Of Iko, the sorcerer,"' she answered.

CHAPTER XIII. "I com© to you because you are my friendas you are the friend of the whole village, having helped them against the bad people who attacked us," she went on. "It was nothing," said Peter. "Why i§ it that you fear the old man, Iko?" • "Ah, he is a bad old man," said Amona, frowning. "A very bad old man. He asks things of the people and promises bad happenings to them if they refuse. For long he has done this. And now " Again the tremor shook her. "Yes said Peter encouragingly. " And now he wants me for a wife! He wants Amona!" The words were rushing from her. "He who is old and ugly and whose body is withered and, who, besides, has already three wives— No! No!! I cannot go to him! He wants me because I am young, and his other wives are growing old! I want not such a husband! ' She paused, and added softly: "Besides, I love another man— ttie young man who is the leader of the men who work there for you at digging the money stones." "I see," Peter said to himself. "Iko segms to be a most thorough-paced scoundrel indeed." To Amona he said: "And he promises bad happenings to you if you refuse to marry him, I suppose?" "Yes." said Amona, nodding her fuzzy head. "For a long time has he been pursuing me, saying that must I marry him if I would not have a bad sickness come ta mo. My face would wither in a night, he said, and my beauty and youth would be gone. By his black magic would he bring this to happen. I would be sorry that I had not married him. Very sorry. For then I would be unable to get a husband at all, no man caring for a woman who is old and ugly." "And you believed this?" Peter asked. "You believed that he could bring this bad happening to you ?" She did not answer immediately; but looked across the valley with thoughtful eyes. "Iko is a very strong sorcerer," she said presently. "He has done many strange things. Men have died when he said they would; and sockness has come as he foretold." She paused again. "I am unhappy. Very unhappy. Every morning I feared to wake in case my face had changed as Iko had said. But when you come back, Master, and your wife engaged me to work at your house I felt better. I thought that if I lived at your house, and away from the village. Iko would bother me no longer. I thought he would be afraid of you, Master." "And is he not afraid?" "This morning, soon after you came here with the men, he came to the house. He came to the kitchen where I worked. And he talked as be had talked before looking at me with his small eyes that are like the eyes of a snake. He said he would allow me one week to decide. If I did not marry him then, I would come | old, even as he had said. Oh, lam afraid. Master! I do not want to come old. I want to keep young. Never before did he fix a time! One week. It is but a little while! And so I came to you, Master. Maybe you can help me. Maybe you can tell me what to do—marry that ugly old man, or " She stopped abruptlv, as though the idea of the dreadful alternative had robbed her of speech. From long experience, Peter knew it to be unwise for a white man to interfere in native affairs any more than was absolutely necessary. Europeans and natives regarded things from different angles, and what might seem rank iniustice in civilised eyes miaht be quite the opposite to savage understanding. But in this case it was different. It was the case of a woman being persecuted by a villainous old person, a blackmailer, full of tricks and wiles. There could be no two ways about that. In order to attain his end, Iko was playing upon Amelia's belief in the power of witchcraft, the belief of every native in the village. Her conviction that the sorcerer could turn her suddenly old was ridiculous, of course: but it was none the less profound. Peter decided that the case called for his interference. Besides, he couldn't have Iko coming to the house in his absence like this and interfering with his employees. He would have to show that he was the master. , _ "Just leave Iko to me," he said to Amona, patting her naked shoulders. "'And don't be afraid any more. Now run back to the house and get on with your work.". At mid-day when he returned for lunch, he told Ruth Amona's story, and when the meal was finished thev went to the village and to the sorcerer's house. It was a small house, at the nearer end of the village street, and visible from the ridge on which stood Peter and Ruth's dwelling. (To be continued daily.) \