THE COURTS OF THE MORNING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20454, 4 January 1930, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE COURTS OF THE MORNING.

BY JOHN BUCHAN.

CHAPTER XlX.—(Continued)

Luis signed to them to follow, and ?hey scrambled out of the hollow into tho forest, which was thick as moss, except [or an occasional trail. "Wo must go tare fully," ho whispered. " Carreras Svent out this evening to shoot for tho pot. 110 may not have returned. It would not do to meet him."

Luis moved first with Archie at his heels, then Janet, and Hamilton brought op tho rear. It was painful going, for chips and slivers of stono wero everywhere embedded in the lush herbage, and the stones were as unyielding as adamant. Janet felt her stockings and tho fringes of her dress being slowly shredded. Then thc.y reached an opening which slio judged to bo a trail. Luis took ono look and then ducked his head, and tho others crouched flat to conform. .

.la-net wondered what was coming next. D here was still tho glow of sunset in tho sky, and it made tho aislo through, .which tho trail ran a slender cleft of opaque unrovealing light. What came next was a dog. To her horror she found Cuvi-ctns' terrier breathing heavily si her shoulder. Ho had been trained rot to bark, but he showed his recognition by shaking himself and sending the tle\y flying like a shower bath. Sli<s glared at him, she threatened him, luit the beast stood wagging his imbecile tail. He had found a friend, and was determined to let his master como up and fhare in tho discovery. Luis did not wait for the meeting, 110 doubled back and clutched Archie s arm. ~ " The fellow will be here in a second, 1.0 whispered. "Wo must show ourfflvcs. . . You know tho road. . Here take the hatchet. . . I will try to divert them. Once at Agua Secreta you arc tale—quick!" The next five minutes wero not for Janet a period of very clear consciousness.' Sho was dragged to her feet, pulled through what seemed to be a finemeshed sieve of creepers, and landed in r, narrow avenue cut as if with a knife between two walls of forest. Then sho' seemed to be made to halt, and sho had the feeling as it' alone, she was exposed to someone's gaze, while tho rest wore bidden. . . She heard a cry, heard a {.hot fired, heard other pistol shots fiom 1.1 io direction of'tho camp. . And then f.lie found herself running faster than she had ever run before in her life. ; Luis was last and he was urging them on. / Thev were being pursued—she beard a distant crashing in tho unuergrowth —perhaps the trail twisted and .someone was trving to take a short cut. Then Luis' clear whisper followed them I leave you. You know tlio road. . . ;Do not for the love of God stop to fight • I do not think vou will be followed . Say that I will be at Pacheco in-thirty-six hours, no more. Adios!" She had no time' to look behind, for [Archie's hand was dragging her, Archie •wlxose game'leg seemed to be performing miracles, but she had the sensation that Luis was.no longer there. He had swerved to tho right down a subsidiary path and was making mighty heavy going. His movements sounded like those of a bull rhinoceros; he was giving tongue too, babbling loudly to himself. He will betrav us all, she thought in a panic, and then 'realised that this' was his purpose. He/ Mas there to be followed. . .. l'tirhack she heard a different kind of cry. the shouting of angry men on a scent which they have missed and .recovered. .\fier that it seemed that for hours thev struggled find plunged and slipped, a'!viavs keeping to some sort of trail, but tripped up by creepers, or slithering on greasy earth', or edging painfully through acres of cruel - -thorn. - She used to -be famous for her good wind, and had been able to stride from Glenraden to tho highest top of Carnmoor without'a halt. But that had been in clear hill air, with, a bright world of salt and heather qt her feet and no goa'd except her fancy. It was a different matter .to run through this choking, sodden forest, with life as the stake—Archie's life and her own—mavbe, too, the fortunes of the campaign. Thfc girl kept her mind savagely upon a single purpose —to keep up with Archie, and to give him as little trouble as possible, for she knew by his laboured breathing that the strain'must bo terrible for a lame . man. Hamilton, the leader, stoppedr -He was panting like a dog, but had a voice enough left to whisper: "T hear naeth' ing. Maister Lewis maun hae got the hale pack at his heels. They'll no catch him'this side o' Martinmas. We maun bo better than half road. lak ycur breath, Mem." But the merciful respite seemed only to last for a second. Again they were off,- arid now they seemed to bo ascending. The- -ground was harder.. They passed over banks of dry, gravelly soil, and in places the roots of the trees showed as in a pinewood; instead of being buried deep in rank verdure. Once, even, there a shelf of layered rock, and she had to givf; Archie a hand. "But the gain in elevation told them nothing of their position, for it was that murky mulberry dusk in which the foreground is just risible, but everything else an impenetrable blur.

They seemed to reach the summit, where,' curiously enough, it was darker than below. After that it was flat for a little, and thinner vegetation, but much thorn—Janet felt her hands ache from ils attentions. She was feeling a little more at ease. They were on the right road— Hamilton seemed to have no doubt about that—-they could not be very far from their goal, and there was no sign of pursuit. " Luis must have lifted, them cleverly off the scent. She wondered if he were safe.

It was Archie who stopped suddenly Bin! put, his hand to his head. " Hamilton:" ho panted. "Listen! Do you hear anything?" Janet pushed her hair away from hor ears. Somewhere back in the for(|t Ih<}ro was a sound like a little wind, lint the night was very still. . . . Shu listened again, and in the heart of it she heard the 'unmistakable note of human speech. . . And then, suddenly, it sounded much nearer, not a hundred yards away. "Oh! Quick," she cried, •" they're almostupon us." She was not quite right, for the accous-ti'.-s of the placo were, strange. Actually at the moment tho nearest of the pursuers v.'as at. least a quarter, of a mile off. But all three had felt the ominous proximity of the sound,-and all in their different v.avs reacted to the spur of ii-nr. Hamilton, being of a stocky build, could not onickou his pace, for he had come nearly to the end of his running resources; instead he slowed down, and his hand fiddled .with his belt. He would have preferred to light. Janet got her second vim!. •ind felt an extraordinary lightness and vigour. It was she now who dragged Archie. Inevitably they passed Hamilton,. so when they suddenly came to the brink of the gorge she was leading lhe - | party.

It was the kind of spectacle which cuts short the breath for the sheer marvel f 'i its beauty. From her feet the ground broke iitto a cliff, but a cliff riot of stone but of soil, for it was all forested. The trees were set on so steep a gradient that two vanls from her she was looking into branches reached commonly only by high-living birds. The angle was not h'ss than sixty degrees, but some strange adhesive quality in the soil enabled it to rhng to this difficult foundation and support. life.

Isnt the miracle lay in the depth. In that luminous purple night it ran down from layer to layer of darkness, keeping a.'i exact perspective, till it seemed that

A BRILLIANT SERIAL OF LOVE, MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE.

it had sunk for miles. Tho cleft must go to tho centre of the globe, and yet a bottom could bo detected, though not discerned. Somewhere at an infinite distance below there was water—tho so-called Agua Secreta—strong water, too, for out of the deeps rose the murmur of a furious river.

From Janet's feot a bridge flung out into the void. It looked like a ship's bowsprit hanging over dark oceans, for the eyo could not see its further abutment. And such a bridge! It was made of slats and twined oziers and lianas, solidly made, and its making was not of yesterday. But thero was no planking to hido tho abyss. Between the slats showed tho naked .void, and tho slats wero each a pace apart.

On yo gang." a hoarso voice spoke behind. " It's the brig we maun cross. Hand fast Ivy the side ropes, mem, and ye'll no fa'. Sir Erchibald will keep hand o' ye." But Janet had no fear for herself. This lath strung across immensity was a beautiful thing. . . Suddenly one-half of it seemed to become brightly gilt, and sho ralised tho rim of the moon had lifted above a corner of hill. . . And it meant safety! It was Archie she feared for, Archie with his crippled leg. Sho stepped cheerfully out on the bridge. " Hold light, Archie, dear, and go very slow. Balance yourself by my shoulder." The crossing of that bridgo was a comment upon tho character of each of the three. Janet was in a kind of ecstasy. To bo islanded between sky and earth was an intoxication, and every step was nearer home. If only Archie. . . .

Archie, painfully groping his way, minded tho vertigo of it not at all, but lie realised, as sho did not, how slow they moved, and how imperative was haste. As for Hamilton, tho thing was to him pure torment, ho was terrified half out of his senses, but ho doggedly plugged along because there was nothing else to be done. Ho was praying fervently and blaspheming steadily, and and blasphemy continued till the first shot was fired. After that, ho was more at his ease.

They wero in tho middle of the bridgo when the pursuers reached tho edge. A cry followed them, heard as clearly in that tunnel as if it had been spoken in their ear, to halt and come back or someone would shoot. The warning was followed by a shot, fired wido Tho last part of the journey was a night .maro for . all three. Speed was an urgent matter, yet a slip would send them whirling into unplumbablo gulfs. For Janet all tho exhilaration was gone, and her heart was fluttering -wildly. Sho was terrified for Archie, who had had .some ugly slips, and was leaning heavily on her arm. Also, tho gulf was now lit with silver moonshine. Before it had merely been a sensation of dark space, full but not realised; now she could seo it shimmering infinity, and something of the old terror of tho abyss began to clutch her. Beforo she knew she was off the bridge and had pulled Archie besido her on to a tussock of dwarf arbutus. A deadly faintness was on her, and her head swam. Dimly she saw Hamilton busy with his hatchet. . . What was ho doing? There were men on the bridge. Sho saw them clearly. They were getting nearer.

Then she realised. The fear of the abvss came back to her. It seemed an awful thing to sacrifice men to it, even enemies. " Stop!" she pleaded. " You can't. Let's go on. . . ." " It's my orders, mem," said the other, stolidly cutting through the twisted lianas. " Maister Lewis says—at all costs yo maun destroy the brig ahint you." • The pursuit realised what was happening. They were more than half way across, and the moonlight was so bright that the visibility was like day. Janet could see each of the four figures distinctly. They were all of the bodyguard. One of them, the foremost, seemed to be the man who had pursued her in the "rotunda. - - - N A pistol shot struck the earth a yard frorp Hamilton. " Ye'll mebbe get hurt, mem," he observed between his strokes. "Get you and the captain in ahint the buss. I'm near,finished."

But apprehension and horror held both Archie and Janet motionless. There was one other pistol shot which went wide. I'he. men on the bridge had stopped shooting and were labouring grimly in the race with death. . .

Supposing they won, though Janet. . But they did not win. Very gently, without any sag or jerk, tho bridge swung out into tho gulf like a silver pendulum, and several little black things were shaken from it.

Two hours later'four of Peter's troopers, patrolling up the long moraine of shale in ono of the tributary glens of the Catalpas ptream, came upon three very weary travellers, who were staggering knee-deep in. the shingle. To Uieir amazement they found that they were English—two men and a woman', who asked to be taken to Pacheco. One of the men was lame, and lie and the woman were set on horseback.

When after midnight they reached the camp in tho valley bottom, their captain. Carlos Rivero, received tho travellers with/ excitement. He fed them, but they'made only a hasty meal, demanding at once to be taken to headquarters. At the place which is called Maxi moras,, but in ■ the old speech Hatyelpec, Captain Rivero, who himself conducted thiem, was again surprised to be met by a fresh troop from Pacheco which contained a woman. But it was tho commander of this troop who gave Hivero the third and most shattering surprise of the night. For lie recognised him as the Gobernador of tho Gran Seeo.

CHAPTER XX. LOSSEERG AND THE CONQUISTADORES. General Alexander Loss berg, the com-mander-in-chief of the Olifa Expeditionary Force, was in a good temper as he took the air one morning on his smart little blue roan on tho long ridge to the cast of his advanced headquarters. Jt was nearly four months since he had occupied the city ot the Gran Seeo, and he felt that tho situation was now satisfactory in his orderly mind. There was Fort Castor—that had soon fallen. The name set him musing upon the fate of him who had once been Gobernador of the Gran Seeo. lie had never liked him: lie remembered the insolent calm of his eyes and his habit of asking unanswerable questions. Tho man had been an arrogant civilian, and his cleverness was futile in war. He had heard that he was an unwilling figurehead, a prisoner in tho hands of tho guerillero whom the people called El Obro, and whom - " he understood to. be a Scottish soldier-of-fortunc. For Castor —and then Loa, and then the easy capture of the enemy's secfet base up 011 that shelf between the mountains, and the sea. What was the name of it? Los Cortes de la Mamma. The Mines had been his great problem. Olifa had always been nervous lest the enemy should so destroy them that their restoration would be a labour of years. One part of the danger had been removed when he occupied the city and the smelting works; the other, the Mines, had been made his chief preoccupation, by direct instruction from his government. It had not been his own wish. Ho did not believe in tying himself up with anything in the nature of a fortress. He had been taught that it was a general's duty to seek out the enemy and destroy him, and not to be entangled in tho defence of property, * There remained Pacheco —that, robbers' nest in the angle of the hills. That, ho believed, was the main enemy headquarters, and ho had been anxious for a long timo to burn it out. That very

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morning ho was advancing on Pacheco in strength. At last there was something to bite on. The result, of course, was a foregone conclusion, and after that— ? Where would El Obro find his next refuge ? It was from Pacheco, no doubt, that the attempts on tho Mines front had been based.

Ho ran his mental eyo over tho map of tho < Gran Seco. The city and the railway to Olifa securely held; tho mines now frco from all danger; the enemy forced out of the wholo western, southern .and northern parts, and holding only an unknown corner in tho northeast with driblets southward about tho Tierra Caliente. Tho war was over. The country was conquered. All that remained was a littlo minor polico work. His reflections woro so satisfactory that the general was compellod to easo his feelings by swift movement. He gave his horso its head against the slopes, and, raising his cap, let tho wind sing about him and ruffle his thinning hair. 110 drew rein at tho crest and scanned tho wido landscape. A fino soldierly figure he looked, his squaro tanned faco flushed with exercise, his grey eyes with almost a boyish light in them, tho slight heaviness and sullenness of mouth, and jaw relaxed 111 good humour. lie looked eastward, whero sixty or seventy miles away tho great chain of tho mountains stretched its whito fingers into the unfathomablo blue. Ho was no connoisseur in tho picturesque, but suddenly those mountains gave him a feeling of pleasure. Ho felt a proprietary interest in this land, of which ho might soon bo Governor, and ho was glad that his future satrapy included these magnificent creatures of God. They reminded him of his childhood, when from a Bavarian valley he had stared at the distant snows of the Wettersteingebirge. He turned, and before him lay the grassy barren that stretched to thq city. On his right ho could seo tho slim headgear of tho mines, and tho defences of that now-stagnant front, Tho sight initiated a new train of thought. 110 had always meant to have the mines started as soon as possible. That would be proof positive of his victory.

When ho had broached the idea to Olifa, it had been received with enthusiasm ; those bovine ministers could not comprehend the meaning of his operations, but they could appreciate such a result as the resumption of their great industry. . . That very afternoon he would send a despatch, and he would begin to work out the first stages. . . And then a reflection brought him up with a jerk. Whero was he to find the expo rt aotsd perts to advise him ? What had become of those strange gentlemen who called themselves the Conquistadores ?

lie had talked it all over with Romanes some weeks ago. Ho detested the type, thu unwholesome pale faces, the low voices, the opaque eyes, which nevertheless in their blankness seemed to hold a perpetual sneer. But he had ber>n instructed from Olifa to treat them with respect, and Romanes lie found that lie could get 011 with. The man had been a soldier —a good soldier, he believed till he had fallen down —and he had not forgotten his earlier trade. The General had been impressed with the soundness of his military views. He had a contempt for anyone who fell out of his own hierachy, but he did not show it, and Romanes had no doubt appreciated being treated as still one of the brotherhood. He had been insistent on starting the mines. Half-power, of course, at first; there would a great lack of technical staffs and white foremen. But he was confident that all the labour needed could bo got among the concent trados and prisoners, and that ho and his colleagues could make up a skeleton staff. But that was nearly a month ago. General Lossoerg had owed his professional success to his -unique power of absorption in the task of tho moment. He had been busy conducting a war, and he had had no ear for gossip. But he seemed to remember something. There were queer stories about these people. They lived on drugs and got them somewhere—where was it? Somewhere in the mountains. Yes. Olivarez had told him that they had gone to the mountains, they and the blackguard-looking fellows, who had been Castor's bodyguard. . . . Why had it been permitted? He would have something to say to Olivarez. The general cantered across the baked yard in front of his quarters, and, giving his horse to an orderly, marched into the office of his chief of staff. Olivarez was older by several years than Lossberg, and along with General Bianca, was tho military pride of Olifa. He was a silght man, with a long olive-tinted face, a fleshy nose, and gizzled hair cut en brosse. Ho jumped to his feet as the general entered, and was about to speak, when ho was forestalled. " What about that fellow Romanes, General?" Lossberg demanded. "I want to get hold of him at once—him and his friends. I propose to start the mines,". Tho other looked puzzled for a moment. He had something of his chief's gift of absorption, and his mind had been much occupied of late by other matters. "Romanes, sir? Yes, I remember." He turned the leaves of a big diary. " Ho left here on tho 23rd of last month. Some private business. He was no use to us and we did not try to stop him. lie was going into the mountains and was confident that ho could get past General Peter's patrols. There was some talk of a seaplane, which D'lngraville had got hold of iu Olifa! D'lngraville, you may remember, sir, was formerly of the French Air Service. lie left a request that wo should keep in touch with him—by air, of course, and he gave us certain bearings and directions by which we could find him. Ido not know if anything has been done about it. Shall I send for Colonel Waldstein ?"

Presently Waldstein appeared, a. little man, all wire and whipcord. . lie had something to tell, but not much. " We had Senor Romano's directions beyond doubt," lie said, " but it is one thing, sir, to be given a line and quite another to be able to take it. 1 hat does not need saying. Wo twice tried to make contact with liini, but you will remember, sir, that three weeks ago the enemy 'planes were very active between here and tiie mountains. There is reason to believe that both the fighting scouts that we sent out were shot down. At any rate they have not returned." •'llave you done nothing since then?" Lossberg asked peremptorily. • " No, sir. Every machine we possess has been engaged in urgent business." Lossberg tapped his teeth with a pencil; it was a habit ho had when ho was slightly ruffled.

" There is now no enemy activity in that area, Colonel Waldstein," he said at last. " You will please arrange that a machine is sent at once to the place indicated by Senor Romanes. No, send two, and send Hoffding carriers. I want Senor Romanes brought hero at once, as many of his colleagues as can bo accommodated. and arrangements made for the transport here of the rest. Do you understand? The matter is urgent." Waldstein saluted and went. Then Olivarez was given the chance of saying that which had been on his tongue. " Thero is a message from Pancheco, sir. Wo occupied it an hour and twenty minutes ago." Lossberg's face lit up. " But that is good business. Had we much trouble?". " No, sir. Wo were not opposed. Tho place was abandoned." Lossberg stared blankly. " Abandoned, you say. "Abandoned, sir,/ Not a shell was fired. No contact mines have been left. And apparently it had not been abandoned in a hurry, for every scrap of stores had been removed. The place had been deserted v for several days." (To bo continued daily.)