Louis Vernon.

Otago Witness, Issue 1383, 1 June 1878, Page 18

Louis Vernon.

(TPtitUn for the Otago Witness. )

By F. A. J. Db Oondb,

Author of " Fred's Eeyenge," &c, &c.

Chapter XVIII. {Continued.)

" The outer and stronger fronds were now contracting the area of their circle vapidly, and we could distinctly hear the rough grating noise they made as they rasped past each other in closing, even •bore the din of the savages. The ends were folding inwards, and the whole began to resemble a huge ball. The fronds olosed tighter and tighter, like a hundred scaly serpents, around the unhappy victim, and a' crimson stream began to flow down the sides of the tree — the life-blood of poor' Joe mingled with the viscid, intoxicating, maddening juice of the tree. " O God ! the sickening sight froze our very hearts', blood ; we looked at each other, but our tongues were chained with horror. Many > terrible scene . I have encountered, and many a fearful sight I have seen, but nothing ever entered even into my most vivid imaginings to equal what I witnessed on that awful night, in that'deep; dense, mysterious grove, in the, forests of Papua. ' -*'%& fearful and unearthly shade that the blue flame cast all around, the solemn dirge-like chant of the savages ; the sensitive,,, creeping, life-like motion of the jjacred^tree, which, like a hungry devilfish, ihrew out its long feelers on all sides And then wrapped them around its prey ; the 'shrinking; fearful horror that took possession of me, have seared that scene, MJirftfiabrandof red-hot ironinto my very *OH,U:.lt;hauntß me in my dreams, and ever an&'anon I start up in horror, as memory, that,will not.forget, recalls it in my sleep. Jack was the ' next victim. He was ordered'lto drink of the horrible fluid as •oon^as, the first tree had olosed firmly 4&nnd, !poor Joe^' and ceased to move. tfhe $rW would not unfold for weeks,; till every atom, of its victim had been ctiMoive'd and absorbed:- At first Jack O^se^his'teeth' firm and refused to drink, but on being told that he would be bound tighter 'rind 1 cast into the tree as he was, He 1 drank'it eagerly; for, as he said'to me,,, \i %ii • ! betteT? ! io ! be crushed" to pulp while, insensible than to feel .the gradually tightening ioldß-encircling his body while o&ttsoious.. -'« , ; • ••^•I/need-ndt .detail. The second scene counterpart of the first. Jim was the next, then Bill and Harry, rfnd tnen'came my own turn. ,-?Sl' took , the drink. It was almost taatele'ssj ■ of a • sticky nature, and of about the consistence of treacle. Scarcely had I swallowed it when an indescribable horror, iorept over me, and in a short time I. fancied that snakes ,were wreathing their coils around me and strangling me. Fearful-looking goblins glared at me,: with blood-shot eyeß and cloven feet, and knocking, , hellish laugh. The blood in i»yyeui» was "boiling ; my brain seemed to expand with'the heat and to be forcing the sutures of my skull apart. A. red hcit hand was laid upon my throat, and I WM thrown to the ground with violence. T^'.nends t closed around me, and I felt the scorching heat of their approach upon tny, forehead. I struggled to get free, but I felt their folds grow tighter and tighter. I cried out in my insane wrath, and ft fearful horror possessed me -which our^led'my very heart's blood. My brain was one seething hell of torture, and a mountain lay upon my bosom. The weight pressed heavier upon me till it eeemed ip crush the life out of me, and all was over. I knew no more. ' "'When I awoke again, it was day ; the •on. .was past the meridian, and the <janbes were descending the river. Oh tiow itl> n d weak I felt ! I could r.ot more hand or foot, and a burning thirst "frjjus ; consuming my very vitals. The first -word"! v^ tere d was, * Water.' I drank it cooled the devouring heat M'imy stomach and* gave me instant tailed .' ".' j ' ■ " /'l'learned afterwards that I uttered ■oine mystic^ sacred 1 word while writhing oii # !,th'e ground,, which, caused them to spare nay,Ufei""-But, ah f death a hundred limes, 1 ' would, be preferable' to what I enifejirect in ; that brief space of time. J '- >v fj'l recovered Blowlyi and by the time W^rea^fied the village I was able to walk from the canoe to the house of "the chief," #h'ete X was ordered to go: 1 ""^T don't think the'effects of the drink, terrible' 'as they' were, *gav6 my constitution* jjuchVshock as witnessing the awful fs&e 'of my devoted comrades. Ever afterwards I shrank from the gaze of that Ikide'qus old monster, Malumbodjo, as I would have done from the very devil him•elf. 1 ,1 dared not trust myself in the hands of Woh 'savages, who practiced such awful rites! ' I 'knew not the moment that I Slight unconsciously violate some of their •acred .humbug, and be condemned to that horrible death.

As, soon as I recovered my bodily strength tjptfficiently, I determined to attempt to escape. I served the old chief, whose sl&ve I now was, and waited upon him attentively to ' disarm suspicion, and one n&nt I had the good fortune to get away iupnpticed. I reached. the uninhabited paffc' of the coast where we had first landed, and lived there a couple of weeks. Yo'fii may make sure I kept a bright looktout, for ships, and at last I had the good fortune to see one becalmed a few miles from shore. A few days before that I found a email canoe, bottom up, on the beach. I now considered it a gift from heaven, I launched it into the water,

'and soon reached the Bide of a good English ship, which, as the breeze sprang up, sailed away, and bore me to the shores of dear old England."