CHAPTER V.—Continued.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 10699, 22 August 1896, Page 4

CH A PTER V.— Continued.

♦gXrggyyllEUK was little time to yPmlßp' % l<ise, ami less to consider in. M^^^ Already a crowd of curious Kr^l|^ idlers had gathered on the w^^^^ landing step?, others were J^S^*^ hurrying alon-r the bank jecj) in our direction, and a dozen J^p" hoats \v\<i crowded npun the gig. **? In a few minuted we should be hemmed in, for irreproachable as the man beside me looked,' v rumour seemnd already ts> kno-tiot alnvwd as to his identity. To return to -Whainpon was a solution of the difficulty I «a-» least inclini'il to adopt, yet 1 knew Captain sßrown s Brown 'vjvnt-.'d the g\g and crew as soon as possible. ', i bit my nails, and looking about nic in perplexity, Jaw ah .ustboat, flying the Viceioy's flag, ljiog some fifty yards off, in the siream. I ordered the gig alongside of hor/und to my great joy, found she was juso about sailing for Nankeung with despatches for the Viceroy. My mind, was ouade up in a moment, Sam was transhipped, the gig ordered back to Whamooa, and ten minutes Inter, the hoaseboat was Tunning up the river before a strong breeze, myself and prisoner aboard her. The' country round, and for many miles <\bove Canton exhibiting nothing more interesting than a wide stretch oi rice field. As in its lower reaches thu banks of the river were fringed with lychee and orange trees, while inland detached (•lumps and grove 3 of bamboo were dotted here and there about the plain. On the spoond day, the scenery aHered', We entered a 'mountainous reg ; 6n ; the river narrowed and changed from what I had always known it in its lower reaches, a broad, muddy current, rolling slowly to the sea, into a clear, swift aud sparkling stream. The buat forged slowly tb.ron.gh narrow passes, having on either lian 1, lofiy blnffi?, clothed to the water's edge with the mo3t beautiful forest trees I had ever seen. Between these passes were mountain valleys, seemingly wild and quite unspoiled by man. For me, so lung used to tie deadly flats or a great alluvial rice plain, this wild mountain scenery had an unfailing interest, and charm. _ _ , The next day, we came in sight of -a great isolated rock, vising sheer from the water to a height of six or seven hundred feet, I should think. The wafcrr ran deep alongside it^ or rather under it, foi the huge limestone mass overhung the water. This I recognized as the famous rock, in which Buddhist monks had hewn a monastery for themselves, and a temple dedicated to the Queen of Heaven. As the boot drew near, a flight of steps was discovered, cut in the precipitous face of the cMff. These led to the first story oi the tetiple, a hundred feet above the river. A hundred and fifty, feet above this again, was a second story. Our boat brought up at the foot of the staircase, for the Queen of Heaven is held in special reverence by all Chinese whose business is upon the waters. The boatmen, each with his offering to the Goddess, climbed slowly up the flight i.f steps, until they disappeared through a tistnre in the cliff, which served as entrance to the lewet temple. It was with a feeling noar akin to awe, that I surveyed the face of the great frowniug clili, at the foot of which the boat was mooied. A mass of rock hung from high above the Temple's upper story, and tapered down to a point, as fine as Unit of a needle, fifty or sixty feet above my head. It looked like the trunk of a mammoth elephant, and • seemed to have been formed by the drip from the overhanging cliff, much as a stalactito is formed. ' A senso of the stillness aboard the house-boat camo upon me suddenly, and I turned abont aud looked iuto the cabin. ■ It was empty ; and a single glance for'ad revealed, to mo the startling fact that I v?as alono aboard. I looked up just in time to see the figure of a man disappear withm the doorway at the top of the stairs. " He's off! " buzzed a hundred times over through my nvnd, as 1 sprang out of tho bout and up the steep stairs, two Eteps at, a time, in hot pursuit. £ I renched the summit almost breathless, and entering at' the fissure, found myself in a largo oblong chamber, lighted by two openings in the rock. In front of me was fin altar, and squat upon it a great image curved in gray stone, re- ■ presenting a hideou3 female. The eyelids druoj'od heavily over the protruding eyes, tbe features were coarse and sensual, and the thing seemed to leoi complacently over the fumes curling thinly from the buinii-s i'l.-s sticks. Scores of similar images, t'nl smaller in size, stud Sod the •wiill h. hind rhu nltar. On tho lowest step in front, Mr Samuel Wong was kut.'oHnL> in re-oivnt devotion. " Woi.'t do, Sinn, " I cried, darting forward and clapping the penitent pirate on the shonklor. lie rose slowly from his knees and facud round upon me with a look of dignified astonishment that quite abashed me. " Mr Uiway! ' he exclaimed. "Yes, Mr Wong ; and I must request you K> descend with me to the boat again." " When my devotions before this holy shrine are- finished, young man, I will • accompany you, " he replied . "At once, " I cried, seeing a nmnber of villainous-looking monks enter the Temple by a dour on m/icft. " Sir your presence- lioro is an offenc to these holy men, " said the pirace wi k cool impudence. " Can't help that, Mr Wong' ; my orders are — " " To treat mo as a prisoner on parole, ' I presume, >J ho interrupted with an irritating smile. •• I'll stand no more nonsense, Sam, " I cried angrily, for tho holy men were edging round in a fashion that suggested an intention to cut off my retreat. ] laid my hand on the revolver pouch that •was strapped about my waist, and fell back upon the entrauce. " That's a dangerous toy for one oi your tender years, " he said with a sudden change in hia manner ; and cast, ing a significant glauuo in tho direction of tbe b.otherhood, he moved towards them. I drew the revolver, levelled it, and t fired! Peeling certain that the report itselt ' would l ip quite enough for the priests, I had purposely aimed between Sam and thi-i, , and plumped tho bullet into the • c acred bosom of the Queen of Heavuu. It had the desired effect ; for while th: j sound of the shot still reverberated in ' . the cavornouefleptbs around mo I had

tbe satisfaction of seeing the priests huddling upon, each other out of the Temple. •' Better trust yourself with me, Sam," I said when we faced each other alone. " Your treatment, Mr Otway, " said he, after bestowing an audible curse upon his fugitive allies, " releases me from 'my parole." He went towards one of the holes that opened upon the river, looked ont for a moment, and then recoiled a few steps. "Between the Devil and the Deep Sea," I said with a laugh as I watched his movements ; " take your choice, Mr Wong." - " The deep'sba, then,"" cried Wong, and taking a short run, he sprang cjear out through tho window. The great stalactite, described before, i hnng in front ot the aperture, being at this point barely a foot in diameter, and some ten feet out. The smuggler flung his limbs about the smooth grey stone, clung there for a moment, and then disappeared below the level of the Temple flo >r. Confident that hs was in my power, I had neglected to koep uiy man covered with ihe revolver ; inikeil in complacent assurance that Jack Otway was master of the situation, my arms were folded upon my breast. The leap of the pirate was a complete surprise, and before I had ecoveied from my astonishment he was ont of sight. Rushing to the window I pjered over the sill. Already Wong was half way down tl\e stalactite, which tapered to a point 50 feet above the surface of the river that swirled and eddied round the base o£ the rock a hundred feet below me. Clasping tho rocky pendant, he descended rapidly until ho reached the slenderest part, where for an instant he hnng. Thou dropping to his fall length he loosrd hold, and continued the descent ill his body, dwindling as it fell, plunged into the blue depths, and dis- J appeared. ' A minute passed —two —and' already regret for the fate of the daring fellow hud begun to struggle with my sense of justice, when suddenly a few feet to my right, a speck appeared upon tho surface of ihe water, and began to move away round the basa of the cliff. Tbo sight recalled me to my duty at once, and I turned aud rushed for the door by which i had entered the Temple, [t was closed, and though only fastened on the inside, a fovr precious minutes were lost in reopening it. The long flight of step?, steep, slippery, and narrow, were not so easy to get down as they had been to ascend : next, the br atmen wore slow to start unmooring their craft, and bungled so amazingly over it, that when at last I was able to take up the pursuit of the smuggler no trace of him was to be seen. Two or three small junks were insight, but all moving away from the neighbour, hood of the Temple Bock. If Sam were escaping in one of them, pursuit was hopeless in such a craft as the house, boat, even supposing it was possible to discover which junk held the smuggler and his fortunes. For all I knew he might have secured a footing upon the rock itself, and climbed to some place of security ; and looking np at tho frowning and overhanging sides of that great cliff, I realized Black Sam had escaped. TO BE CONTINUED. ! j