The Storyteller

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 6693, 22 December 1888, Page 1

The Storyteller

COLONEL UUARITCH, V.C A TALE OF COUNTRY LIFE Br H. RIDER HAGGARD, Author of "King Solomon's Mines," "Allan Quwtermain," "Jess," "She," &a, &c. [AU Rights Reserved.] But koi.toßed. Harold glanced at the clock— it was nearly one in the morning— time to go to bed if he yd going. But he did not feel inclined to go to to bed. If he did, with this great discovery on his mind, he could not sleep. There was another thing ,• it was Christmas Eve, or rather Christmas Day, the day of Idjrtmnswer. If mny succour vma tobegiren at nil, it must be given at once, before the fortress had capitulated. Once let the engagement be renewed, and even if the money should subsequently be forthcoming, the difficulties would be doubled. But there: ha was building his hopes upon sand, and ho knew it. Even supposing he held in his hand the ley to the burial place of the long lost treasure, who knew whether it would be still there, or whother rumour had not enormously added to its proportions? He was allowing his hopes and imagination to carry him away. Still he could not sleep, and he had a mind to fee if anything could be made of it. Going to the gun room he put on a pair of shooting boots, an old coat, and 8n ulster. Next he provided himself with a dark lantern and the key of the summer-house at the top of Dead Man's Mount, and silently unlocking the back door started out into the garden. The night was very rough, for the great gale was now rising fast, and bitterly cold, co cold that he hesitated for a moment before making up his mind to go on. However, he did g» on, and in another two minutes was climbing the steep sides of the great tumulus. There was a wan moon in the cold sky — the wind whistled most drearily through the naked boughs of the great oaks which groaned in answer like things in pain. Harold was not a nervous or impressionable nun, but the place had a spectral look about it, and he could not help thinking of the evil reputation it had borne for all tbeso »ges. There was scarcely a man in Honhum or in Boisingham either, who could have been persuaded to stay half an hour by himself on Dead Man's Mount after the sun wm well down. Harold had at different limes asked one or two of them what they saw to be afraid of, and they answered that it was not what they saw so much as what they felt. He had laughed at the time but now he admitted to himself that ho was anything but comfortable, though if he had had to put his feelings into words he could probably not have described them further than by saying that he had a general sensation of somebody being behind him. However, he was not going to be frightened by this nonsense, so, consigning all superstitious to their father the Dovil, he marched on boldly and unlocked thesummor-house door. Übw, though this curious edifice had been designed for a summer-house, and for that purpose lined throughout with encaustic tiles, nobody had ever dreamed of using it to sit in. To begin with, it roofed ovor a great depression some thirty feel or more in diameter, for tho top of the mount was hollowed out like one of those wooden cups upon which jugglers catch balls. But, notwithstanding all the encaustic tiles in the world, damp will gather in a hollow like this, and the damp alone was an objection. The real fact was, however, that the spot had an evil reputation, and even those who were sufficiently well educated to know the folly of this sort of thing would not willngly hare gone there for the purpose of enjoyment. So it had suffered the fate of disused places, having fallen more or less out of repair and become a receptacle for garden tools, broken cuoumber frames and lumber of various sorts. Harold got the .door open and entered, shutting it behind him. It was, if anything more disagreeable in the empty silence of the wide place, for the space roofed over -was considerable, than it had been outside, and the question at once arose in his mind what he was to do now that he had got there? If the treasure was there at all, probably it was down in the deep bowels of tiie great mound. Well, as he was on the epot, he thought that he might as well have a dig, though probably nothing would come «f it. In the corner were a pickaxe and some spades and shovels. Harold got them, advanced to the centre of tho space and half kagbing at his own folly sot to work. First, having St another lantern which was kept there, hb removed with the sharp end of the pickaxe a large patch of the encaustic tiles exactly in the centre of the depression. Then having loosened the soil beneath with the pick he took off his ulster and fell to digging with a will. The soil proved to be very sandy and easy to work. Indeed, from it* appearance, he soon came to the conclusion that it was not virgin earth, but worked soil, whioh had been thrown there. Presently his spade struck against some-, thing hard, he picked it np and held it to the lantern. It proved to be an ancient spearhead, and near it were some bones, though whether or no they wore human lie «ould not at the thne determine. This was T«ry interesting, but it was solely what be wanted, so he dug on manfully until he found himself chest deep in a kind of grave. He had been digging for an hour now, and wa» getting very tired. Cold as it was the nnrationpouredfromhim. As he paused reathhe heard the clook strike two, and very solemnly it sounded down the wild ways of the wind-torn winter night. He dug on a little more, and then seriously thought of giving up what he was ashamed of having undertaken. How_ was he to account for this great hole to his gardener on the followed morning ? Then and there he made up his mind that he-would not account for it. The gardener in common with the rest of the village, believed the place to be haunted. Let him set down the hole to the "snooks " and their spiritual declivity. Still he dug on athii grave for a little longer. It was by now becoming a matter of exceeding labour to throw tfie shovelfuls of soil clear of the hole. Then he determined to stop, and with this view scrambled not without difficulty out of ' the amateur tomb. Once out, his eyes fell on a stout iron orowbar which was standing ' among the tools, such an implement as is used to make holes in the earth wherein to net hurdles and stakes; and it occurred to him that it would not be a bad idea to drive this etowbar into the bottom of the grave which he haddug, in orderto ascertain if there was anything within its reach. Ao cordingly he once more descended into the hole and began to work with the iron crow, driving it down with *11 his strength. When he had got it almost as deep as it would go, that is about three feet, it struck something something hard — there was no doubt of it. He worked away in great excitement, widening tho hole as much as he could. VesTS was masonry, or if it was not masonry ifc we* something uncommonly like it. He drew the crow out of the hole, and, seiring the shovel, commenced to dig again with renewed vigour. As he could no longer conveniently throw the soil from the hole he took a " skep " or leaf basket, which lay lundy, and, placing it betide him, put as much of the sandy soil as he could lift into it, and then lifted it and shot it on ths edge ot the pit. For three-quarter* of an hour belaboured thus most manfully till at last be came down to the stonework. He cleared a patch of it and examined it attentively by the light of the dark lantern. It appeared to be rubble work built in tho form -of an tick. He struck it with the iron crow and it gave back a hollow gound. There was a cvritr of some sort undernoatb. Hu excitement and curiosity redoubled. By great efforts he widened the spot of stona > vtfrk dlre&dy toW tare. Luckily the soil,

or rather sand, was so friable that there was very little exertion required to loosen it. This done he took the iron crow and inserting it beneath a loose flat stone levered it up. This was a beginning, and having got rid of the large flat stono he struck down again and again with all his strength, driving the sharp point of the heavy crow into the rabble work beneath. It began to give, he could hear bits of it falling into the cavity below. There ! it went with a crash, more than a square foot of it. He leant over tho hole at his feet, devoutly hoping that the ground on which he was standing would not give way also, and tried to look down. The next second he threw his head back coughing and gasping. Tho foul air rushing up from the cavity or chamber, or whatever it was, had naif poisoned him. Then not without difficulty he climbed out of the grave and sat down on the pile of sand he had thrown up. Clearly ho must let the air in the place sweeten a little. Clearly also he must nave assistance if he was to descend into the great hole. He could not undertake that by himself. Ho sat there upon the edgo of the pit wondering who thero was that he could trust. Not his own gardener. To begin j with ho would never come noar tho place at night, and besides such people talk. The Squire P Wo, lie could not wonre him at this hour, and also, for obvious reasons, they had not met lately. Ah, he had it. GBorge was the man ! To bogin with, he c»nld be trusted to hold his tongue, and the opisode of the production of tho real Mrs Quest had taught the Colonel that George was a person of no common powers. He could think and he could act also. He threw on his coat, extinguished the large Btablo lantern, and having passed out, locked the door of the summer-house, and started down the mount at a trot. The wind had risen steadily during his hours of work, and was now blowing a furious galo. It was about a quarter to four in the morning nnd tho stars shone brightly in the hard clean-blown sky. By their light and that of ihe waning moon he struggled on in tho teeth of the raging tempest. As ho passed under ono of the oaks ha heard a mighty crack overhead, and guessing what it was ran like a hare. Ho was none too soon. A circular gust of more than usual fierceness had twisted tho top right out of the great tree, and down it came upon the turf with a rending crashing sound that made his blood turncold. After thisescopebeavoided the neighbourhood of the groaning trees. George lived in a neat little farmhouse about a quarter of a mile away. There was a short cut to it across the fields, and this he took, breathlessly fighting his way against the gale which swept, and roared, and howled in its splendid might as it camo leaping across tho ocean from ita birthplaco in tbe distances of uir. Even the stiff hawthorn fences bowed bofore its breath, and the tall poplars on the sky-line bent like a rod beneath the first rush of a salmon. Excited as ho was, the immensity and grandeur of the sight and sounds struck upon him with strange and awful force. Never beforo had he felt so apart from man and so near to that dread Spirit round Whose feet millions of rolling worlds rush on for ever, at Whose word they are, endure, and are not. He struggled on until at lost he reached the house. It was quite silent, but in ono of the windows a light was burning. No doubt its occupants found it impossible to sleep in that wild golo. The next thing to consider was how to make himself heard. To knock at the door would be useless in that turmoil. There was only one thing to be done — throw stones at the window. He found a good-sized pebble, and, standing underneath, threw it with such goodwill that it went right through the glass, lighting, as ho afterwards heard, full upon Mrs George's sleeping nose, and nearly frightening that gooo woman, whose nerves were already shaken by tho gale, into a fit. Next minute a red nightcap appeared at tho window. '■ George," roared the Colonel, in a lull of tho gale. " Who's there ?" camo tho faint answer. "Me— Colonel Quaritch. Como down. I want to speak to you." The head was withdrawn, and a couple of minutes afterwards Harold saw the front door begin to open slowly. Ho waited till there was space enough, and then slipped in, and together they forced it to. i " Stop ft bit, sir," said George ; " I'll light ! the lamp," and he did. Next minute he stepped back in amazement. " Why what on arth hey you bin after, i sir ?" he said, contemplating Harold's filth begrimed face, and hands, and clothes. " I anything wrong up at the Castle, or is the cottage blown down f " " No, no," said Harold j " listen. You've hoard tell of the treasure that old Sir James de la Molls buried in the times of tho Roundheads ?" " Yes, yes. I've heard tell of that. Hey the gale blown it up ?" " No, but by Heaven I believe that I am in a fair way to find it - " George took another stepback, remembering the tales that Mrs Jobson had told, and not being by any means sure that tho Colonel was not in a dangerous condition of lunacy. " Give me a glass of something to drink, water or milk, and I'll tell you. I've been digging all night, and my throat's like a limekiln." 1 "Digging, why where ?'" "Where ? In Dead Man's Mount." "In Dead Man's Mount?" said George [ " Woll, blow me, if that ain't a funny place to dig at on a night like this," and, too amazed to say anything more, he went off | to get the milk. I Harold drank three glasses without stopping, and then sat down to tell as mueli of his moving tale as he thought desirable. | (To bo continued.)

The followina appealed in our Second Edition of yesterday.

(By Electric Telegraph— Copyright.) (Per United Press Association.)

London, December 20— The Hon Artil- j lery Company of London, the oldest mili- ] tary corps in the Empire (dated from 1585), has been suddenly disbanded and the guns removed. The members recently agrcod to a scheme proposed by the Prince of Wales and Duke of Portland, who uro Captain, General,and Lieut«nant-Colonel respectively of tho corps to place the company under the volunterr system. The members, however, refused to pass a motion to grant £500 for military purposes, and the Prince and Duke threw up their commissions. The War Office thereupon disbanded the corps. Pabis, December 20.— M. Lecour, member for tho district of Loiro et Inperieuro,iu his speech in the Chamber of Deputies today, asserted that all the evils of France ! arosofrom tho instabilityof Ministries/which were constantly changing. France was constantly exposed to the danger of having to submit itself to the lowost of men. Tho deference was understood to be aimed at Boulanger. The salvation of the Republic, M. Lecour urged, deponds on tho formation of a powerful ministry. That was the only way in which the reliance of factions whose object was to strangle tbe Republic, could bo coped with. M. Floq.uet'B reply is generally considered to be feeble.