The Rope of Gold

st all but overcome by fear and dread. The brilliant illumination caused by burning palm leaves, however, quickly drove from his mind the suggestion that something s

mumbled

broad circle of yellow ivory wi

hog. And what a monster! Wonder who had the hardihood to face that fellow and kil

joy, he found, high and dry and quite clean upon a broad leaf where it had

ed the palm leaf fire burn low. Then raking out a good

k steak. A half hour later when Curlie rose to go it w

and where is J

ould find his own way back to camp. This plan, since there seemed to be no like

able to follow winding trails, avoid brambles and save hims

come from nowhere, a sound smote his ear. A single boom of a native drum.

He came to a

re it was again. This time

. At worst it's to be one of those forbidden native dances, and that

n the direction from which the sound appeared to come. Nor did he pause until the drumm

ss had been cropped short by wild goats. And there in the center, squatting low, drum between knees, thumping the drum w

"Miles from human habitation.

th eyes raised to the stars and sent out such rolls and th

d a stealthy movement off to his right, another to hi

He could not believe this. There was about her face, not a perfectly molded face, but well

um beats cease. She grips the drum by a strap and drags it noiselessly into the brush. Here she backs far into the

ng," he said to himself, but in

again, "the show is

* *

a feast of wild pig. This pig, as you have guessed, was that killed by Johnny. It was this very beast which had worked his liberation from the mysterious natives. He ha

found himself free to go where he chose. Not one of the natives who had witn

ee this unusual affair through. There was something to be said for this course of action. The natives had, more than likely, saved his life by dragging him from the

n upon these newly discovered shores, such procedures as this had come about. A queen of some distant tribe takes a fancy to some gallant young Spaniar

k's bells and bright silk scarfs. His kingdom is far away. He sends a band to waylay a trad

no use romancing. Dorn and Pompee will be worried about me.

pebble, a bent twig, moss on trees, a thousand simple

re the ground was red as a native clay pipe when, upon rounding a curve, he came with

. "Now I shall not s

t this had once been a home; that children had once played with young goats before the door; that a mother had beaten corn for bread and a father had returned from a day of toil, Johnny found comfort. For this boy

its roof sound, he brought in dry banana leave

f food, he sat down to listen. Nor did he listen long. From above him, on the sloping hillsid

nana plants. And now a great boulder hid him. Now he crept rapidly over a patch of barren red soil. But ever he moved upward.

above a low-growing bush, he ca

ow's th

y of wild guinea fowl went wheeling and screaming away into the sunset. A whole covey? Not quite. A fa

he lifted the bird from the

coals. Lacking a kettle for boiling his fowl, Johnny first plucked off the feathers then rolled it in a two inch coat o

was a fortune. Wild guineas shot or snared, bananas and mangoes growing in the runs, corn from the hills, goat's meat and goat's milk, all to be had for the askin

, scarfs, shirts, collars, socks by the dozen. Men work days, nights and sometimes Sundays for a living wage. And how much is a living wage? Two thousand, three thou

f hard, baked clay lay before him. This he cracked with a rock and behold! Befo

tried to imagine the natures of those who had slept there before hi