The Rope of Gold

but his fair-haired American cousin, Doris, must climb all those stone steps leading up to the top of the Citade

a true girl's impulse, she took a fishing line and hook from her knicker pocket

earned from tha

y I have his handkerchief to remember him

m? You've ne

emember him

e moss grown roof of the ancient fortress until they stood upon the e

He moved right along there. And the little fellow,

ant twice before, but to be standing at the very spot

e world was in shadows. As she stood

m here." She moved

attering of teeth mingled

, "what in the wo

to her teeth,"

irl's tone showed

er snake

na

ent charm. She wears it round her neck in a leather sack. It is the teeth of a yellow snake killed at the back of a cave at high tide wh

er trust the ghost of that old e

and I." Dorn's voic

spot where a patch of green moss had b

onkey has been here. Think o

ook! There's another footpri

said Dorn, acknow

own. Don't want to be cau

id Doris.

d the strange girl who drummed so myste

eensward stage to his corner of hiding was continued and that almost at once. Curlie found ti

x with him,

o the narrow stretch of green. Figures were dar

in the island like that. They're natives. And the girl has called them

; yet she remained there motionless. As they crouched there a fourth, a fift

There was the girl and her dog. The girl might need protection. He doub

ys on the Hudson that Washington Irving is so fond of writing about. Be that

ure darted to the center of the spot of ground before him and as if by ma

began leaping about the fire. Like black ghosts they were no

asked himself. "There are a thousan

drummed. Had she meant them to come? If so, then w

All the sad and tragic history of the island of Haiti,

the French Colony, bright for a few,

d the slaves; telling how just such a goat's head drum had sent out the signals, how another, another and yet a hundred others had taken up the note

free. True, there are the Marines. But they are the servants of this nation as well as our own. They are here to help the people find their way out." There came a p

alled them together for this." The thing seemed unbelie

f. From before him there ha

could get

e words had come from the girl's lips. She had discovered him

for all the world as if she had known him alway

eaped. Who was this strang

s second question, he

tch doctors to lead them on. And besides, just now there is Pluto. Pluto is a big, bad man, a sort of leader, who wants money and power. He thinks he can drive the Marin

their goat." C

st. If only we could somehow break up the meeting; the meeti

dog," sugge

e's very good. He won't hurt you. But I woul

of the drum, there was silence. Then Cu

he h

ho

Can you mak

s, I th

im howl

hy

There's no time

ded. "Follow me. I know a se

rmonica from her pocket. Then she touched the d

of the drum rose louder and a chanted song rose and fel

ment to her lips and sent forth

d pointing his nose to the stars let out such

broke off short. For ten seconds silence, deep and ominous, hung over the

the bleating of a black goat being dragged over the rough trail by hi

lie. "At least not right away. They thought

Garoe?" sai

getting down. Some of them might suspect

ou know of course, are very superstitious. It's a pity. One who is afraid

upe Garoe, who doesn't exist at all, except in their imaginations. When your dog howled they thought him the Loupe Garoe w

"but I didn't think of it in the way y

black are hard to find and according to their superstitious notions, only an a

ssed they more often than not become strangers once more. It was so with Curlie and the girl, or so it seemed

better acquainted with the jungle than he. Once when he hesitated at a forking of the way, she forged straight on. At another time she gripped his arm just in time

when, after an hour of almost unbroken

mpted to say, "So do I." But t

bove all prized this girl's

is hand caught for a second in a firm clasp. The n

e beat out those signals on the drum if she didn't want those natives to meet? Who is she? Where

ep. At this elevation there were no flying pests. The

hered moss from low hanging branches to form a pillow. He then