THE DOCTOR'S PROTÉGÉE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 520, 23 November 1912, Page 2

THE DOCTOR'S PROTÉGÉE.

(A&& Rights Rbmrvbd.)

By ALBERT LEE, Author of "The Baronet in Corduroy," "Th» Kiy of toe Holy House," King Stork of the Netherlands," " Tie Bltek Diie," &c

Published By Special Arrangement.

CHAPTER XXXII. (Continued): He seized my hand, and shook it vigorously, expressing his joy at seeing one who recalled the old days at Oxford. He was used to Hesketh, but the sight of another face brought reminders of home. "What are you doing at Cabesterre?" he asked; and then we told him all that had transpired, and asked whether he was willing for Agnes and Teresina to stay with him in the seclusion of Bouille until the threatened danger had passed. Ho called to his sister, who came at once—a woman as handsome as her brother, which was saying a good deal—and when she heard of Teredr.a's peril she extended a hearty invitation at once. She could rely o:i the negroes and negresses, the only people about the place, and said, to assure me of the security afforded, that she would place a couple of her big black men on the watch: It was also arranged that I should lodge at Bouille, and under the same roof, so that nothing could have been more to my satisfaction. One of the horses having gone dead lame, we decided to stay with the Beaumonts that night, especially since we knew that Peel would not fail to. look well after Teresina's safety. Sauntering through the garden, we entered a track lined with trees and bushes, and after a while came to a projecting spur of the mountain, where, far away, we saw the blue waters of the ocean, and in between forest and savannah, which reminded me of what Kingsley pictures of Nature's prodigality in one of his inimitable romances. It was all here. The zig-zags up the rocky slopes: the winding of the streams between green, flower-bespangled walls of forest; river trees, flowers, making up a. colossal fairyland. There were the mountain peaks and crags, and falling waters, as far as the eye could reach, away to where the waves were washing on the distant shore. I thought this land of Cabesterre a veritable paradise set down in the midst of the western seas.

But we turned to the smoking mountain, a black spot in Adam's Eden, as Beaumont termed it.

"What are tliey saying about it at St. Monod, Hesketh?" lie asked, pointing to the sullen hill, out of whose summit the smoke was pouring in a rolling mass.

"A few have packed upland gone. Some talked of Sodom and Gomorrah, aind fifty families at the least —so Peel told me—went away yesterday morning." "And the others?" inquired Beaumont, looking grave. "Oh, as gay as ever. They say as I say, that the mountain has smoked before many a time during the last hundred years, and no harm came," Hesketh replied, lightly. "Carson, they seemed light-heart-ed enough, did they not, when you saw them at the harbour?"

I answered in the affirmative, but I did not hesitate to express my fears. Beaumont, too, looked serious, but Hesketh indifferent, as if a mountain that had been harmless for a hundred years, and had indulged in occasional reminders that it was not yet dead, was nothing to call for one's concern. "It was as bad as that when I came here seven years ago," lie averred, "and what happened? Many were in a dreadful fright, aaid closed their stores, or left then; standing open ; while in panic they hurried on board the steamers in the harbour. But what came of it ? Nothing. The mountain stopped smoking, the niggers helped themselves to what was left in the deserted stores and houses, and have wished a score of times since then that the mountain would start another scare. I believe they are anticipating just such a time now."

Hesketh chuckled, and deprecated any fear. Then he led the way into a deep ravine, where, far below, was a wooden bi'idge which spanned a mountain torrent that danced and foamed.

The night found us sitting in the arbour, having.a final smoke before going into the house for sleep. There were the huts in the hamlejb just below, but not a, light in any one of them. In the distance the moon's rays fell on the sea, but overhead were heavy clouds which obscured the light, so that nothing broke up the darkness but the solitary candle on the rustic table, and the red-hot ends of our cigars. Nature seemed to be asleep, and only the far-off roar of the torrent could be heard. Thus we settled into silence, enjoying the restfulness that followed a tiring day.

Suddenly the glasses on the table jingled. The candlestick began to rock, and presently tumbled over on its side: the walls of foliage which made up the bower swayed in upon us, and camsed us to bend down to

1 Quickly disentangling ourselves, we went hurriedly into the open, wondering what it meant; but we had not long to wait for the answer to our questioning. The ground trembled, so that we swayed, and were hurled to the grassy floor. To stand was impossible. We rose to our feet, only to fall again, and while we lay, surprised into cries of amaizement, we saw by the aid of a dull red light, which suddenly dispelled the darkness, what was going on about us. The trees of the forest close by, so proud and self-assertive, when they were seen in the afternoon, were now swaying to and fro, the trunks snapping like matchwood.

When the shock had passed, and we were standing in a startled group, the dull-red light which had shewn us the shaking forest failed, and in the almost Egyptian darkness we waited in terror. My mind went back to Anselme, and I wondered whether the shock of earthquake had readied so far. Had it been light enough I would have persuaded Hesketh to walk back with me to see how the women were faring, and had he refused I would have gone alone, although'l had but once passed along the road. There were cries from the huts in the hamlet, and a rustle in the bushes close by. Beaumont's sister came, startled, with a dressinggown wrapped about her, having sprung out of bed when the earthquake shock awoke her. Behind her came a black woman and her husband, calling to know where the master was, and when he answered they drew near and stood silent. Out of the awesome darkness came unseen figures, whose only token of approach was their exclamations of alarm, or their calls for Master Beaumont. When he shouted back his answer, they came and stood close by, glad of the companionship of white men. A sudden flash of lightning, which seemed to run through the air wfch a hiss, showed the trembling people to us—a score of men and women and frightened children, huddled together, almost naked, just as they had sprung from their beds and rushed from the falling huts. For one long hour we waited thus, paralysed with dismay, without a sound save the occasional wailing of an infant in its mother's arms, or the whimpers of the terrified women and children. When the worst, seemed to have gone there was a rumbling as of distant thunder, and the darkness vanished in a moment, revealing a fearful sight. The heavens seemed to be aglow with flame, not of lightning which flashed and left the world dark again, but of belching fire which leaped into the sky, and spread with awful haste across the land. The light was reflected by the tossing waves of the distant sea, no longer silvered with moonbeams, but red. like blood, and when I turned my eyes again to the spot from whence the rush of fire began, the mountain which had been smoking ominously was a mass of fire, the flames leaping up to the heavens amid a cloud of blood-red smoke.

I cannot describe the scene, for it beggared all description with tongue or pen. After that beginning of belching flame there was a tremendous , roar, broken up by terrific detonations, forked lightnings playing in-, cessantly, and adding to the terror* of the blazing hill which vomited fire, and steam, and smoke, and glowing cinders which hurtled through the air. Lava, too, pourai out of the seething crater, running down the mountain side, and soon it seemed that Cabesterre, on th|at side from whence Hesketh and I had ridden hours before, was an ocean of flame, height and depth covered with red surges, and trolling, glowing lava rushing down the water ways- The ravine we had crossed by the timber bridge was now a valley of molten rock which flowed on to the sea, a burning, wriggling strip of red-hot viscid matter which would have overtaken the swiftest horse. It brought with it a strange sulphurous smell, and a hot dust which scattered on every hand, making breathing difficult. As for the mountain itself, it suddenly broke up below the lava line, and down the riven sides rolled floods of molten matter and boiling mud, which spread and spread, over plantations and fields, and into valleys, and down the river courses.

But it all seemed to sweep across towards St. Monod? and the nilcarried fire with it, not only to the doomed city, but to Anselme, where Teresina and my sister were. CHAPTER XXXIII. AN INSTRUMENT OF HEAVEN. The thought of it nearly drove me

or my sister would pass unscathed. My fervid imagination, quickened by what I could see not far away, pictured a horrible death for them and Hesketh's wife and household. It rose before me with such dreadful reality that I covered my eyes to shut out the awful scene, while I paced to and fro across the dustcovered plateau in impotent grief. Nor was Hesketh more calm than I. As soon as day. dawned we tried to reach Anselme, but the ways were blocked, and throughout the long hours it was impossible to advance. It was the same oh » the second day, with this exception, that we picked our way across the land for a mile or two, only to be more hopeless of finding the women we loved alive. St. Monod was in flames, and look where we would from the high mountain crag on which we presently stood, and which commanded an extensive view of the country on that side where the city was, we saw nothing but devastation, smouldering or blazing forests, scorched fields, houses _ in ruins, and clouds of steam rising from the river courses. But nowhere were there any signs of life, and not so much as a solitary goat could be seen looking Tor "herbage. Following the edge of the great lava bed which lay over the land we looked for a break, which would allow us to reach Anselme. Sometimes we were going straight on the road to the plantation, then we had to turn aside, and skirt a cooling flood of lava for miles, choking with the snlphurous exhalations, and walking on and on, but each step seeming to take us further and further away from the spot we desired to reach.

Coming £t last to a high mound of earth we saw St. Monod, and also a meandering way which led to what had once been a beautiful city sloping down to the deep blue waters. It was now a heap of smouldering ruins. The cathedral towers were no longer to be seen, and not a house was standing, so far as we could tell. A winding path led to it, between the lava floods, and away to the right from out of the city we thought we saw a clear road from the harbour up to Anselme. "Let us try it," cried Hesketh, and we set forth for St. Monod. When we reached it there were no streets remaining, and had it not been for a few broken house fronts standing here and there, we could not have told whether we were in once busy roadways, which had teemed with life, or in the residential quarter, where the wealthy had their homes.

We saw death everywhere as we went along; corpses in open doorways, or lying crushed beneath the fallen masonry, some at the windows wiih staring eyes and horrorstricken faces, as if they had died while looking for a way of escape.

After a time we reached a street corner, iand came on what had once been the splendid hotel where I had left my money with the manager. A. presentiment of some unspeakable terror possessed me when I halted: before the entrance- A dog had joined us, glad of human company,, but here, when we waited, be passed us» and with a hesitating;- movement at the threshold half peeped in at a doorway. He drew- back a step, went forward, once more, saw what was within, and, sitting on his haunches, howled dismally. The next moment he slunk back to us, with his tail between his legs. Ashamed at my hesitation I went forward to the doorway, the dog followed at my heels- Then I pushed the door open. It scraped on tbe floor as it moved back after a vigorous thrust, for the earthquake Jiad twisted floor and door alike. Standing in the doorway, with Hesketh and Beaumont peering over my shouldeirs, I looked into the room. In spote of the havoc wrought by the quakyng earth and scorching heat, it was. a handsome apartment still, furnished in a style which justly won for the house the reputation of beiag the first hotel in St. Monod.

I took si nail note of this, for my eyes were riveted on what I saw immediately before me; something' I had not expected, and which drew from my lips a cry of wonder. A man sat on a chair, facing the doorway, his eyes dilated with horror, as if he looked on death in some fearful fornt. "His lips wore parted, and his hands half raised to ward off a blow. His beard was shrivelled with tfie heat, as if the red-hot > embers had fallen on 't. He s*'!' stone dead., his hair covcre'J w;tn the silver-grey dust which was on everything. It was Aindrieno Telemooc! A heavy teble stood close by, and across it lajy, sideways, mother man, whose right hand gripped ;; dagger.. For a few moments I .slcc paralysed, like my companions, Iv*" courage returned, and I went to .no table to look at: him who lay across j it. I saw the face, and knew j n - I stantly that: Reg.nauld lay there, j dead,"in front of the man whom Jv | had been commissioned to s.sight by the members of the 1* ra- ; ternity of Paris, j! The storr told itself, jj! {To be Cm tinned.) 8.P.—25. |fi MBM fp"" fW'PMM