OUR SERIAL FOR BOYS AND GIRLS THE LOST WORLD

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 260, 17 November 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUR SERIAL FOR BOYS AND GIRLS THE LOST WORLD

The story so far: Dick Thorne, a 15-year-old boy at Paikapakapa School, is selected by a relieving teacher to return a book which she has read to the class to an uncle of hers, who lives in the neighbouring township. The uncle is a retired trader, whose house, an old vicarage, is a museum of trophies. The book was the story of a man who found a “ Lost World.” That' man,) the trader told Dick, was none other than himself, Albert Richards. Dick Was greatly impressed by Captain Richards, who had led a life of adventure in strange places, and Mr. Richard’s young niece, Evic, whom he met at the same time, also interested Dick. It seemed that Mr. Richards had some interest in Dick, for he had asked him to call as soon as his holidays began. Intrigued also by hints thrown out by Evie, Dick lost no time in complying with the Captain’s request to call again. On calling at the old vicarage Dick almost collided with a car full of angry men. Inside he found the dead body of the faithful dog, Togo, and tbe unconscious Captain Richards. Dick rode to Dr. Mathieson, the local doctor, who returned with him to the old vicarage. The doctor said that although suffering from a blow on the head Richards would probably live. After making a statement about his discovery of the crime, Dick returned home hopiiig to hear from Miss Campbell or Evie. Dick had not long to wait before Evic arrived in a powerful car and took him to the old vicarage, where Captain Richards offered Dick a job. On the way home from this visit Dick caught a glimpse of a yellow face peeping out of the hotel window, and recognised one of the men he had seen in the car—the men who had attacked and wounded Captain Richards. Read on from there:

palm bungalow. The floor had sagged in places, and the walls were beginning to fall in, but these signs' of neglect did not, worry the four men who sat ovei] a rough table. “ It’s too good to miss,” said a fat man in a black alpaca coat, not unlike the usual habit of a certain Captain Richards. He placed his pipe on the map before them and looked at his companions. *“ Pay no attention to him,” said a squat, beetle-browed individual, who was engaged in manicuring his nails with a hunting knife. “ Fritz likes to ’ear ’is own voice.” “ To hear you speak,” retorted the man alluded to as Fritz, “ no one would think you were an ornament of the British aristo-cracy-—a peer, I think.” “ You won’t, think much longer,” rasped the peer, for such he was, “if you babble like that.” The knife flashed, and a dark stain appeared on the khaki shirt, visible below the black alpaca coat. The fat man did not flutter an eye-lid, and if the other two saw what happened they made no sign. Underneath the table one of Fritz’s pudgy hands sought the other. Like a child learning to count he bent down one finger after another—one, two, three, four, five ....

Tal-Ashai, the seer, sat on a low, three-legged stool before the holy temple of Inkawei. Through the gloom of the temple portico he could just make out the forms of kneeling monks. In the centre of the portico a great golden urn was emitting a cloud of incense. Beyond the veil of smoke sat a crowd of Tibetan peasants. The morning sun was already glowing behind the eternal snow on the peaks of the Dava Mountains. In a few minutes the golden ball would appear between two mountain peaks and the ceremony would begin. Meanwhile the rhythmic chant of the peasants merged with the distant roar of a waterfall, which also turned prayer wheels filled with the mystic words —“ Oin-Mani-po.”

Of the other two men, a close inspection suggested that the dark haired, parchment-faced one was Chinese. The fourth one, a tall, hawk-faced fellow, turned to him with a sigh. “ VVung, you are the brains of the party, what do you suggest?”

“ You flatter me,” said the Chinaman, “ but if I may be permitted to suggest —” “ Can it, Wung,” interrupted the peer.

“ Ah, so, Ah, so,” muttered Wung, " When the stomach is empty wisdom is not wanted.”

“If you’ve got any,” put in Fritz, “ let’s have it.”.

Tal-Ashai, the seer, stood erect in a little open courtyard, into which the first rays of the rising sun would stream, lighting his wrinkled parchment face. Men said he was ageless. That he had been an old man at the time of Iskander (Alexander the Great), but who can tell. Presently his breathing could be heard by those in the portico. It was the breathing of a man who sleeps. As the first sunbeams, like giant searchlights, flashed across the intervening country to light up his face, the seer spoke.

“ Ah, so,” agreed Wung, in no way perturbed by the bad temper of his companions. “In my country diamonds are wrapped in many covers. As, your honourable selves have agreed, the next move must come from Mr. Richards.”

“ If Fritz hadn’t been so quick with his club, we might have learned something,” grumbled the peer. “ If your aim with that knife had been better,” said the tall, hawk-eyed one, it would not have been necessary for Fritz to slug him. You both made a mess of it.”

“ The man will come back, I see him. He brings others with him.”

“ Masters,” began the peer, fingering his knife, but meeting the cold blue eye of his critic, he let it drop. It was one thing to bully the great flabby Fritz, but quite another to cross weapons with the grim, self-contained Masters, who was the real leader of their party. “As I was saying,” continued Wung, with a reproachful look at the peer, “we must make Richards show us the way.” “ Oh, wise one, how easy,” mocked Fritz, whose high spirits were never damped for long. Wung bowed his apology. “By making him think we are already on the trail,”' explained the Chinaman. “ But we don’t know the way,” complained Fritz. “ It’s not marked on the map.” “ Lie does not know how much, or how little we know,” said Wung. “He. will have doubts. If he thinks we know too much he will try to get there first.” “What do you think, Smith?” said Masters, addressing the peer. “If you want to know,” said his lordship, “ I think the Chink is potty. If lie’s interested in that kid we ought to grab her. That ought to make him talk.” “ You gentlemen have the most delightful ideas—comes from going to Eton, I suppose,” said Masters. > . “-feel U4tf s^a^e-jtteir~4debi than/ anvf: you W; put * up,” fenarled • 1 Smith. “[Suppose we did kidnap this young girl,” asked Wung. “What would We do with her?” „ Smith shot him a baleful look. Oh, Fritz can look after her while we deal with Richards. What do you say to that?”

The chanting in the courtyard had ceased with the first shrill note of Tal-Ashai’s voice. “He comes! Pie comes!” screamed the seer in a trance, “ and he brings others with him. He goes beyond, but he leaves a hostage. . . ” The voice died in

a low wail, only to rise again to a shrill shriek. “ Beware ! Beware!” T h c seer’s body was wracked by a violent trembling. As suddenly as it had started the trembling ceased, and the old man’s face assumed an expression of sublime benevolence. His voice, too, had changed, for he continued in a measured tone, like a priest reading the litany. “ I see others . . . they come by stealth. There are bad influences at work. They seek to destroy—beware, beware! These four men. . . they folloiv him. Beware.”

The sun that had set its beams over the mountain peaks of Thibet to light the face of TalAshai, the seer, on the day of foretelling had already shone for some hours on the palmcovered island of Kafoua, in the South Pacific.

On the beach a number of • 4 eat 4 ing their njud-day meafA'l The specks on the bay indicated the presence of a‘ pearling fleet, while in the foreground the sun sparkled on the white hull of a three-masted schooner.

On the highest point of the island, some twenty feet abov*e the water, stood a dilapidated

By LAWRENCE STOUT

Chapter IV.— THE HAND OF FATE

j Fritz licked his thick lips and said nothing. “ Well, who’s in favour of my plan?” asked the peer. “ I am,” said Fritz promptly. Masters looked at Wung and Wung looked, at Masters. There might have been an understanding between them—or there might not. Their faces betrayed nothing of the thoughts passing through their minds. At last the Chinaman spoke. “We can adopt both plans. When Richards sets out we can take the girl. Then we will have him either way.” “An excellent idea, Wung,” agreed Masters. “ Suits me,” added Fritz. And so the fate of Evie was settled on the little island of Katoua, in the South Pacific.

lj le day of foretelling in Thibet was the day of an international football match, in New Zealand. It was more than just an ordinary match for Dick, because the Captain, Evie and her mother were making the long trip to Auckland to see the game, and Dick was going with them. In the four months that had passed since the attack on Captain Richards, Dick had become quite accustomed to his new life. Ihe dismal old vicarage no longer appeared eerie. True he had done much for the garden, so that it no longer looked neglected. Richards had recovered sooner than the doctor expected, but then he had the physique of a lion! Except for severe headaches at times he seemed none the worse for his experience. A second attempt was unlikely, but anyway the Captain was not taking any chances. He carried a gun all day, and spent many hours with Dick in the old quarry teaching the boy to use a pistol as well as a rifle. The Captain’s strength was largely in his arms and wrists. He could use a heavy service rifle as a pistol and score a bull’s eye at fifty yards. Dick, said his teacher, was a very apt pupil. Of the wizened yellow .face he had seen in the hotel there had been no trace. Richards had said nothing about the identity of the four men who had attacked him, but from bits of conversation he had overheard Dick gathered that they were known to him, and in some way connected with his. past life in the islands. Dick also had been present at a conversation between Richards and a police inspector from Auckland, in which the Captain had repeatedly alluded to one Jimmy the Priest, or Jim Masters, who, Dick gathered, was a very dangerous character. The journey to Auckland was uneventful, but he had not been there long before Dick got the first of a series of surprises. “ Dick and I are going to the doctor,” said the Captain, after they had breakfasted one morning (for as you have probably guessed, the match was just an excuse for a week in the city). Instead of a medical man the Captain led Dick to an old freighter from Singapore, which was berthed at one of the wharves unloading cargo. The “ doctor ” proved to be a little Scot, who also answered to the title of “ cap’n.” -At the sight of Richards the “ doctor ” was so overwhelmed that it took two bottles of whiskey to bring him round, and then he was so far round that they left him asleep on his bunk. Somewhere amid> all the drinking and back-slap-ping the two old friends had managed to exchange confidences, for as they were stepping down the gangway Richards turned to Dick and said: “Well,, boy, how’} would you like to go W/tth. jne Iqr-Qr-.Siiiga' 1 •/' *vlv.*J life*" 1 .. • .A- , • Agapore,” repeated Dick. • vifhad always dreamed of ing the East. r'We’ll have to leave to-mor-“j” added Richards e boat sails at 6 p- m * , k

(To be Continued).