CHAPTER XVII.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1604, 14 October 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XVII.

" I wish to ask you a question about that villain, Dumarjay," I said to the Count next day. ■ have: still your letter, of .warning by me, and, I should like to hear from you ,what you knew of tne man before you wrote it." ', "I .knew him," said ,the Count, deliberately, tp.be a murderer 1" , V'How? .sjA murderer, and go unpunished'?','" „,- - , •*- /{Yes, <a murd,erer unpunished. I will tell you why," andjthe«,Count lit a, cigar and settlgdhimselijor t a s sto'ry.,,< ' .»>;.„ ak* Seyefcal years, before I.made your acquainamce,:;tfeil in* with, I*iurnarlay at .Cayenne, in KSencli Guiana,; whither I had gone with two' 1 CTKerßi.oniiani. errand 'Connected with, a work--fflbnithe aibprigihes^of ■ South ( America. JSe v > wife on na! visit? with .some relatives residing, in' ■Kcbjony,', an^, 1 .;op,(, Jqarning* th^^e \\ werej rafemana^'exp^^e'd^a^^^t^^^^e^party^

Cayenne, we entered the Essequibo river. It would be hopeless to attempt to give ,you an adequate idea of the scenery of Guiana. It is the very perfection of the tropical, and the combination of intense heat with excessive humidity has covered the whole country-'with a dense growth of the most luxuriant and splendid forms of vegetable lifq. Nor is the animal kingdom much less profusely represented ; the birds in particular being numerous beyond belief, and of a plumage which would be gorgeous to excess, did it not harmonise perfectly with the strange magnificence of the general prospect. The green parrot, the blue and-crimson-and-yellow macaw, the scarlet ara, the red and yellow toucan, the crimson and black mocking-bjrd, the rainbow-tinted hummingbird, and a host of others — swarmed in the trees and filled the air with their voices as, in two boats, we made our way up the sweltering Essequibo. Our party numbered twelve in all ; Professor Le Marchand, Dumarlay, Dr. Blitzenstein, myself, and , eight Indians, six of whom belonged to the Carib tribe, and two to the people we were going to visit. It was upon these two Macoushi Indians that we depended for such a favorable reception by their tribe as would enable us i» pursue our investigations in peace." " Nor were we disappointed. After a voyage of over three hundred miles, we left the Essequibo, and, pushing up one of its western tributaries for a hundred miles more, received a most hospitable welcome at the first Macoushi village we reached. After a short stay there we went on to another, and so on, until we had reached apposition sufficiently central for our operations. Le Marchand conducted the philological investigations, Blitzenstein the zoological and botanical, while to me ,was assigned the task of examining the weapons, implements, and domestic customs of the people. Dumarlay would sometimes accompany one and sometimes another, but, as he and I had no great friendship for each other, I saw much less of him than did my colleagues. " Things went on in this way for over a month, and nothing worthy of note occurred, until one morning when I had gone forth at daybreak to try and shoot a howling monkey, I was surprised to see Dumarlay in company with one of the native women. I had crossed the little river on which the village stood, and, moving silently, rifle in hand, through the forest, I caught sight of them seated on a fallen tree upon the opposite bank. They were concealed from the village by to bend of the stream, and from the position in which they sat were evidently on more than friendly terms with each other. The discovery gave me much uneasiness, for I recognised the woman as Girara, the wife of one of the principal men of the village', and I knew that any foul play on Dumarlay's part would probably cost our whole party their lives. ' I never liked the man,' I said to myself, as I saw them part and take different paths back to the village — ' and now I strongly suspect him to be a scoundrel. I must warn him that by tampering with this girl he is endangering pur lives as well as his own.' The Indians of Guiana, though scarcely to be called ugly, are certainly not remarkable for good looks, but this Girara was a marked exception to the rule.' I am at a loss to account for it," mused the Count, staring absently at the ash of his cigar, " but I positively thought there was Tahitan blood in that woman. How it could come there — in the heart of Guiana — I cannot conceive !" " This Girara was handsome, then ?" I said, in order to bring the Count back from his ethnologic meditations. " Yes," he returned — remarkably so ! Taller and lighter in complexion than is common with the Macoushis, her features also differed from the Indian type, being delicate and well-formed, and her straight, lithe, rounded figure was the perfection of natural symmetry. Clad only in a short white skirt, reaching from waist to knee, and with a 'circlet of gorgeous toucan-feathers surmounting her magnificent hair, I never looked at her without being reminded of the phiase which has given a somewhat odd name to a locality in your Engli&h metropolis — 'La Belle Sauvage.'" , " A beautiful savage, indeed !—^according to your description," I said. " I suppose her husband was just the reverse." " Hardly that. He was an undersized, strongly built man, with large, stolid features, and hair like the mane of a black horse. But he had treated us with the utmost kindness, and I felt a glow of anger at the infamous return I suspected the Frenchman was making for it. Why not put the Indian on his guard, you iflay ask. Becaues, from what I know of this people, I considered it almost certain that all four Europeans would in that case be slaughtered without mercy, and I therefore confined myself to warning Dumarlay against pursuing the intrigue any farther. ,' How do you know there is anything in it ?' he said, with a sneer, when I seized an opportunity of speaking to him on the subject. ' I was only amusing myself !' 1 It is an amusement that would cost you your life, then,' I answered, ' should it come to the ears of Mariro. And not only you, but all of us — so beware what you do !' - 'What should you say if I told you I was going to take the girl away with me when we return to the coast?' he said. 'I should say that if you neglect my warning you will never return to the coast !'• I answered. ' Bah !' he said, with a laugh — ' you need not try to frighten me — I know better ! I have seen for myself that these people are oot so desperately moral as all that.' 'As regards an 'unmarried woman or a widow,' I replied, ' I grant you they are lax enough ; but you will find that they take a terribly different view of the conduct of a married woman.' A sudden light came into his eyes, and with a peculiar look of satisfaction he turned away. " You have been pleased to credit me with a more than common power of reading the minds of others ; but tliis time ~ I thought myself at fault. I could not explain to myself Dumarlay!s manner, as he left me, except by thinking that my mention of the latitude allowed to loiclotos had put murder in his heart -r-but this supposition I soon dismissed as monstrous and incredible. Whether it was or not the sequel will show." i " Some days afterwards an excursion was planned, during which Mariro was to show me the use of '■ the native blow-gun. Have you ever seen one of those curious weapons ?" " No," I replied ; " but I have heard that the poisoned arrow used with them is very deadly." ",It is-certain .death to the man or beast it wounds," went on the Count. "Of the gun or pipe itself there are two kinds, the more .effective of wbacH consists of i a smooth inner tube of reed, inserted in anouter one of palmstem. ,It is about ten or eleven feet in length, and will send an arrow a hundred and. fifty yards. The -arrows themselves arc less -than 'a foot flong, and so light that, un-poisoned, 1 they could ,do little damage;.. but,, tipped .with the deadly ,wdu*ali, j.thacmarest scratch is , enough.' ,^The Creature wounded falls into an ( immediate, , stupor.t .which v merges, «iimperfceptibly and ivjnftly into death.!' • < ,- -^.i \ ; "'it i'jiAtd^ngerpu's weapon "to have about one 11' [l A said^,y^|- should -.tKinfc? the,(nativea^run Jgre'aCrisfc^Jhandling'the arrows at all.'' V \ j^he^inge4ious|. precaptio s n^/agaips|^accident^

that covered the ground between the stems of the gigantic trees ; or, to speak more philosophically, my distrust of the Frenchman produced in mo that clinging f eeling of uneasiness -which i 3 vulgarly mistaken for a spontaneous presentiment. It was not far from noon when we started, and before long, though the leafage above us completely, warded off the direct rays of the sun, the heat became so intolerable that I was glad when Mariro informed us, partly by signs, that we might as well halt for a time, as it was of no use to seek for game jtlst then ; and indeed I had myself remarked that when the day was at its hottest scarcely an animal or bird was to be seen or heard. "In a couple of hours we made another start, and emerged, af tor three or four miles walking, upon the shore of what appeared to be a small lake, but which Mariro gave us to understand was an enlargement of the river upon which the village was situated. The scene was a very bea.utiful one, and 1 remember its every feature. Imagine a sheet of still, pellucid water, dividing one densely-wooded bank from the other by a distance of two hundred yards. Here and there upon the surface float the snowy blossoms and enormous leaves of the great South American waterlily ; the sun strikes full upon the opposite shore,' gilding the steep green banks and glowing warm upon the rich hues of a screaming multitude of macaws that flit to and fro, above the tree-tops ; far over our heads the mocking-bird pours forth his voluble story and the toucan snaps his enormous bill ; all around us vibrates a ceaseless whirr of in- | sects, and the humming-birds dart like flying | jewels through the golden air. A party _of grey monkeys are gambolling in willow-like tree that overhangs the stream, darting down every now and then to the end of a branch to dip a paw in the glassy water ; a tapir plunges I out of a tall reed-bed, only to scramble hastily back again as the black, ominous snout of an alligator leaves a rippling track upon the surface; the. ants "swarm under our feet; a snake glides swiftly out of sight ; an armadillo | peeps at us from behind a log ; and everywhere is the intense, overflowing life of the tropics. " The Indian now betook him to his blowpipe, and, directing our intention to a toucan, perched unsuspecting upon a branch a hun- ! dred and fifty feet above us, he slowly raised ! the lpng tube. There was a puff ; the bird [ started, fluttered, drooped its head, and came down through the leaves like a flash of red fire.' I then tried my skill, but could hit nothing, and, after the Indian had lolled several other birds and a red monkey, I loaded my rifle and stole some distance down the bank to get a fair shot at a water-python j that had coiled itself round the projecting I root of a tree on the opposite shore. Just as I got into position, however, the serpent dropped back into the water, and, somewhat : chagrined at the disappointment, I was rev turning to my companions when a sight met my eyes that turned me motionless with horror. " The Indian, with his back towards me, was in the act of directing his tube upwards, when I saw Dumarlay snatch an arrow from the quiver and prick the unsuspecting savage on the shoulder. Mariro turned sharply round, fixed a horror-stricken gaze on his slayer, and then deliberately stretched himself on the ground to die. Becoveririg from my stupor, I rushed forward and besought him by signs to let me cut out the wounded spot, but he shook his head, closed his eyes, and sank into the fatal lethargy. No sooner was he unconscious than I quickly excised the part, and then placed my hand upon his heart. Its motions grew fainter and fainter; five minutes after receiving^he wound Mariro was dead ! ' * "Not till then did I turn my attention to the murderer. 'It was an accident 1' he said. <4 He shot at a bird directly overhead, < and the arrow came down upon himself. You see the wound is on the top of the shoulder. There is no need to tell you what I said to him, or how, upon consultation afterwards with my companions, we decided to allow his lying story to go unchallenged. , Blitzenstein, who was best acquainted with the native customs, assured us that if the truth were known we should all four have to pay the penalty of the crime of one, and thus the Indians were allowed to believe that Mariro had met his death in the way Dumarlay stated. This they were all the more ready to do, because, curiously enough, such an accident had once actually happened to a member of the tribe. Two days afterwards Dumarlay, Girara, and two of our Carib boatmen were missing v They had stolen one of tho boats and fled during the night, and from that hour until I wrote to you with respect to him I heard nothing of Monsieur Claude Dumarlay." " I am somewhat surprised," I said, when the Count had finished his story, " that such a man as Dumarlay should care for roughing it on such an expedition as yours. He appeared to me to be a mere be-ringed and be-scented coxcomb. " Our expedition was a pleasure excursion as far as he was concerned," returned the Count, " and his object in joining it was to recruit the health which dissipation had injured. And, by-the-way, I think my own health is suffering a little in this locality. You know how fond I am of fresh air and free prospect, so I have determined to remove to a house in a more distant suburb, where I can have a view of the bay, and I fsar I must ask you to hold yourself in readiness to move with us." ' ' "That is nothing to a traveller like me. When do you go ?" " Very soon — in a week or so I" And thus it happened' that some ten days later I found myself duly established at Cintra, as the Count's new residence was called, ,' , J (To be cojittyiicd.)

Sampson was the first actor who brought down the house. — Moonshine. Dissipated inch are usually of a generous - nature ; stingy men ar ealways tight. A MOTTO^ifor young lovers : So-fa and no father. — Coluijibia Spectator. Man i&Very much like an egg ; keep him in . hot water and'he's bound to become hardened. Call a;y<3ttng girl a witch and she is'pleased ; call an elderly j woman an old witch and her indignation knows no bounds. Con'#b]/sJ3 has! a bill to punish persons who use I pf^iiid l 'lahguage in any post-office. If the Pofltjmaii©r is any sort of a man he will step^oMoil the street to be talked to. — Detroit A AWkstebn man feared he was going i to ha^e^jhf' pniftil pox, and, believing whisky to be s^ijreveptive, he drank nearly three quarts of it^.'ptepspaped the small pox, -and: is not likely^,to,ip«k any more whißkjr in this world. ', AN-Jbldlii^helor was recently heard saying I to 3^y®^dy, " There is more jewelry worn nojwj H^Jn^n when I was young, but there is m g^|i^|& always admired which I don't of|sß|^||||:" ." What is that ?" asked Miss." Jp^p^^^AMs, ■ a merchant of Eutledge, Ga|^pe^^aeBperadq. The defendant en^ tere»ffiffl^^in a furious. passion, held out theMixmmQM. 1 in .one hand; , clutched a, long kni^^mjpbher hand, and'said : $ / ha\BH^M^w^e,?" that (ah?