had taken my place, had been having constant attacks of malaria, and the doctors had recommended him for change of air. I had to wait two or three days for a boat, and spent my time reading the recent Intelligence Reports about Abyssinia. The news, as usual, was scanty, and dealt with unfamiliar names and places; but one item, which I noted with interest, reported that all the foreign representatives in Addis Abbaba had been approached with regard to an attempted theft from a monastery (location not stated), said to have been carried out at the instigation of a European disguised as a native woman. One of his accomplices had been caught and had confessed, but had not been able to give a very definite description of his employer. Nobody seemed to have had any knowledge of this supposed European, and the matter had dropped, though it had caused a good deal of excitement at the time. Our representative gave it as his opinion that the incident was merely an attempt to stir up anti-European feeling. I turned to the beginning of the report, and found that it was dated 14th June, but the date of the attempted theft was not stated. I hunted up my own report among the files dealing with raids over the Abyssinian border, and placed that and the Intelligence Report side by side before the head of the Department. He read them through. "I see what you mean," he said. "You think the skeleton you found may be the remains of this bird who tried to rob the monastery." "Yes," I answered, "it's possible, isn't it?" "Possible, yes," he said, "but hardly likely. By the way, I made the inquiries you suggested when you were going on leave, and I can't find that any one is missing on this side of the border." "Well, then, that makes it all the more likely, doesn't it?" I returned. "What had we better do about it? I started upriver early in August, and reached my station at the end of the month. Before I left I wrote to Hawkwood, telling him that I was going back to the same place, and asking him to let me know if he had found out anything about Judson. I found Carstairs looking wretched, and got him off as soon as possible. He had not been able to get out to the rock before the rains started, so there was nothing more to be done until January at the earliest. I won't dwell on the next few months. It was the usual fight against malaria and leak ing roofs. The water was too high for fishing, and the ground was too wet for anything but routine parades, so we just had to exist. In November I had a letter from Hawkwood. After the usual greetings he went on to say that he had met a man who knew Judson; reported him to be a good fellow, but did not know much about him except that he had a bit of money of his own, and spent most of his time on the Continent. Last time he had met him the poor devil was so much in love that he was no good for anything. Didn't know who the girl was, but gathered she was an American. Hadn't seen anything of him since. Hawkwood finished up his letter with a characteristic postscript: "I have just been reading up Adowa in Creasy," he wrote. "It was an awful give-away for the Italians. It almost seems as if the Abyssinians might have been carrying the Ark of the Covenant in the van of their army. What about it? I don't think ! " And then, about Christmas, I received a letter with an American stamp. It proved to be a formal typewritten report from a doctor in Washington, sent, as he was careful to state, at the request of one of his clients, Mr Jacob Abelsburg. An extract from a dentist's report was attached, and I turned to it eagerly. The first part was too technical for me to understand, but the last item, "Left Lower Wisdom... Gold Crown "-gave me a queer chill down the spine. I felt sure then that my surmise was correct, and that the lone skeleton on the rock was all that remained of Henry Judson. My impatience to visit the great stone again may be imagined. I found it hard to concentrate my mind on the training of the company, and every day marked with eager eyes the drying up of the long grass which covered the country and rendered travelling impossible except along the beaten tracks. I began in February a series of practice marches, taking a good many men and all the animals each time. It was good training for the company after being cooped up in the fort all through the rains, and it served also to clear a good road part of the way. Finally, in the first week of March, I started. I had obtained permission from headquarters to make a rough survey of the chain of pools along which the raiders had penetrated last year, so my temporary absence from the station would cause no comment. I took only four men besides my servants, and for transport we had two little donkeys purchased on my way up, and two of my company mules, so we travelled in comfort and carried enough water to allow for any eventuality. This time everything went well. The grass was not nearly so burnt that spring as it had been the previous year, and I was afraid we might miss the rock, but we hadn't been going more than three mules, I walked on by myself hours on the second morning to the great stone. My heart when one of the men sighted was beating fast with exciteit about a mile away on our ment, and I felt a rare exaltaleft front. tion of mood, whether at my successful shot or at the prospect of fulfilling the object of my quest I don't know. This time the pool below the rock held water-muddy water, it is true, but plenty of it, and quite fit for the animals to drink. What a difference from the terrible conditions of last year! After examining the tracks in the wet mud at the edge of the pool, it occurred to me that I might as well get up on top of the rock and look things over before the others arrived. The tree was thornier than ever, but my skin was at least no softer than it had been, and presently I sprang from the projecting branch on to the flattened top of the great boulder. Our luck was in that morning without any doubt, for a few minutes after we had turned in the direction of the rock a fine white-eared kob stepped out from a patch of grass about two hundred yards away and stood watching our approach with interest, but without any alarm. Up to this I had refrained from shooting anything, as I had not wished to delay the march; but now, within a few minutes of our halt, I decided that a little meat would not come amiss. Motioning the men to lead on, I sat down on the ground and took a steady shot. I seldom used to shoot at anything over a hundred yards, for there was no lack of game, and it is a pity to risk wounding when, by taking a little trouble, you can make pretty certain of a kill; but on this occasion I felt quite sure of myself-my luck was in! And I was not mistaken. The little beast just hunched up its back-shrugged its shoulders, you might almost say,and sank quietly down without moving from its tracks. men gave a shout of triumph, and my cook, drawing a long knife from his belt, rushed forward to cut the animal's throat before the blood had ceased to flow. I doubt if he was in time. The Leaving the men to cut up the meat and put it on the I noticed a change at once, and for a moment it seemed to me that some one must have visited this lonely spot during the long months of my absence; but as I looked more closely I perceived that the alteration was simply the result of the natural processes of decay. I had left a skeleton; I returned to find a heap of bones. The ribs, which before had formed a hollow cage, had fallen in and were lying beside the separated elements of the backbone; the skull, freed from its attachment, had rolled upon its side, and feet and hands had lost their human form. The significance of the change came to me as I stood there looking down upon all that was left of Henry Judson. Last April the skeleton must have been fresh! How long, I wondered, would it take the birds to remove all traces of the flesh, for surely no beast of prey could have reached this inaccessible spot. Not long, indeed, I knew, for often I had seen the carcass of an animal reduced to a skeleton in a matter of days. Stooping down, I picked up the skull. As I did so the jawbone fell away and, bouncing on the rock, dropped into the crack which I have described as splitting the surface of the stone from side to side. Remembering that the dentist's report had said left lower wisdom . . . gold crown, I knelt gold crown, I knelt down and reached my hand into the crevice towards where I saw the white gleam of the bone about a foot below. The crack at this point was narrow, and I had a little difficulty in working the irregular jawbone to the surface, and when I had done so I found, to my surprise, that I had brought up as well a little cylinder of native leather such as many of the Sudanese wear slung round their necks or elbows as charms against the evil eye. Funny thing for a white man to wear," I thought to myself, and laid it on the rock while I examined the jaw. Some of the teeth had dropped out, dislodged no doubt by the fall, but there, on the left side, the hindmost of the teeth showed VOL. CCXXIV.-NO. MCCCLIII. the dull gleam of a gold cap. "Poor Judson," I said aloud, and laying the bone aside, picked up the leather charm. It was remarkably heavy, I noticed, for one of those little amulets, which as a rule contain only a slip of paper inscribed with a verse from the Koran, so Koran, so thinking that I might as well see what caused the weight I took my knife and slit the thing open. And now I come to the incident which has seemed to me so unbelievable that I have hesitated for years to set it down, and down, and would probably never have done so but for the monstrous coincidence with which I opened my story. That incident has convinced me that nothing is impossible in real life, however incredible the circumstances might appear in fiction. With this apology, then, I resume my tale at the point where, fired by curiosity, I slit open the leather cylinder, expecting to find a roll of paper weighted with a lump of lead, and found instead a perfect little golden mouse! The thing was so life-like that I almost dropped it. From the tip of its sensitive nose to the utmost detail of its little feet it was perfection. The eyes were fashioned of some deep-red stones, rubies probably, and one tiny tooth, which showed beneath the carven whiskers, seemed to be an inlay of ivory. How long I sat and gazed at this amazing jewel I do not know. The B 2 My voices of my men, laughing and my feet I found that I must talking as they approached the have sprained my left ankle, pool, aroused me, and, slipping for it hurt me to walk. the mouse into my pocket, I boy took off my boot and rose to my feet determined to bathed the foot, and that eased explore further the the crevice it a good deal, but, to my which had yielded such unex- dismay, when I came to put pected treasure. I stepped to I stepped to on the boot again, the foot the edge of the rock, intending had swelled so much that it to call down to my servant to couldn't be done. Also I felt pass me up a stick with which sick, and got rid of my breakto search, and was just raising fast a few minutes after I had my hand to beckon when some eaten it, so I may have suffered instinct made me glance side- more than I thought. The ways at the crack. Some- men rigged up a shelter for thing was sliding quietly among me, and I lay under that the heap of bones-something during the heat of the day and menacing! I was giddy and thought things over. dazed from suddenly standing up after sitting so long in the hot sun, and for a moment my eyes were only conscious of movement, and then I knew -a puff adder! I had not seen the thing before, though I had been sitting not three feet from the spot. Perhaps it had only just emerged from the crevice. I loathe snakes; and the horrible fat body and stumpy tail of this species in particular has always filled me with horror. I was in no danger, of course, for snakes as a rule do not attack unless molested; but in my sudden alarm I must have stepped backwards, for I remember my left foot treading into vacancy, and then, after a momentary struggle to regain my balance, I fell from the top of the rock. The next thing I remember is my servant bathing my forehead. I thought that I was only stunned, but when I got to I I did not show the golden mouse to anybody, but gloated over it by myself when the servants had left me and gone to lie down. Where had Judson picked up this marvellous thing, and what artist had fashioned it? And then my thoughts turned to Judson himself. pictured him, poor devil, alone against the feudal savagery of the Abyssinian lords; his plot discovered, his identity and disguise betrayed by one of his companions; the whole country on the watch. That must be the reason why he had turned south instead of taking the nearest road to civilisation and safety. I imagined him passing precariously along the disputed zones between the territories of warring chieftains, avoiding the too obvious route along the upper waters of the Blue Nile, and striking south towards the swamps and watercourses which take their way westwards across the plains |