had dashed up the engine-room ing Nigger Party-indeed, on ladder, and, as he came out account of it and of the adon to the upper deck, caught mirable if innocent camouflage up the ooir door-mat at his it provided here we feet, which, with a forlorn dropped on to a "passer-on hopefulness, he bound with of wireless messages between the sennit swiftly around the the German cruisers of South hissing fissure. But not even But not even America and their Intelligence then could the windlass be agents ashore in Africa or in induced to revolve; so the the islands. The Telefunken cable, quite happily, was out, note would be to them & and the crazy old craft Shibboleth, assuring them of waddled out slowly and fit- the German source of the infully to sea. Mr Heath Rob- telligence; and also that the inson alone would be capable news sent by it could not of depicting with any certainty possibly be an enemy decepthe scene. It went much tion, but might safely be beyond the limits of ordinary acted upon. fancy. But the points about the ship which really interested us much more than any mere illegalities of the navigating and engineering officers were -first, the Telefunken wireless "get" with which she was fitted; and secondly, the man who worked it. The apparatus itself was undoubtedly German (the vessel herself having so recently been in German ownership); and its operator, who was the only white man in the ship, while proclaiming himself to be a citizen of the United States, bore the unpleasing name of Schneider. He had no "certificate" enabling him to operate on board ship; but that was a trifle light as air by comparison with the suspicious character of the whole galère. It was this "Telefunken" whose voice we had heard in startling propinquity the day before; and it seemed likely that, in spite of the envelop On our arrival at Sierra Leone we handed the Liberia over, with the necessary documents, to the authorities. We then almost immediately reseived orders to leave for other scenes. This was unfortunate; for, so far as we could learn later, no inquiries were made as to the bona fides of Mr Schneider, and nothing was done either to ship, officers, or passengers, save to prevent the latter from establishing the Free Colony of dreams. This idea was, indeed, not welcomed in Sierra Leone. The existing Black Republic of Liberia, their next-door neighbour sanctuary for every known variety of blackguard-was considered amply sufficient for the present, thank you, without starting a similar show having similar future possibilities, even though it was to be inaugurated by saints. their now & As regards the undoubted illegal status of the ship as a merchant vessel, and the irreg ular "olearance" she had received at Barbadoes, it was apparently considered inadvisable by the officials at Sierra Leone to make tee drastic an investigation into the affair. Sierra Leone and Barbadoes are, each of them, Crown colonies. Dog will not eat dog. Perhaps the other dog could bite too! As to the "wireless" considerations, including the status of Schneider, these were as usual outside the shore-going brain capacity, not only for comprehension but for taking any action. "There was no precedent "—and that was all about it! In the next war the sailor, warned by this as by many another instance, will aet for himself, and will not be so hopeful of assistance from those whose have not been taught to fight, and have no desire to learn. Had we seized, without reference to the courts, that Telefunken set and installed it in our own ship, what fun might we not have had with it, using it as a decoy for the German cruisers! It might have produced wonderful results. This notion, though advocated, simple as it sounds, could not, however, penetrate (owing possibly to the depth of the wig) to the legal brain. So the budding negro republic wilted and fell to the ground untimely. As little trace must by now remain of it, as of the rusty old box of tricks which carried its fortunes across the broad Atlantio. And Sohneider, where is Quien sabe? fingers he? (To be continued.) restaurants. FOLLOW THE LITTLE PICTURES! BY ALAN GRAHAM. CHAPTER VI. form at the little station of Kilbrennan. I had not warned the Tanishes of my arrival, My fortnight in London passed very agreeably. I saw all the sights, visited most of the theatres, and dined at for it had struck me that as many of the more expensive I was going to Hopeton in Sightseeing, the capacity of tutor, it might be well not to presume upon the reception accorded to a guest. I had expected that I would be able to get a cab at the station, that would carry both me and my belongings to my destination. however, soon grows wearisome, and I was not sorry when the time arrived for me to journey north. I travelled from St Panoras, by Mr Tanish's instructions, as the Midland is the only line which touches Kilmarnock, my junction for Kilbrennan. This last part of the journey, after leaving the express, was a gorgeous revelation to me. The local train followed the Ayrshire coast-line along the Firth of Clyde, and I looked out of the carriage window at the grandeur of the Arran hills with the April sun low behind the northern end of the island. Farther south towards the open sea, I could distinguish the solitary outline of Ailsa Craig hazily in the evening mist, posted there like some stern guardian of the great waterway. And all before me stretched the Firth, its waters of a depth and purity of blue that I had believed was only to be seen in the Mediterranean. It was about half-past six when I alighted on the plat But the solitary porter was struck garrulous at the idea of a cab being at the station merely on speculation. "Cab? Ha'e ye orrderred the cab, for if ye did it's no' here?" I explained meekly that I had not ordered a cab, but expected to find one, if not several, in waiting. "It's easy seen ye're no' used tae this pairish, or ye wudna expeo' to fin' Rab Wulson yokin' his auld mare on speo. Whaur wis ye wantin' tae gang?" I should explain that, to judge from his rough harsh speech, one would have thought this porter had a most violent grudge against me. It only dawned upon me slowly that he was, according to his lights, quite civil and helpful, though he ob Copyrighted in the United States of America by Messrs Little, Brown, & Co. viously looked upon me as a poor creature-a Southron. I told him that I wanted to go to Hopeton. "Hopeton, is't?" he answered. "Does the Laird ken ye're comin', for if he kens, what wye did he no' sen' the gig tae meet ye?" "He doesn't know that I intended coming by this train, though he expects me any day now," I replied, somewhat nettled by this cross-examin ation. "Ye wud ha'e dune better tae wire. Ye'd ha'e saved yersel' a heap o' fash-an' me tae, for that maitter. What'll ye dae noo?" "How far is it to Hopeton?" I asked. "It's ower five mile if ye gang by the turnpike, but no' muckle mair nor three by the auld Roman Road ower the hills-that's if ye're thinkin' o' walkin'. But ye couldna tak' ony o' thae muckle boaxes wi' ye. The cairrier wud tak' them ower on the railway lorry." "I think that's the best way, then," I agreed. "It's a lovely evening, and the walk will do me good after a day cramped up in the train." "Oo aye, it's a braw nicht," he admitted, grudgingly to all appearances. "An' ye'll juist ha'e time tae gang that far afore the gloamin's on tap o' ye." With that he proceeded to instruct me upon my route, but what with the strangeness of his dialect and my own rather casual attention to his directions, I went off with but a hazy notion of how I was to reach my destination. At first, all was clear. Behind the station rose a steep grassy hill, its base clad in trees, amidst which one could see the chimneys and roofs of two or three houses peeping out. My road led me upwards through this wooded zone to a bare whitewashed farmhouse which lay at the foot of the hill proper. Here I thought it wise to refresh my memory as to my direction. "Hopeton?" replied the strapping red-armed girl whom I found by the byre-door. "Oo aye. Ye can gang this wye, but it's a gye rough road. Turn roond tae the left when ye're bye the fairm, an' keep straucht on roond the side o' the hill. The dry-stane dykes 'll keep ye rioht. Keep atween them an' ye eanna gae wrang." Having thanked the girl for her courtesy, and received in reply a hearty laugh and a "Havers, man, it's naething!" -I went on my way round the side of the hill. So this was the old Roman Road! On either side of me was an ancient dry-stone dyke, broken down by time and sheep into a mere elutter of loose stone. Between lay a deep irregular hollow, filled up with bracken and gnarled gorse. A semblance of a path led through this wilderness, kept open by passing shepherds and as I learnt afterwards-quarrymen wending their way to their work across the hills. I was enchanted with the scene beneath me. The road winding round the side of the grassy hill which rose four or five hundred feet above my head, was itself a couple of hundred feet above the waters of the Firth. When I stood by the broken wall and looked down, I saw the blue waters stretched before me, with islands large and small laid out as on a map. I did not know them then as I do now, but there were the two Cumbraes, Big and Little, the Isle of Bute, and, most wonderful of all, Arran, with the sun just set behind the northern end. The whole sky was rich with colour, but on the water the shadows were lengthening each moment, and a gloom began to settle on the land, which made me shiver and hastily pass on my way. As I proceeded my path became steadily worse. I left the first hill behind, and found myself in the midst of a country dotted with grass-clad knolls, topped with rude oairns of stones. My track kept me well above the level of cultivation. When I had walked for the best part of an hour I began to have doubts as to my direction. My friend the railway porter had put it at three miles, and I felt sure that I must have walked quite that distance. Dusk was thickening on me too, and there was no sign of human habitation at which I could inquire my way. I now found myself in a high valley between two small hills set close together. My twinguides, the dykes, had dwindled to one, so that I was no longer assured that I was still on the old Roman road. Worse still, when I passed these gloomy knolls on which night had already begun to settle, I found in front of me a great dark wood of stunted firs and pines, at which my path forked, one branch leading by a stile through the wood, the other bearing away to the left. I stopped and scratched my head. The porter had cer tainly mentioned this wood"the foax-cover" he had called it-but whether he had bidden me go through it or avoid it was beyond my capacity to remember. Giving the problem up in despair I tossed for it, and bore off on the path to the left, avoiding the wood. It had now grown so dark that it was with difficulty that I could see the path, though, looking over the countryside, I could still follow the contours of the hills, and distinguish the black masses that represented wooded tracks. I suppose I must have walked about a mile from the fork in the way, when I saw, in the distance, a light, which I took to be shining from some dwelling-house, possibly Hopeton. Unfortunately the path I followed was leading me away at right angles to this light, to reach which I must leave the track and take to the pastureland that stretched beneath me. "Anyhow," I thought, "a cross-country tramp can be little worse than this,"-for, indeed, the path was now almost indiscernible, and I was |