He had come
upon the rift at almost the exact spot at which he had clambered
from it weeks before, and there he saw, just as he had left it,
just, doubtless, as it had lain for centuries, the mighty skeleton
and its mighty armor.
As he stood looking down upon this grim reminder that another man
of might had succumbed to the cruel powers of the desert, he was
brought to startled attention by the report of a firearm, the sound
of which came from the depths of the gorge to the south of him,
and reverberated along the steep walls of the narrow rift.
Mysterious Footprints
As the British plane piloted by Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick
rose above the jungle wilderness where Bertha Kircher's life had
so often been upon the point of extinction, and sped toward the
east, the girl felt a sudden contraction of the muscles of her
throat. She tried very hard to swallow something that was not there.
It seemed strange to her that she should feel regret in leaving
behind her such hideous perils, and yet it was plain to her that
such was the fact, for she was also leaving behind something beside
the dangers that had menaced her--a unique figure that had entered
her life, and for which she felt an unaccountable attraction.
Before her in the pilot's seat sat an English officer and gentleman
whom, she knew, loved her, and yet she dared to feel regret in his
company at leaving the stamping ground of a wild beast!
Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick, on his part, was in the seventh heaven
of elation.
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