Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

"Never mind about my hurt-and don't tell 'em at home how I croaked."

Colt gun-it's all gone, and the niggers have run," and he disappeared over the ridge again.

and the watching troopers realized that it was turned upon the enemy as they saw the bullets tearing the foliage and ripping up the dry soil in the sides of the hill.

The captain advanced the troop. There was a yell from the nearby hills beyond the ridge and a horde of insurrectos rushed toward the clump of bushes. The troop dropped again in horror, as they heard the deadly rattle of the Colt gun, again spitting spitefully with a stream of leaden missiles.

Captain Stone grasped the situation in an instant, and again the trumpet sounded the charge, and over the ridge in swift pursuit went the troop, stopping to load and fire as they drove the Filipinos into

The yells of the Filipinos stopped -there was confusion in their ranks for a minute, and the troop saw them turn and run for cover in the opposite direction, many of them. falling as they ran. The steady hammering of the Colt gun kept up

They found Sheeny Cohen lying near the automatic gun, and near him the lifeless form of Bud Smith. Scattered around were the belts of empty cartridges of the gun and a full belt was in Sheeny's hand. The gun was jammed.

"The niggers pulled out when we charged," he explained to Mickey Graw, as the corporal bathed his head from the canteen, "an' I seen that the nigger at the gun was hit just as I fell. I got it in the shoulder and when I come to I seen the bloke had croaked sure enough. I could see the gun from where I was spiked."

"But you said there wasn't any ammunition for the gun," said the captain.

"Sure," said Sheeny, "I knew the niggers wa'n't gone far, an' the other niggers could understand American. So I said that so'd they would come out an' show theirselves and give me a chance to spill some of 'em. They done it all right when I hollered to you, an' I let 'em have it as they started back for the gun."

"Never mind about my head," he said to Micky, "an' don't tell 'em to home how I croaked. Tell 'em I went under from the fever or drinking too much bino."

"Shut up," said Graw, "you ain't goin' to croak."

"Sure I be," said Sheeny, and he turned over on his side and coughed violently.

The troop gathered up the dead, and Sheeny Cohen was at the head of the line.

The moon came up and a lizard croaked dismally from a small tree near the grewsome line of silent forms. And the father of Sheeny Cohen was shoving cloth under the jaws of a sewing machine back in New York.

A MODERN BARMECIDE

BY CATHERINE C. WHEELER

What careth for society.
He that sayeth with propriety:
"My mind my kingdom is?"
O there unto satiety
He hath in rich variety
Full meet of joy, I wis!

For sweet friendships he weaves

In the long summer eves,

Sitting alone in the gathering gloom;
O companions most rare

Are these comrades of air

As they dance o'er his fanciful loom!

Why should he make endeavor

To gain or curry favor,

Who hath a mine of thought?

What need to strive or slave for

The things that others crave for?
These come to him unsought.

For at beck or at call
Treasure-laden, troop all

(Friendly striving to offer their part.)

Rich fancies that will

With all gladness fulfill

Every wish that is framed by his heart!

Why seek conviviality

When in sweet unreality

Rare vintages he drains?

In faith, in its totality,

Blest is his personality

Who hath dream-life in his veins.

For the fancies that flood

Every pulse of his blood

Pour their nectar delicious and rare

Without stint, without dole,

In the enchanted bowl

Of this exquisite feaster on air!

THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS

BY ALICE H. SILL

AVING finished reading Ir- The first race was 179 feet high; the

Hving's "Legend of the Ara- second, or "sweat-born," measured

bian Astrologer," I closed my book, and idly swinging in my hammock, was musing on those beautiful stories of the Alhambra.

My mind was busy rehearsing the story just read. Before me were the two old graybeards quarreling over the rosy-cheeked princess; I heard the astrologer exclaim "The monarch of a mole-hill to claim sway over him who possesses the talisman of Solomon!" As he smote the earth and sank with the Gothic princess, I felt myself going down-down-when suddenly my descent ceased and my attention became fixed upon a figure which seemed to grow out of the tree, or rather the figure absorbed the whole

tree.

Excepting his gigantic stature, he seemed not unlike a man could look, only in place of two eyes he had one in the middle of his forehead.

Observing my fright, for I am the most terrible of cowards, he smiled indulgently; still the one eye gave him such a wierd aspect I could hardly keep my teeth from chattering.

After what seemed to me ages, he spoke: "I am one of the Atlanteans, of the Toltec race, which was destroyed 850,000 years ago."

At the word Atlantean, my fear vanished. I would have faced "Old Nick" himself to learn something of that wonderful race, the only ancestors for whom I ever cared a flip.

Noting my interest, he proceeded: "My people were giants, though we were smaller than our ancestors.

120 feet; the third race 60 feet, and the fourth race, from which I came, averaged 27 feet in height.

"We were a very strong peoplea bar of iron or steel were no more to us than a small stick to you. In fact, our bodies were so hard that a blow from a bar of iron would bend it, but leave our bodies unhurt. With your knives you could no more cut our flesh than you could cut yonder rock.

"Another advantage we had over you people of to-day was our recuperative powers. Wounds which would kill you we recovered from with rapidity. Our nerves were strong, but not fine, and our taste responded to only the strongest flavors.

"Meat and fish we considered edible only in a putrid state. Do not think from this we were an unclean people, for our higher classes were scrupulously neat, while the lower classes were much as they have been in all ages.

"Asuramaya, one of the greatest astronomers, was a Toltec. He constructed the Zodiac, and handed it down to the Atlanteans of Ruta, and from them it passed to the Egyptians.

"You look with admiration upon Marconi wireless telegraphy and other grand achievements of your day, yet they are as naught to things done in ages past. My people traveled the air in ships, as you now travel the ocean; many thrilling battles took place from these heights; our men, who were the finest chemists, would pour down a flood of poisonous vapors, which

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

on

would kill or stupify whole cities, or again, they would hurl terrible bombs, which would explode striking the earth and bring death to many. In our earlier age we were less warlike, and our attention was engrossed with agriculture, breeding of improved stock, and the cultivation of fruit trees.

"Architecture rose to a state of perfection, and some of our cities were models of strength and beauty, as the ruins yet prove to you.

"Gold was much used in building, and many beautiful alloys were used for decorative purposes. Alchemy was a study given much attention.

"During the Toltec civilization, every capital had its central college with affiliated colleges through the province. The lower classes were trained in agriculture, manufacturing and other manual labor. The government looked after their welfare, saw that they had abundant food and plenty of clothing; a governor who neglected these things was removed from office.

"The Toltec sway spread over the land, now beneath the Atlantic, westward over what is now North and South America, and eastward over northern Africa, so that the Egyptians were our friends and neighbors, and may give you a clue to the mystery which has puzzled so many regarding the similarity of many things in common between us."

As the Toltec paused, I asked him the question trembling on my lips since I first saw him: "Why this one eye?"

"Organs of vision were evolved in the third race," he replied. "At first the single eye, or third eye, as it was often called, which was succeeded by the two eyes. This one eye had greater powers of vision than the later two eyes, but disappeared during the reign of the Toltec race."

Again I ventured a question: "I have always thought the Pterodac

tyl megolosaurus and those other gigantic animals roamed the earth monarch of all they surveyed. Surely you were worthy to be a contemporary. Pray tell me, was it so?"

"Yes," was the reply. "Man is much older than your scientific men credit him; he came into existence during the Jurassic period of the Mesozoic age, and was the contemporary of those huge animals that roamed the earth, and he had to hold his own among them. Man has existed on this earth at least 40,000,000 years. The earth was far from young when the huge dinosaur stalked the streets of San Francisco, so lately pictured in one of your papers."

Emboldened, I said: "You seem well versed in the antiquity of the world. Have you an idea how old this earth was before man was created?"

"Our wise ones taught us that 300,000,000 years passed away when the Lords came to look if it was habitable for man. At one point gradually the land began to appear. It was the North Pole, and the climate was an exquisite spring. But if 300,000,000 years make you look aghast, what think you of 1,955,884,700 as the life of our solar system ?"

"Well," I queried, startled at this stupendous enumeration of aeons of time, "where does the anthropoid ape come in. I suppose he must be more than 50,000,000 years old."

My one-eyed visitor continued:

"This much-discussed ape came into existence in the later third race. The lowest human class at this time, who were called the narrow headed, mated with ape-like animals, not very dissimilar in form from themselves. From this union sprang a race half human and half animal; these again interbred with some of the most degraded Atlanteans; from these descend the anthropoid ape."

"About that femur bone

of a

« PreviousContinue »