CHAPTER XXIII.
UTOPIA IS LEFT BEHIND.
As soon as Van saw that his shot had not been wasted he hurried to theside of Joe, who was now lying on the ground, with his head resting onJack Howard's arm.
The wounded boy was breathing heavily, and a single glance told our herothat he had but a few minutes to live.
"Loosen his shirt collar and give him some air," said Dr. Pestle. "Theknife has touched a vital spot, and it is only a question of a very fewminutes before the little fellow will die."
Jack at once unbuttoned Joe's shirt.
As he did so he turned as pale as death and a strange cry came from hislips.
"What is the matter?" exclaimed the doctor, springing to his side.
"Joe is a girl!" came from Jack's pallid lips.
His startling words seemed to bring the wounded one to consciousness,for at that moment the large eyes opened.
"Yes, I am a girl," came from the feeble lips, which were fast turningblue. "Mr. Howard, promise me that you will not hate me for followingyou in this guise when you think of me in after life! I followed youbecause I was left alone in the world, and because I--I--I loved you!"
"Great God!" exclaimed Jack. "Surely you are not Masie Langford, thegirl we met almost at the commencement of our trip?"
"I am, Mr. Howard. I--I----"
Jack Howard's companions were forced to turn their heads.
The emotion the young Englishman displayed was something awful.
He had frequently spoken of Masie Langford as the only girl he had evermet who would suit him for a wife, and now she lay, dying in his arms.
What Howard whispered to the dying girl will never be known, butwhatever it was it caused her face to light up with a heavenly smile,then the lips of the two met, and Masie Langford, alias Joe, fell backdead.
The discharge of Van's rifle had caused a large crowd to gather, andwhen the city officer's friends saw him lying dead upon the groundmurmurs of rage went up from their lips.
But as no assault was made upon them, our friends did not notice themmuch.
Poppet, who had been with the party since they started out to examinethe city, and who was an eye-witness of all that had taken place in thepast few minutes, dispatched a couple of men for a litter.
The necessary article was procured in a very few minutes, and the bodyof the slain girl being placed on it, the party set out for thepresident's house.
But few words were exchanged on the way, and when they reached thehouse, a gloom seemed to have settled upon all hands.
As soon as Van's father learned of what had taken place, he was forleaving the city at once.
"There is yet an hour before darkness," said he, "and I will have itannounced that the friends of the murdered girl--or rather boy, as theythink--desire the body to be buried outside the wall. Then those who aregoing to leave can take to the boat and leave the city behind themforever."
"That is true," returned Van; "but I have not seen Metha Arundel yet."
"I have, if you have not. Her father says they are ready to go at tenminutes' notice."
"Very well, then. I will go after them at once."
The distance to the house of the Arundels was not great, and Van soonreached it, finding what his father had said to be true.
Arundel was an Englishman, and as he was a sworn friend of Vincent's, hewas ready to stick to him in anything he undertook.
His daughter had really fallen in love with Van, and, of course, she wasonly too glad to go.
The father and daughter mounted their horses, taking what few thingsthey could carry, and then Van led them to the door of his father'shouse, where the funeral procession had already formed.
When the elder Vincent saw that all were on hand he gave the order tostart.
About fifty of the Utopians accompanied them to witness the burial.
There was a gate at the eastern wall similar to the other one, and whenour friends passed through this they saw a broad river in front of them.
A large, flat-bottomed boat was moored to the shore not over a hundredyards away.
A number of the Utopians promptly set to work to dig a grave in the spotselected by Jack Howard.
When it was ready Prof. Drearland repeated a short prayer, and the bodyof the brave girl, who had shared the dangers and hardships of theexplorers, was tenderly laid to rest.
Jack was the last to leave the grave, and, when he did so, he noticedthat his friends had already gathered upon the boat.
The Utopians who came with them to witness and assist in the burial ofthe girl, were standing at the gate waiting for them, thinking that thestrangers were merely examining the boat.
It was fast growing dark, and casting a last look at the grave of MasieLangford, Jack Howard led his horse down to the water's edge and boardedthe scowlike craft.
He had scarcely done so when he felt the boat moving.
There was ample cause for this, since all hands had seized poles andwere pushing with all their might.
Five minutes later the boat was in the middle of the stream, while theUtopians, who had been left standing at the gate, were running up anddown the river bank in a state of wild excitement.
But darkness and the swift current of the river soon lost them to view.
Van's father, though his left leg was missing from the knee down, wasquite spry, and he insisted that he should have charge of the boatduring the night.
He was allowed to have his own way, and when the sun arose the nextmorning they were nearly a hundred miles from the African Utopia.
The current of the river was swift and steady, and when two days hadslipped by the boat entered a large body of water, which the elderVincent said was Lake Tanganyika.
We will not dwell on the voyage down the lake, but suffice it to saythat it was really the body of water they supposed it to be, and in duetime they arrived at the town of Ujiji, which was the nearest toanything like civilization they had seen since they started on theirjourney, barring the African Utopia, of course.
They were lucky enough to meet a party of Englishmen at this place, whowere just about to start for Zanzibar.
One of them happened to be an acquaintance of Jack Howard's, and thatmade things satisfactory between the two parties, so they formed intoone and set out for the coast.
CHAPTER XXIV.
CONCLUSION.
It was nearly two months after our friends left the hidden city ofUtopia before they arrived at Zanzibar, on the east coast of Africa.
At the request of Prof. Drearland they had kept all their wonderfuldiscoveries to themselves.
Long before they reached the seacoast, Van and Metha Arundel had come toan understanding, and it was known to all their friends that they wereengaged to be married when they reached a suitable age.
After a week's stay in Zanzibar--which, by the way, is not the nicestplace in the world in which to sojourn--they embarked aboard a shipbound for London.
At the end of a rather tedious voyage they stepped on the docks of thefamous British city.
It was here that the party became split.
Jack Howard, Dr. Pestle and Prof. Drearland had reached their home, andhere they concluded to remain for the present.
A couple of weeks later Van Vincent, his father, Lank Edwards andArundel and his daughter, Metha, embarked for New York.
They did not tarry long in this city after their arrival, but at onceset out for the homestead of the Vincents in the quiet little countryvillage.
Almost everybody in the village knew our hero, and when he stepped fromthe train with the handsome Metha by his side, the simple country folkwere much mystified.
Before he had walked a hundred yards from the depot Van learned from oneof his old friends that the house he had lived in so long was in thehands of the lawyer who had always done his uncle's business.
Our hero led the way to the best hotel in the village, and here theparty put up.
Through the agency of his former emplo
yer Van got a good lawyer to takehis case, and in his hands he placed the confession of Doc Clancy.
About a week later the village was agog with excitement over the arrestof Lawyer ----, who was one of the richest and most influential men inthe county.
But when it became known that he was implicated in the murder that hadcaused so much excitement several months before, the excitement reacheda fever heat.
Well, the next thing to take place was a trial, which was a long andtedious one, as such trials usually are.
When it did finally come to an end, it resulted in complete victory forVan Vincent.
The rascally lawyer received a sentence of twenty years in the Stateprison for the part he had played in the murder and fraud.
He is now serving out the sentence; but the last we heard of him he wasnot likely to live until it expired, as his health was very poor.
A few of the old villagers recognized Van's father, and he was given aroyal welcome back to his native place.
Arundel, who was an Englishman by birth, concluded to remain in Americathe rest of his life.
Four years later Jack Howard, Dr. Pestle and Prof. Drearland made a tripto America.
They not only came to see the best country on the face of the globe, butto attend a wedding as well.
The reader will of course guess the happy couple.
They were our hero, Van Vincent, and the pretty Metha Arundel, who hadbeen born and reared in the African Utopia.
Van asked the professor about his book, but the learned man claimed thathe had not yet finished it to his taste.
However, he gave him a copy of the title page, which read as follows:
"Across the Dark Continent. Being the remarkable adventures anddiscoveries of an exploring party of six, with biographical sketches andportraits. By Prof. Drearland, the Greatest of Modern Explorers."
If this book ever gets in print I would advise the reader to peruse itcarefully, as it contains many details and minor discoveries that wehave been compelled to leave out of this story.
We have just learned at this point of our writing that Jack Howard ismaking preparations to lead a party to the wonderful African Utopia.
Since the death of Masie Langford, Jack has never been exactly himself,and the poor fellow, no doubt, wants to get back to the balmy Africanclime and visit the grave of the girl who loved him, and who, for thesake of being at his side, traveled in the guise of a boy until she mether death at the hands of a cruel assassin.
And now we have reached the end of our story, which would never havebeen written had it not been for Van Vincent's vow.
THE END.
The region of the Rockies and the district of Poison Gulch have yieldedmany interesting mining stories, but none more thrilling than that whichis to appear in BRAVE AND BOLD, No. 110, next week, entitled "Barr, theDetective; or, The Peril of Lucy Graves." In this story all the mysteryand terror that can be evolved out of lonely glens and desperate bordercharacters is brilliantly set forth, and the reader is carried on as ina maze of enthusiasm and interest. You should not fail to read it. It isone of the few detective stories that really hold the interest. Out nextweek!
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Leo Vincey and Horace Holly make their way back to England after theirterrible adventures in Kor (as described in "She"), but the spirit ofunrest is in them, and Leo yearns to see his lost love once more--for,be it remembered, when Ayesha perished in the flames of the Pillar ofLife she called to her lover that she would come again and would oncemore be beautiful. Finally, tortured by uncertainty, Leo is on the vergeof taking his life when a vision comes to him in which he sees Ayeshaand is guided by her to where she may be found. The place seems to be inAsia, and the distinguishing feature is a towering, loop-shaped mountainpeak supported by a lava stem hundreds of feet high. Through it shines afire which rises from the crater of a volcano just beyond. The two mengo in search of this mountain peak, and finally reach a lamasery inThibet, where they hear of a woman who answers the description of "She"and who seems to possess some of her power. They learn that thismysterious woman may be found on the further side of a well-nighimpassable mountain range. Leo and Holly, after frightful hardships,reach the land of Kaloon, where they are hospitably received by theKhania or queen. They learn that on the fire-crowned mountain which theyare in search of, and which is not far away, is a mysterious priestesswho is always veiled. The inhabitants of Kaloon and the people of themountain have long been on unfriendly terms, but there is now a sort ofarmed truce. By some means the veiled priestess has learned of thecoming of the two strangers across the mountain, and has sent word tothat effect to the Khania, together with the demand that they be sent toher. Atene, the Khania, falls in love with Leo and resolves to wed him,even though this will necessitate doing away with her present husband.Atene sends the veiled priestess word that the strangers have arrived,but that they are both very old and so physically worn that they will beunable to obey her behest to come at once to her domains. Holly soondiscovers the true condition of affairs, but he barely has time to warnLeo when they are confronted with the most frightful peril of theirjourney--the peril of "the Hounds of Death!"
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Transcriber's Notes:
This story was previously serialized in a longer form in the _GoldenHours_ story paper under the title "Van Vincent's Vow; or, Chased to theHeart of the Dark Continent."
Added table of contents.
Italics are represented with _underscores_.
Some inconsistent hyphenation retained from the original.
Page 3, changed "that he man" to "that the man."
Page 4, changed "overheard" to "overhead" and added missing quote after"shipped to sea?"
Page 7, added missing quote before "Two of ther villains."
Page 14, fixed double semi-colon.
Page 25, changed "breathed if" to "breathed it."
In the Depths of the Dark Continent; or, The Vengeance of Van Vincent Page 23