464 



RECREATION 



the lamp in the second apartment and then 

 hop into the first room. 



"'Stay with him a long time.' I failed to 

 appreciate the jest. I made a hasty ex- 

 amination of my surroundings, extinguished 

 the lamp, and, without disrobing, threw 

 myself on the couch, and awaited develop- 

 ments. 



"Of the man himself I was not afraid ; he 

 was so puny I could have killed him with 

 one blow of my fist. But the means he might 

 employ to destroy me caused me the most 

 uneasiness. And as I lay there, listening to 

 the heavy downpour outside, the deep-toned 

 thunder, the sharp crash of the lightning — 

 the flash, frequently entering the one little 

 window at my feet — I longed to yell at the 

 top of my lungs ; to shout for the help I 

 knew would never hear me. 



"How thankful I was that I had not 

 touched the poisoned wine — I knew it must be 

 poisoned. Thwarted there, what would he 

 try next? A thick odor pervaded the apart- 

 ment. I sprang from the couch, too horrified 

 to utter a sound. I saw his scheme now. 

 The fiend meant to suffocate me with gas. 

 Pleasant dreams, indeed ! I seized the chair, 

 held it before me, and staggered into the sec- 

 ond room. The same odor was there, also. 

 Suddenly a rasping sound struck my ear. I 

 set the chair on the floor, tiptoed across the 

 room, parted the curtain slightly, and peered 

 into the first apartment. Had I the smallest 

 doubt that my host was not a scoundrel the 

 sight that met my eyes would have dispelled 

 it. He was seated at the table sharpening a 

 huge butcher-knife on a whetstone ; the dark 

 liquid he used on it caused the odor which 

 had pervaded my apartment. He was poison- 

 ing the knife. I had often read' of savages 

 doing such things — but to see a white man 

 use such a method was enough to cause the 

 bravest to shrink from an encounter with him. 

 The smallest scratch from that weapon would 

 mean death. The one chance that remained 

 to me was to get possession of the knife. It 

 would not do to rush matters : the only safe 

 course, at present, would be to wait. 



"For some time I watched him through the 

 crack in the curtain. Frequently he would 

 stop, either to add oil to the stone or to test 

 the knife's edge. Not once did he glance in 

 my direction : he probably believed me to be 

 asleep. Finally he laid the weapon on the 

 table and began hopping, noiselessly, back and 

 forth across the room. Suddenly he stopped, 

 seized the knife from the table, advanced half- 

 way towards me, hesitated, returned the knife 

 to the table, then went to the corner of the 

 room and began searching for something on 

 the lower shelf of the closet. Now was my 

 opportunity. I brushed aside the curtain and 

 with one leap reached the knife. He sprang 

 to his feet, trembling with fear, his face a 



deathly hue. 'Would you murder me?' he 

 shrieked. 



" 'Murder you !' I cried. 'No ! But I'll 

 prevent you from murdering me.' 



"T? Murdering you?' 



" 'A lie won't save you,' I hissed. T've 

 been watching you for the last two hours ; if 

 you were not planning to murder me, what 

 were you doing?' 



"He breathed a sigh of relief. Then he ut- 

 tered a short little laugh. 



' 'My dear sir — my very dear sir, I was only 

 wondering if you'd care to go trout fishing 

 in the morning.' " 



***** 



Jim selected an ember from the fire and re- 

 lighted his pipe. The silence that followed 

 was broken by our German cook : "Say, 

 Chim, vot dit you doed den?" 



"Why," said Jim carelessly, 'T went to bed." 



"You vent to ped! Vat! mit a grazy man! 

 Golly, bud you must be prave." 



"Why, there wasn't anything to be afraid 

 of. He was only eccentric. He was one of 

 those fellows who study the habits of bugs 

 and insects — an entomologist." 



Then, for the first time, we saw that his 

 story was only a joke on us. We arose, 

 simultaneously, grappled Jim, hustled him to 

 the lake and threw him in, bodily. A few 

 minutes later he joined us, dripping, but with 

 a smile on his face. Wiping the water from 

 his eyes, he said : "Boys, to see you sitting 

 there like innocent kids, drinking in every 

 word of that yarn, was well worth a 'chuck' 

 in the lake." 



GREETING. 



(by carrier pigeon). 



Editor Recreation : 



I am on the Mount Royal, the Hudson Bay 

 Company steamer that runs up the Stikine 

 River into British Columbia. I am not going 

 to the Kenai, as the government won't give 

 us permission to bring out heads of big 

 game. 



I have been traveling all over the south- 

 east of Alaska, and have killed some deer. 

 We are going up the Tanzilla River to hunt. 

 This is a very wild and ragged country. 



I stayed for four days in Juneau, a little 

 Alaskan town, and while there a fire broke 

 out in one of the big dance halls. I took off 

 my coat, jumped in with the fire laddies and 

 went into the building. There I found a 

 woman yelling and howling for a dog which 

 she could not find. When I went upstairs I 

 saw the ky-yi sitting on a window sill afraid 

 to jump, so I turned on the stream from the 

 hose and gave it full force. It took the dog 

 and window sash and all into the street, and 

 the crowd went wild with applause. The dog 



