24 
LAND & WATER 
April 6, 1916 
(Coniinuea from page xxll) 
skeeters in the forest to speak of, and we can light a smoke 
fire to keep 'em off if there are. Jacky can carry tlie pick and 
shovel. Now then, if you're ready, histe your bundles." 
They streamed off, Wiart and Macquart leading. Jacky 
and Hull coming ne.vt and Tillman and Hougliton following. 
Wiart had a pocket compass and Hull had another, though, as 
Wiart said, his knowledge of the road was so intimate that 
compasses were unnecessary. 
They went down the glade past the Papuan \'illage and 
struck into the trees where the glade ended: 
It was like passing into a house ; the damar, cutch and 
camphor trees round them flung their branches to make the 
roof, a roof supported by a thousand thousand pillars. 
Just as the outline of the Tartar tents can still be seen 
in the outhne of the roofs of the Chinese pagodas, so in the 
l)illars of the cathedral we can see a vague sketch of the I'orest, 
that first home of man, and in the gloom of our cathedrals 
some tincture of the gloom of the great cathedral that God 
created for the first worshippers. 
The forests of the north have a solemnity all their own, 
and the forests of the tropics a mystery incommunicable to 
those who have not experienced it. 
Here in the twilight that seems the twilight of the birth 
ut things, vegetable hfe appears still clinging to its first and 
most extravagant forms. It moves. Like that convolvulus 
in the Botanical Gardens of Caracas that grows at the rate of 
nn inch an hour, here, in the forests of New Guinea, the lianas 
K'ngtlun themselves almost perceptibly, vines fight the trees 
and kill them, trees fall and crush tlie vines. The orchids are 
everywhere. They seem the furious attempt of the \cgetable 
world to enter the kingdom of the birds and butterflies and 
insects. That bird chnging to that rope of Uantasse is a flower, 
that butterfly is an illusion, that insect an orchid. 
That bursting crash is a tree that has been faUing for a 
year. The forest kills itself and recreates itself eternally ; it is 
a community where the vegetable is king and where the vege- 
table wars with the animal, and the insects set traps for flies 
and thorn entanglements for animals, and mazes to bewilder 
and destroy men. 
Houghton was alive to these impressions, Tillman less so. 
" I've fi.xed up with Hull," said he, " to keep those two 
cliaps always in front of us ; they can't do any harm then." 
• "I'm not afraid of them and their tricks, unless we find 
the cache," said Houghton. " You see, while we are hke this 
we can always guard against them, but should by any chance 
this lead of Macquart's be a real one and we touch the stuff, 
then, in the excitement of the business, when we aren't think- 
ing, they may get their blow in." 
■' You needn't worry about that," said Tillman. " This 
lead is a spoof. I'm dead sure of that. Mac has some black 
joke up his sleeve. D'you know, I've got to that condition 
now that the gold is less to me than tiie chance of doing 
Macquart in if we catch him playing tricks ; that chap has got 
on my spine. God ! how I'm beginning to hate him ! " 
" I'm feeling hke that," replied the other. " It's the 
strangest thing. At first I. liked him, he seemed better than a 
fairy tale, and slowly I've got to feel hke you. Yet he lias 
never given me offence. Hull hated him all along, you see he 
knew him better and. besides, he's a chap that moves by 
instinct. Did you notice the down he's taken on Wiart ? " 
" You mean on his whiskers. Hull's a rum chap, and 
somehow he's hit the thing about Wiart that seems the bull's- 
eye. A chap must be a beast to grow a pair of things like 
that on his face — lost to all sense of decency." 
Houghton laughed and they said no more. 
The work was becoming heavy. They were crossing a 
boggy patch where tall nipah palms grew — the nipah palm 
loves the water— and their feet sank ankle deep at every 
step. 
Beyond lay clear ground except for barrier lianas sagging 
so low that sometimes they could be stepped over. 
In cutting Hull out of their councils, Houghton and Till- 
man had made a mistake. They had considered him too 
volcanic to trust with their suspicions, they had forgotten 
that he had a mind of his own, and that the working of that 
mind unchecked by them might be prejudicial to their 
plans. 
Hull as hs ate now, was thinking. The working of the 
jaws in mastication stimulates some brains, just as the con- 
templation of the ideal stimulates others. Hull, as he chewed 
his bully beef, began to think that he had never made full 
enquiries of Macquart as to the extent of Wiart 's knowledge of 
their real business or his compensation if they were success- 
ful. 
" Look here," said he to Wiart, " you know, I s'pose, that 
you're not takin' us on this traverse for the sake of our 
health." 
Wiart glanced at Macquart \vho at once chipped in : 
' O. I've told Wiart we're not hunting, for that place 
the niggers carted the baskets to tor nothing. He's quite 
ready to lend us his assistance without prodding too deep into 
our affairs." 
" All the same," said Hull, " I'm a man that takes 
nothing from no man for nothing, and if we strike what we're 
lookin' for I'm not goin' to deny his due to him who brought 
us to it." 
" There's no use in talking of that yet," said Houghton, 
hurriedly. 
" O yes, there is," said Hull. " It's better to settle 
jobs hke these right off at the start, then there'll be no quarrel- 
hng at the finish, and if we hit what we're looking' for I'm up 
to give Mr. Wiart two hundred pound for his work in directin' 
us, a man can't say fairer than that." 
Tillman, who was looking at Wiart, thought tliat he saw 
a momentary gleam of mockery in his eye. 
" O, that's all right," said he. " I'm not bothering alwut 
rewards. I can see plain enough what you gentlemen are 
after, and I'll not deny that I guessed it from Mr. Macquart's 
questions and what he let fall. Well, if it's treasure, then, and 
you strike it rich, I'm not indisposed to take what you offer. 
I came on tliis expedition for the fun of the thing and to get 
away from that confounded rubber plantation for a day or 
two, that's what riled me when you objected to my carrying 
a rifle. That's maybe why you objected. You thought in 
your mind, this man may make trouble " 
" Wait a bit," put in Hull, " I only put in my word against 
arms because I didn't know you and because you were a bit 
thick with Mac here. You'll observe Mac doesn't carry a 
gun. Mac and me has differences at times, don't we, Mac ? 
And I objects to any chanst of us quarrellin'. Now, if Mac's 
friend had a gun, Mac might borrow it, mightn't you, Mac ? " 
Houghton jumped to his feet. 
" Come on," he said. " There's no use in sitting here 
talking. Let's be doing." 
lie began to pack up the things and the others, rising to 
their feet, helped him. Then they got under way in the 
same order of procession. 
At four o'clock they arrived at a part of the forest which 
goes by the native name of the Great Thorn Bush. 
(To be continued) 
The new faille silks are first favourites for spring frocks ; 
these, as their name indicates, having more or less of a raised 
surface. There is a considerable amount of substance about 
them and as a result they cut exceedingly well. Faille silks 
are rather expensive, the better quaUties mounting into quite 
a large figure per yard. The French designers were the first 
to leaHze their possibiUties, and the French factories still 
working are responsible for quite a number of them. 
The new wrap coats for .warmer weather have made 
their appearance, and in the majority of cases call for prompt 
admiration. A beautiful Bernard model seen the other day 
was of Lincoln Green suede cloth with facings, collar and 
cuffs of green and white bird's-eye spotted foulard. To 
the making of this coat no fewer than eight yards of material 
had gone, and the model hung in very full folds of singular 
gracefulness. 
Some very pretty hats have a narrow veil of lace, falling 
over the brim and just veiling the eyes. It is the same idea 
as the narrow line of tuUe hanging from many of the hats 
last year, but carried to a greater extreme. For these lace 
frills are to all intents and purposes eye veils, and should be 
very restful to the eyes when there is a glare, or a wind, or 
dust is blowing. 
Tiny shoulder capes are being seen here, there, and every- 
where, but it is a well-known authority's opinion that they 
will not be worn in earnest till the turn of the present year. 
Be that as it may, numbers of the new suits and wrap coats are 
decorated in this manner and it is said that cotton and linen 
frocks will follow the example in due course. 
Pockets have come into their own, not deceptive bogus 
affairs into which hand or handkerchief could not possibly 
be slipped, but the genuine article. They are generally of 
diagonal shape, stitched either side of the skirt, and are edged 
with military braid or a piping of satin or taffetas. Quite 
an attractive dress of serge had the pocket outhned with a 
wide button-hole stitching of worsted and looked very well. 
C.A.V. LAMP BULBS for Car Lighting, bein^ specially cons-tructed 
to withstand excessive vibration, are superior to the severe tests im- 
posed by a long run on a rough road. Motorists are invited to write 
for Catalogue and full particulars. — C. A. Vandervell and Co., Ltd., 
Electrical Engineers. Acton, London, W. — Advt. 
