ed men are not getting ready to swoop down | upon us again? The lady's suggestion seemed on the whole a good one; so, when Hyppocratos had persuaded his steeds to relinquish their attachment to the rough herbage at which they had been tugging in quite an unconcerned way during the entire conflict, the party resumed their places, and Hyppocratos again mounted the box.

It was quite dark now on both sides of the Golumphos Pass, - a rich, soft, South ern darkness. Over the highest ridge of the hill the silver moon was seen with a bright star almost within its arms. But Laura did not offer the least remark as to the beauty of the scene around this classical locality. She had been brought face to face with a romantic occurrence, she had herself been a participator in it; and yet she did not feel such emotions as she had fancied must be the accompaniment of an adventure like that which she had just encountered. She was disappointed with herself, but she did not forget the heroic look of the young man now sitting beside her, when he rushed away, a pistol in each hand, to meet those three strong ruffians with the slouched hats and heavy cloaks. She was very silent indeed, but not more so than Bertie Warwick, who was certainly not in such high spirits as might have been expected from the result of his victory over the double band of ruffians. Mr. Crawford was the only member of the returning party who seemed to relish the adventure, though he had undoubtedly been the greatest suffer er. He jested and laughed during the remainder of the journey to the hotel.

"The Columbus Pass!" he said. "Ah! I'll not forget it in a hurry. That's where the gallant five hundred made such a bold stand against their enemies, is n't it, Laura? Well, you see history repeats itself. We 're the gallant five. And did n't we make a bold stand, even though I did n't stand, but lay down? Here 's your mother, too, who helped to frighten them away as the boys do rooks, with sound. Never mind, we 're all safe, - thanks to Mr. Warwick." "To think," said Laura," that the first three men, who were without doubt the real banditti, should not have approached us, while the other four, who were merely peasants, should have attacked us! Isn't it strange?"

"My dear Laura, you should not always judge a bandit by his costume," replied

forward most politely, opened the carriagedoor, and assisted Mr. Crawford and the others to alight.

"I hope you enjoyed your drive, sir," he said. "It has been a charming afternoon." “Thank Heaven, we are back in safety!" ejaculated Mrs. Crawford. "O Edward, we have had such an awful time driving round that terrible pass!"

"Is it possible?" said Edward, with the deepest concern in his voice. "Why, here it was a charming evening, so peaceful, so subdued, so"

--

"Peaceful! subdued! O Edward! this is an awful country! We have been at tacked by brigands, real brigands, — with slouched hats and top-boots, stilettoes and ". "What!"

"Get along inside," said Bertie impatiently to his brother. "Mrs. Crawford, let me offer you my arm," he added.

"I can scarcely believe it possible. Brig ands, did you say, Mrs. Crawford ?" continued Ned, following the lady.

"Brigands," said Mrs. Crawford, turning her head round for an instant.

66

Good Heavens!" exclaimed the young man, returning to his companions. "Only think, my brother's party has been attacked by brigands, real brigands, with topboots, slouched hats, and all the necessary properties for the carrying on of a successful career of robbery."

"Impossible!" said the other two.

"It's a fact," declared Ned. "But we must learn the details of the outrage. Are we or are we not British subjects? Have we or have we not a representative in this country?"

"Is dinner ready, or is it not ready?" put in Mr. Rufus Blackstone. "That conundrum is more to the point just now. Upon my word, Ned, you'll talk yourself into convulsions some day."

The three young men and their tutor had seated themselves at their table in the little salle, before Mr. Kelly, the other "special,”

"It's all a fact," said Ned. "One of the ladies — a dear friend of my brother's, and, indeed, of our family- was so horribly mutilated by the ruffians, that her relatives thought it better not to disturb her last moments by subjecting her to a journey back to the hotel."

This final exclamation was due to the inopportune entrance of Bertie himself.

"Well, considering that you have lost the greater part of your nose, and that your left ear is retained only by the mearest thread, you are looking very well, Warwick," said Mr. Kelly.

"What the dickens are you talking about?" asked Bertie. "As usual, I sup pose you are not particularly sober."

66

Well, I'm not particularly drunk, my boy. But as to the condition of that youth who calls himself your brother I say nothing."

Bertie had seated himself coolly, and was marking off his dinner on the carte.

"Brother, dear brother," said Ned, with an affectation of great emotion, "they told me such terrible things about you. I have been in a state of nervousness bordering on insanity; so, if you would have the good ness to order a quart bottle of Roederer, I should feel most grateful. I really need such a restorative."

"But what about this brigand story, Mr. Warwick?" inquired Mr. Barwise, the Cambridge tutor.

"Yes, what about it?" echoed Ned. "It is nothing worth mentioning," said Bertie quietly. "We were coming back by the Golumphos Pass, and I was walking ahead of the carriage, when I was startled by a yell from the driver. I turned round, and saw two men who were in pursuit of him make off. The carriage was in a hollow of the road, and, when I ran up to it, I saw another of the scoundrels in my place. As he was standing, I had a good shot at him, and brought him down; but, while I was engaged in a slight scrimmage with the last of the band, it seems that the first two returned and helped the wounded man away. Then we drove back. That's all." "And what class of men were they who attacked you?" asked the tutor.

"They were ordinary peasants of the lowest type, and almost in rags."

"And what about the slouched hats, cloaks, and top-boots?" asked one of the young men.

44

My dear fellow, you know as much about them as I do," replied Bertie, looking straight at the speaker. "The men who attacked us were low-built, yellow ruffians, with not as much cloth amongst them as would have lined a brigand's slouched hat. Now don't bore me with questions when I 've told you all.”

It was characteristic of Bertie to make light of his adventure; but Mr. Kelly, his

brother "special," had a shrewd suspicion that his reticence was due to a desire to have a monopoly of the information for a certain morning newspaper. This being so, the Irishman, after dinner, lit a cigar, and, yawning, said that he felt sleepy, and thought he would take a stroll to try to rouse himself a bit. Having thus thrown the special correspondent of the opposition paper off the scent, Mr. Kelly rushed off to a telegraph-office and wired a long and interesting account of how a party of English ladies and gentlemen had been attacked in the Golumphos Pass by an immense body of banditti, who had evidently pre-arranged the deed, and attempted to carry it out with the most desperate and subtile villainy. There was a rumor, the telegraphic despatch said, that two ladies had been severely wounded, and that an elderly gentleman had already succumbed to the hurts he had received, but nothing would be known for certain until the following day.

As he left the telegraph-office, Mr. Kelly was not aware that Bertie Warwick was at that instant engaged in writing out his own despatch, which was found, when read the next morning by the people of England, to be much more voluminous and interesting than his fellow-scribe's sensational report.

Before Bertie retired, his brother came into his room, and, cautiously shutting the door, sat down upon a chair, and burst into an immoderate fit of laughter.

By Jingo, you carried it off well, Bertie, old fellow!" he said presently. "No one would fancy- Never mind. But why the deuse did n't you utilize the hats and cloaks? In such an affair the make-up is everything."

"Look here, Ned," returned Bertie; every word that I said at dinner was true."

Of course, oh, yes, perfectly true! Who on earth would think of doubting it!" And Ned gave way to another outburst. "Come, get out of this," said Bertie peremptorily. "I'm going to bed."

"I wish to Heaven I had your coolness!" remarked the young man. "It would be invaluable to me. But what did the Pauline say, eh? My own deliverer. You have saved me, Alphonso, saved me; accept as a token""

Here Bertie, who had opened the door, grasped his brother by the collar and one of his legs, and laid him quietly on the mat outside; then he locked the door and went

to bed.

Next day Mr. Warwick was visited by the Athenian police, and shortly afterward a search was made for the marauders by a body of cavalry, but without success. La ter on, when he went to the Crawfords' sitting-room, Bertie found Laura seated by herself.

OS

“You! O Bertie, I had no idea that any one could be so cool, so collected, so noble! But what I cannot understand is how those who were the most audacious of the band should have been so unlike brigands. Now the three with the slouched hats and cloaks were real banditti, and yet they did not come near us. Is n't it strange?" "There are some queer things in the world, Laura."

This was all the explanation Bertie thought fit to give.

Then they talked of many other matters, among which was the determination of Mr. Crawford to return to Berlin for certain fetes that were to take place in that city.

"And indeed I shall not be sorry to be back in the Hôtel de Rome," said the girl. "Do you remember the day we had there, Bertie ?"

"Do I remember that day, Laura? I have good cause never to forget it, day of the burial of all my hopes."

Yes;

the

What do you mean, Bertie?" "On that day the cherished hopes of years were buried."

"O Bertie!"

"Never mind," said Bertie, rising. "Why should we go over the same ground again?" "Why should we not?"

"Because it will only make both of us more wretched."

"Bertie, dear Bertie, don't say that!" "But it is true, Laura. I have been wretched since you told me — Well, you know what you told me in the Thiergarten.

I ran across to America to try to get rid of my wretchedness, and now I think I'll go

back to the Zambesi."

"Poor Bertie! What did I say to you?" asked Laura.

"You said that there was no sympathy between us, that we had no community of feeling."

She looked up into his face, and he saw that her eyes were full of tears. She held out her hand to him.

"Bertie, dear Bertie, I was wrong," she said. "I know now how foolish I was. Forgive me! I know that we have one feeling in common, one love, Bertie." "Laura darling, do you mean it? You don't let any stupid notions of gratitude influence you?"

"Gratitude!" she said, with a smile. "Gratitude for what? For having led us into a most terrible scrape? Don't talk about gratitude. If you are very good, I may forgive you in time; but don't fancy I shall ever become grateful."

66

My own darling, I will become a very good boy!"

It was with this object doubtless that a few months afterward he threw up his situa tion as special correspondent.

Among the festivities in celebration of the return from the honeymoon-tour of Mr. and Mrs. Warwick was a fancy ball, at which Mr. Edward Warwick and his two friends appeared in a strangely picturesque costume, with slouched hats and long cloaks; and, on being asked as to the characters they were assuming, Ned replied, with a look toward his brother,

"We are the three brigands of the Golumphos Pass."

WHEN by the sun's great glowing eye

The waters from the salty sea

Upsoaring float in yon wide sky,
The clouds' bright-fringèd drapery,

CHARDON, O., August, 1880.

They leave their briny dross behind: Thus, free from sin in upward flight, Must one day mount the immortal mind, Beneath God's great glance infinite.

IN

UN SOUVENIR d'afrique. November, 1870, I left Gorée for St. Louis, the capital of Sénégal; and my object in going was to proceed thence up the river to ascertain what prospects there were for obtaining a good quality of gum the ensuing season, during which I intended to devote my attention to that branch of the trade. I meant to push forward to the confines of three great gum forests, Sahel, Al-Fatack and El-Hiebar, tending north ward from the Sénégal, and, by observing the gum which oozes through the Harmattan-cracked bank of the acacia, form some opinion of the quality of the product of each and decide which sort it would be the most profitable to collect during the coming sea

son.

--

Before I invite the reader to share in this souvenir, one of the many which I have of an eventful month passed among Joloffs, Toucoulors and Moors, it may be well to give a short and comprehensive account of collecting this, the most important product of Sénégal.

It is that which is known in commere as gum Sénégal; and the acacia from which it exudes grows on a desert track which extends from the right or northern bank of the Sénégal. There are many species of this genus of plants; but, the acacia Verek and acacia Adamsonii are those which produce the substance under consideration.

Sahel, which produces the white gum that is held in the highest estimation, is in possession of the Trarshaz Moors, the forest of Al-Fatack belongs to the Bracknaz tribe and El-Hiebar to the Darmango tribe. The trees do not, generally, exceed eighteen or twenty feet in height, and their circumference is seldom more than three feet. The leaves are alternate, and of a dry, dirty green. The branches are thorny at the points where the leaves project, the blossoms are white and short, and the bark smooth and of a dark green. The rains cease at the beginning of November, and the Harmattan commences to blow and absorb all the moisture in its track. The drying process thus caused is so powerful that it makes the bark crack in numberless places. The gum then issues, generally in drops about as large as a partridge's egg, and remains attached to the bark. No artificial incision is ever neces

sary.

The Moors o fthe three tribes mentioned

leave their abodes in the desert about the beginning of December, and, leaving none behind save the aged and decrepid and infants, with a limited number of able-bodied individuals to care for them and tend the cattle, set out in a confused, tumultuous crowd, - on horses, on camels and on foot. In a fortnight or less, each tribe reaches the forest which belongs to it, and forms an encampment on its borders. The harvest continues about six weeks, at the end of which time the collected gum is bagged in leathern sacks, and transported on camels to the traders on the banks of the river. Then commences the great gum fair on the northern bank of the Sénégal about midway between Podor and St. Louis, when Moors and Christians seek to outvie one another in cheating. The gum is bought in cantars of about two thousand pounds. Formerly the cantars contained only about five hundred pounds, and their price was fifteen pieces of blue baft (Guinée), averaged at twenty-five francs, making the price of the cantar three hundred and seventy-five francs, and of the pound between three and four

cents.

A steam launch had been placed at my disposal; and I accordingly left St. Louis in it on the tenth of November, with an ample supply of such provisions as it would be impossible for me to procure while away. I also took with me a Joloff, named Abdul n' Diaye, who had embraced the religion of the prophet, and was a good Arabic scholar, with four other natives in whom I had confidence. Abdul was well known, on excellent terms with the Moors in general; and I depended much upon his influence to insure me a friendly reception on reaching the camps at the gum forests. The river was still rapid, and its water almost fresh enough to drink as far down as St. Louis. We passed through the Pont Faidherbe at noon, and steamed easily along over the surface of the still swollen and swiftly moving stream. The low bank on either side was inundated here and there, and, as far as the eye could reach in all directions, was spread a panorama, covered everywhere with vegetation of the greatest luxuriance and brightest verdancy.

Our launch drew so little water that I concluded to take the less frequented passes, and directed the pilot accordingly. several places the Sénégal divides and flows in two channels, forming extensive islands.

In