Jack North's Treasure Hunt

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g in his ears above the thunder of the rushing train, Jack North heard the ominou

ike a human being in a race for life, w

ries of exultation and despair, the lightning-like passing of the fatal

the cliff was reached, when with a terrific concussion the bowlder glanced. It suddenly sh

s movement with breathless ea

top of the caboose, and the current of air it r

eyond the place before Jack co

f he needed any further notification, by a

and as he was borne on by the iron horse around the next curve in the track, leaving h

ked to have gone back and looked for the youth, he knew such a course would have been the height of foll

remember the others. If you had only remained o

of the baffled bush-raiders, who must have been greatly s

ineer told of the loss of his fireman and his own narrow escape from death, when an armed squad of men

ished his run to de la Pama and then came ba

he could not reach St Resa that day, while it might be a week before the road would be in a condition to resume his regular tr

hen they met the others coming back, bearing

ody of his associate put on the car, w

nty of life. It was true the other had never been his friend, but now

thing had been seen of the raiders since the start,

ial in a little plot within sight of the low-walled churc

this land of strangers. The last bond between this wild country and home seems to be b

t the bridge would not be repaired inside of a week, J

on Robinson Crusoe island, and he was determined to m

of provisions, Jack set out on his uncertain journey without telling any one his

aca, so he shaped his course in that direction, keeping a

by the sea vapors condensed on the Andes and sent down upon the plains and lowlands. The desert of Atacama lay many miles to the south, but as he progressed he often found sections of the co

the magnitude of the trees being simply beyond the comprehension of him who had never seen them, while s

d it difficult to advance, and many times he was obliged

and, above all, for the strange island, he had spent four days in the wildernes

easure island, though the increasing presence of cinchona trees told h

s he paused on the summit of one of the foothills of the snow-crowned Monarch of Mountains. "B

smile to his lips. As he would ex

to find my treasure island. But I have been a fool to look for either. Come, Juan,"

scination for him. It was a beautiful scene, made up almost entirely of forest,

s and tints of foliage, with a sprinkling of cinchona, lending a happy blending of more sober coloring, whi

f the quassia rising and falling on the shifting breaths of air, withou

his gaze to slowly move around the encircling country, he found himself l

or a sort of silky grass which covered its uneven surface like a rich carpet of the deepest green tint. Near the centre

sia ornamenting its sides, though a solitary tree

amation as he saw that

given in the strange manuscript, but a look of

claimed. "That tree

ld avoid the unexpected attack, a dark lissom body shot through the air, to alight sq