Part 13 (1/2)

In a short tiht no more about the animal until he had been back at the ca expedition, Harry Burton, the Superintendent of Police, had called, and during the afternoon Mark casually mentioned the incident of the porcupine

”I think you area porcupine, my boy,” said Burton

”I don't think so I saw it twice and hit it with the stone, for I distinctly heard it h hurt,” persisted Mark

”That is exactly what makes me certain it was not a porcupine, for it is one of the animals without vocal cords, therefore cannot , for there are a nureat sportsman

Mark, however, felt certain he had distinctly seen the animal's quills, so a little later he quietly left the ca

At nine o'clock that night Mark had not returned to caested that he ot lost, or met with an accident; so a search was at once commenced

CHAPTER III--THE MYSTERIOUS FAKIR

”Well, Burton, what is your opinion now?” asked Doctor Mullen on their return to ca, after an unsuccessful search for Mark

”I am sorry to say I think he has met with a serious accident and is unable to help hi 'Sahib! Sahib!'

and far beyond the, and the boy would have replied if he could have done so You are sure he went alone?” asked Burton

”Yes He took his gun, which seeest that he started for that lake about a one after oorial he would have taken his rifle and would have been accoreatly distressed about his son's disappearance

”As soon as it is light I will have every nullah and bush searched forexpression to his thoughts ”He un may have burst, or he ainst those--well, frages to the heades around

Harry Burton was one of the cleverest officers in the Indian police; he was a few years over thirty, a dark-coile and powerful, and was known to the Salt Range natives as Koj (tracker) Burton Sahib, owing to his shtest clue

Burton, at the Doctor's request, went to occupy Mark's empty tent for an hour or two, and as he stretched hi to form a connection between the broken slab and Mark's absence, and these thoughts kept him awake, so he was the first to hear the footsteps of an approaching horse

”hello! Is that you, Ellison?” greeted Burton, as the new arrival dismounted

”Yes I heard at Gunjyal about Mark, so, instead of waiting for daylight, I hunted up a horse, and, by all this shouting, I conclude Mark is still ,” said Tom, and in a very few minutes he had related to Burton and the Doctor his experience in the train and what he had learnt in Lahore

”Ah, things are getting a bit more complicated,” said Burton aloud, and then et a better hold of the idea”

”Now you clearly understandthe headmen ”You are to send out every available es, and they are to search every nullah until theySahib has met with an accident, and if you find him you are to send word here immediately; and you, Appoyas, instruct yourthose cliffs near your village”

”What's that one

”Appoyas It is an unusual name--certainly not a Punjabi one,” replied Burton

”I never heard the na man,” re to report That is his village on the very edge of those cliffs about a e, and celebrated for its stamped-cloth work