Newspapers / The Roanoke Beacon and … / Dec. 14, 1917, edition 1 / Page 3
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K ing By TALBOT MUNDY The Most Picturesque Romance of the KING HAS A FINAL CONFERENCE WITH HIS FRIENDS AT THE MOUTH OF KHYBER PASS AND PREPARES FOR THE JOURNEY INTO STRANGE COUNTRY. Synopsis. At the beginning of the world war Capt. Athelstan Kiog of the British Indian army and of its secret service, is ordered to Delhi to meet Tasmini, a dancer, and go with her to Khinjan to quiet the outlaws there who are said by spies to be preparing for a JIld or holy war. On his way to Delhi King quietly foils a plan to assassinate him and gets evidence that Yasmini is after him. lie meets Rewa Gunga, Yasmini's man, who says she has already gone north, and at her town house witnesses queer dances. CHAPTER IV Continued. The Rangar's eyes blazed for a sec ond and then grew cold again, as King did not fail to observe. All this while the women danced on, in time to wail ing flute music, until, it seemed from 'nowhere, a lovelier woman than any of them appeared In their midst, sit ting cross-legged with a flat basket at her knees. She sat with arms raised end swayed from the waist as if in a -delirium. Her arms moved in narrow ing circles, higher and higher above the basket lid, and the lid began to rise. It was minutes before the bodies of two great king cobras could be made out, moving against the woman's spangled dress with hoods raised, hiss ing the cobra's hate-song that is pre lude to the poison-death. They struck at the woman, one after f the other, and she leaped out of their range, swift and as supple as they. A Instantly then she joined in the dance, wun uie snanes sinking ngni anu left at her. Left and right she swayed to avoid them, far more gracefully -than a matador avoids the bull and -courting a deadlier peril than he poi sonous, two to his one. As she danced she whirled both arms above her head and cried as the werewolves are said to do on stormy nights. " "Do you do this often?" wondered King, in a calm aside to Rewa Gunga, "turning half toward him and taking his eyes off the dance without any very great effort. Rewa Gunga clapped his hands and the dance ceased. The woman spirited lier snakes away. The blind was drawn upward and in a moment all was normal again with the punkah swinging slowly overhead, except that the seductive smell remained, that was like the early-morning breath of all the different flowers of India. "If she were here," said the Rnngar, i little grimly with a trace of disap pointment In his tone "you would not snatch your eyes away like that ! Per haps you shall see her dance some day ! Ah here Is Ismail," he added in an altered tone of voice. lie seemed re lieved at sight of the Afridi. Bursting through the glass-bead cur tains at the door, the great savage strode down the room, holding out a telegram. With a murmur of conven tional apology King tore the envelope As She Danced She Whirled Both Arms Above Her Head and Cried as the Werewolves Are Said to Do on Stormy Nights. and in a second his eyes were ablaze with something more than wonder. A mystery, added to a mystery, stirred all the zeal in him. But in a second he had sweated his excitement down. "Read that, will you?" he said, pass ing It to Rewa Gunga. It was not in cypher, but In plain every-day Eng lish. She has not gone North. She is still In Delhi. Suit your own movement to your plans. "Can you explain?" asked King In level voice. lie was watching the fix 0 of the Kh Copyright by Th Bobba-Merrlll Company Rangar narrowly,, yet he could not detect the slightest symptom of emo tion. "Explain?" said the Rangar. "Who can explain foolishness? It means that another fat general has made an other fat mistake I" "Ah !" said King. "You are positive she has started for the North?" "Sahib, when she speaks It Is best to believe! She told me she will go. Therefore I am ready to lead King sahib up the Khyber to her I" "There's a train leaves for the North tonight," said King. The Rangar nodded. "You'll want a pass up the line. How many servants? Three four how many?' "One," said the Rangar, and King was Instantly suspicious of the mod esty of that allowance; however he wrote out a pass for Rewa Gunga and one servant and gave it to him. "Be there on time and see about your own reservation," he said. "I'll attend to Ismail's pass myself." He folded the list of names that the Rangar had marked and wrote some thing on the back. Then he begged an envelope, and Rewa Gunga had one brought to him. He sealed the list in the envelope, addressed It and beck oned Ismail again. "Take this to Saunders sahib!" he ordered. "Go first to the telegraph of fice, where you were before, the babu there will tell you where Saunders sahib may be found. Deliver the letter to liim. Then come and find me at the Star of India hotel and help me to bathe and change my clothes." "To hear is to obey !" boomed Ismail, bowing; but hla last glance was for Rewa Gunga, and he did not turn to go until he had met the Rangar's eyes. When Ismail had gone striding down the room King looked Into the Rangar's eyes with that engaging frankness of his that disarms so many people. "Then you'll be on the train to night?" he asked. "To hear is to obey! With pleas ure, sahib!" "Then good-by until this evening." King bowed very civilly and walked out, rather unsteadily because his head ached. Probably nobody else, ex cept the Rangar, could have guessed what an ordeal he had passed through or how near he had been to losing self command. In the street he found a gharry after a while and drove to his hotel. And before Ismail came he took a stroll through a bazaar, where he made a few strange purchases. In the hotel lobby he Invested In a leather bag with a good lock, in which to put them. Later on Ismail came and proved him self an efficient body-servant. That evening Ismail carried the leather bag and found his place on the train, and that was not so difficult, be cause the trains running North were nearly empty, although the platforms were all crowded. As he stood at the carriage door with Ismail near him, a man named Saunders slipped through the crowd and sought him out. "Arrested 'era all !" he grinned. King did not answer. He was watch ing Rewa Gunga, followed by a serv ant, hurrying to a reserved compart ment at the front end of the train. The Rangar waved to him and he waved back. The engine gave a preliminary shriek and the giant Ismail nudged King's elbow In impatient warning. There was no more sign of Rewa Gunga, who had evidently settled down in his com partment for the night. "Get my bag out again!" King or dered, and Ismail stared. "Get out my bag, I said !" "To hear is to obey!" Ismail grum bled, reaching with his long arm through the window. The engine shrieked again, some body whistled, and the train began to move. "You've missed it!" said Saunders, amused at Ismail's frantic disappoint ment. CHAPTER V. TK" rear lights of the train he had not iaken swayed out of Delhi station and King grinned as he wiped the sweat from his face with a dripping handkerchief. Behind him towered the hook-nosed Ismail, resentful of the un expected. In front of him Saunders eyed the proffered black cheroots sus piciously, accepted one with an air of curiosity and passed the case back. ybetr Around them the clatter of the station crowd began to die, and Parsimony in a shabby uniform went round to lower lights. "Are you sure " King's merry eyes looked into Saun ders' as If there were no world war really and they two were puppets in a comedy. "are you absolutely certain Yas mlnl Is In Delhi?" "No," said Saunders. "What I swear to Is that she has not left by train. She's the most elusive Individual In Asia 1 One person in the world knows where she Is, unless she has an accom plice. My Information's negative. I know she has not gone by " King struck a match and held It out, so the, sentence was unfinished ; the first few puffs of the astonishing cigar wiped out all memory of the miss ing word. And then King changed the subject. "Those men I asked you to ar rest?" "Nabbed" puff "every one of 'em 1" puff-puff "all under" puff-puff "lock and key, best smoke I ever tasted." "Well ril go along with you If you like and look them over." Both tone and manner gave Saun ders credit for the suggestion, and Saunders seemed to like it. There Is nothing like following up, In football, war or courtship. "I see you're a Judge of a cigar," said King, and Saunders purred, all men being fools to some extent, and the only trouble being to demonstrate the fact. They had started for the station en trance when a nasal voice began in toning, "Cap-teen King sahib Cap teen King sahib !" and a telegraph mes senger passed them with his book un der his arm. King whistled him. A moment later he was tearing open an official urgent telegram and writing a string of figures in pencil across the top. Then he de-coded swiftly : Advices are Tasmini was In Delhi as re cently us six this evening. Fail to under stand your inability to get in touch. Have you tried at her house? Matters In Khy ber district much less satisfactory. Word from O-C Khyber rifles to effect that lnshknr la onllAptlncr. "Retter nween UD in Delhi and proceed northward as quick ly as compatible with caution, i oi. i-u "Good news?" asked Saunders, blow ing smoke through his nose. "Excellent. Where's my man? Here you Ismail 1" The giant came and towered above him. "You swore she went North !" "Ha, sahib ! To Peshawur she went !" "I have a telegram here that says she is In Delhi !" ne patted his coat, where the inner pocket bulged. "Nay, then the tar lies, for I saw her go with these two eyes of mine I" "It is not wise to lie to me, my friend," King assured him, so pleasant ly that none could doubt he was telling truth. "If I lie may I eat dirt!" Ismail an swered him. Inches lent the Afridi dignity, but dignity has often been used as a stalk ing horse for untruth. King nodded, and it was not possible to judge by his expression whether he believed or not. "Let's make a move," he said, turn ing to Saunders. "She seems at any rate to wish it believed she has gone North. I'll take the early morning train. Where are the prisoners?" "In the old Mir Khan palace. Shall we take this gharry?" With Ismail up beside the driver nursing King's bag and looking like a great grim vulture about to eat the horse, they drove back through swarm ing streets in the direction of the river. King seemed to have lost all interest in crowds. He sat staring ahead in silence, although Saunders made more than one effort to engage him in con versation. "No!" he said at last suddenly so that Saunders jumped. "No what?" "No need to stay here. I've got what I came for!" "What was that?" asked Saunders, but King was silent again. Conscious of the unaccustomed weight on his left wrist, he moved his arm so that the sleeve drew and he could see the edge of the great gold bracelet Rewa Gunga had given him in Yasmini's name. "Know anything of Rewa Gunga?" he asked suddenly again. "Not much. I've seen him. I've spoken with him, and I've had to stand impudence from him twice. I've been tipped off more than once to let him alone because he's her man. He does ticklish errands for her, or so they say. He's what you might call 'known to the police' all right." They began to approach an age-old palace near the river, and Saunders whispered a password when an armed guard halted them. They were halted again at a gloomy gateway where an officer came out to look them over ; by his leave they left the gharry and fol lowed him under the arch until their heels rang on stone paving in a big Ill lighted courtyard surrounded by high walls. There, after a little talk, they left Ismail squatting beside King's bag. and Decade Saunders led the way through a mod ern Iron door. Into what had once been a royal prince's stables. In gloom that was only thrown Into contrast by a wide-spread row of elec tric lights, a long line of barred and locked converted horse stalls ran down one side of a lean-to building. All that King could see of the men within was the whites of their eyes. And they did not look friendly. ne had to pass between them and the light, and they could see more of him than he could of them. At the first cell he raised his left hand and made the gold bracelet on his wrist clink against the steel bars. A moment later he cursed himself, and felt the bracelet with his finger iv ram vxcc-vi7AJt- "May God Be With Theel" Boomed the Prisoner's Voice. nail. He had made a deep nick in the soft gold. A second later yet he smiled. "May God be with thee!" boomed a prisoner's voice in Pashtu. "Didn't know that fellow was hand cuffed," said Saunders. "Did you hear the ring? They should have been taken off. Leaving his irons on has made him polite, though." "Where did you arrest them?" King asked when Saunders came to a stand under a light. "All In one place. At All's." "Who and what is All?" "Thief crimp procurer Prussian spy and any other evil thing that takes his fancy! Runs a combination gamb ling hell and boarding house. Let's 'em run Into debt and blackmails 'em. All's in the kaiser's pay that's known ! We'll get him when we want him, but at present he's useful 'as Is' for a de coy." "You wouldn't call these men pros perous, then?" "Not exactly! All Is the only spy out of the North who prospers much at present, and even he gets most of his money out of his private business. The Germans pay All a little, and he traps the hillmen when they come south lets 'em gamble gets 'era into debt they can get away when they've paid him what they owe. Yasmlnl sends and pays their board and gambling debts, and she's our man, so to speak. She coaxes all their stories out of 'em and primes 'em with a few extra good ones into the bargain. Everybody's fooled 'specially the Germans and exceptin', of course, Yasmini and the raj. Nobody ever fooled that woman, nor ever will If my belief goes for anything !" "Um-m-m!". King rubbed his chin. "Know anything of my man Ismail?" "Sure! He's one of Yasmini's pets. She balled him out of All's three years ago and he worships her. It was he who broke the leg and ribs of a pup rajah a month or two ago for putting on too much dog in her reception room. IIe's Ursus out of 'Quo Vadis !' He's dog, desperado, stalking horse and keeper of the queen's secrets!" - "Then why d'you suppose she passed him along to me?" asked King. "Dunno! This is your little mys tery, not mine !" "Glad you appreciate that I Do me a favor, will you?" "Anything in reason." "Get the keys to all these cells send 'em In here to me by Ismail and leave me in here alone!" Saunders whistled and wiped sweat from his glistening face, for in spite of windows wide open to the courtyard it was hotter than a furnace room. "Mayn't I have you thrown Into a don of tigers?" he asked. "Or a nest f cobras? Or get the fiery furnace ready? That 'God be with thee stuff is habit they say it with unction be fore they knife a man !" "I'll be careful, then," King chuckled; and It Is a fact that few men inn argue with him when he laughs quietly In that way. "Send me In the keys, like a good chap." So Saunders went, glad enough to get Into the outer air. The Instant the door slammed King continued down the line with his left wrist held high so that the occupant of each cell In turn could see the bracelet. "May God be with thee!" came the Instant greeting from each cell until down toward the farther end. The occupants of the last six cells were silent. He had scarcely finished doing that when Ismail strode in, slamming the great Iron door behind him, jan gling a bunch of keys and looking more than ever like somebody out of the Old Testament. "Open every door except those whose numbers I have rubbed out !" King or dered him. Ismail proceeded to obey as if that were the least Improbable order In all the world. It took him two minutes to select the pass-key and determine how It worked, then the doors flew open one after another in quick suc cession. "Come out!" he growled. "Come out! Come out!" although King had not ordered that. King went and stood under the cen ter light with his left arm bared. The prisoners emerging like dead men out of tombs, blinked at the bright light saw him then the bracelet and sa luted. "May God be with thee!" growled each of them. They stood still then, awaiting fresh developments. It did not seem to oc cur to any one of them as strange that a British officer in khaki uniform should be sporting Yasmini's talisman; the thing was apparently sufficient ex planation in Itself. "Ye all know this?" he asked, hold ing up his wrist. "Whose Is this?" "Hers!" The answer was monosyl labic and Instant from all thirty throats. King lit a cheroot and made mental note of the wisdom of referring to her by pronoun, not by name. "And I? Who am I?" he asked. "Her messenger! Who else? Thou art he who shall take us to the 'Hills I' She promised." "I shall start for the 'Hills' at dawn," King said slowly, and he watched their eyes gleam at the news. No caged tiger Is as wretched as a prisoned hill man. No freed bird wings more wildly for the open. No moth comes more foolishly back to the flame again. It was easy to take pity on them prob ably not one of whom knew pity s meaning. "Is there any among you who would care to come ?" "Ah-h-h-h !" "Will ye obey me and him?" he asked, laying his hand on Ismail's shoulder, as much to let them see the bracelet again as for any other rea son. "Aye ! If we fail, Allah do more to us !" King laughed. "Ye shall leave this place as my prisoners. Here ye have no friends. Here ye must obey. But what when ye come to your Tlills' at last? Can one man hold thirty men prisoner's then? In the 'Hills' will ye still obey me?" The answer to that was unexpected. Ismail knelt seized his hand and pressed the gold bracelet to his Hps! In turn, every one of thera filed by, knelt reverently and kissed the brace let! "Saw ye ever a hlllman do that be fore?" asked Ismail. "They will obey thee ! nave no fear !" "Then come !" ordered King, turning his back confidently on thirty savages whom Saunders, for Instance, would have preferred to drive in front of him, after first seeing them handcuffed. "Each lock has a key, but some keys fit all locks," says the Eastern proverb. King has been chosen for many tick lish errands in his time, and Saunders is still in Delhi. The prisoners were left squatting under the eyes and bayonets of a very suspicious prison guard, who made no secret of being ready for all conceiv able emergencies. One enthusiast drew the cartridge out of. his breech cham ber and licked it at Intervals of a min ute or two, to the very great interest of the hillmen, who memorized every detail that by any stretch of Imagina tion might be expected to Improve their own shooting when they should get home again. King found his way on foot through a maze of streets to a place where he was admitted through one door after another by sentries who saluted when lie had whispered to them. He ended by sitting on the end of the bed of a gray-headed man who owns three titles and whose word is law between the borders of a province. To him he talked as one schoolboy to a bigger one, because the gray-haired man had understanding, and hence sympathy. "I don't envy you!" said he under the sheet. "There's the release for your prisoners. Take It and take them ! Whatever possessed you to want such a gift?" "Well, sir first place, she doesn't want to seem to be connected with me. Second place, she has left Delhi and she did not mean to leave those men. Third place, if those thirty men had been anything but her particular pet gang they'd either have been over the border or else in jail before now just like all the others. For some reason that I don't pretend to understand, she promised 'em more than she has been able to perform. So I provide per formances. She gets the credit for It. I get a pretty good personal following at least as far as up the Khyber ! Q. E. D., sir ' The man in bed nodded. "Not bad," he said. "Didn't she make some effort to get those men away from Ali's?" King asked him. "I mean, didn't she try to get them dry-nursed by the slrkar In some way?" "Yes. She did. But she wanted them arrested and locked up at a moment when the jails were all crowded. She must have known our fix. She shouldn't have asked." King smiled. "Perfectly good op portunity for me, sir!" he said cheer fully. "So you seem to think. But look out for that woman, King she's danger ous. She's got the brains of Asia coupled with Western energy! I think she's on our side, and I know he be lieves It; but watch her!" I "Ham dekta hai !" King grinned. But the older man continued to look as If he pitied him. "If you get through alive, come and tell me about It afterward. Now, mind you do! I'm awfully Interested, but as for envying you " "Envy!" King almost squealed. He made the bedsprings rattle as hej jumped. "I wouldn't swap Jobs with General French, sir!" "Nor with me, I suppose!" "Nor with you, sir!" "Goodby, then. Goodby, King, my boy. Goodby, Athelstan. Your broth er's up the Khyber, isn't he? Give him my regards. Goodby!" CHAPTER VI. Long before dawn the thirty prison ers and Ismail squatted In a little herd on the up-platform of a railway sta tion, shepherded by King, who smoked a cheroot some twenty paces away, sitting on an unmarked chest of medi cines. He seemed absorbed In a book on surgery. Ismail nursed the new handbag on his knees, picking ever lastingly at the lock and wondering audibly what the bag contained to an accompaniment of low-growled sympa thy. "I am his servant for she said so and he said so. Then why why In Allah's name am I not to have the key of this little bag that holds so little and is so light?" "A razor would slit the leather eas Ily," suggested one of the herd. "Then., later, the bag might be pushed vio lently against some sharp thing, to ex plain the cut." Ismail shook his head. "Why? What could he do to thee?' "It Is because I know not what he would do to me that I will do noth ing!" answered Ismail. "He Is not at all like other sahibs I have bad dealings with. This man does unex pected things. This man is not mad, he has a devil. I have It In my heart to love this man. But such talk It foolishness. We are all her men !" "Aye ! We are her men !" came th chorus, so that King looked up am watched them over the open book. At dawn, when the train pulled out the thirty prisoners sat safely lockec In third-class compartments. Klnp lay lazily on the cushions of a first class carriage In the rear, jnd Ismai. attended to the careful packing of soda water bottles In the icebox on th floor. "Shall I open the little bag, sahib T he asked. "Put It over there!" King orderei "Set it down!" Ismail obeyed and King laid his bool down to light another of his blacr cheroots. The theme of antiseptic? ceased to exercise its charm over him He peeled off his tunic, changed his shirt and lay back In sweet content "Look Out for the Woman, King She's Dangerous. She's Got the Brains of Asia Coupled With West ern Energy." ment. Headed for the "Hills," who would not be contented, who had been born in their very shadow? In their shadow, of a line of Britons who have all been buried there! "The day after tomorrow I'll see snow !" he promised himself. And Is mail, griunlng with yellow teeth through a gap in his wayward beard, understood and sympathized. Forward In the third-class carriages the prisoners hugged themselves and crooned as they met old landmarks nnd recognized the changing scenery. There was a new, cleaner tang In the hot wind that spoke of the "Hills" and home! At Peshawur the train was short ened to three coaches and started up the spur-track, that leads to Jamrud, where a fort cowers in the very throat of the dreadfulest gorge in Asia the Khyber pass. The Rangar deserts King and his native escort in a dangerous part of Khyber pass, and the special agent tastes more weird adventure. (TO v- : . i. - -.a 'jfvi i if J a MSB I f r
The Roanoke Beacon and Washington County News (Plymouth, N.C.)
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Dec. 14, 1917, edition 1
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