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King of Jo) ff IKimes CHAPTER XXI Continued. 13 But out of the corner of his eye, and once or twice by looking back delib erately, King saw that Ismail was taking the members of his new band one by one and whispering to theni. What he said was a mystery, but ns they talked each man looked at King. And the more they talked the better pleased they seemed. And as the day wore on the more deferential they grew. By midday if King wanted to dismount there were three at least to hold his stirrup and ten to help him mount again. Four thousand men with women and children and baggage do not move so swiftly as one man or a dozen, espe cially in the "Hills." where discipline is reckoned beneath a proud man's honor. There were many miles to go before Khinjan when night fell and the mullah bade them camp. He bade them camp because they would have done it otherwise in any case. When the evening meal was eaten, and sentries had been set at every van tage point, there came another order from the mullah. The women and children were to be left in camp next dawn, and to remain there until sent for. There was murmuring at that around the camp, and especially among King's contingent. But King laughed. "It is good !" he said. "Wrhy? How so?" they asked him. "Bid your women make for the Khy ber soon after the mullah marches to morrow. Bid them travel down the Khyber until we and they meet !" "But" "Please yourselves, sahibs!" The hakim's air was one of supremest In difference. "As for me, I leave no women behind me in tie mountains. I am content." They murmured a while, but they gave the orders to their women, and King watched the women nod. Even as Yasmini had tested him and tried him before tempting him at last, she rtust be watching him now, for even the East repeats itself. She had sent Ismail for that purpose. It was likely that her course would depend on his. If he failed, she was done with him. If he succeeded in establishing a strong position of his own, she would yield. With or without Ismail's aid, with or without his enmity, he must control his eighty men and give the slip to the mullah, and he went at once about the best way to do both. "We will go now," he said quietly. "That sentry in yonder shadow has his back turned. He has overeaten. We will rush him and put good running between us and the mullah." Surprised into obedience, and too de-! lighted at the prospect of action to wonder why they should obey a hakim so, they slung on their bandoliers and made ready. Ismail brought up King's horse and he mounted. And then at King's word all eighty made a sudden swoop on the drowsy sentry and" took him unawares. They tossed him over the cliff, too startled to scream an alarm; and though sentries on either hand heard them and shouted, they were gone like wind-blown ghosts of dead men before the mullah even knew what was happening. They did not halt until not one of them could run another yard. King trusting to his horse to find a footing along the cliff-tops, and to the men to And the way. CHAPTER XXII. "Whither?" one whispered to King, j "To Khinjan!" he answered; and! that was enough. Each whispered to the other, and they all became fired with curiosity more potent than money bribes. " When he halted at last and dis mounted and sat down and the strag glers caught up, panting, they held a council of war all together, with Is mail sitting at King's back and leaning a chin on his shoulder in order to hear better. Bone pressed on bone, and the place grew numb; King shook him off a dozen times; but each time Ismail set his chin back on the same spot, as a dog will that listens to his master. Yet he insisted he was her man, and not King's. "Now. ye men of the 'Hills,' " said j King, "listen to me who am political- j offender - with - reward - for - capture offered !" That was a gem of a title. It fired their imaginations. "I know things that no soldier would find out In a thousand years, and I will tell you some of what I know." Now he had to be careful. If he were to Invent too much they might denounce him as a traitor to the "Hills" In general. If he were to tell them too little they would lose in terest and might very well desert him at the first pinch. He must feel for the middle way and upset no preju dices. "She has discovered that this mul lah Muhammad Anim is no true mus Hm. but an unbelieving dog of a for eigner from Farangistan! She has discovered that he plans to make him self an emperor in these hills, and to sell hillmen into slavery!" Might as well serve the mullah up hot while about It! JJevond any doubt not much . .. . more "" V away ine munau whn the A Romance of Adventure By TALBOT MUNDY , Copyright by the Bobbt-MerriU Company getting even by condemning the lot of them to death. "An eye for the risk of an eye !" say the unforgiving "Hills." "If one of us should go back into his camp now he would be tortured. Be sure of that." Breathing deeply in the darkness, they nodded, as If the dark had eyes. Ismail's chin drove a fraction deeper Into his shoulder. "Now ye know for all men know that the entrance Into Khinjan caves is free to any man who can tell a He without flinching. It is the way out again that is not free. How many men do ye know that have entered and never returned?" They all nodded again. It was com mon knowledge that Khinjan was a very graveyard of the presumptuous. "She has set a trap for the mullah. She will let him and all his men enter i and will never let them out again !" "How knowest thou?" This from two men, one on either hand. "Was I never in Khinjan caves?" he i retorted. "Whence came I? I am her I man, sent to help trap the mullah ! I would have trapped all of you, but for being wearv of these 'Hills' and wish ful to go back to India and be par doned! That is who I am! That is how I know !" Their breath came and went slbl lantly, and the darkness was alive with the excitement they thought them selves too warrior-like to utter. "But what will she do then?" asked somebody. King searched his memory, and in a moment there came back to him a picture of the hurrying jezailchi he had held up in the Khyber pass, and recollection of the man's words. "Know ye pot," he said, "that long ago she gave leave to all who ate salt to be true to the salt? She gave the Khyber jezailchis leave to fight against her. Be sure, whatever she does, she will stand between no man and his pardon !" "But will she lead a jihad? We will not fight against her!" "Nay," said King, drawing his breath in. Ismail's, chin felt like a knife against his collar bone, and Ismail's iron fingers clutched his arm. It was time to give his hostage to Dame For tune. "She will go down into India and use her influence in the matter of the pardons!" "I believe thou art a very great liar Indeed !" said the man who lacked part of his nose. "The Pathan went, and he did not come back. What proof have we?" "Ye have me!" said King. "If I show you no proof, bow can I escape you?" They all grunted agreement as to that. King used his elbow to hit Is mail In the ribs. He did not dare speak to him ; but now was the time for Ismail to carry information to her, supposing that to be his job. And after a minute Ismail roiled into a shadow and was gone. King gave him twenty minutes' start, letting his men rest heir legs and exercise their tongues. Now that he was out of the mullah's clutches and he suspected Yasmini would know of It within an hour or two, and before dawn in any event he began to feel like a player in a game of chess who .foresees his opponent mate in so many moves. If Yasmini were to let the mullah and his men Into the caves and to join forces with him In there, he would at least have time to hurry back to India with his eighty men and give warning. He might have time to call up the Khy ber jezailchis and blockade the caves before the hive could swarra, and he chuckled to think of the hope of that. On the other hand. If there Was to be a battle royal between Yasmini and the mullah, he would be there to watch It and to comfort India with the news. "Now we will go on again, in order to be close to Khinjan at break of day," he said, and they all got up and obeyed him as If his word had been law to them for years. Of all of them he was the only man in doubt he who seemed most confident of all. They swung along into the darkness under low-hung stars, trailing behind King's horse, with only half a dozen of them a hundred yards or so ahead as an advance guard, and all of them ex pecting to see Khinjan loom above each next valley, for distances and darkness are deceptive in the "Hills," even to trained eyes Suddenly the advance guard halted, but did not shoot. And as King caught up with them he saw ' they were talking with someone. He had to ride up close before he i recognized the Orakzai Pathan. "Salaam!" said the fellow with a grin. "I bring one hundred and eleven !" As hp spoke graveyard shadows rose out of the darkness around and leaned on rifles. "Be ye men all ex-soldiers of the raj?" King asked them. "Aye!" they growled in chorus. "Who gave you leave to come?" King asked. ""None! He told us of the pardons and we rame!" "Aye!" said the Orakzai Pathan. drawing King aside. "But she gave I me leave to seek them out and tempt ! them !" Khyher "And what does she intend?" King asked him suddenly. "She? Ask Allah, who put the spirit in her! How should I know?" "We will march again, my brothers !" King shouted, and they streamed along behind him, now with no advance guard, but with the Orakzai Tathan striding beside King's horse, with a great hand on the saddle. Like the others, he seemed decided in his mind that the hakim ought not to be allowed much chance to escape. Just as the dawn was tinting the surrounding peaks with softest rose they topped a ridge, and Khinjan lay below them across the mile-wide bone dry valley. And while they watched, and the Khinjan men were beginning to murmur (for they needed no last view of the place to satisfy any long ings!) none else than Ismail rose from behind a rock and came to King's stir rup. He tugged and King backed his horse until they stood together apart. "She sends this message," said Is mail, showing his teeth In the most peculiar grin that surely the "Hills" ever witnessed. "Many of her men. who have never been in tip army, are none the less true to her, and will not leave them to the mullah's mercy. They will leave the caves in a little while, and will come up here. They are to go down into India and be made prisoners if the sirkar will not enlist them. You are to wait for them here." "Is that all her message T King asked him. "Nay. That is none of it! This is her message: THOU SHALT KNOW THIS DAY, THOU ENGLISHMAN, WHETHER OR NOT SHE TRULY LOVED THEE ! THERE SHALL BE PROOF SUCH AS EVEN THOU SHALT UNDERSTAND!" Ismail slipped away and lost himself among the men, and none of them seemed to notice that he had been away and had come again. It was a little more than an hour after dawn and the chilled rocks were beginning to grow warmer when the head of a pro cession came out of Khinjan gate and started toward them over the valley. In all more than five- hundred men emerged and about a hundred women and children. Then: "Muhammad Anlm comes!" shouted a voice from a crag top. They snuggled Into better hiding, and there was no thought now of leav ing before the mullah should go by. It needed an effort to quiet them when the mullah rose into view at last above the rise and paused for a minute to stare across at Khinjan before lead ing his four thousand down and on ward. He was silent as an image, but his men roared like a river in flood and he made no effort to check them. He dismounted, for he had to, and tossed his reins to the nearest man ith the air of an emperor. And he led the way down the cllffslde without hesitation, striding like a mountaineer. His men followed him noisily. It was thirty minutes after the last of the mullah's men had vanished through the gate, and his own men In dozens and twenties were scattered "Thou Shalt Know This Day, Thou Englishman, Whether or Not She Truly Loves Thee." along the cliff-top arguing against de lay with growing rancor, when a lone horseman galloped out of Khinjan gate and started across the valley. He rode recklessly. He was either panic stricken or else bolder than the devil. In a minute King had recognized the mare, and so had the eyes of fifty men around him. No man with half an eye for a horse could have failed to recognize that black mare, having ever seen her once. In Another two minutes King had recognized the Ran gar's silken turban. Most of the men were staring down ward at the Rangar's head as he urped the mare up the cliff path, when the explanation of Yasminl's message came. It was only King, urged by some Intuition, who had his eyes fixed on Khinjan. There came a shock that actually swayed the hill they stood on. The mare on the path below missed her footing and fell a dozen feet, only to get up again and scramble as If n thou hand devils were behind her, the Ran gar riding her grimly, like a jockey in a race. Three more shocks followed. A great slice of Khinjan suddenly caved in with a roar, and smoke and dust burst upward through the tum bling crust. There was a pause after that, as If the waiting elements were gathering strength. For ten minutes they watched and scarcely breathed. Rewa Gunga gained the summit and, dismounting, stood by King with the reins over his arm. The mare was too blown to do anything but stand and tremble. And King was too enthralled to do anything but stare. "That is what a woman can do for a man!" said Rewa Gunga grimly. "She set a fuse and exploded all the dynamite. There were tons of it ! The galleries must have fallen in, one on the' other! A thousand men digging for a thousand years could never get Into Khinjan now, and the only way out is down Earth's Drink! She bade me come and bid you goodby, sahib. I would have stayed In there, but she commanded me. She said, 'Tell King sahib my love was true. Tell him 1 give him India and all Asia that were at my mercy !' " While the Rangar spoke there came three more earth tremors in swift suc cession, and a thunder out of Khinjan as if the very "Hills" were coming to an end. The mare grew frantic and the Rangar summoned six men to hold her. Suddenly, right over the top of Khin jan's upper rim, where only the eagles ever perched, there burst a column of water, immeasurable, huge, that for a moment blotted out the sun. It rose sheer upward, curved on itself, and fell In a million-ton deluge on to Khinjan and into Khinjan valley, hissing and roaring and thundering. Earth's Drink had been blocked by the explosion and had found a new way over the barrier before plunging down again Into the bowels of the world. The one sky-flung leap it made as Its weight burst down a mountain wall was enough to blot out Khinjan for ever, and what had been a dry, mlle wlde moat was a shallow lake with death's rack and rubbish floating on the surface. The earth rocked. King was up on his feet in a secoEd and faced about. The Rangar laughed. "So ends the 'Heart of the Hills 1' " he said. "Think kindly of her, sahib. She thought well enough of you !" He laughed again and sprang on the black mare, and before King could speak or raise a hand to stop him he was off at wondrous speed along the precipice in the direction of the Khy ber pass and India. Two of the men who had come out of Khinjan mounted and spurred after him. King collected his men and the wom en and children. It was easy, for they were numb from what they had wit nessed and dazed by fear. . In half an hour he had them mustered and marching. CHAPTER XXIII. They reached the Khyber famished and were fed at AH Masjid fort, after King had given a certain password and had whispered to the officer command ing. But he did not change Into Eu ropean clothes yet, and none of his fol lowing suspected him of being an Eng lishman. "A Rangar on a black mare has gone down the pass ahead of you in a hur ry," they told him at All Masjid. "He had two men with him and food enough. Only stopped long enough to make his business known." "What did he say his business Is?" asked King. Tie gave a sign and said a word that satisfied us on that point !" "Oh!" said King. "Can you signal down the pass?" "Surely." "Courtenay at Jamrud?" "Yes. In charge there and growing tired of doing nothing." "Signal down and ask him to have that bath ready for me that I spoke about. Goodby." So he left AH Masjid at the head of a motley procession that grew noisier and more confident every hour. Ismail began to grow more lively and to have a good many orders to fling to the rest. "You mourn like a dog," King told him. "Three howls and a whine and a Uttle sulking and then forgetful uess !" Ismail looked nasty at that but did not answer, although he seemed to have a hot word ready. And thence forward he hung his head more, and at least tried to seem bereaved. But his manner was unconvincing none the less, and King found it food for thought. The ex-soldiers and would-be soldiers marched in four behind him, growing hourly more like drilled men, and talk ing, with each stride that brought them nearer India, more as men do who have an interest In law and or der. Behind them tramped the wom en from Khinjan, carrying their ba bies and ' their husbands' loads.; and behind them again were the other women, who had been told they would be overtaken In the Khyher, but who had actually had to run themselves raw-footed in order to catcli up. Down the Khyber have come con querors, a dozen conquering kings, and as many beaten armies; but surely no stranger host than this ever trudged between the echoing walls. The very eagles screamed at them. Signals pre ceded them, and Courtenay himself rodp up the pass to greet them. At .Tnmrud they were given food and their rifles were taken away from them and a guard was set to watch them. But the g"trd only consisted of two men. both of whom wTe Pathans, and they assured them that, ridiculous though It sounded, the British were actually willing to forgive their enemies and to pardon all deserters who applied for pardon on condition of good faith in the future. That they prayed to Allah like ilttle children lost and found. The women crooned love-songs to their babies over the clear fires and the men talked and talked and talked until the stars grew big as moons to weary eyes and they slept at last, to dream of khaki uniforms and knrnel sahibs who knew neither fear nor favor and who said things that were so. It Is a mad world to the Himalayan hlllman where men In authority tell truth unadorned with out shame and without consideration a mad, mad world, and perhaps too ex otic to be wholesome, but pleasant while the dream lasts. Over in the fort Courtenay placed a bath at King's disposal and lent him clean clothes and a razor. But he was not very cordial. "Tell me all the war news!" said King, splashing In the tub. And Cour tenay told him, passing him another cake of soap when the first was fin ished. After all, there was not much to tell butchery in Belgium Huns and guns and the everlastingly glori ous stand that saved Paris and France and Europe. "According to the cables our men are going the records one better. I think that's all," said Courtenay. "Then why the stiffness?" asked King. "Why am I talked to at the end of a tube, so to speak?" "You're under arrest!" said Courte nay. "The deuce I am !" "I'm taking care of you myself to obviate the necessity of putth a sen try on guard over you." "Good. of you, I'm sure. What's it all about?" "I don't mind telling you, but I'd rather you'd wait. The minute you were sighted word was wired down to headquarters, and the general himself will be up here by train -any minute." "Very well," said King. "Got a ci gar? Got a black one? Blacker the better !" He was out of his bath and remem bered that minute that he had not smoked a cigar since leaving India. Naked, shaved, with some of the stain removed, he did not look like a man in trouble as he filled his lungs with the saltpeterish smoke of a fat.Trichlno poli. And then the general came and did not wait for King to get .dressed but burst into the bathroom and shook hands with him while he was still naked and asked ten questions (like a gatling gun) while King was getting on his trousers, divining each answer after the third word and waving the rest aside. . , "And why am I arrested, sir?" asked King the moment he could slip the question in edgewise. "Oh, yes, of course. Try the case here as well as anywhere. What does this mean?" Out of his pocket the general pro duced a letter that smelt strongly of a scent King recognized. He spread it out on a table, and. King read. It was Yasminl's letter that she had sent down the Khyber to make India too hot to hold him. "Too bad about your brother," said the general. "The body is buried. How much is true about the head?" King told him. "Where's she?" asked the general. King did not answer. The general waited. "I don't know, sir." "Ask the Rangar," Courtenay sug gested. "Where is he?" asked King. "Caught him coming down the Khy ber on his black mare and. arrested him. He's in the next room ! I hope he's to be hanged. So that I can buy the mare," he added cheerfully. King whistled softly to himself, and the general looked at him through ha If -closed eyes. "Go In and talk to him, King. Let me know the result." He had picked King to go up the Khyber on that errand not for noth ing. He knew King and he knew the symptoms. Without answering him King obeyed. He went out of the room into a dark corridor and rappt-d on the door of the next room to the right. There was a muffled answer from within. Courtenay shouted some thing to the sentry outside the door and he called another man, who fitted a key in the lock. King walked into a room in which one lamp was burn ing and the door slammed shut be hind him. He was in there an hour, and it never did transpire just what passed, for he can hold his tongue on any sub ject like a clam, and the general, if anything, can go-hlin one better. Cour tenay was placed under orders not to talk, so those who say they know ex actly what happened in the room be tween the time when the door was shut on King and the time when he knocked to have it opened and called for the general, are not telling the truth. What is known is that finally the general hurried through the door and ejaculated, "Well, I'm d d!" be fore he could close it again. The sen try (Punjabi Mussulman) has sworn to that over n dozen campfires since the day. And it is known, too, for the sentry has taken oath on it and has told the story so many times without much variation that no one who knows the man's record doubts any longer It is known that when the door opened again King and the general walked out with the Rangar between them. And the Rangar had no turban on, but carried it unwound in his hand. And his golden hair fell nearly to his knees and changed his whole appear- j anca. And he was weeping. And be .' was not a Rangar at all, but She, and how anybody can ever have mistaken her- for a man, even in man's clothes and with her skin darkened, was be yond the sentry's power to guess. He for one, etc But nobody be lieved that part of his tale. As Yussuf bin Alt said over the campfire up the Khyber later on, "When she sets out to disguise her self, she is what she will be, and he who says he thinks otherwise has two tongues and no conscience!" What is surely true is that the four of them Yasmini, the general, Cour tenay and King sat up all night in a room in the fort, talking together, while a succession of sentries over strained their ears endeavoring to hear through keyholes. And the sentries heard nothing and Invented very much. But ,Partan Singh, the Sikh, who carried In bread and cocoa to them at about five the next morning, and found them still talking, heard King say. "So. in my opinion, sir, there'll be no jihad In these parts. There'll be sporadic raids, of course, but nothing a brigade can't deal with. The heart of the holy war's torn out and thrown away." "Very well," said the general. "You can go up the Khyher again and join your regiment." But by that time the Rangar's tur-' ban was on again and the tears were dry, and it was Partan Singh who He Said He Was Nearly Sure H Heard Weeping. threw most doubt on th.t sentry's tale about the golden hair. But, as the sentry said, no doubt Partan Singh was jealous. There Is no doubt nhatever that the general went back to Peshawur in the train at eight o'clock and that the Rangar went with him in a separate compartment with atouta dozen hill men chosen from amc ng those who had come down with Kinrf. And it is certain thil before they went King had a talt il:h the Rangar in a room alone, of w ilch conversa tion, however, the seutir reported aft erward that he did uoi: overhear one word; and he had tc go to the doctor with a cold in his ear at that. He said he was nearly sure le leard weeping. But on the other ban A, those who saw both of them come oui were certain that both were sralliug. It is quite certain ;hat Athelstan King went up the Khyber again, for the official records toy so, and they never lie, especially in time of war. He rode a coal-black ma? e, and Courtenay called him "Chikkl"- a "lifter." Some say the Rangar went to DelhL Some say Yasmini is in Delhi. Some say no. But it is quite certain that be fore he started up ihe Khyber King showed Courtenay a great gold brace let that he had under hfs sleeve. Five men saw him do It. And if that was reaUr Rewa Gunga in the general's train, why was the general so painfully polite to him? And why did Ismail insist oil riding In the train. Instead of accenting King's offer to go up the Khyber with him? One thing is very c rtaln. King was right about the jihad. There has been none In spite of all Turkey's and Ger many's efforts. There have been spo radic raids, much as usual, but nothing one brigade could not: easily deal with, the press to the contrary notwithstand ing. King of the Khybtr rifles is now a major, for you can see that by turning up the army list. But If you wish to know just what transpired In the room In Jamrud Fort while the general and Courtenay wait ed, you must ask King If you dare; for only he knows, and one other. It Isnot likely you can find the other. But It Is likely that you may heat from both of them again, for "A wom an and Intrigue are cne!" as India says. The war seems long, and the world Is large, and the chances for In trigues are almost Infinite, given such combination as King and Yasmini and a love affair. And ns King says on occasion : "Kuch dar nahln hai ! There Is no such thing as fear!" Another one might say. "The roof's the limit !" And bear In mind, for this is impor tant: King wrote to Ynsmlnl a letter, In Urdu from the mullah's cave. In which he as good as gave her his word of honor to be her "loyal servant" should she choose to return to her alle giance, ne is no splitter of hairs, no qulbbler. His word Is good on the darkest night or whenever he casts s shadow In the sun. "A man and his promise a woma; and Intrigue -are one!" (THE END.) Invented Cherokett -.Mphtbet. Sequoyah, inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, was one of tie great men of the Indian race. n ras a half breed, whose English name wai George Guess. His fnth i tvas a whlti man and his mothei a ..iu-tiooJ If dian woman. V
The Roanoke Beacon and Washington County News (Plymouth, N.C.)
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March 29, 1918, edition 1
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