North Carolina Newspapers

By Talbot Mundy Copyright by the BobU-Merrill Company i Story That Combines the Thrill of Modern Detective Fiction With the Romance of Arabian Nights Tales PTER XVII Continued. 11 g looks down Into Khlnjan er the sun has risen, because pices shut it out. But the every side are very beacons ange at the earliest peep of h silence they watched day's iich the peaks with rosy jew- rs she waiting as if she ex- e marvel of It all to make Ik. cold. She came and snug to hira, and It was so they he sparkle of dawn's jewels e peaks grow gray again, she arm on his shoulder and her golden hair blown past lat are you thinking?" she at last. ia, princess." fof India?" s helpless." Kou love India?" all lore me better ! You shall etter than your life! Then, f me, you shall own the India you love! This letter shall tapped her bosom. "It is lit you off from India first. lose that you may win !" up and stood in the gap. ckingly, framed in the dark- b cave behind. Jerstand!" she said. "You are my enemy. Love and r lived side by side. You ds slipped into his, soft and r eyes fastened on his and And as they did so King a sack half-empty and top- sidewise on the floor asleep, her dreamed nor was con- anything, but slept like a having fought against her fi harder than he knew. ?n, generals, outlaws, all ir big mistakes and manage . Very nearly always It is ltly little mistake that does age in the end, something le at the time, that grows Jrical proportion, minus ln- us. made her little mistake that believing King was utterly 1 at last and utterly in her jhereas in truth he was only may be that she gave him lis sleep, after the accepted mesmerists; but if she did, reached him ; he was far leep. He slept so deep and e was not conscious of men's of being carried, nor of f anxiety, nor of anything. out to see the Cavern of Earth's Drink. The. temptation was to fling the brute after his victim. The tempta tion always is to do the wrong thing to cap wrath with wrath, injustice with vengeance. That way wars begin and are never ended. King beckoned him into the cave, and bent over the chest of medical supplies. Then, finding the light better for his purpose at the en trance, he called the man back und made him sit down on the box. The business of lancing boils Is not especially edifying in Itself; but that particular minor operation probably saved India. But for hope of it the man with the boils would never have stood two turns on guard hand run ning and let the relief sleep on; so he !Pk J CHAPTER XVIII. ng awoke he lay on a com d in a cave he had never bt there was no trace of Yas- hf the men who must have to it. lie had no idea how Id slept. It did not matter. Jrobed Khinjan caves, and i-hole purpose for which the usands had been gathering lathering still. Remained, to Jit purpose. He began at ng, where he stood. im in a corner at the back was a narrow fissure, hung tier curtain, that was doubt er into Khinjan's heart ; but iy to the outer air was along fv ilizzrins nrecinice. so Ithe huge waterfall looked 1 stream below. He was in je's aerie; the upper rim of torge seemed not more than Jf a mile above him. fe corner, ten feet from the lood a guard, armed to the ja rifle, a sword, two pistols j curved Khyber knife stuck ils girdle. As he locked, a jssion of women, led by a pp the ledge. The man was J the women were burdened fn belonging."! the medicine saddle and bridle his un pack. They came past the Ion guard and laid them all Jet just inside the cave, id, with that genial, fr.ee g smile of his that has so Id a road for him through lis. But the man In charge Jien did not grin. He was 'flp prowled at the women. lent away like obedient ant- half-way down the ledge ether orders. He himself V fUnvo tlipm. and the runrd did not pay much yt women and man pass pping one pace forward ge to make more room. , last entirely voluntary vorld. Iddenness that disarmed all he other humped himself I wall and bucked into the li's back, Bending him. d nil, hurtliDg over the the caverns Into which the ed thousands of feet away nffliin: snnt after him, and bock to where King stood. 1 me tnv boils I" he said. hi sf. doubtless from pleas- ,.- ct. ITc wns the Fnm vtouil on guard at th vhn Ismail lea King V(ALVCj rJ "Thou Liest! It was My Men Who Got the Head That Let Thee In! Else Why Are Thou Here?" would not have been on duty when the message came to carry King's belong ings to his new cave of residence. There would have been no object in killing the dumb man, and so there wouhl have been an expert with a load ed rifle to keep Muhammad Anim lurk ing down the trail. Muhammad Anim came like the devil, to scotch King's faith. He had followed the women with the loads. He stood now, like a big bear on a mountain track, swaying his head from side to side six feet away. King jumped, nearly driving the lance into a new place in his patient's neck. "Let him go!" growled Muhammad Anim. "Go, thou ! Stand guard over the women until I come!" The mullah turned a rifle this way and that in his paws, like a great bear dancing. The very Orakzai Pathan who had sat next King in the Cavern of Earth's Drink, was creeping up be hind the women and already had his rifle leveled at the man with boils. "Aye!" said the mullah, watching King's eyes. "He has done well, and the road is clear !" The man with boils offered no fight. He dropped his rifle and threw his hands up. In a moment the Orakzai Pathan was in command of two rifles, I holding King from among the women. whom he seemed to regard as his plun der too. The women appeared su premely indifferent in any event. King nodded back to him. A friend is a friend in the "nills," and rare is the man who spares his enemy. "None comes to earn a living in the 'Hills,' " growled the mullah, swaying his head slowly and devouring King with cruel calculating eyes. "Why art thou here?" "I slew a man," said King. "Thou liest I It was my men who got the head that let thee in! Speak! Why art thou here?" But King did not answer. The mul lah resumed. "He who brought mc the message yesterday says he has it from another, who had it from a third, that thou art here because she plans a simultaneous rising in India, and thou art from the Punjab where the Sikhs all wait to rise. Is that true?" "Thy man said it," answered King. "Tlu'U hear me!' said the mullah. "Listen, thou." But he did not begin to speak yet. He tried to see past King into the cave and to peer about into the shadows. "Where is she?" he askod. 'Tier man Bewa Gunga went yesterday, with three men and a letter to carry down the Khyber. But where Is she?" So he had slept the clock round! King did not answer, ne blocked the way into the cave and looked past the mullah. The Orakzai Pathan crouched among the women, and the women grinned. The mullah stared Into King's face, with the scrutiny of a trader appraising loot. Fire leaped up behind his calculating eyes. And with out a word passing between them. King knew that this man as well as Yas mini was In possession of the secret of the Sleeper. Perhaps he knew It first; perhaps she snatched the keep ing of the secret from him. At all pronts he knew it and recognized Kirts likeness to. the Sleeper, for his eyes betrayed him. He began to stroke his beard monotonously with one hand. The rifle, that he pretended to be hold ing, really leaned against his back and with the free hand he was making sig nals. King knew well he was making sig nals. But he knew too that in Yas mini's power, her prisoner, he had no chance at all of interfering with her plans. Having grounded on the bot tom of impotence, so to speak, any tide that would take him off must be a good tide. He pretended to be aware of nothing, and to be particularly un aware that the Pathan, with a rifle in each hand, was pretending to come casually up the path. In a minute he was covered by a rifle. In another minute the mullah had lashed his hands. In five minutes more the women were loaded again with his belongings and they were all half-way down the track in single file, the mullah bringing up the rear, de scending backward with rifle ready against surprise, as if he expected Yas mini and her men to pounce out any minute to the rescue. They entered a tunnel and wound along it, stepping at short intervals over the bodies of three stabbed san tries. The Tathan spurned them with his heel as he passed. In the glare at the tunnel's mouth King tripped over the body of a fourth man and fell with his chin beyond the edge of a sheer precipice. They were on a ledge above the wa terfall again, having come through a projection on the cliff's side, for Khin jan is all rat-runs and projections, like a sponge or a hornet's nest on a titanic scale. They soon reached another cave, at which the mullah stopped. It was a dark Ill-smelling hole, but he ordered King into it and the Pathan after him on guard, after first seeing the women pile all their loads inside. Then he took the women away and went off muttering to himself, swaggering, swinging his right arm as he strode, in a way few natives do. "Let tis hope he has forgotten these !" the Pathan grinned, touching the pile of rifles. "Weight for weight in silver they will bring me a fine price ! He may forget. He dreams. For a mullah he cares less for meat and money than any I ever saw. He is mad, I think. It Is my opinion Allah touched him." "What is that, under thy shirt?" King asked. The Pathan grinned, and undid the button. There was a second shirt un derneath, and to that on the left breast were pinned two British medals. "Oh, yes !" he laughed. "I served the raj ! I was In the army eleven years." "Why did you leave it?" King asked, remembering that this man loved to hear his own voice. "Oh, I had furlough. I knifed a man this side of the border. It was no af fair of the British. But I was seen, and I entered this place. It i3 a devil of a place." Now the art of ruling India consists not in treading barefooted on scorpions not in virtuous indignation at men who know no better but in seeking for and making much of the gold that lies ever amid the dross. There Is gold in the character of any man who VACCAIT "What Is Under Thy Shirt?" King Asked. once passed the grilling tests before enlistment In a British-Indian regi ment. It may need experience to lay a finger on it, but it Is surely there. "I heard," said King, "as I came to ward the Khyber in great haste (for the police were at my heels) " "Ah, the police !" the Pathan grinned pleasantly. The inference was that at some time or other he had left his mark on the police. "I heard," said King, "that the sirkar has offered pardons to all tieserters who return." "Hah ! But thou art a hakim, not a soldier!" "True!" said King. "In India I earned my salt. I obeyed the law. There is no law here in the Hills.' I am minded to go back and seek that pardon ! It would feel good to stand in the ranks again, with a stiff-backed sahib out in front of me, and the thunder of the gun-wheels go ing by. The salt was good! Come thou with me J" "The pardon is for deserters," King objected, "not for political offenders." "Haugh!" said the Fathan, bringing down his flat hand hard on the hakim's thigh. "I will attend to that for thee. I will obtain my pardon first. Then will I lead thee by the hand to the karnal sahib and lie to him and say, 'This is the one who persuaded me against my will to come back to the regiment !' " "Thou art a dreamer!" said King. "Untie my hands ; the thong cuts me." The Pathon obeyed. "Dreamer, am I? It is good to dream such dreams. By Allah, I've a mind to see that dream come true! I never slew a man on Indian soil, only In these 'Hills.' I will. go to them and say, 'Here I am! I am a deserter. I seek that pardon!' Truly I will go! Come thou with me, little hakim !" "Nay," said King. "I have another thought. You who were seen to slay a man, and I who am a political offend er, do not win pardons so easily as that. They would hang us unless we came bearing gifts." "Gifts? Has. Allah touched thee? What gifts should we bring? A dozen stolen rifles? A bag of silver? And I am the dreamer, am I?" "Nay," said King. "I am the dream er. There are others in these 'Hills' others in Khinjan who wear British medals?" The Tathan nodded. "Hundreds. Men fight first on one side, then on the other, being true to either side while the contract lasts. In all there must be the makings of many regiments among the 'Hills.' " King nodded, ne himself had seen the chieftains come to parley after the Tirah war. Most of them had worn British medals and had worn them proudly. "If we two," he said, speaking slow ly, "could speak with some of those men and stir the spirit in them and persuade them to feel as thou dost, mentioning the pardon for deserters and the probability of bonuses to the time-expired for re-enlistment; if we could march down the Khyber with a hundred such, or even with fifty or with twenty-five or with a dozen men we would receive our pardon for the sake of service rendered." "Good !" The Pathan thumped him on . the back so hard that his eyes watered. "We would have to use much cau tion," King advised him, when he was able to speak again. "Aye ! If Bull-with-a-beard got wind of it he would have us crucified. And if she heard of it" He was silent. Apparently there I were no words in his tongue that could compass his dread of her revenge. He was silent for ten minutes, and King sat still beside .him, letting memory of other days do its work memory of the long, clean regimental lines, and of order and decency and of justice hand ed out to all and sundry by gentlemen who did not think themselves too good to wear a native regiment's uniform. "In two days I could do the drill again as well as ever," he said at last. Then there was silence again for fif teen minutes more. "I could always shoot," he murmured ; "I could always shoot." When Muhammad Anim came back they had both forgotten to replace the lashing on King's wrists, but the mul lah seemed not to notice it. "Come !" he ordered, with a sidewlse jerk of his great ugly head, and then stood muttering Impatiently while they obeyed. They marched downward through interminable tunnels and along ledges poised between earth and heaven, un til they came at last to the tunnel lead ing to the one entrance into Khinjan caves. Just before they entered It two more of the mullah's men came up with them, leading horses. One horse was. for the mullah, and they helped King mount the other, showing him more respect than is usually shown a prisoner In the "Hills." Then the mullah led the way into the tunnel, and he seemed in deadly fear. The echo of the hoof-beats irritated him. He eyed each hole in the roof as if Yasmini might be expected to shoot down at him or drench him with boil ing oil and hurried past each of them at a trot, only to draw rein immediate ly afterward because the noise was. too great. It became evident that his men had been at work here too, for at intervals along the passage lay dead bodies. Yas mini must have posted the men there, but where was she? Each of them lay dead with a knife wound in his back, and the mullah's men possessed them selves of rifles and knives and car tridges, wiping off blood that had scarcely cooled yet. When they came to the end of the tunnel it was to find the door into the mosque open in front of them, and twenty mo?e of Muhammad Anita's men standing guard over the eyelash less mullah. Jhey had bound and gagged him. At a word from Muham mad Anim they loosed him; and at a threat the hairless one gave a signal that brought the great stone door slid ing forward on its oiled bronze grooves. Then, with a dozen jests iZwow fa the hairless one for consolation, nflii. an utter indifference to the sacredness of the mosque floor, they sought outer air, and Muhammad Anim led them up the Street of the Dwellings toward Khinjan's outer ramparts. They reached the outer gate without Inci dent and hurried into the great dry valley beyond it. As they rode across the valley the mullah thumbed a long string of beads. Unlike Yasmini, he was praying to one god ;. but he seemed to have many prayers. His hack was a picture of determined treachery the backs of his men were expressions of the creed that "he shall keep who can !" King rode all but last now and had a good view of their unconsciously vaunted blackguardism. There was not a hint of honor or tenderness among the lot, man, woman or mullah. Yet his heart sang within him as If he were riding to his own marriage feast! Last of all, close behind him, marched his friend, the Orakzai Pa than, and as they picked their way amonjj the bowlders across the mile wide inoat the two contrived to fall a little io the rear. The Pathan began speaking In a whisper and King, riding with lowered head as if he were study ing th dangerous track, listened. "Sh& sent her man Itewa Gunga to ward the Khyber with a message," he whispered. "He took a few men with him, and he is to send them with the message when they reach the Khyber, but he Is to come back. All he went for is to make sure the message is not Intercepted, for Bull-with-a-beard Is growing reckless these days, ne knew what was doing and said at once that she is treating with the British, but there were few who believed that. There are more who wonder where she hides while the message Is on Its way. None has seen her. Men have swarmed into the Cavern of Earth's Drink and howled for her, but she did not come. Then the mullah went to look for his ammunition that he stored and sealed in a cave. And it was gone. It was all gone. And there was no proof of who had taken it ! "Hakim, there be some who say and Bull-with-a-beard is one of them that she is afraid and hides. "nis men say he Is desperate, nis own are losing faith in him. He snatched thee to be a bait for her, hav ing it in mind that a man whom she hides in her private part of Khinjan must be of great value to her. He has sworn to have thee skinned alive on a hot rock should she fail to come to terms !" CHAPTER XIX. The march went on in single file un til the sun died down in splendid fury. Then there began to be a wind that they had to lean against, but the wom en were allowed no rest. At last at a place where the trail be gan to widen, the mullah beckoned King to ride beside him. It was not that he wished to be communicative, but there were things King knew that he did not know, and he had his own way of asking questions. "D hakim!" he growled, "Pill man I Poultleer I That is a sweeper's trade of thine I Thou shalt apply it at my camp! I have some wounded and some sick." King did not -answer, but buttoned his coat closer against the keen wind. The mullah mistook the shudder for one of another kind. "Did she choose thee only for thy face?" he asked. "Did she not con sider thy courage? Does she love thee well enough to ransom thee?" Again King did not answer, but he watched the mullah's face keenly in the dark and missed nothing of its ex pression. He decided the man was in doubt even racked by indecision. "Should she not ransom thee, hakim, thou shalt have a chance to show my men how a man out of India can die ! By and by I will lend thee a messenger to send to her. Better make the mes sage clear and urgent! Thou shalt state my terms to her and plead thine own cause In the same letter. My camp lies yonder." He motioned with one sweep of his arm toward a valley that lay in shadow far below them. As they approached it the rock clove in two and became two great pillars, with a man on each. And between the pillars they looked down Into a valley lit by fires that burned before a thousand hide tents, with shadows by the hundred flitting back and forth between, then:. A dull roar, like the voice of an army, rose out of the gorge. "More than four thousand men!" said the mullah proudly. "What are four thousand for a raid into India?" sneered King, greatly daring. "Wait and see I" growled the mullah ; but he seemed depressed. He led the way downward, getting off his horse and giving the reins to a man. King copied him, and partway sliding, part stumbling down they I found their way along the dry bed of a water-course between two spurs of a hillside, until they stoid at last in the midst of a cluster of a dozen sentries, close to a tamarisk to which a man's body hung spiked. That the man had been spiked to it alive was suggested by the body's attitude. Without a word to tho sentries the mullah led on down a lane through the mido'. oS '.he camp, toward a great open cave ut the far sldf, in which a bonfire cast fitful Hght :?d shadow. Watchers sitting by the thouscaa "rents yawned at them, but took no particular notice. The mouth of the cave was like a lion's, fringed with teeth. There were men in it, ten or eleven of them, all armed, squatting round the fire. "Get out!" growled the mullah. But they did not obey. They sat and stared at him. "Have ye tents?" the mullah askedr In a voice like thunder. "Aye !" But they did not go yet. One of the men, he nearest the mul lah, got on his feet, but he had to step back a pace, for the mullah would not give ground and their breath was in each other's faces. "Where are the bombs? And the rifles? And the many cartridges?" he demanded. "We have waited long, Mu hammad Anim. Where are they now?" The others got up, to lend the first man encouragement. They leaned on rifles and surrounded the mullah, so that King could only get a glimpse of him between them. They seemed In no mood to be treated cavalierly In no mood to be argued with. And the mul lah did not argue. "Ye dogs !" he growled at them, and he strode through -them to the fire and chose himself a good, thick burning brand. "Ye sons of nameless mothers I" Then he charged them suddenly, beating them over head and face and shoulders, driving them in front of him, utterly reckless of their rifles. "So Thou Art to Ape the Sleeper in His Bronze Mail, Eh!" nis own rifle lay on the ground behind him, and King kicked its stock clear of the fire. "Oh, I thall pray for you this night V Muhammad Anim snarled. "What a curse I shall beg for you! Oh, what a burning of the bowels ye shall have I What a sickness ! What running of the eyes ! What sores ! What bolls ! What sleepless nights and faithless women shall be yours ! What a prayer I will pray to Allah !" They scattered Into outer gloom. De fore his rage, and then came back to kneel to him and beg him withdraw his curse. He kicked them as they knelt and drove them away again. Then, silhouetted in the cave mouth, with the glow of the fire before him, he stood with folded arms and dared them shoot. After five minutes of angry contem plation of the camp he turned on a contemptuous heel and came back to the fire, throwing on more fue from a great pile In a corner. There was an iron pot in the embers. He seized a stick and stirred the contents furious ly, then set the pot between his knees and ate like an animal. He passed the pot to King when he had finished, but Angers had passed too many times through what was left In it and the very thought of eating the mess made his gorge rise; so King thanked him and set the pot aside. Then, "That is thy place !" Muham mad Anim growled, pointing over his shoulder to a ledge of rock, like a shelf in the far wall. But though he was al lowed to climb up and lie down, he was not allowed to sleep nor did he want to sleep for more than an hour to come. The mullah came over from the fir again and stood beside him, glaring like a great animal and grumbling in his beard. "Does she surely love thee?" he asked at last, and King nodded, be cause he knew he was on the trail of information. "So thou art to ape the Sleeper ia his bronze mall, eh? Thui art to eom to life, as she was said to come to liff, and the two of you are to plunder India? Is that it V" (TO EE CONTINUED.!