Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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' -VaS Jy !L, BARNWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA T 31 i •• : /•' r /- By TALBOT MUNDY Picturesque Romance of the Decade t- Copyright by Tha Bobba-Merrill Company :ends to the ‘tfenr^of the Hills’ !■” after that Klim had to do his best to keep the ‘Afrrdl's berk In sight They began after a time t«. hear ’voices and to see the stnoky, glare made "AffffTTeWer wnid flurry truo w of KING IS LED TO VISIT AVAST* CAVE THROUGH WHICH AN UNDERGROUND.'RIVER FLOWS, AND IN A GREAT ■ CAVERN MEETS THOUSANDS OF FANATICS ~ ! Synopsis.—At^ the beginning of tim world war Capt. Athelstan King of the British Indian-army and of its secret service, is ordered to-I)elh! to meet Yasipinl, a dancer, and go with' her to Kinjan to. meet the outlaws thtre who are said by spies to be preparing f<ir ai Jihad or holy war. On his way to Delhi King quietly foils plai to assassinate him and gets evidenMjhat Yasmlnl is after him He inee|;a 4 ft rwa-G tm ghrTTi Smftil’s' man,""who s«^\x she has already .gone i and at her town house witnesses queer dances. Ismail, an Afrldi, fi’e- r- corfies his body servant and protector. He rescues smne of Yasmini’s hlllmen ami takes them north with him, tricking^the Itangar Into going, ahead. The Hangar deserts him at a dangerous'time. He meets his - brother at All Masjid. fort. The disguise he assumed there fools even the 'sharp-eyed cutthroats composing his guard. He,inters Khinjan •eaves, thanks to his lying guides. the cave—she, the woman of the fuded photograph the general had given him In .Peshawilr—aftd that the cave be came filled :1th ithe strange intoxicat ing ‘scent that bad first ivooed his- senses in her reception room in Delhi. lie dreamed that she called * lm by name. First, “King sahib!” Then ‘‘Kurram Khan!" Anri he-r Mce was. surprisingly familiar. But dreams are strange things.” . . ' “He sleeps!” said the same voice presently. “It is good that he sleeps!” t>ace yet faster, and| they became the laid two of a procession of turbanea men, who tramped along a winding tunnel into a - crept mountain’s Vomb. The sound or slippers clicking and Hitching on the rock floor swelled and died and swelled again as the tunnel ted from cnveVn Into cavern, i - t In one • great, cave they came to every mah beat out his torch and tossed It on a heap. After that there was a ledge above the height Yff a dog’s. So King stot>i»ed at the entrance ® head on either side of the tun- and saw then a blood-soaked bandage nP> - sb>ng the Jedge little oli-burn- on the right of his npek. not Very far *$* aft measured from tti.' /igular. < “Haft !” '&ld King. “Was’that Wound got tn tfle lOjyber the other day?” ’ “Nay. He»x?'ln Khinjan.” . A man tpttl me last night,” sijld by other torches; ■ Then -Ismail set the j drew 1 -KThg- down-totb "the cnnppSfl spue? besld^ Map, dose enough to the arena to be able to catah the guards’ low laughter. But ha was restless. H* . intervals. S, quarter of n mile farther Hiring „th5ere were two sharp turns In the ttfnnel, and then at last a sea of jailse and n veritable bluze*nf light. Hart of the” noise mnde King feel King, drawing-on imagination without ! homesick, for but of thfe mountain’s any compunction aj pll; “that the fight in .the KhybeV -was because a-Jihad Is launched already.” “Thiit trinn: lip'll!’* s That man lied!” said the guard. CHAPTER XI.—Continued. “ , —7— i “Are there devils In Tophet? Fife and my vcins-ere'oneT 7 The man did hot notice the eager ness beaming out of King’s horn rimmed spectacles, but Ismail did; it seemed to him time to, prove his vir tues as assistant. “This is the famous hakim Kurram Khan,”- he boasted. “He -cap/bure any thing, and for a very littl^fee!” % , The man looked incredulous, but King drew the cpvejtfhg from his row <*t instruments and bottles. “Take a chance!” he advised. “None but (the bravg'wins anything!” Ismail and Daryu Khan werenbw to the buspless and enthusiastic. They bad the man down, held tight on the floi>/ to the huge amusement, of the jest, before he could even protest ;^and his howls of rage did him no good, for Istnalf drove the hilt of a knife be- them back into their fort! A} slew many!” “Not a JIhnd yet?” King asked, as If the world might he-comkng-4o-tt«-end. I'he words were startled out of-Mm. Tinker other’ circumstances he would never hav$ asked that question so di rectly;'hut he had lost reckoning of | everything but these poor devils’ dread ful need of doctoring, and he was like a man roused out of a dream. If a . holy war'had been proclaimed already, I i lien he was engaypd on a forlofn hope. But the man laugheC at him. i “Nay. not ,yot. Butl-with-u-beard holds hack yet. This was a little fight. ) Thejihad shall come later !” i “And *who_Js. ‘Rull-wlth-n-benrd’?’’ King worujered; but lie did hot ask tliat question because his wits were ' awake again. Tt pl^rwjiot to,be In too muchiOf a hurry t ode now tilings in the “Ililis.” As it happened, he asked noimore And In his sleep he thought that a : shifting position uneasily, as if twe^n his open jaws to keep them open, questions, for there came a shout at „ A very large proportii*BL_of King’s.; the Cjtve entrance wh*o*e purport—hr- stores consisted of morphia, and co-1 did not Catch. and within five minutes <*aine. Ho- injected enough cocaine to after that, without a word of explana- deadeu the maMs nerves, and allowed tion, the (cave was lofbbmMy of nil ex it time to wprk. Then he drew out i cept Ms-own fiveNqien. They carried three back teeth in quick succession, ja way the men too slide to jwalk and to make^sure he had the right one. J vanished, snatching the lastjjnan away Ismail let the victim up. and Darya almost ■'before King’s fingers'had fin- Khaf) gave him-water in a brass cup. (shed tyipg the bandage on .his. wound, Terly without puin for the first time **\vhy ls ( hnt?” he asked Ismail, for days, the'nuin was as grateful us .. W hy did thi.-y go? Who shouted?” a wolf freed from u trap. ^ j **i t ls night,” Ismail answered. “It V “Are there any others in pain in Khinjan?” King asked him., - “Listen to him! What is Khinjan? is there one man without a wound or n sore or n scar or a sickness?” “Then, tell them,” said King. T1 ie man laughed. “When I show my jqw, there will he a fight to lie first.! Make ready, hakim! I go!” was time.”,-— King stared about him. Tie had not realized uufll then, that without aid o* i lie lamps lie coulij not see his own hand held out In front of him ; his eyes had grown used to the gloom, like to talk too much. “So I told hfm!” answered King. “I told him there hever will be linpther Jihad.” - “Then thou art in gr on ter. liar than he!” the guard answered hotly. “There will he a jihad when she Is ready, such an one iis never yet was! India shall bleed for nil the fat years she has lain unplundered ! Not a throat of un 'lim believer in tlip. world shall he left un slit! No jihad? Thou liar! (Jet in out of my sight!” So xKing retired info The cave, with something new to think about. Was /he planning the jihad ! Or pretending to plan one? ]3very once in a.while the guard fenned far into the cave mouth and hurled adjectives at him. the mildest of svhieh. was n well of In formation. If his teniper was the te\h- per of the “Hills,” it was easy to read disappointment for a jihtvd that sfcoufd have been already hut had been post- jtoned. King let him alone and paced the cave for hours. He was squatting on Ms bed-end In thp darkM|ke a spectacled Image of Buddha, when Hjie first of the three pien came on gmu^L again and at lapt Isthall came for himTnilding a pitchy torch that .filled the dinKmissage. full of acrid smoke and made both of them cough. Ismail was red-eyed with It. “Come!” he growled. “Come, little hakim 1” - Then-he turned'on his heel at once, ns if afraid of being twitted with desertion. He seemed to want to get outside, where he could keep out of range of words,' yet pot to wish to seem unfriendly. But King m'nde no effort to speak to him, following In-Silence out on to the dark ledge above.the waterfall and no ticing that the guard with the boil3 was back ngaiq on duty. He grinned evilly out of a shadow as King passed. “Make an end !” he advised. “Xamp, hakim, before-a worse thing happens !” To illustrate the suggestion he kicked a loose stone over the cliff, and the movement caused him to bend his shadowy Ismail gruntrd an answer. ; When lie nwoke^at lust It was after j dawn, and light shone down the pas sage into the cave. / “Ismail!” he shouted, for he was thirsty.. But there*, was no answer. “Darya Khan!” I ' “ v< • Again there was no answer. He called each of the othef men by name With tlie same result. He decided to go to the cave mouth, summon his men, who were no doubt sleeping. But there was ( no Ismail Tiear the entrance—no ya Khan—nor any of the other menSsThe horse was gone. So was the >‘mule. Sw was the harness, and every thing he lithl. except the drugs and in struments aruKthe presents the sk?k lind given hlm^Nm had.'noticed all those lying abouf inCupfuRlo’i when he woke. • ‘ “Ismail!” he shouted tjie top of his lungs, thinking they might all be outside. f ? ' / -— He heard n man hawk and spit, close to the entrance, and went out to see. A man whom he had neveY seen beMre leaned on a tnngttzjne rifle and eyed him as a tiger eyes Ms prey, r “N<> farther!" he growled, bringing hls rifle-to tlio port. ’ “Why not?" King asked him. “Allah! When a camel dies lq the Khyber do the kites ask why? Go in !" He thought then of Yasmini’s hrace- let, that had. always gained him at least civility from every man who saw it. He held up his left wrist and knew that ihSthut why It felt uncomfortable. The bracelet had disappeared! He turned bhek Into the cave to hunt for it, nndi the strange scent greeted him again. In spite of the surround ing stench of drugs and filthy wounds, there was no mistaking it. IJ it had been her-special.-scent In /Delhi, ns Saunders swore It was, and her special scent on the note Darya Khan had enr- riod-down the Khyber, then It wnk hers now, and she had been in the cave. He huntep. high and low and found po bracelet. Ills pistol was gone, too, and his cartridges, hut not the dagger, neck ami so Inadvertently to hurt his ___ v itnll the jeers of Shoving, kkklqg and elbowing witfc . set purpose, Ismail forced a wajf^ thVough The already seated crowd and very Womb brayed a music-box. such -hs the old-time curotisnls mttde^use of before the days pf electricity and st on it). It w;as being worked by lnex- hnnds < fr>r the time wsa some.-, thing jerky; but it was robbed of Its tinny meanness and even lent majesty by the hugeness of n cavern’s roof, as well as by the crashing, swinging music i, it playedy-wild—wonderful—Invented for lawless hours find a klngless peo- ! p ie v .' - -it-"' • • ■ “Marchpns!—Gltoyens!—" r: The procession begun to tramp In i Mine to.it, and the rock shook. They deployed to left and right Into a space 'III wrapped In a handkerchief, under his King'sat down’to eat, hut he had not finished his meal—he had made the last little lu»np of rice into a ball with his fingersf native style, and was Kjl ig nsked him. trying a new line ping up the last of the curried gravy those of the surgeons in the sick-bays shirt> Thp mon ey. that his patients below the waterline in Nelson’s tleet. “Rut who shouted?" "Who knows? There is onfy one here who gives ordcr.s. We be many who obey.” said Ismail. “Wtv>se men were the last ones?” f* twlib It—when ilie udvorree guard ot the lame'and the halt: and the sick" made its appearance. The cave’s en- trance heeatne janimcd with them, and no. riot ever made more noise. , “Hakim! Ho. Irak tin! Where is the hakim who draws teeth? , Where is the man who knows ymuini?" - ^ Ten men hurst down the\passa&e all itogethe£.._a.ll clainoring, and one'Tuan ^wasted no time at all hut l>egmrto tear away bloody bandages to show .his wound. King rolled up his sleeve^ abd began, so that eagerness gave place to wonder. The desperate need of winning bis first trick, made him horror-proof; and nobody waiting for the next turn was troubled because Jhe man under the -knife screamed a little or hied mdtv'than usual. * Wheu they died—and more tTian.one did die—men carried them ..out _an.^ flung them over the precipice intb the waterfall below. . ; Ismail and Darya Khan became choosers of the victims. They seized a man, laid hfiii on the bed, tore off hl^ disgusting bandages and held Uielr hreatli until the awful resulting stench had more oq less dispersed. Then King would probe or, label* or bandage as he saw tit, usingfam ? sthetics when he must, but managing mostly without them. ' ‘ ^ . / ’ They almost flung money at Mm. He tossed money and. clothes .bnd every other thing tlieyj;ave hipi into a corner, at the hack of thq .ctive, and nobody tried to steal them' back, .although a man suspected of hdnesty in that company would have been tortured to ifefith as an heretic ancf would have had ho sympathy. For houn a^ter gruesome hour he toiled over wounds and sofes such as only battles and evil! living can pro ducer until men began 1 to cdbie at. last with fresh wounds, all-caused by bul lets, wrapped In bandages on which the Mood he^ caked but had not grown . b." ! ’ • V “There has been fighting In the Khy- ' ber,” somebod3’ informed him, and he stopped with lancet In midair to listeo, -'^canning a hundred faces swiftly In the smoky lamplight. There were ten menTwho held lamps for him, one of them a newcomer, and it w4s he H who spoke. , t ~ X. “Fighting In ,fMb Khyber \ were • little lashkar, but ^-M ' “Bull-wit 11 -i i - beard's,”. ; “And whoge man art thotrrIsmtitIT* The Afridi hesFtated, and when he spoke ut last there was not qnite the had’ brought him, lay on the floor un touched. It was an unusual robber who "A had robbed him. ~ - r , “Who’s ‘Bull-witb-a-beard w ?” fie wmn- dered. “Nobody interfen*d with| me un- I ttl I doctored his ihertr He’s fn 'oppo- ! sition. ThiU’s a fiiir guess. Now, who rtn thunder—by the fat hml Harry— ^"can ‘Buil-with-a-henrd’ he? And why fighting in the Khyber so early as all this? And why does ‘Bull-with-a-beard,’ whoever he is, hang back?” u & * i Md Dalton VAcFNT'AL- wlshed to get nearer yet, onlv them , seemed no room any where Jrpfjjonfc . _ Then a guard threw his shield down with a clang and deliberately fifed his rifle at the roof. The rlcochettlng bal let brought down a shower Of splint- ' ered stone nbd stalactite, and be grinned as he Watched the crowd dodge to uvold It, - , ~ — Instantly a hundred men rose from different directions and raced for the arena, each with a curved sword in either hand. Thb yelling changed back Into the olrant, only louder than before, and by that ranch' more terrible. Cym bals crashed. The must/* box resumed Its measured grinding of the “Marseil laise.” And the hundred . began ' an~> Afrldi sword dance, than which there is nothing wilder In all the world. Its like can only be seen-under the shadow of the “Hills” of hades let.loose—drawn by It, as by a magnet,C although subsequent >events proved him not to have b^en altogether without a plan. He got up, with hla eyes fixed on the dance^-and thrust*' himself and King next to some Orak- zai Nathans, elbowing savagely to right and left to make room. .And patience provejJ__acnrce.. The nearest man reached^^for the ever-ready Pathan tnlfe, but paused In the Instant that his knife licked clear.; From a swift side glance at King’s face he changed to a full stare, his scowl slowly giv ing place tQ a grin as he recognized < him.' - • ' . “Allnh!” He drove the long blade back again. “Well met, hakim! See—the wound heals finely!” Baring his shoulder under the smelly sheepskin coat, he lifted a bandage gingerly to show the clean opening out of which King had coaxed a^bullet the day before. It looked wholesome and ready to heal. Name thy reward,, hakim! We Orakzal Pathnns forget no favors!" , (Now that boast was a true one.)* King, nodded more to himself than to the other man. He needed, for In stance, very much to know who was planning a Jihad, and who “Bull-wlth- a-beard” might be; hut It was not safe to confide Just yet in a chanee-made ac quaintance. A very fair acquaintance with some phases of the East had taught him that names such as Bull- are o.tcn almost *»>*oto- He rose u> i If ,. • -4 1 - * / / \ A Bt-A Lfo*' VA'U/MriAJ t Las 1 Ayej We we-drovr A Man Wh(ta He Had^Nev^r Seen Be- - fore Leaned on 'a -Magazine Rifle and Eyed Him^ao a Tiger Eyes Its Prey. 4 . sahee assurance Id there ha<l been. Is voice as onct£ “i am hens! Be thou hers, ti)o T t T Rut toll to- it is night. Sleep against th morrow. There be many sick in .Khin- jan.” .. ' \ I King made a little effort Jaiclonn the have, hut the task was hopeless. For one thing he was so weary that his very bones vie re water. He appointed two-hour watches, to relieve one''an other until dawn, and flung hljdself on a clean bed. H^as asleep before his.head had met the pillow; and for all he knew to the contrary he dreamed of Yasmlnl all night long,, ' It seemed to him that abe came into CHAPTER XII. «• „ They opme and changed the guard two hours after dawn, to the accom paniment of orders growled through the mist, and the crash .of rifle-butts grounding on the rock path. King jvont to the cave entrance, to look the new man over 1 ; he,_-\vfis a Mahsudi—no sweeter tor look at and no less trejueher,- ous for the fact. Also, that he had boils aft over the hack of’his neck. lie was not- likely to )ie better tempered beeau^o of -that fnet. enher. Rut it Is an ill wind jthat blows no good to the secret service, “There is’an end to everything,” he remarked presently," addressing- the world tit large, or-tis much'’its lie could see of It through the cave mouth. “A. hill is so high, a pool so deep, a river so wide. There is an end to pain !*’ he went on, adjusting his)Jiorn-rimmed spectacles. “I. lanced a man’s boils, hist night, and if hurt him, but he must be well today.” “Go in!” growled the guard. “She snjVlf is sorcery! She says none<tre to let thee touch them !” “I can heal bods!” said King, retir ing into the cave. Then, from a safe distance down the passage, h^added a word or two to s|nk in as the hours went by. At intervals throughout die day Yasrhinl sent him food by sileDt messengers. It is not easy to. worry and eat heartily at one and the same tiine.- Having eaten, he rolled up his sleeves and- native-made, 'cotton trou- s and • proct*c(Ted to chain the cave. Afte^thut he overhauTetldds stock of drugs amT-lpstrunients. repacktng them and niakiqg ready against opportunity^ “As I told th^iM^athen with a gun out there, there’s an ^nd to ■every thing l^-he reflected. “May this come soon!” ^ fc. s The second guard that afternoon proved -even less communicative than the first, up to the potnF'when, to les sen his ennui. King began to whistle. Kach time he came near the entrance the new guard could catch a few bars of the tune. After a little while the hook-nosed ruffian began to. sing th^ words to it, In a voice like a forgotten : -4 l>oils. He cursed, and there was pity In Ktng’s voice when he spoke next. “Do they hurt thee?” , “Aye, like the devil! Khinjan ls a place of plague?!” “I could heal them,” Klqg said, pass ing on, and thejuan, stared hard. “Cornel” boomed Ismail through the darkne?s,..j8haking the torch to make -H-burn*hetter and beektm-ing impatient ly, and King hurried after him, leaving behind a savage at the cave mouth who fingered his sores and wondered, mut tering, leaning on a* rifle, muttering and muttering again as if he had seeu a new light. Instead of waiting for King to catch up, Ismail began to lead the way at great speed along a path that descend ed gradually until It curved round the end of the chrism and plunged Irfto a tunnel where the da/kne.ss grew .opaque. For thirty minutes he led swiftly down a crazy devil’s stairway of'uneven bowlders, stopping to lend if hand at the worst places: hut ever- laslingly urging him to hurry. Then the helLxuouth ghiom began to grow faintlyJuminous.-’irml tlie \vat<‘r- fall’s thunder burst og their eass-frum ' lose at hand. They emerged into fresh wet air and a sea of sound, on a rack-ledgeilike' the one above. Ismail* raised-4hqj torch and .wave- it: The fire and smoke wandered up, until they flattened oU a' niovlng opal dome, that prisoned all the noise? in-the world. “Earth's Drink !” he announced, wav ing the torch and then shutting liis mouth tight, as if afraid to-voice sacri- lege. ; ; •- . . f It was the-river, million-colored' in the torchlight,/pouriigf from a half- miledOngj f slash iff the* cliff above them •and plunging past them through tlie gloom toward the very middle of the world; Somewhere it met rock bottom, and boiled there, for a roar like the sea’s came Up from deeps unimagin able. ' ; ' f ■ • He watched the overturning dome until his senses reeled... .Then, he. crawled <in blinds; and knees to the dedge’+Khrinii- and tried to peer • over. But IsrnalPdragged him hack. ” 1 “Conte!” he howled-; 1 but in all that din- his shout was like b whisperT ‘ - ^“IIow deep is it?’’ King bellowed back.. - “AUah! Ask him who made It !’ r The fear of the falls was op the Afridi, and he tugged at King’s arm In a frenzy of hnpcciefire. let! go and broke Into b rfiu. King trotted after him. A^fter ten minutes’, hurrying uphill he guessed they must be level with the river,'in a tunnel run? ning nearly parallel. Ismail kept look ing back to bid King hurry and never paused once to rest - *-* - “Gomel” he urged fiercely. “This wlth-n.-l^eurd graphically desertptiv?. “Come! M He Urged Fiercely. “This Leads to the 'Heart of the Hills!*** so vast that the eye at first refused to try to measure It. It was the hollow core of a mountain, film! by the sea sound of a human crowd and hung with huge stalactites that danced and shift ed and flung hack a thousand colors at the flickering light below. Across the cavern’s farther end for a space of two hundred ‘yards the great river rushed, plunging out of a great fanged gap and hurrying out of view down another one, licking smooth banks on its way with a hungcy-KHcklng sound. There were little lamps everywhere, perched on ledges amid the stplnctltes, and they suffused the whole cavern in golden glow. In the midst of the cav ern a great nrenh had/been left hare, and thousands of turbaned men squat ted Mind it in rings. At the end where the river formed a tangent to them the rings were flattened, and at that point they were cut into by the ramp of a bridge, and by a lane left to .connect tht* bridge wit h the arena. The* bridge (Mid formed'a nearly square platform-, about fourteen feet above the floor, ati(l tlie broad track thence : to the arena, as well as all the arena's boundary, had been marked off by great earthenware lamps, whose greasy" smoke streaked uu and \vns lost by tbfe *Wind among the stalactites. .“Greek lampA. efrry one of ’em!” King whispered 'to himself, but he whsted po tii'pe just then oq, trying to explain how Greek lamps had 'ever got there. There was too much else to watch and wonder at * * .No steps lbd down from the brldgt end to the floor;-toward the- arena it was blind. Jput from the bridge’s far ther erfd across ,tIWt nt&riyipg water stajrs badTl*en hewIT~dut\of the rock ’wall and 1**4’up to a hole of twice a man’s height, more than fifty feet above, water level. On either side of the bridge end passage had been left clear tq the river edge, and nobody seemed to care > t ■ - ... - - to invade It, although It was not marked off !*I any wav. Ijlach passage wa^ .about fifty, feet wide and quite straight. But the space between the bridge .end and the arena, and tin iir jna itself, had to he kept, free from j trespassers by fifty—swaggering ruf fians, urined.to the teeth.. ^ feet to look-.- A blind man can tnlk, but It takes trained eyes to gather Informa tion. \ The din had Increased, and It wa* safe to stand up und stare, because all eyes were on the«mudness In the mid dle. There were plenty besides kim- self who stood to get a better view, and he had to dodge from side to side to see between them. . “~ “I’m not to doctor d)ls men. There fore it’s a fair guess that he and I are hr be kept apart. Therefore he'll .he as fur away from me now as possible, supposing he’s here.” Reasoning along that line, he tried to see the faces on the far side, but the problem was to see over the dancers’ heads. He succeeded presently, for the Orakzal Pathan saw what he want ed, and In his anxiety to be agreeable, reached forward to pull back a box from between the ranks In front. Its owners offered instant fight, hut" made- no further objection, when they saw who wonted It and why. King won*' dered at their sudden change of iplnd. Ho found a man soon who was not interested In the dancing, hut who had eyes and ears apparently for Every thing and everybody else. He.watched him for ten minutes, until at last thelv eyes met. Th<$n he sat down and kicked t^.e boxEnek to Its owners. the Pnthnn’s broad shoulder. Every man of the thousands there had-a knife' in evidence, hut the arena guards had magazine rifles as well as Khyber tulwars. Jfohody .ejse , *wore firearms openly. Syme of the arenfr-H' guards bore huge round shields of pre historic pattern of a size and sort he had never seen before, even in mu- Snd(|euly ke-j-seums. But there was very little that he was seeing that night of . kind had seen before anywhere! * The guards lolled lnsMpo|ly, con scious ot brute strengthiand special favor. Whefc ahvjHiu trespassed with so much ns jy-Toe beyond the ring of touched The-maii smiled and bent Ms*turbaned head to listen. “Opposite,” said Kin&, “nearly ex actly opposite—three rows from the front, counting the front row as one— there’sits, a man with a black beard, whose shoulders are like a -bull’s. AM he sits l)e hangs his head'between them. Look!. . See! Tell me truly what his name is i”. ^ The Pathan got up and strode for ward to stand on the box, kicking aside the elbows that leaned on It and laugh ing - hen the ownejs cursed him. H« stood on It and stared for five minutes counting deliberately three times over, striking a finger oti the palm- df hl« hand to check himself. “Bull-with-a-beard!” he announced at last, dropping hack Into place beside, Iviiifi}.- “Muhammqd Anim. The mullah, Muhhmmad Anlm.‘V . ^ x “Afja Afghan?’’ King asked. “He says he- Is an Afghan. But un less he lies htr-Ts from Ishtambom (CohstautipopVe).” Iuhiitg to. ask more questions. King -3-the ha kin Kurram Khan—blinked mildly behind his spectacles and looked like one to whom a savage might Safe ly ease his mind. v “He" bade me go to Sikaram where my village Is and hrlng Mm a hundred men for his lashkar. He says he hat her special favor. Walt and watch, 1 say!” ' . . j ... Has-he money?” asked King, apper entlf drawing a how at aj venture fo» conversation^ Nake. Beg there is an art lri aakifur artless question* - J- * r t: r\ . Ismps. unt v l [rd would slap his rifle-butt swivel rattled, and the of- King wltnesaee wilj doings In the cavern and eeee harrowing sights. Yasmlnl appears, a ly vision, and the army of \ ere go wUd with (TO BK CONTINUKXXi &