Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PAGE TWO «■ - ;/ BARNWELL SENTINEL, BARNWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA ■ - A.jL S' i v V:. "r S3- i • i - 1 A Romance 'venture By TALBOT MU1 Copyright by the Bobb*-MerriU'£ompany Ynsminl shouted In his ear;'for the jAlin, mingling with the'rlveris voice, mude a Volcano chord. "They,.will lay waste India! They-Avill .butcher and, .trail* bade "over her shoulder her^eyes. plunder and burn! 'Tt will lj»e wjiat t^ey lyuvc of India that wX shall build anew arid govern, fof. fhdta herself will rise To Kelp them lay hejr own**cities waste] It is-always so! Conquests always are so! Gome! stool of the throne, and even pitied her>' She felf,Jhe pity. As she tossed the glowed with^another meaning—danger ous—tike a tiger s glare, "You pity me? You 'think* bec;ni'> I love you, you can fetal my ‘love on a plate to the Indian government? You think my love is a weapon to list 1 She tugged gt ilinTfliuTIe<TliiTih~h^t^ <*igains.t me? Your Ipve for me mqy along the tuque! and. through ■ other wait for a better time? You are not, tunnels to the throne room, where she so wise us I thought you, Atheistan!" made him sit at her feet-/again. The [] Hut heS^new he had won. His heart food had been cleared away in their tvras singing dow n inside/him as i] hud absence. Instead, on the ebony table .there were pens and ink and paper. ■*. CHAPTER XVI—Continued. bombs! Dynamic? bombs have been —10— coining into Kfdnjnn month by month "Listeri, while 1 tell you ail from the these three years! Bombs and Titles beginning! The slrkar* sent me to dis- and paft ridges! Muhammad Anim’s cover what may be this ‘IleaH of the inpif whom he trusts because he must, Hills’ men talk about. I found thetfe. caves—and this! I told the slrkunX little about the caves, und notbttvg-at _all about the sleepers. But even-at that they only believed the third of . what I said. And I—back in Delhi I bought books. When I had read enough I came back here to think. I knew enough now to be sure that the sleeper 1 . is a Koninn and the ‘Heart of the Hills’ a Grecian maid. She Is like me. That is why I know she drove him hammad Anim gets the word from Qer- to make an empire, choosing for a be- ! many and gives.the sign, and the ‘Hills’ hid It all In a cave I showed them, that they tniuk, ano he thinks, has only one entrance to It. Muhammad Anim sealed It, and he has the key. ’ But I have the ammunition ! * * “There was another way out of that cave, although then? is none, now;, for I have blocked It. My men, whom I trust because I know them, carried ev erything out by the hack way, and 1 have It Till. We, my warrior, when Mu ginning these ‘Hills’ where Borne had never penetrated. I have seen It ull in dreams. And because I was all alone, I saw that I would need skill and much patience. So I began to leurn. “Times I would go to Delhi and. dance there u little, and a little in other pluces—on'ce indeed before a viceroy, and once for the king of Eng land. And all the While I kept look ing for the rnun—the man who should be like the sleeper, even as I am like her whom he loved! There was none like the sleeper until you came. And when the world war broke—for It Is a world war, a world war, I tell you L— I thought ut last that I must manage all alone. And then you came! “But there were many I tried—many -—especially after I abandoned the thought that the man must resemble the Sleeper, There was a prince of Germany who came to India on a hunt ing trip. You remember?” „ King pricked his ears and allowed himself to grin, for In common with many hundred othei} men who had been lieutenants at the time, he would once have given un ear and an eye to know the ♦xuth of that affair. The grin transferred his whole appearance, nntll Yasmlnt beamed on him. “I’m listening, princess!" he remind ed her. “Well—he came—the prince of Ger many. I offered him India first, then Asia, then the world-^ven as I now offer them to you. The slrkar sent him to see me dance, and he stayed to * When I saw at last that ... nas the head and heart of a hyena 1 spat In his face and threw food at him. “He complained to the slrkar ngalnst me, so I told the slrkar some—not mach. Indeed, hot enough—of the things he and bis officers had told me. And the slrkar said at once that there was both cholera and bubonic plague, and he must go home! Ills officers laughed behind his bark. Ever since that time there have always been Ger mans In communication with, me, and I have not once been In the dark about Germany’s plans—although they lytve always thought I am In the dark. “I went on looking for my man. There came that old Bull-wlth-a-beard, Muhammad Anim. He thinks he Is the •The Old Qode Who Built These Caves . In the ‘Hills* Are Laughing I They Are Getting Ready 1 Thou and I—* man, having more strength to hope and more will to will wrongly- than any man I ever met, except a German. I have even been sure sometimes that Muhammad Anim is a German; yet now I am not sure. “From all the men I met and watched I have learned all they knew I And I have never neglected to tell the airkar sufficient of what men have told me, to keep the slrkar pleased with me! It was fortunate that I knew of a German plot that I could spoil at the last minute. A million dynamite bombs was a 1 big haul for the airkar 1 My offer to go to Khlnjan and keep the Ullli’ quiet was accepted that same day! “But what are a million dynamite •' arc nflre, and the whole East roars In the flame of the Jihad—we will put our selves at the head of that Jihad, and 'the, East and the world is ours!” King smiled at her. “The East Isn’t very * well armed,” he objected; - “More numbers—” “Numbers?”—She^ laughed at him. “The West hns the West by the throat 1 It Is tearing Itself! They will drag in America! There will he no armed na tion with Its hands free—and while those wolves fight, other wolves shall come and steal the meat! The old gods, whW, built these enves In the ‘Hills,’ are laughing! They are get ting ready .! , Thou and I— r V As she coupled him and herself to gether in one plun she read the changed expression of his face—the very quickly pussing cloud thut even the bCst-tralned man cuunot control.' “I know!” she asserted, sitting up right und coming out of her dream to face facts as their muster. She looked more lovely now thun ever, although twice as dangerous. “You are thinking of your brother—of his beud! That 1 urn u murderess who can never be your friend I Is that not so?” lie did not answer, but his eyes may have betruyed something, for she looked as if he had struck her. “Oh, I have needed you so much, these many years! And now that you .have come you want to hute me-.be- c-iuse you think I killed your brother! Listen! — “Without my leave. Muhammad Anim sept five hundred men on a foray toward the Khyber. Bull-wlth-a-beurd needed an Englishman’s heat\, for proof for a spy ctf his who could not enter Khlnjnn caves. They trappy 1 your brother outside All Masjid with fifty of his men. They took his head after a long, fight, leaving --more than u hundred of their own In payment. ‘‘Bull-wlth-a-beard was pleased. BiP he was carpless, and I sent my men to steal the head from his men., I needed evidence for you. And I swear to you —I swear to you by my gods who have brought us two together—that I first knew it was your brother’s head when you held It up In the Cavern of Earth’s Drink! Then I knew it could not be anybody else’s head !” . « “Why bid me throw It to them, then?” he asked her, and he was aware of her scorn before the words had left his Ups. She leaned back again and looked at him through lowered eyes, as If she ust study him all anew. She seemed o find It hard to believe that he really thought so in the commonplace. “What Is a head to ine, or to you— a head with no life In It—carrion!— compared to what shall he? Would you have known It was his head If. you had thrown It to them when I ordered you?” , * • He understood. Some of her blood was Russian, some Indiun. She stood up, and of course he stood up, too. .. So, she on the footstool of the throne, her eyes und his were on a level. She laid hands on his shoulders and looked Into his eyes until he could see his own twin portraits in hers.^that were.glow ing sunset pools. Heart of the Hills? The heart of iall the East seemed to burn In her, rebellious! “Are you believing me?” she asked him. ■/ - . _ He nodded, for no man could have helped believing her. As she knew the truth, she was telling It to him, us surely as she was doing her skill ful best to mesmerize him. But the secret service is made up of trained against that. “Coinp!” she said, and stepping down she took his arm. She led hlrp past the thrones to oth£r leather cqrtains in a wall, and through them Into long hewn passages from .cavern to cavern, until even the Rock of Gibraltar seemed like a doll’s house in comparison. She showed him a edve contalning^great forges, where the bronze had beeil yvorked, with charcoal still piled up agalitst^the w*all at one end. There were copper'an^tin ingots In there of a shape he had ne seen. .^ ,“I know where they came from,” she told him. “I made it my business to know all the ‘Hills.’ I know things the hlllmen’s great-great-great-grand fathers forgot!. I know old workings that would make a modern nation rich! -We shall have money when we need It, never fear I We shall conquer In dia while the English backs are turned and the beat troops are "overseas.” ’ Then she called him her warrior and bar well-beloved and took him down a long passage, holding his hand all the. wuy, ty show him slots cut In the floor for the yise of archers. _ “You entered Khlnjan caves by a tunnel under this floor, well-beloved. There is no other entrance!’’ By this time .“well-beloved” was her name for him, although there was no air of finality about It. It was as If she paved the way for use of Atheistan and that was a sacred name. It was amazing how she conveyed that im pression without using words. ‘The Sleeper cut these slots for his archers. Then he hud another thought and set these cauldrons In place, to boil oil to pour .down; Could any army force a way through by the route by which you entered?” “No,” he said, marveling at the ton- weight copper cauldrons, one to each hole.- ■s “And I have more than a thousand Mauser rifles here, and mop 1 thun a million rounds of ammunition!“ > She showed him u cave in which boxes were stacked in high, square piles. “Dynamite bombs!” she boasted. “How many boxes? I forget! Too CHAPTER XVII. Sa- “You know where is Dar es laam?” asked Yasmini; “East Africa,” said King. “And English .warships watch the Persian gulf And all the sens from In- diu to Aden?” - King nodded. . , “Have the English any ships thnt dive under water, In these waters?” “I think not. I’m ^uot - sure; but f think not.” “The grenades you have seen, and the rifles and cartridges were sent by the Germans to Dar es Salaam, to suppress a rising of African natives. Does it begin to grow clear to you, my friend?” A «U ■_ - . • He smiled as well as nodded this time. “Muhammad Anim.used to wait with s hundred women at .a certain place on the seashore. What he found on the'beach there he made the women carry on their heads to Khinjnn. So they worked, he and the Germans, for ■nul_aung since he left India behind But he stood quite humbly, before her. for had he not kissed her? .He knew he had won. Yet if anyone had asked him how he [knew that he had won, be never could have told. v “If you were to go hack to India ex cept as iti conqueror, they would strip the buttons from your uniform and tear your medals off and shoot„>od In the back against a wall! My signa ture is known in India ami I am z- minutes, gazing at'the &!cep<4 sn d-blS queen. And from the new angl< from which King saw him the Sleepcr.s like ness to himself was Actually startling* Startling—weird—like an incantation were Yusmiui’s words when at lust she spoke. ~T—- I- t ' , “Muhammad lied! Jle lietl in bis teeth? His sV>ns have “multiplied his lie,! Siddhattha. vvhrrm men have culled riotama, the BuddhaV'wns'Ceiore Mu- hanmiad and he knevy more! tile‘told of‘the w hetl of things, and . there is a wheel! Yet, what knew the lhiddlia of the wheel? He .who spoke of lMiarma (the customs of the law) not knowing Idmrnia! This is true—of old ther©_ was a wish of the gods—of the old gods..yj And so these two were. There is a wish- again now of the old gj)ds* So; are we twb not as -they two were? It is the same wish, amflo! \V-e are ready, this man and I. W’e will obey, 'Yt? gods—ye old gods!” ; She raised her arms and. going closer to the bed, stood there in an attitude of mystic reverence, giving and re- » known. What I write-will be believed, eeiying blessings Uewa Gunga shall take a letter." He shall take two—four—witnesses. He shall-see them on their way and shall give them the letter when they reach the Khyber and shall send them into India with It. Have no fear.. Rull- with-a-beard'shall not intercept them; as I have intercepted hts men. When Rewa Gunga shall*returu and tell me he saw my letter on its way down the Khyber, then we shall talk again— you and I! Come !” She took his arm, ns if her threats had been caresses. Triumph shone from her eyes. She tossed her brave chin and’ toughed at him,—only en couraged to greater daring by his ntti- I know not how long—with the Eng- l tude, and by the time they reached the llsh watching the seas as on land lean ' ebony table and she had taken the pen men •They %ill Lay Waste India! They Will Butcher’and Plunder and Burn! It Will Be What They Leave of Umdia That We Shall Build Anew and Govern. 4 * — many to count! Women brought them all the way from the sea, for even Muhummud Anim ^ould not make Afridi riflemen carry* loads.- I have wondered what Bull-with-a-beard will say when he misses his precious dyna mite!” “You’ve enough in there to blow the mountuin up!” King advised her. “If somebody fired a pistol In here, the least would be the collapse of this floor into the tunnel below with a hun dred thousand tons of rock on top of It. Jhere is no other way out?” - “Earth’s Drink!” she said, and he made a grimace that set her to laugh ing. But she looked at him darkly after that and he got the Impression that the thought was not new to her. and that she ,did not thank him for the^dtivlce. He began to wonder whethar there w*ns anything she had not thodfght of— any loophole she had left him for escape—any Issue she had not fore seen. . . • She showed him where eleven hun dred Mauser rifles stood in racks In another cave, with boxes of ammuni tion piled beside them—each rifle and cartridge worth Its weight In silver coin—a very rajah’s ransom ! “The Germans are generous In some things—only In some things—very mean in others!’’ she told him. ‘They sent no medical stores, and no blan kets!” Past caves where provisions of ev ery imaginable kind were stored, suffi cient for an army, she led him to where her guards slept together with the thirty special men whom King had brought with him up the Khyber. “I have five hundred others whom I dare trust to come In here,” she said, “but they-'shall stay outside until I want them. A mystery Is a good thing I It.is good for them all to wonder what I keep In here! It Is good to keep this sanctuary; It makes for power!” Pressing very close to him, she guided him dowfa another dark tunnel until he and she stood together in the Jnws of the round hole above the river, looking down Into the Cavern of Earth’s Drink. ‘ Nobody looked up at them. The thousands were too busy working up a zy for the great jihad that waa to come? . Stacks of wood had been piled up,- six-man high In fired. The heat te middle, and then ime upward like a furnace blast, and the smoke was a great red cloud among the stalactltea. Round and round that holocaust the thousands did their sword-danUte, yell ing aa the devils yelled at, Khlnjgn'a birth. Thay needed no wine to erase them. They were drv-k with fanati cism. frenzy, lustl^ wolves comb the valleys.” “What were the terms of the Ger man bargain?” King, asked her, “What stipulations did they make?” ’ “With the tribes? None! They .were too wike. A jihad was decided on In-Germany's good time; and when thnt time should come ten rifles in the 'Hills’ and a thousand cartridges would mean not only a hundred dead English men, bqt ten times that qumber busily engaged. Why bargain when there was no need? A rifle is what It Is. The ‘Hills’ are the Tltlls!’ ” ‘Tell me about your lamp oil, then,” he said. “You burn enough oil in Khlnjan caves to.light Bombay! That does not come In by submarine. The sirkar knows how much of everything goes up the Khyber. I have-seen the printed lists myself—a few hundred cans of kerosene—a f^w score gallons of vegetable oil. and all bound for far ther nqrth. There Isn’t -enough oil pressed among the ‘Hills’ to keep these caves going for a day. Where does it all come from?” She laughed, as a mother laughs^at a child’s questions, finding delicious enjoyment in Instructing him. “There are three villages, not two days’ march from Khahut, where men have lived for centuries by pressing oil for Khinjnn caves,” she said. “The Sleeper fetched his oil thence. The Sleeper left gold in here. Those who kept the Sleeper’s secret paid for the oil In gold. No Afghan troubled why oil w*n8..needed, so long as gold paid for it. And I know where the Sleeper dug his gold!” They sat in {dlenoe for a long while after that, she booking at the table, with Its Ink and pens and paper, and he thinking, with hands' cl aSped round one knee; for It Is wishtj to thmk than to talk, eyen when a wbman Is near who can read thoughts that are not guarded. “Atheistan!” she said at last. “It sounds.like a king’s name! What was the Sleeper’s name? Was there such a name in Rome?” Z -X, “No,” he said. “ . X “What does it mean?” she asked him. “Slow of resolution V* She clapped her hands. “Another sign !” she laughed. “The gods love me! There always is a sign when I need one! Slow of resolution, art thou? I will speed thy resolution, well-beloved! You were quick to change from King, of the Khyber Rifle regiment, to Kurrnrn Khan. Change now Into my w-arrlor—my dear lord— my King again!” She rose, with arms outstretched to him.. All her dancer’s art, her un tamed poetry, her witchery^ were ex pressed In a movement Her eyes melt ed as they met his. And since he stood up, too, for manner’s sake, they were eye to eye again—almost lip to lip. -Her sweet breath was In his nostrils. In another moment she was In his arms, clinging to him, kissing him. And If any man has* felt on his Hp« the kiss of all the scented glamour of the East, let him tell what King’s sen sations were. Let CaeSar, who Was kissed by Cleopatra, come to life and talk of it! King’s arm Is strong, and he did not stand like ,an idol. His head might •swim, but she, too, tasted the delirium of human passion loosed and given for a mad, swift—minute. If his heart swelled to bursting, so must hers have done. “I have needed you 1” she whispered. “I have been all alone 1 I have needed you!”' * ' -v "X _* Then her lips sought his agaiif, and neither spoke. Neither knew how long it was before she began to understand that he, not she, was winning. The human answer to her appeal was full. He gave her alf she asked, of admiration, kiss for kiss. And- then—her arms did not cling so tightly, although his strong right arm was like a stanchion. Be cause he knew that, he, not. she, was winning, he picked her up In his arms and kissed her as If she were a child. And then, because he knew he \had won> he set her on her feet on the foot- • • ' * r • ■ •*- “Dear gods!” she prayed. “Dear old gods-^older ’these iliHs’*—-xhow me in a vision wiiat their fault was— wliy these—two were ’ended before the end! ■ X “l know all the other things ye have shown me. I know the world’s silly creeds have made it mad. and it must rend itself, and ibis man and I shall, reap where the nations sowed—if only we obey! ^Wherein, ye old dear uods, who love me. did these two disobey? I pray you., tell me in a vision!” She shook her head and sl«hed. Snd- ness seemed to have "crept over her, • like a cold mist from the’ night. It was ns if she could dimly see her [ilans foredoomed, and yet hoped on in spite of it. The fatalism that fdie scorned as Muhammad’s lie- held her . In Its grip, and her tuefural courage fought with It. Wonnrmike. she turned and dipped it in the Ink. she was chuckling to herself a.i if the one good joke had grown ipto a hundred. | to ln that minute and confided to She wrote in Urdu, with an easy, hi in her very inmost thoughts. And he, flowing hand, and in two minutes .she | without an inkling ps to how she must had throw n sand on the letter und had ton. y et knew that she must, and pitied given it to King to read: It was not^ger. ’ rrT—T— like a woman's letter. It did not waste “Have you seen that breast under a word." the armor?” she asked suddenly. "(tome nearer! Come and look !~ Did 'she kill him? Was thnt a dagger-stab Your Captain King haa been too nfueh trouble. He has taken money from the Germans. He adopted native dr.ss. He h|s brettst? q found perfmne ln cat ltd himself hurram Khan. He slew- ... He ale his own brother at- night in the Khyber pass. These men will say that he car ried the head to Khinjan, and their word is true, for I. Yasmini. saw-. He used the head for a passport, to obtain admittance. He proclaims a Jihad! He urges invasion these caves—great jars of It. and I use it always. I think that scent Is the preservative. Atheistan—listen! I think he would have failed her! I think she stabbed him rather than see of India! He held up his brother's head him fall, and then swallowed poison I before five thousand men and boasted of Afterward their servants laid them the murder. 1 he next you shall hear, of ~ your Captain King of the Khyber rifles, he will be leading a Jihad ifito India. You would have better trusted me. YASMINI. lie read It and passed it back to her. - “They will hot disbelieve me,” she said, triuiiiphuut as the. very devil over a brandered souk all liot. '•“They will be sure you are mud, aud they will believe the witnesses-!” “Rewa Gunga shall start with this today!” she said, with more amuse-- there. She smiles in death because she knew the wheel will turn, and that death dies too! He looks grim be cause he knew less than she. It is al ways woman who understands nnd man who fails! I think she stabbed him. She should hnve loved film bet ter, and th^n. there would have been no need. I will love you better than she loved him!” She turned and devoured him with her eyes, so that it needed all his mnrt- ufent than malice. After that she was ; to hold him back from being her still for a moment, watching lfls eyes, s 'k ve that minute. For in that min- at a loss to understand his careless- : »te she left no charm unexercised— ness. He seemed strangely unabased. s *'* — mesmerism y- beauty — fflittery Hts folded arms were; uot defiant, but ;-fber eyes could flatter as a dumb dog’s neither were they yielding. “I love you, Athelstau!” she said. “Do you love me?” , \. “I think you are very beautiful, princess!’’ “Beautiful? I know I am beautiful. But is thut all?" “Clvver!” he added. She.began to. drum with the golden j dagger hilt on the table, and to look dangerous, which Is not to Infer by any means thnt she looked less lovely. “I>o you love me?" she asked. “Forgive me, princess, but you for get. I was born east of Mecca, but niy folk were from the West. We are slower to love than some other nations’. With us love Is more often growth, less often surrender at first sight. I think you are wonderful!" ■ * She tiqdded nnd tucked the sealed letter ln hW bosom. “It shall gn/\she said darkly, “and another letter vrith_Jt. They looted your brother’s body. In his pocket they found the note you wrote him, and that you asked him to destroy! Thnt will he evidence.. That will convince I Come!” Tv- ' He followed her through leather cur tains again and down the dark pas- “Do You Lovii Me 7" She Asked. sage Into the outer chamber; and the Illusion was ef walking behind a gold en-hatred Madonna to some shrine of Innocence. Her perfume wasJiMt in cense; her manner perfect reverence She passed into the cave vthere- the two dead bodies lay like a high priest ess performing a rite. Wa] t klng’ to the bod, she stood for . Jr -,*/ • flatter a huntsman)—grape unutterable — mystery—she used every art .on him she knew. Yet he stood the test. ■ “Even If you fall me, well-beloved, I will love you ! The gods who gave you me will know how to make you love; nnd lessons are to learn. If you fail nip I will forgive, knowing that in the end the gods will never let you fall me! You are mine, and earth Is ours, for the old gods Intend It so!” ' She seemed to expect him to take her In his arms again; but he stood re spectfully and made no answer, nor any move. Grim and strong his Jowl . was. like the Sleepers, and the dprk hair three dnys old on, tt softened noth ing of its lines. His Roman nose and steady, dark, full eyes suggested no compromise. Yet he was good to look at She had not lied when she sntd she loved him, nnd he understood her and was sorry. But he did not look sorry, nor dift he offer any argument to quench her ldve. He was a servant of the raj; his life and h’ts love hud been India’s since the day he first buckled on his spurs, nnd Yasmini would not have understood that. Nor did she understand that, even supposing he had loved her with all hla heart, not on any conditions would he have admitted It until absolutely frpe, any more than that If she crucified him 'he would love her the same, supposing that he loved her at all. Nor did she trust the “old gods” too woll, or let them Wqrk unaided. “ComeNyith me, Atheistan !’’ She said. She took his arm—found little Jeweled slippers ln a closet hewn in the wall- put them on ariH. led him to the cur tains he had enteret^'by. She led down the 8fep»r and a$_ the' fopt told him to put oo' his silpp^rs, as If he v*.ere a child. Then, hurrying as if those ,opal eye of hprs were Indifferent to dark or daylight, she picked Ker waXnmong bowlders that he c*uld feel but not see, along a floor that, was only smooth In places, for a distance that was long enough by two or three times to lose him altogether, r When be looked back there was no sign of red lights behind him. And when he looked forward, there was a dim outer light In front- and a whiff of the cool fresh air that presages the dawn! She led him through a gap on to a ledge of rock that hung thousands of feet above the home of thunder, a ledge less than six feet wide, less than twenty long, tilted back toward the cliff. There {Key. sat, watching, tha stars. And there they saw the dawn come. . . . . > ~ (TO BE CONTINUED.) ‘ - C 'Arking Back* > r The Vicar—What a dreadful plague of caterpillars, John! John—Ah; an’ ‘oo let loose the pair of ’em? Noah!—Sketch.v- i ~\ L rf -