te By Talbo t Mundy with personal charm to be trusted thus early in the game, Besides, there was that captured knife, that hinted at lies and treachery. Secret signs as well as loot have been stolen before now, “T'd like to walk through the streets and see the crowd.” He smiled as he said that, knowing jihad or holy war, well that the average young Rajput of good birth would rather fight a tiger with cold steel than walk a mile or two. He drew fire at once, “Why walk, King sahib? Are we animals? There is a carriage waiting —her carriage—and a coachman whose ears were born dead. We might be CHAPTER !l—Continued. m—— Within ten minutes Hyde was asleep, | out the knife again and studied it for | half an hour. The blade was of bronze, with an edge hammered to the keen- | ness of a razor. The hilt was of near- | ly pure gold, in the form of a woman | dancing. The whole thing was so ex- | quisitely wrought that age had only | softened the lines, without in the least | impairing them. It looked like one of | those Grecian toys with which Roman | women of Nero's day stabbed their | lovers. But that was not why he be- | gan to whistle very softly to himself. Presently he drew out the general's | package of papers, with the photograph | on the top. He stood up, to hold both knife and papers close to the light in | the roof. | It needed no great stretch of lmagi- | nation to suggest a likeness between | the woman of the photograph and the | other, of the golden knife-hilt. And | nobody, looking at him then, would | have dared suggest he lacked imagina- | tion. If the knife had not been so ancient they might have been portraits of the sama woman, in the same disguise, taken at the same time. “She knew I had been chosen to work with her. The general sent her word that I am coming” he muttered to himself. “There must have been a spy watching at Peshawur, who wired to Rawal-Pindi for this man to jump *the train and go on with the job. Why should she give the man a knife with her own portrait on it? Is she queen of a secret society? Well—we shall see” He lay back with his head on the pillow, and before five minutes more had gone he was asleep. His mobile face in repose looked Roman, for the sun had tanned his skin and his nose was aquiline. In museums, where sculptured heads of Roman generals and emperors stand around the wall on pedestals, it would not be difficult to pick several that bore more than a faint resemblance to him. He hdd breadth and depth of forehead and a jowl that lent itself to smiles as well as sternness, angl a throat that ex- pressed manly determination in every molded line. He slept like a boy until dawn; and he and Hyde had scarcely exchanged another dozen words when the train screamed next day Into Delhi station. Then he saluted stifily and was gone. CHAPTER IIL Delhi boasts a round half-dozen rall- way stations. all of them designed with regard to war, so that to King there gvas nothing unexpected in the fact that the train had brought him to an unexpected station. He plunged into its crowd much as a man in thegmood might plunge into a whirlpool. The station screamed echoed, reverberated, hummed. At one minute the whole building shook to the thunder of a grinning regiment; an instant later it clattered to the wrought-steel ham- mer of a thousand hoofs, as led troop- horsos danced into formation to invade the walting trucks. Soldiers of nearly every Indian military caste stood about everywhere. Down the back of each platform Tommy Atkins stood In long straight lines, talking or munching great sandwiches or smoking. Threading his way In and out among the motley swarm with a great black cheroot between his teotli nnd sweat running into lis eyes from his helmet band, Athelstan King strode at ease at home—intent—amused-—a wake and almost awfully happy. He was not in the least less happy because perfectly aware that a native was fol. lowing him at a distance, although he did wonder how the native had con- trived to pass within the lines. At the end of fifteen minutes there was not n glib staff officer there who could have deceived him as to the numbers and destination of the force entraining. “Kernchi IY he told himself, chewing the butt of his cigar and keeping well ahead of the shadowing native. He he did not look for them. Very few people noticed him at all, nithough he was recognized once or twice by for mer messmates. At his leisore—in his own way, that was devious and like a string of miracies—he filtered toward the telegraph office, The native who had followed him all this time drew ispered proof of his identity : tn the telegraph clark who wns n Royal overheard In the street. Are you and I children, tossing stones into a pool to watch the rings widen !™ “Lead on, then" answered King. Outside the station was a luxurious | ly modern victoria, with C springs and rubber tires, with horses that would have done credit to a viceroy. The Rangar motioned King to get in | first, and the moment they were both | seated the Rajput coachman set the horses to going like the wind, Rewa Gunga opened a Jeweled cigarette case. “Will you have one?’ he asked with the alr of royalty entertaining a blood- equal, King rccepted a cigarette for polite. ness’ sake and took occasion to admire the man's slender wrist, that was doubtless hard and strong as woven steel, but was not much more than half | the thickness of his own. One of the questions that occurred to King that minute was why this well-bred young: ster whose age he guessed at twenty- two or so had not turned his attention to the army. “My height I™ The man had read his thoughts! “Not quite tall enough. Besides— you are a soldier, are you not? And do you fight?" Then, after a minute of rather strained silence: “My mes sage is from her” “From Yasmin? “Who else? King accepted the rebuke with a lit. tle inclination of the head. He spoke | us little as possible, because he was | puzzled. He had become consclous of a puzzled look in the Rangar's eves | and it only added to his problem if the | Rangar found in him something inex plicable, The West can only get the better of the East when the East is too | cock-sure. “She has jolly well gone North!™ said the Rangsr suddenly, and King shut his teeth with a snap. He sat hoit upright, and the Rangar allowed him- self to look amused. “She has often heard of you” he said, “I've heard of her,” sald King. “Of course! Who has not? She has | desired to meet you, sahib, ever since | she wz3 told you are the best man in| your sefvice.” ; King grented, thinking of the knife beneath his shirt. Again, it was as if the Rangar read a part of his thoughts, if not all of them. It Is not difficult to counter that trick, but to do it a man must be on his guard, or the East will know what he has thought and what he is going to think, as many have dis covered when it was too late, “Her men are able to protect any- body's life from any God's number of nssassins, whatever may lead you fo think the contrary. From now forward your life is in h#r men's keeping!” “Very good of her, I'm sure,” King murmured. He was thinking of the general's express order to apply for a “passport” that would take him into Khinjan caves—mentally cursing the necessity for asking any kind of favor -and wondering whether to ask this man for it or walt until he should meet Yasminl. The Rangar answered his thoughts again as if he had spoken them aloud. “She left this with me, saying I am to give it to you! I am to say that wherever you wear it, between here and Afghanistan, your life shall be safe and you may come and go!” King stared. The ngar drew a bracelet from an inner pocket and held it out. KH was a wonderful bar barle thing of pure gold, big enough for a grown man's wrist, and old enough to have been hammered out in the very womb of time. It looked al- most like ancient Greek, and it fas tened with a hinge and clasp that looked as If they did not belong to it and might have been made by a not very skillful modern jeweler. “Won't you wenr it? asked Rewn Gunga, watching him. “It will prove a true talisman! What was the name of thé Johnny who had a lamp to rub? Aladdin? It will be better than what he had! He could only command a lot of bogies. Ths will give you authority ‘over flesh and blood! Take it, sgshib!” 8p King put it on, letting it slip up his sleeve out of sight-—with a sensa- tion as the snap closed of putting handcuffs on himself, But the Rangar looked telleved. “That is your passport, sahib! Show it to a hillman whenever you suppose yourself in danger. The Raj might go to pleces, but while Yamin! lives" “Her friends will boast about her, 1 ‘suppose I” : : “a to him at once. Because it was war- on India like a throttling string, It was not in cade. So the Mirza All, of the Fort, Bombay, to whom It was addressed, could be expected to read between the lines. Cattle intended for slaughter, dispatched Bombay on Fourteen down. Meet train. Will be Inspected en route, but should be Cattle inclined to stampede owing to bad scame received north of Delhi. Take all pre- cautions and notify Abdul SULIMAN. “Good!” he chuckled. “Let's hope we get Abdul too. I wonder who he is!” Still uninterested in the man who shadowed him, he walked back to the office window and wrote two tele grams; one to Bombay, ordering the arrest of All Mirza of the Fort, with an urgent admonition to discover who his man Abdul might be, and to seize him as soon as found: the other to the station in the north, insisting on close confinement for Suliman. That being all the urgent business, he turned leisurely to face his shadow, and the native met his eyes with the engnging frankness of an old friend, coming forward with outstretched hand. They did not shake hands, but the man made a signal with his (ngers that is known to not more than a dozen men in all the world, and that changed the situation altogether. “Walk with me,” said King, and the man fell into stride beside him. He was a Rangat—which is to say a Rajput who, or whose ancestors had turned Mohammedan. Like many Ra} puts he was not a big man, but he looked fit and wiry; his head scarcely came above the tedel of King's chin, although his turban distracted atten- tion from the fact. The turban was of silk and unusually large. The whitest of well-kept teeth, gleaming regularly under a little black waxed mustache betrayed no trace of betelnut or other nastiness. King was not so sure that the eyes were brown, and he changed his opinion about their color a dozen times within the hour. Once he would even have sworn they were green. The man was a regular Rangar dandy, of the type that can be seen playing polo almost any day at Mount Abu—that gets into mischief with a grace due to practice and heredity— “] Mave a Message for You” but that does not manage its estates too well, as a rule, nor pay its debts in a hurry. “My name is Rewa Gunga,” he said in a low voice. “I have a message for ' , “From whom" “From her!" sald the Rangar, and without exactly knowing why, or be 10g Fieased with himself, King felt ex- | because it | for natives to hint at possible dissolu- tion of the Anglo-Indian government. Everybody knows that the British will not govern Indlaforever, but the Brit ish—who know it best of all, and work to that end most ferventiy-—are the only ones encouraged to talk about it. For a few minutes after that Rewn Gunga held his peace, while the car. riage swayed at breakneck speed through the swarming streets. King, watching and saying nothing, did not belleve for a sécond the lame expla. pation Yasmin! had left behind. She must have some good reason for wish. ing to be first up the Khyber, and he was very sorry Indeed she had slipped away. It might be only jealousy, yet why should she be jealous? It was the next remark of the Itangar's that set him entirely on his guard, and thenceforward read his thoughts wonld have been more than human known of that thought-reading trick ever since his ayah (native nnrse) taught him to lisp Hindustanee; just as surely he knew that its impudent use was intended to sap his belief In himself. “I'lil bet you a hundred dibs” sald the Rangzar, “that she decided to be there first and get control of the situ- ation! She's slippery, and quick, and like al! women, she's jealous!" The Rangar's eves were on his, but King was not to be enught agein, Iris whoover to speak, if one gives attention to it. those Afridis” he continued, waving his cigarette. “She has fooled them always, to the limit of their bally bent. Yasminl plays her own game, for amusement and power—a good game a deep game! You have seen already how India has to ask her ald in the ‘Hilis!" She loves power, power, power-—not for its *'name, for names are nothing. but to use it." “How long have you known her? asked King. The Rangar eyed him sharply. “A long time. She and I played to- gether when we were children. It is she chose me to travel North with you, when you start to find her In ‘Hills’ King cleared his the throat, and in or out of reason. King made no ef- corner at a gallop and drew the horses up on their haunches at a door ih a high white wall. Rewa Gunga sprang out of the carriage before the horses were quite at a standstill, “Here we are!” he sald, and King noticed that the street curved here so overiooked this one. than the coachman lashed the horses and the carriage swung out of view, “This way,” sald the Rangar over his shoulder. “Come! CHAPTER 1V. It was a musty smelling entrance, so dark that to see was scarcely possible after the hot glare outside. Dimly King made out Rewa Gunga mounting stairs to the left and followed him. When he guessed himself two stories at least above road level, there was a sudden blaze of reflected light and he blinked at more mirrors than he could count. Curtains were reflected in each mirror, and little glowing lamps, so cunningly arranged that it was not pos. sible to guess which were real and which were not. King stood still. Then suddenly, as If she had done {t a thousand times before and surprised a thousand people, a little nut-brown maid parted the middie pair of cur tains and said “Salaam !" smiling with teeth that were ns white as porcelain. King looked scarcely interested and not at all disturbed. Rewa Gunga hurried past him, thrusting the little maid aside, and led the way. King followed him into a long room, whose walls were hung with richer silks than any he remem- bered to have seen. In a great wide window to one side some twenty wom en began at once to make flute music. Silken punkahs swung from chains, wafting back and forth a cloud of sun- dal"ood smoke that veiled the Whole scene in mysterious, scented mist. “Be welcome!” laughed Rewa Gun- ga; “I am to do the honors, ince she is not here. Be seated, sahib.” King chose a diven at the room's farthest end, near tall curtains that led into rooms beyond. He turned his back toward the reason for his choice. On a little ivory-iniaid ebony table about ten feet awny lay a knife, that was almost the exact duplicate of the one inside his shirt. He could sense hushed expectancy on every Side— could feel the eyes of many women fixed on him-—and began to draw on his guard © s a fighting ruan draws on pruh) Thee nnd then he deliberately Imself to resist mesmerism, which I a sprawled leisurely slong 1 cushioned couch with & grate thant the West has not learped vet ; but King did not make the mistake of trusting hinr any better for his easy manners, and his eyes sought swiftly for some unrhythmic, unplanned thing on which to rest, that mental leverage. Glancing along the the big window, time a huge and léhned back against the’ silken hangings with arms folded. “Who is that man?" he asked. “He? Oh, he is nn savage—just a big savage,” sald Rewa Gunga, looking vaguely annoyed, “Why iz he here? He did not dare let go of this chance slide issue. his self-control would be cunningly erets, and his very senses, belonged to some one else, “He? Oh, he does nothing. He waits” purred the Rangar, { North. | terly because he loves Yasmini, obedlence! A big obedient fool! { him be !™ {i “No,” sald King. { man I'll speak to him!" He felt himself winning. Already | he no longer felt the cloud of sandal { wood like a vell across his brain. | “Won't you tell him to come here to i me?" i Rewn Gunga laughed, resting his silk | turban agzsinst the wall hangings and | clasping both hands about his knee. It was as a man might laugh who has | been touched in a bout with folls, | “Oh'!'—Ismail!” he enlled, with a | votce like a bell, that made King stare, | The Afridl seemed to come out of a | bing his eyes and feeling whether his | turban was om straight. He | his beard with nervous fingers gazed about him and caught Gunga's eye. Then he sprang feet, “Come ™ ordered Rewa Gunga. The man obeyed. “Did sou see? { chuckled. Rewsa Now he chose to notice the knife on the ebony table us If he had not seen it before. He got un 2nd reached for it and brought it back, turning it over and over in his hand, “A strange knife,” he said. | “Yes—froin Khinjan,” said Rewa | Gunga, and King eyed him as one wolf eyes another, i “What makes you say it is from | Khinjan?” | “She brought it from Khinjan caves | herself f There is another knife that | matches it, but that is not here, That bracelet you now wear, sahib, Is from | Khinjan caves too! She bas the secret | of the caves!” ! “1 have heard that the ‘Heart of the { Hills’ 18 there” King answered. “Is {the ‘Heart of the Hills’ a treasure house 7’ tewn Gunga lsughed. “Ask her, sahib! Perhaps she will tell you! Perhaps she will let you Who knows? She is a woman of | women dance for you a while” ant a sign from Rewa Gunga a woman left the great window place and spir- ited the knife away. “May I have a sheet of paper? he asked, for he knew that another fight for his self-command was due. Rewn Gunga gave an order, and a | maid brought scented paper on a sfl- ver tray. He drew out his own foun- tain pen, and since his one object was { to give his brain employment, he wrote down a list of the names he had mem- orized in the train on the journey from { Peshnwur, not thinking use for { the list until he had finished. Then, | though, a real use occurred to him | While he began to than | a dozen dancing women swept into the | room from behind the silk har a concerted that was lithe Wood-wind the great | of a write more movement grace. them from siumberous { music enllnd to after shoulder! | Such men have no guile beyond what | will kelp them to obey! Such men | think too slowly to invent deceit for | Its own sake !™ | The Afridi came and towered above them. standing with gnarled hands | knotted into clubs, | “What is thy name?’ King asked | him. “Ismail I” he boomed. “Thou art to be my servant?” {| “Aye! So said she. I am her man. I obey!” “When did she say 80?” King asked him blandly. The hillman stroked his great beard and stood considering the question. King entered a shrewd sus- picion that he was not so stupid as he chose to seem. His eyes were too hawk-bright to be a stupid man's. “Before she went away,” he abn- swered at last, “When did she go away?” He thought agaln, then “Yesterday.” he sald. . “Why did you wait before you an- swered 7” The Afridi’s eyes furtively sought Reva Gunga's and found no aid there. Watching the Rangar less furtively, but even less obviously, King was aware that his eyes were nearly closed, as if they were not interested. The fingers that clasped his knee drummed on It indifferently, seeing which King allowed himself to smile. “Never mind.” he told Ismail. "Its no matter. It is ever well to think twice before speaking once, for thus mistakes die stillborn. Only the mon- key-folk thrive on quick answers-—is it not so? Thou art a man of many Inches of thew and sinew--hey, but thou art a man! ¥ the heart within those great ribs of thine is true ns thine arms are strong I shall be fortunate to have thee fora servant!” “Aye! said the Afridi. “But what are words? She has said I am thy servant, and to hear her is to obey I" “Then, take me a telegram!” said King. . : : He began to write at once on a half- sheet of paper that he tore from a let ter he had in his pocket: transposing into cypher as he went along. Yasmini bas gone North! Is there an reason. at yout “nd why. 1 should not fe addressed it In plain English to nis friend the general at Peshawur, and handed it to Ismail, directing him carefully to a government office where the © signature would be recog: nized and the telegram given prece dence. small stalked off with it, striding like Moses down from Sinai—hook- nity and all, and King settled down to himself against the next pt The Afridi Came and Towered Above Them. deep window. They began to chant, still dreamily, and with the chant the dance began, in and out, round and round, lazily, ever so lazily, wreathed in buoyant gossamer that was scarcely more solid than the sandalwood smoke they wafted Into rings. King watched them and listened to their chant until he began to recognize the strain on the eye muscles that pre- codes the mesmeric spell. Then he wrote and recd what he had written and wrote again, “What have you written?” asked a quiet volce at his ear; and he turned to look straight in the eyes of Rewa Gunga, who had leaned forward to read over his shoulder. Just for one second he hovered om the brink of quick defeat, Having escaped the Scylia of the dancing women, Charyb- dis waited for him in the shape of eyes that were pools of hot mystery. It was the sound of his own voice that brought him back to the world again and saved his will for him unbound. “Read it, won't you?” he laughed “If you know, take this pen and mark the names of whichever of those wen are still in Delhi” Rewa Gunga took pen and paper and set a mark against some thirty of the names, for King had a manner that disarmed refusal. King began to watch the dance again, for it did not feel safe to look too long into the Rangar's eyes, It was not wise just then to look too long at anything or to think too long on aay one subject. “Ismail ix slow about returning” said the Rangar. “I wrote at the foot of the tar.” said King, “that they are to detain him there until the answer comes,” King tricks the Rangar and rescues some of Yasmini's cut. throats, whom he takes north with "him as grateful body. a
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