REPORTER, CENTRE HALL, Pa.
door slammed King centinued down | must have known our fix,
the line with his left wrist held high | shouldn't have asked”
80 that the oecupant of each cell "| King smiled. “Perfectly good ope
turn could see the bracelet, | portunity for me, sir!” he sald cheers
“May God be with thee!” came the | fully.
: She
THE JOURNEY INTO
STRANGE COUNTRY.
Synopsis.—At the beginning «¢
King of the British Indian army a
jihad or holy war. On his way to
Rewa Gunga, Yasmini's man, who
and at her town house witnesses q
f the world war Capt. Athelstan
nd of its secret service, is ordered
for a
Delhi King quietly foils a plan to
hat Yasmini is after him. He meets
says she has already gone north,
ueer dances,
CHAPTER IV—Continued.
——
The Rangar’s eyes blazed for a sec-
ond and then grew cold again, as King
did not fail to observe. All this while
the women danced on, in time to wail-
ing flute music, until, it seemed from
noghere, a loveller woman than any
oe appeared in their midst, sit-
ting exyss-legged with u flat basket at
her kmy:es. She sat with arms raised
and gv ayed from the waist as if in a
delirivm. Her arms moved in narrow-
ing circles, higher and higher
ar basket lid, and the lid began to
%3e, It was minutes before the bodies
of two great king could
made out, moving against the woman's
spangled dress with hoods raised, hiss-
ing the cobra’s hate-song that is pre-
lude to the poison-death.
They struck at the woman, one after
the other, and she leaped out of their
range, swift and supple
above
cobras
as as
with the snakes striking right and
left at her. Left and right she swaved
to avoid them, far more gracefully
than a matador avoids the bull and
courting a deadlier peril than he—pol-
sonous, two to his one. As she danced
she whirled both arms above her head
and cried as the werewolves are said
to do on stormy nights.
King, in a calm aside to Rewa Gunga.
turning half toward him and taking his
great effort.
Rewa Gunga clapped his hands and
the dance ceased. The woman spirited
her snakes away. The blind was
drawn upward and in a moment all
was normal again with the punkah
swinging slowly overhead, except that
the seductive smell remained. that was
the different flowers of India.
“If she were here,” sald the Rangar.
a little grimly—with a trace of disap-
pointment in his tone—*yon would not
snatch your eyes away like that! Per-
haps you shall see her dance some day!
Ah—here is Ismail,” he added in an
altered tone of voice. He seemed re
lieved at sight of the Afridi.
Bursting through the glass-bead cur-
tains at the door, the great savage
strode down the room, holding out a
telegram. With a murmur of conven-
tional apology King tore the envelope
“.
Er
» ”
=
rr
o : -
a
o£
IL
8
rd
2
Fords
a
As Ske Danced She Whirled Both
Arms Above Her Head and Cried
the Werewolves Are Said to Do
Stormy Nights.
and in a second his eyes were ablaze
with something more than wonder.
mystery, added to a mystery, stirred
ail the zeal in him. But In a second he
had sweated lis excitement down,
“Read that, will you?” he said, pass
ing It to Rewa Gunga. It was not In
cypher, but In plain every-day Eng
sh, |
hp
“Can you explain?’ asked King In
a level voice. He was watching the
North. She fa still
own movements to
| Rangar narrowly, yet he could not
detect the slightest symptom of emo-
tion.
“Explain?” said the Rangar,
can explain foolishness? It
“Who
means
other fat mistake!”
“Ah!” sald King. “You are positive
she has started for the North?”
"Schib, when she speaks it is best to
believe! She told me she will
I am ready to lead King
sahib up the Khyber to her!”
“There's a train leaves for
North tonight,” said King.
The Rangar nodded.
“You'll want a. pass
How many servants?
how many?
“One,” zald the Rangar,
| was Instantly suspicious of the mod-
esty of that allowance: however he
wrote out a pass for Rewa Gunga and
one servant and gave it to him.
“Be there on and
| your own reservation,” he said.
attend to Ismail's pass myself.”
He folded the list of names that the
Rangar had marked and wrote some
thing on the back. Then he begged
an envelope, and Rewa Gunga had one
brought to him. He sealed the list in
the envelope, addressed it and beck-
oned Ismall again.
ir
gO.
" o
1 herofore
the
up the line,
Three—four—
about
“I'll
time see
ordered. “Go first to the telegraph of-
fice, where You were before, the babu
there will tell yow where Saunders
sahib may be found, Dellver the letter
to him. Then come and find me at the
Star of India hotel and help me to
i bathe and change my clothes.”
*To hear is to obey !” boomed Ismall.
bowing: but his last
Rewa Gunga, and he did not turn to go
until he had met the Rangar's eyes,
When Ismail had gone striding down
the room King looked into the Rangar's
his that disarms so many people,
“Then you'll be on the traln to-
night?” he asked.
“To hear is to obey!
ure, sahib!™
With pleas-
“Then good-by until this evening.”
King bowed very civilly and walked
out, rather unsteadily because his
head ached. Probably nobody else, ex-
what an ordeal he had passed through
or how near he had been to losing self-
command.
In the street he found a gharry after
1 while and drove to his hotel. And
before Ismail came he took a stroll
through a bazaar, where he made a
few strange purchases. In the hotel
{ lobby he Invested in a leather bag
| with a good lock, in which to put them,
| Later on I' ual! came and proved him-
| self an efficient body-servant.
| That evening Ismail earried the
| leather bag and found his place on the
{ train, and that was not so difficult, be-
i nearly empty, although the platforms
were all crowded. As he stood at the
carriage door with Ismail near him, a
man named Saunders slipped through
the crowd and sought him out.
“Arrested ‘em all I” he grinned.
{ King did not answer. He was watch.
ling Rewa Gunga, followed by a serv
| ant, hurrying to a reserved compart.
| ment at the front end of the train. The
Rangar waved to him and he waved
| back.
The engine gave a preliminary shriek
and the giant Ismall nudged King's
elbow in impatient warning. There
was no more sign of Rewa Gunga, who
| had evidently settled down in his come-
{| partment for the night.
dered, and Ismall stared,
“Get out my bag, I aig!
“To hear is to obey!” Ismail grum-
bled, reaching with his
through the window,
The engine shricked again, some-
body whistled, and the train began
to move,
“You've missed tI!" said Saunders,
amused at Ismail’s frantic disappoint.
ment,
CHAPTER V,
: The rear lights of the train he had
| not taken swayed out of Delhi station
and King grinned as he wiped the
[sweat from hig face with a dripping
' handkerchief, Behind him towered the
hook-nosed Ismall, resentful of the un.
expected. In front of him Saunders
eyed the proffered Mack choroots sus.
plclously, accepted one with an alr of
curfosity and passed the case Sack.
»
[in a shabby uniform went round to |
lower lights,
| “Are you sure—"
| King's merry eves looked Into S8aun-
| ders’ as If there were no world war
| really and they two were puppéts in a
| comedy.
“ware you absolutely certain Yas-
mini is In Delhi?”
“No,” sald Saunders. “What I swear
to is that she has not left by train. |
the most elusive individual in
| Asia! One person in the world knows
where she is, unless she has an accom-
iplice, My information's negative. 1
| know she has not gone by—"
King struck a match and held It
ont, so the sentence was unfinished:
{ the first few puffs of the astonishing
cigar wiped out all memory of the miss
And then King changed the
She's
ing word.
subjeet,
| “Those
| rest—17"
{ “Nabbed” —puff —"every one of "em ™
~pufl-puff—=all under’ —puff-puff—
“lock and key,~best smoke 1 eve
tasted.”
“Well—I'l1 along with
you like and look them over."
loth tone and
credit for the suggestion,
Saunders seemed to like it. There
nothing like following up, In football,
| war or courtship.
“1 see you're a judge of a cig:
sald King, and Saunders purred,
men being fools to some extent,
the only trouble being to demonstrate
the faet,
They had started for the station en-
france when a nasal volece began
toning, “Cap-teen King
teen King sahib !” and a telegraph mes
senger passed them with his book un.
der his arm. King whistled him. A
moment later he was tearing open an
official urgent telegram and writing a
string of figures in pencil across the
| top. Then he de-coded swiftly:
Advices are Yasmin! was in Delh! ag re.
cently as six this evening. Fail to under-
stand your inability to get in touch. Have
you tried at her house? Matters in Kiuy-
ber district much less satisfactory. Word
from OC Khyber rifles to effect that
inshkar is collecting Better sweed up
in Delhi and proceed northward as «ulck-
ly as compatible with caution. 1. M. L
“Good news?” asked Saunders, blow-
ing smoke through his nose,
“Excellent. Where's my man? Here
| ~you-~Ismail
The giant came and towered above
him,
“You swore she went North!”
“Ha, sahib! To Peshawur she wont 1”
{ “I have a telegram here that says
she Is In Delhi”
He patted his coat, where the inner
pocket bulged.
“Nay, then the tar les, for I saw her
| go with these two eyes of mine”
“It is pot wise to lle to me, my
friend,” King assured him, so pleasant-
men I asked yon to ar-
go
you
rave Sa
manner gn
ders and
n
Cap-
3
in
sahib-
truth.
swered him.
Inches lent the Afridi dignity, but
dignity has often been used as a stalk-
ing horse for untruth. King nodded,
and it was not possible to judge by his
expression whether he belleved or not.
“Let's make a move,” he said, turn-
ing to Baunders, “She seems at any
North.
train,
I'tl take the early morning
Where are the prisoners?”
| We take this gharry?”
With Ismail
nursing King's bag and looking like a
{great grim vulture about to eat the
horse, they drove back through swarm-
ing streets in the direction of the river.
King seemed to have lost all interest in
crowds, He sat staring ahead In
| silence, although Saunders made more
[than one effort to engage him in con-
versation.
| that Saunders jumped.
| “No what?"
| “No need to stay here. I've got what
{1 came for!”
| *What was that?” asked Saunders,
but Kiug was silent again, Conscious
i of the unaccustomed weight on his left
wrist, he moved his arm so that the |
| sleeve drew and he could see the edge |
of the great gold bracelet Rewa Gunga |
| had given hi in Yasmini's name,
| “Know anything of Rewa Gunga?’
he asked suddenly again,
“Not much, I've seen him. I've
| spoken with him, and I've had to stand
impudence from him-twice, I've been
tipped off more than once to let him
alone because he's her man, He does |
ticklish errands for her, or so they |
say. He's what you might call ‘known |
to the police’ all right.” !
They began to approach an age-old |
palace near the river, and Baunders
whispered a password when an armed |
guard halted them. They were halted |
again at a gloomy gateway where an |
officer came out to look them over; by
his leave they left the gharry and fol- |
lowed him under the arch until their
heels rang on stone paving in a big Hi |
lighted courtyard surrounded by high
walls,
There, after a little talk, they left!
Ismall squatting beside King's bag, and
ro
gh an mod-
ern iron door, into what had once been
a royal prince's stables,
In gloom that was only thrown into
contrast by a wide-spread row of elec-
tric lights, n long line of barred and
locked converted horse stalls ran down
one side of a lean-to building. All that
King could see of the men within was
the whites of thelr eyes. And they did
not look friendly.
He had to pass between them and
the light, and they could see more of
him than he could of them. At the
first cell he raised his left hand and
made the gold bracelet on his wrist
clink against the steel bars,
A moment later he cursed himself,
dnd felt the bracelet with his finger
Pets Zon)
VALS OE
“May God Be With Thee!” Boomed
the Prisoner's Voice.
nall. He had made a deep nick in the
soft gold. A second later yet he
smiled.
“May God be with thee!”
a prisoner's voice in Pashtu,
“Didn't know that fellow was hand-
cuffed,” sald Saunders. “Did you hear
the ring? They should have been
taken off.
made him polite, though”
“Where did you arrest them?’ King
asked when Saunders came to a stand
under a light,
“All In one place, At Ali's”
“Who and what is AIT
“Thief—crimp—procurer — Prussian
spy and any other evil thing that takes
his faney! Runs a combination gamb-
ling hell and boarding house. Let's
"em run into debt and blackmalls ‘em.
All's in the kalser's pay—that's known !
We'll get him when we want him, but
at present he's useful ‘as is’ for a de-
coy.”
“You wouldn't call these men pros-
perous, thea?”
“Not exactly! Al {is the only spy
out of the North who prospers much at
present, and even he gets most of his
money out of hiz private business, The
Germans pay All a little, and he traps
the hillmen when they come south-—
boomed
they can get away when they've pald
Yasminl sends
debts, and she's our man, so to speak.
She coaxes all their stories out of ‘em
and primes ‘em with a few extra good
ones into the bargain. Everybody's
fooled—'specially the Germans—and
raj. Nobody ever fooled that woman,
nor ever will if my belief goes for
anything I"
“Um-m-m!” King rubbed his chin.
“Sure! He's one of Yasmini's pets.
She balled him out of All's three years
ago and he worships her. It was he
who broke the leg and ribs of a pup-
rajah a month or two ago for putting
He's dog, desperado, stalking horse
“Then why d'you suppose she passed
him along to me?" asked King.
“Dunno! This is your little mys-
“Glad you appreciate that! Do me
a favor, will you?
“Anything In reason.”
“Get the keys to all these celle-—send
‘em in here to me by Ismail—and
leave me in here alone!”
Saunders whistled and wiped swent
from his glistening face, for In spite
of windows wide open to the courtyard
it was hotter than a furnace room.
“Mayn't T have you thrown into a
den of tigers? he asked. “Or au nest
of cobras? Or get the fiery furnace
ready?
is habit—they say it with unction be-
fore they knife a man!”
“Fil be careful, then" King
chuckled; and it is a fact that few
men can argue with him when he
laughs quietly in that way. “Send me
in the keys, like a good chap”
80 Saunders went, glad enough to
get into the outer air. The Instant the
instant greeting from each cell
down toward the farther end. The
occupants of the last six cells were
silent. He had searcely finished doing
that when Ismail strode in, slamming
the great Iron door behind him, jan-
#ling a.bunch of keys nnd looking more
than ever like somebody out of the Old
Testament,
“Open every door except those whose
dered him,
Ismail proceeded to obey as If that
! were the least improbable order in all
the world. It took him two minutes
to select the pass-key and determine
how it worked, then the doors flew
open one after another in quick sue-
cession,
“Come out!” he growled, “Come
out !—Come out!” although King had
not ordered that
King went and stood under the cen-
ter light with his left arm bared. The
prisoners emerging like dead men out
of tombs, blinked at the bright light—
saw him-——then the bracelet—and sa-
luted.
“May God be with
eaeh of them,
They stood still then, awalting fresh
developments, It did not seem to oe-
cur to any one of them as strange that
a British officer in khaki uniform
should be sporting Yasmini's talisman;
the thing was apparently sufficient ex-
planation in itself,
“Ye all know this?" he asked, hold-
ing up his wrist. “Whose is this?
“Hers!”
labie and
throats,
King lit a cheroot and made mental
note of the wisdom of referring
by pronoun, not by name,
“And 17 Who am 17” he asked.
“Her messenger! Who else? Thou
art he who shall take us to the ‘Hills!
She promised.”
“I shall start for the ‘Hi
thee!” growled
instant from all thirty
iis' at dawn,”
gleam at the No caged
| tiger Is a8 wretched as a prisoned hill-
man. No freed bird wings 1 » wildly
| for the open. No moth comes more
| foolishly back to the flame again, It
| was easy to take pity on them—prob-
{ably not one of whom knew pity's
meaning,
eyes news,
care to come—7"
“Ah-h-h-h I”
“Will ye obey me and him? he
asked, laying his hand on Ismail's
ghoulder, as much to let them see the
bracelet again as for any other rea-
son.
“Aye!
us”
King lavghed. “Ye shall leave this
place as my prisoners. Here ye have
no friends, Here ye must obey. But
what when ye come to your ‘Hills’ at
Inst? Can one man hold thirty men
| prisoner's then?
still obey me?"
*
If we fail, Allah do more to
Ismail knelt—seized his band—and
pressed the gold bracelet to his lips!
In turn, every one of them filed by,
knelt reverently and kissed the brace
let!
“Saw ye ever a hillman do that be-
fore?” asked Ismail.
thee! Have no fear!”
whom Sannders, for instance,
after first seeing them handcuffed.
| “Each lock has a key, but some keys
fit all locks,” says the Eastern proverb.
King has been chosen for many tick.
is still In Delhi.
suspicions prison guard, who made no
| secret of being ready for all concely-
able emergencies. One enthusiast drew
ute or two, to the very great interest
of the hillmen, who memorized every
detail that by any stretch of imagina-
tion might be expected to Improve
their own shooting when they should
get home again.
a maze of stréets to a place where he
wns admitted through one door after
another by sentries who saluted when
| he had whispered to them. He ended
by sitting on the end of the bed of a
| gray-headed man who owns three titles
{and whose word is law between the
{borders of a province. To him he
talked as one schoolboy to a bigger
| one, because the gray-haired man had
understanding, and hence sympathy.
“I don’t envy you!” sald he under
| the sheet. “There's the release for
| your prisoners. Take it—and take
{ them! Whatever possessed you to
| want such a gift?”
“Well, sir—first place, she doesn't
want to seem to be connected with me.
Second place, she has left Delhi-—and
she did not mean to leave those men.
Third place, if those thirty men had
been anything but her particular pet
gang they'd either have been over the
border or else in jail before now—Just
like all the others. For some reason
that I don’t pretend to understand, she
promised 'em more than she has been
able to perform. So I provide per
formances, She gets the credit for it.
I get a pretty good personal following
at least as far as up the Khyber! Q.
E D, sir:
The man in bed nodded. “Not bad,”
he said,
“Didn't she make some effort to get
those men away from Al's? King
axked him, “I mean, didn't she try to
got them dry-nursed by the si’kar in
“Yes, She did. But she wanted them
arrested and locked up at a momen
“Bo you seem to think, But look out
She's got the brains of Asia
coupled with Western energy! 1 think
she’s on our side, and I know he be-
Heves it; but watch her!”
“Ham dekta hai I” King grinned. But
the older man continued to look as if
he pitied him,
“If you get through alive, come and
tell me about it afterward. Now, mind
you ! I'm awfully interested, but
as for envying you—"
“Envy!” King almost squealed. He
made the bedsprings rattle as he
Jumped. “I wouldn't swap jobs with
General French, sir!”
“Nor with me, 1 suppose !”
“Nor with you, sir!”
“Goodby, then.
boy. Goodby, Athelstan,
er's up the Khyber, isn't he?
my regards, Goodby 1”
do
Goodby, King, my
Your broth-
Glve him
CHAPTER VI.
Long before dawn the thirty
in a little herd
on the up-platform of a railway sta-
tion, shepherded by King, who smoked
a cheroot away,
sitting on an unmarked chest of medi-
He
surgery.
prison-
ers and Ismail squatted
some twenty paces
seemed absorbed in a book
Ismail nursed the
handbag on his knees, picking
lastingly at the lock and
audibly what the bag contained to an
accompaniment of low-growled sympa-
cines,
on new
ever
serie? i *
wonagering
servant—for she said so—
and he Then why-—why in
Allah's name—am I not to have the
r of bag that holds so
3
ttle and is so light?”
“l am his
8
80.
this little
“A razor would slit the leather ens-
suggested one of the herd. “Then,
the bag pushed vio-
lently against some sharp thing, to ex
plain the cut”
Ismail shook
“Why? What could he do to thee?
“It is because I not what he
wonld do to me that I will do noth-
ing!” answered Ismail “He Is not
all like sahibs 1 bad
dealings with. This man unex-
pected things. This man is not mad,
he has a devil. I have it in my heart
this But talk
ily,”
later, might be
kis head.
sr
know
at other have
does
to love man, such is
We are her men!” came the
that King up and
watched them over the open book.
At dawn, when the train pulled out,
the thirty prisoners sat safely
in third-class compartments. King
lay lazily on the cushions of a first.
class carriage in the rear, gnd Ismail
attended to the careful packing of soda
water bottles in the icebox the
floor,
“Shall I open the little bag, sahibh?”
he asked.
“Put it over there!” King ordered.
“Aye!
chorus, so locked
locked
on
Ismail obeyed and King aid his book
down to light another of his black
cheroots. The theme of antiseptics
ceased to exercise its charm over him.
He peeled off his tunic, changed his
shirt and lay back In sweet content
“Look Out for the Woman, King
She's Dangerous. She's Got the
Brains of Asia Coupled With West.
ern Energy.”
ment. Headed for the “Hills” who
would not be contented, who had been
born in their very shadow Pin their
shadow, of a line of Britons who have
all been buried there!
“The day after tomorrow I'll see
snow I” he promised himself. And Is-
mail, grinning with yellow teeth
through a gap in his wayward beard,
understood and sympathized.
Forward in the third-class carriages
the prisoners hugged themselves snd
crooned as they met old landmarks
and recognized the chauging scenery.
There was a new, cleaner tang in 3
hot wind that spoke of the “Hills”
home!
At Peshawur the train was short
ened to three conches and started up
the spurtrack, that leads to Jamruod
where a fort cowers in the very throat
of the dreadfulest gorge in Asin-the