By TALBOT MUNDY
Copyright by the Bobbs-
——
Jihad or holy war.
ahead,
Ismail, an Afridi, be-
He rescues some of Yasminl's
CHAPTER VIi—Continued.
wtf
It was not a long journey, nor a vety
slow one, for there was nothing to
block the way except occasional men
with flags, who guarded culverts and
little bridges. It was low tide under
the Himalayas. The flood that was
draining India of her armed men had
left Jamrud high and dry with a little
nondescript force stranded there, as
it were, under a British major and
some native officers. Frowning over
Jamrud were the lean “Hills,” peopled
by the fiercest fighting men on earth,
and the clouds that hung over the Khy-
ber’'s course were an accent to the sav-
hgery.
~ But King smiled merrily as he
Jumped out of the train, and Rewa
Gunga, who was there to meet him,
advanced with outstretched hand and
on the distant peaks if he had only
looked the other way.
“Welcome, King sahib!” he laughed,
with the alr of a skilled fencer who
admires another, better one. “I shall
know better another time and let youn
keep in front of me!
a comfortable journey?”
“Thanks,” sald King, shaking hands
prisoners in. They were baying now
like wolves to be free, and they surged
out, like wolves from a cage, to clamor
round the Rangar, pawing him and
struggling to be the first to ask him
questions.
“Nay, ye mountain people: nay!" he
What do I know of Your families or
of your friends?
pieces to make a meal?”
aid of an ash pick handle,
found beside the track.
stride beside King and led him away in
the direction of some tents,
“She is up the pass ahead of us,” he
announced. “She was In the deuce
of a hurry, I can assure you, She want-
ed to wait and meet You, but matters
were too Jolly well urgent, and we
shall have our bally work cut out to
catch her, you can het! But I have
everything ready—tents and beds and
stores—everything I"
King looked over his shoulder to
make sure that Ismail was bringing
the little leather bag along.
“So have 1.” he said quietly.
“I have horses,’ said Rewa Gunga,
“and mules and—"
“How did she trawl up the Khy-
ber?” King asked him, and the Rangar
spared him a curious sidewise glance,
a “The ‘Hills’ are her escort, King sa-
ib.
There isn’t a murdering ruffian who
would not He down and let her walk
on him! She rode away alone on a
thoroughbred mare and she jolly well
left me the mare’s double on which to
follow her. Come and look.”
Not far from where the tents had
been pitched in a cluster a string of
horses whinnled at a picket rope. King
‘saw the two good horses ready for
himself, and ten mules beside them
that would have done credit to any
outfit. But at the end of the line, paw-
ing at the trampled grass, was a black
mare that made his eyes open wide.
Once in a hundred years or so a vice-
roy’s cup or a Derby is won by an ani
mal that can stand and look and move
as that mare did.
“Never saw anything better” King
admitted ungrudgingly.
. “There is only one mare like this
one,” laughed the Rangar. “She has
her”
“Whatl you take for this one?”
King asked him. “Name your price I”
“The mare is hers. Yeu must ask
her. Who knows? 5%» ts generous.
There Is nobody om earls more gene
erous than she when sha cores to be.
See what you wear on your wyist!”
: “That is a loan,” sald King, unccven
Ing the bracelet. “I shall give It back
jo her when we meet.”
“See what she says when you meet 1
§ the Rangar, taking a cigarette
/ trom his jeweled case with an alr and
sm as he lighted it. “There Is
r tent, sahib”
With a nod of dismissal, King
ed over to inspect the bandobast,
finding it much more extravagant
he d have dreamed of provid-
or himself, he lit one of his black
" %
cheroots, and with hands clasped be-
hind him strolled over to the fort to
interview Courtenay, the officer com-
manding.
It so happened that Courtenay had
gone up the pass that morning with his
shotgun after quail. He came back
into view, followed by his little ten-
man escort just as King neared the
fort, and King timed his approach so
48 to meet him. The men of the
fee that from a distance.
cheerily, after he had saluted and the
salute had been returned.
“Oh, hello, King! Glad to see you.
Heard” you were coming, of course.
Anything I ean do?”
King, offering him a cheroot, which the
other accepted. As he bit off the end
they stood facing each other, so that
and what it carried.
his eyes,
*“T'wo of my men!” he said. “Found |
‘em up the pass, Gazi work, I think,
They were cut all to pieces, There's
a big lashkar gathering somewhere in |
80."
“Who's supposed to be leading 1t?" |
“Can't find out,” said Courtenay.
Then he stepped aside to give orders
They carried the dead
bodies into the fort.
“Know anything of Yasminl?" King |
af him again.
“By reputation, of course, yes, Fa- |
like a bulbul-—
dances like the devil—lives In Delhi
King nodded. “When did she start |
up the pass? he asked.
“She didn’t start! I know who goes
up and who comes down.”
“Know anything of Rewa Gunga 7"
King asked him.
"Not much. Tried to buy his mare.
Seen the animal? Gad! I'd give a
year's pay for that beast! He wouldn't
sell and I don’t Klame him.”
“that Yasminl went up the pass unes-
He drew out his wonderful cigarette
case and offered it open to Courtenay,
who hesitated, and then helped him-
self. King refused.
“Major Courtenay has just told me,”
said King, “that nobody resembling
Yasminl has gone up the pass recently.
Can you explain?”
“Do you mean, can I explain why
the major failed to see her? 'Pon my
soul, King sahib, d'you want me to
insult the man? Yasmin! is too Jolly
clever for me, or for any other man I
ever met; and the major's a man, isn't
he? He may pack the Khyber so full
of men that there's only standing room
and still she'll go up without his leave
if she chooses! There is nobody like
Yasmini in all the world 1”
The Rangar was looking past him,
facing the great gorge that lets the
north of Asia trickle down into India
and back again when weather and the
tribes permit. His eyes had become
interested In the distance. King won-
dered why—and Ilooked—and saw.
Courtenay saw, too.
“Hall that man and bring him here!”
he ordered,
Ismall, keeping his distance with
ears and eyes peeled, heard instantly
and hurried off. Fifteen minutes later
an Afridi stood scowling in front of
them with a little letter in a cleft stick
in his hand, He held it out and Cour
“Well—I'll be blessed! A note"—
split stick! Take it
dressed to you."
King obeyed and sniffed too, It
smelt of something far more subtle
than musk,
As he unfolded
gn's face. The Rangar seemed inter.
ested and amused. The note. in Ing-
“Dear Captain King: Kindly be
quick to follow me, because there is
much talk of a lashkar getting ready for
a raid. I shall walt for you in Khinfan
whither my messenger shall show the
way. Please let him keep his rifle. Trust
him, and Rewa Gunga and my
whom you brought with you.
senger's name is Darya Kahn,
ant, Yasmini™
who read it and passed it back.
“Tl find out,” the major muttered,
“how she got up the pass without my
twisted for this!”
But he did not find out until King
told him, and that was many days
threatened India from the north.
CHAPTER VIL.
nay.
They were seated In Courtenay's
tent, face to face across the low table,
with guttering lights between and ls
nd things to Courtenay's servant in-
“You're about the first who has ad-
Not far from them a herd of pack-
The evening brecze
brought the smoke of dung fires down
to them, and an Afghan—one of the
little crowd of traders who had come
down with the camels three hours ngo
~sang a walling song about his Iady-
love. Overhead the sky was like black
~ i
Do (Pah)
LENE
“Yon see, you ean’t call our end of
business war-—Iit's sport,” said
ber rifles, hired to hold the pas
against their own relations. Aguinst
them a couple of hundred thousand
tribesmen, very hungry for loot, armed
with up-to-date rifles, thanks to Russia
yesterday and Germany today, and all
perfectly well aware that a world war
Is in progress. That's sport, you know
—not the ‘image and likeness of war
that Jorrocks called it, but the real
red root. And you've got a Stery
thrown in to give it Dlquanily, 1
He Recognized the Same Strange |
Scent That Had Been Wafted From |
Behind Yasmini's Silken Hangings |
in Her Room in Deihi.
corted, mounted on a mare the very
dead spit of the black one you say
you wanted to buy.”
Courtenay whistled,
“I'm sorry, King. I'm sorry to say
he lied.”
King threw away his less than half
consumed cheroot and they started to
walk together toward King's camp.
After a few minutes they arrived at a
point from which they could see the
prisoners lined up In a row facing
Rewn Gunga. A less experienced en
than King's or Conrtenay’s eould have
recognized their attitude of reverent
obedience. Within two minutes the
Rangar stood facing them, looking
more at enso than they,
“I was cautioning those savages I"
he explained.’ “They'ze an escort, but
they need a reminder of the fact, else
they might jolly well Imagine them-
selves mountain goats and scatter
among the "Hills" *
got up the pass without my knowl
edge. I thought it was a trick.
Didn't belleve she'd gone, Yet all my
wen swear they know she has gone,
and nof one of them will own to hav.
ing seen her go! What d'you think of
that?”
For a while, as he ate Courtenay's
broiled quail, King did not answer.
But the merry smile had left his eyes
and he seemed for once to be letting
his mind dwell on conditions as they
concerned himself,
“How many then have you at the
fort?’ he asked at last.
“Two hundred-—all natives.”
“Like em?"
“What's the use of talking?" an-
swered Courtenay. “You know what
it means when men of un alien race
stand up to you and grin when they
salute. They're my own”
King nodded. “Die with you eh?”
“To the last man,” said Courtenay
quietly with that conviction that can
guy. be meived at in one way, and
that ensiest,
“I'd die alone,” sald King, “It'll be
§ -
I"
lonely ‘In the ‘Hills,
quail?”
And that was all he ever did say
on that subject, then or at any other
time,
“What shall yéu do first after you
get up the pass? Call on your brother
ut AN Masjid? He's likely to know
a lot by the time you get there.”
“Not sure,” said King. “May and
may not. I'd like to see him. Haven't
seen the old chap In a donkey's age.
How is he?”
“Well two days ago,” sald Courte-
nay.
“Here's wishing you luck!” sald
King. “It's time to go, sir.”
He rose, and Courtenay walked with
him to where his party waited in the
dark, chilled by the cold wind whis-
ting down the Khyber, Rewa Gunga
sat, mounted, at their head, and close
to him his personal servant rode an-
other horse. Behind them were the
mules, and then in a cluster, each
with a load of some sort on his head,
were the thirty prisoners, and Ismail
took charge of them officiously.
Darya Khan, the man who had
brought the letter down the pass, kept
close to Ismall,
King mounted, and Courtenay shook
hands; then he went to Rewa Gunga's
slde and shook hands with him, too.
“Forward! March!” King ordered,
and the little procession started.
“Oh, men of the ‘Hills, ye look like
ghosts — like graveyard ghosts I"
Jeered Courtenay, as they all filed
past him. “Ye look like dead men,
going to be judged!”
Nobody answered, They strode
behind the horses, with the swift, si-
lent strides of men who are going
home to the “Hills;” but even they,
Got any more
1
¢ AUT
VALENTINE
I ——
IIS HSI AES.
the flame burned brighter and stead.
ler and began to move and to grow.
“Hult!” King thundered: and his
voice was sharp and unexpected as a
pistol crack. This was something tan-
gible, that a man could tackle—a per-
fect antidote for nerves,
The blue light continued on a zig-
Zag course, as if a man were running
among bowlders with an unusual sort
of torch; and as there was no answer
King drew his pistol, took abont thirty
seconds’ aim and fired. He fired
straight at the blue light.
It vanished instantly, into measure-
less black silence,
“Now you've jolly well done ft,
haven't you!” the Rangar laughed in
his ear. “That was her blue light
Yasmini's I”
It was a minute before King an-
swered, for both animals were all but
frantic with their sense of their rid-
ers’ state of mind: it needed horse
manship to get them back under con-
trol.
“How do you know whose light it
was? King demanded, when the
horse and mare were head to head
again,
“It was prearranged. She promised
me a signal at the point where I am
to leave tif track!”
King drove both spurs home, and
set his unwilling horse to scrambling
downward st an angle he could not
guess, into blackness he could feel,
trusting the animal to find a footing
where his own eyes could make out
nothing.
To his disgust he heard the Ran-
gar immediately. To his even greater
disgust the black mare overtook him,
And even then, with his own mount
stumbling and nearly pitching him
headforemost at each lurch. he
forced to admire the mare's goatlike
agility, for she descended
gorge in running leaps, never setting
a wrong foot. When he and his horse
the
Rangar waiting for him.
“This way, sahib!”
black mare's heels were
and na
as he had
There w as
begun such
dreamed of.
never
“What now?” asked Ismail, pleking
up the leather bug that he regarded
as his own particular charge,
“Forward!” sald King
along I”
He began to set a fairly fast pace,
Ismail leading the spare horse and
the others towing the mules along.
Except for King, who was modern
and out of the picture, they looked
like Old Testament patriarchs, hur
rying out of Egypt, as depicted in the
ilustrated Bibles of a generation ago—
all leaning forward—each man carry-
Ing a staff—and none looking to the
right or left.
“Forward? growled Yemail. “With
this man it is ever “forward?” Is
there neither rest nor fear? Has she
bewitched him? Hal! Ye Inzy ones!
Ho! Bons of sloth! Urge the mules
faster! Beat the Jed horse
So In weird, wan moonlight, King
led them forward, straight up the
narrowing gorge, between cliffs that
seemed to fray the very bosom of the
sky. He smoked a cigar and stoned
at the view, as if he were off to the
mountaing for a month's sport with
dependable shikarris whom he knew,
Nobody could have looked at him and
guessed he was not enjoying himself.
“That man,” mumbled Ismail be-
hind him, “is not as other sahibs I
have known, He is a man, this onet
He will do unexpected things”
“Forward!” King called to them,
thinking they were grumbling, “Fore
ward, men of the ‘Hills’ ”
CHAPTER VIII.
After a time King urged his horas to
a8 Jog-trot, and forward
gan to
RTOW very narrow, and Ali Maxiid fort
more than a mile
Then King
counted, for he
he
in
inva-
with
the
“Come
they trotted
be much
away, at the widest guess,
rein and dism
would have ch
ridden much
the Khyher
4
Yur
ny of
been
farther, A
alienged had
chall
after dark consists
ried
ia
a volley at short range
the mere words afterward. and
=e man
“Off with the mules’ packs ™ he ore
and
the
wrod and son &f § ¢ i
aerada, and i i Blo i na
tared,
& on
to his horse's but
teeth and followed into
night, trusting ear,
and the god the
wen, who loves the
in
one; he se
eye,
of secret
reckless,
two minutes
for a second of the same
olue siren light that had started the
He suspected that there were
many torches placed at intervals.
His own horse developed a speed
and
probably the Rangar did not dare ex-
tend the to her limit in the
dark; at all events, for ten. perhaps
fifteen, minutes of breathiecss galiop-
Once every
mare
He Fired Straight at the Blue Light |
horn In the “Hills” and knowing them |
hunting |
nd, were awed by the gloom of |
Khyber mouth King's
was the first to break the silence, and
did not speak until Courtenay was |
out of earshot. Then:
“Men of the ‘HillsP'™ he called. |
“Kuch dar nahin hai!”
“Nahin hai! Hah™ shouted Ismail
“So speaks a man! Hear that, ye
mountain folk! He says, “There is |
no such thing as fear” *
In his place in the lead, King whis-
tied softly to himself; but he drew an |
automatic pistol from {ts place be-
neath his armpit and transferred it to
8 readier position,
Fear or no fear, Khyber mouth is
haunted after dark by the men whose
blood feuds are too reeking raw to
let them dare go home and for whom
the British hangman very likely waits |
a mile or two farther south. It is one |
of the few places In the world where |
a pistol is better than a thick stick.
Boulder, erag and loose rock
faded Into gloom behind: in front on |
both hands ragged hillsides were be.
ginning to close In: and the wind,
whose home Is in Allah's refuse heap,
whistled as It searched busily among
the black ravines. Then presently
the shadow of the thousand-foot-high
Khyber walls began to cover them.
After a while King's cheroot went
out, and he threw it away. A little
later Rewa Gunga threw away his
cigarette. After that, the veriest five
Yearold among the Zakka Khels,
watching sleepless over the vim of
some stone watch tower, could have
taken oath that the Khyber's unbur
ied dead were prowling in search of
empty graves. Prebably their un-
canny silence was thelr best protee-
tion; but Rewa Gunga chose to break
it after a time,
“King sahib!” he ealled softly, re-
peating it louder and more loudly un-
til King heard him, “Slowly! Not so
fast! There are men among those
boulders, and to go too fast is to make
them think you are afraid! To seem
afraid is to invite attack! Can we
defend ourselves, with three firearms
between us? Look! What is that?”
They were at the point where the
rond begins to lead uphill, westward.
leaving the bed of a ravine and as-
EEE
=O
ahead, voice
he
cending to join the highway built by
British engineers, Below, to left and
right, was pit-month gloom, shadows
amid shadows, full of eerie whisper
Ings, and King felt the short hair on
his neck begin to rise. He urged his
horse forward, The Rangar followed
him, close up, and both horse awd
mare sensed excitement, J
“Look, sahib!” 3 ;
After a second or two he
a glimpse of bluish flame that |
ing the Raungar either within sight or
sound,
But then the mare
denly behind a bowlder and was gone,
swerved sud
a minute later, and w faced by
blank wall of shale that brought
horse up all stand
for a thousand to the skyline,
There not much a8 a
track to show in which direction the
mare had gone, nor a sound of
Kind to guide him,
He dismounted and stumbled about
about ten minutes with
as
his
It led steep up
WAS
80)
any
ing to find some trace of hoof.
listened, with his ear
ground. There was no result.
He knew than to shout.
After some thought he mounted and
to the
better
bering
turns and twists with a gift
for direction that natives might well
have envied him. He found his way
back to the foot of the road at a
trot, where ninety-nine men out of al
most any hundred would have been
lost hopelessly ; and close to the road
he overtook Darya Khan, hugging his
rifle and staring about like a scorpion
“Did you expect that blue light, and
this galloping away? he asked.
“Nay, sahib; I knew nothing of it!
I was told to lead the way to Khin-
jan”
“Come on, then!”
On the level road above King stared
about him and feit in his pockets for
a fresh cheroot. He struck a mateh
and watched it to be sure his hand
did not shake before he spoke. A
man must command himself before
trying It on others,
“Where are the others?’ he asked,
when he was certain of himself.
“Gone!” boomed Ismail,
King took a dozen pulls at the
cheroot and stared about again. In
the middie of the road stood his sec
ond horse, and three mules with his
baggage, including the unmarked
medicine chest, Close to them were
three men, making the party now only
six all told, including Darya Khan,
himself and Ismail,
“Gone whither? Ismuil's volce was
eloquent of shocked surprise. “They
followed! Was it then thy baggage
on the other mules? Were they thy
men? They led the mules and went I”
“Who ordered them?”
“Allah! ‘ Need the night be ordered
to follow the day?”
“And thou?”
“I am thy man! She bode wae be
thy man 1”
“And these
“Try them!”
King bethought him of his wrist,
that was heavy with the weight of
gold on it. He drew back his sieeve
and held it up.
“May God be with thee!"
“Were 3
“God forbiam™
“Then
Ismail
“Thou!
that is
What is thy
“Badragga”
“Did she not
pass to be 8 pulde?
badragen
“lI say tho
burdens I” snsw
For answer the fell
ear to ear and thrust fle barrel
the
movement of determine t f man
when conclag-
drew up his slecves above the
At that instant the moon shone
gold bracelet
makes
sions,
glittered in the moonlight
“May God be with thea! “lord
atl once. without
and went to help off-
King stepped aside a: i
But for a vein of wisdom that une.
he have pock-
il cursed soft.
iy.
would
At That Instant the Moon Shone
Through the Mist and the Gold
Bracelet Glittered in the Moonlight.
eted the bracelet there and then and
have refused to wear it again, Dry as
he sweated his pride he overheard 13
mall growl:
“Good for thee! Me had taught thee
obedience In another bat of the eye !™
“1 obey her!" muttered Darya Khan,
YL, too,” sald Ismail. “So shall he
before the week dies! But now it is
good to obey him. He is an ugly man
to disobey I”
*I obey him until she sets me free,
then,” grumbled Darya Khan,
“Better for thee!” sald Ismail.
King meets his |