{HE CENTRE REPORTER, CENTRE HALL, PA. King of the Khyber Rifle A Thrilling Story of German Intrigue Among lL elahty yards before it began to curve} and its din was like the voice of all ation, i Ismail came and stood by King if stlence, taking his hand as a little child might. Presently he stooped and picked up a stone and tossed it over, i “Gone I” he said simply. “That dowd there is Earth's Drink 1 “And this is men boast about “Nay! It {8 not!” snapped Ismail Hi the ‘Heart of the Hills" yr By Talbot Mundy Copyright by the Bobbs-Merrill Company Jihad or holy war. Rewa Gunga, Yasmini's man, and at her town house witnesses comes his body servant hillmen and takes them north w ahead. The Rangar deserts him brother at All Masjid fort. Th the sharp-eyed cutthroats com is ordered Kinjan to spies to be preparing for a Delhi King quietly foils a plan to y& she has already north, Ismail, an Afridi, be- He rescues some of Ya im, tricking the gone HNOCes, smini's tangar into going He meets his a dangerous time. + assumes there fools even CHAPTER X. me re Even with the man with the stom- ach ache mounted on the spare horse for the sake of extra (and was not suffering one-fifth so m he pretended); with Ismail fo ur and King to coax, and the fear mountain death on every side of them, they were the part of a night and a day and a night and a part another day in reaching Khinjan. At night and at noon they slept # Yully at the chance-n holy man. The “H 1 them, marked by fluttering can be for though the Quran's stretched speed uci ine of som full rags et shr fire seen are adept a those shrines self, Men who yw throats than is n 'o Khinjan, ence wonld eanmhlas Enmuois iri sanctuaries, temporary havo HUN two men !™ see the easy ! How Britis out to see the caves? e, very Thi listen jervants the of 1 et Some, th » out again!” what my many ! entered »y Khinjan, f he KE spy r n, is to thee?” case « him, “Who Are You?” Being, Whose Voice Was So Like a Wolf's That the Words at First Had No Meaning. again and there is a secret, then the secret will be kept, and what is the trouble?” “I love thee” the Afridi answered simply. “Thou art a man after mine own heart. Turn! Go back before it is too late!” King shook his head. \ “I was in Khinjan once before, my friend! 1 know the rule! I failed to cause I ind no witnesses to swear they had seen me slay a man in the teeth of written law. I know!” “Who saw thee this time?" Ismail puked, and began to cackle with the £eruel humor of the “Hills,” that sees J ent In a man's undoing, or in ® destruction of his pana, “Pe warned and go back 1” \ “Come with me, then.” “Nay, I am her man. She walts for “l 1 gine laughed King. sted In this place Ie It was ter min m sh ie Ww is “Forwa for me 1 We) enough! rd when tl ment the Ia topped and un iB it Ki rock ey es of in- walls, a mile-wide the human Across Khinjan 3] . Ae Hnreg habitation rOTIOTe i HAUsSe none uild., It was stood on bott: a dreg ym and m fingerin 1ises and ly able for the haze to see the tangled mas £ stone t Oawers mud- | aching and grew nun 1 another tw nother volley rattio INC ced to hold hirst had One of } had no meaning. hat the words at Ie peered over the parapet, a hundred feet above, with his head dirty linen that he looked daged corpse, “What will ye? Who vited into Khinjan?” King bethought hin talisman. He held it up, and the gold hand glinted in the sun. Yet, although Hillman's eyes are keener than an he did not believe the thing S50 like a comes unin of Yasimini's that distance. Another thought suggested itself to him, He turned his head and caught Ismail in the act of ignaling with both hands, “Ye may come!” howled the watch in on the parapet, disappearing in- stantly, King trembled—perhaps as a race- trembles at the starting gate, 1 he was weary enough to trem- vm fatigne, 1 tll in hand when he led his men or} : 1 Hg » fre fo : in the bottom of a high battle nted wall and waited for somebody to open 14, The great teak door looked ns if it 1d been stolen from some Hindu tem- High savage intervening miles, with a parapet of stone bullt upon it, pierced for rific-fire, As they approached a Rangar ture in, not unlike King's own, appeared humoredly, “Salzam cum I” “And upon thee be pence!” King an- swered in the Pashtu tongue, for the “Hills” are polite, whatever the other principles, Rewa Gunga's face beamed down on him, wreathed in smiles that seemed to include mockery as well as trinmph, Looking up at him at an angle that made his neck ache and dazzled his eyes, King could not be sure, but it seemed to him that the smile sald, “Here you are, my man, and aren't you He more than half sus. pected he was intended to understand that. But the Rangar's conversation took another Mne. "By Jove!” he chuckled. “She ox- pected you, She guessed you are a hound who can hunt well on a dry scent, and she dared bet you will eome ieik expect you in Rangar dress! Jove! You jolly well will wind out of her sails!” i King made no answer, For one thing, | the word “hound,” even in English, is not essentielly a compliment. | had a better reason than that. “Did you find the way easily?’ the Rangar asked: but King kept silence. “Is he parched? Have they cut his tongue out on the road?” That question was in Pashtu, direct- No, by take the answered it. “Oh, as for that,” he said, salaaming agnin in the fastidious manner of a na- tive gentleman, *I know other j tongue than Pashtu and my own Ra- | Jasthani, My 1 ask admittance.” | He held up his w { gold bracelet, nnd high the Rangar laughed like a Iv il. “Shabash !" he laughed. Enter, Kurram Khan thou and thy m« | name!" no show to over his 1. Somebody pulled door yawned wide, Howed no sky. A i in a far corner of the courtya ine a eyed, lean looking dress who leaned gh a OTe. on a stared at them under his } 2 leisurely considera rubbed his nose slowly spat contemptuously, the finger to beckon them riy and turning on. ot say one word, King led the wr the way af “Hills” wh nn 1 Ta im on cru nay be excused even in virtue, a nn on for ng mercy IT ! showi iis men of alley 3 of square OX and hundred factions ve opposed stout resistance anny i! ¥ and et, of f lf a mile long. the Dwellings™ « apa, and it hs Ki an rioters, as tions out of India, that a man on a lon ie if width, and It is ma mn the s boon burs od 8 nj x urney never expe n his return, either hans rs, out of whi a mot- ned to stare There were Hin people swart ¢ his men, Yoophanis, writers to the chiefs (since lit & premium in these parts) In proof of Khinjan's catholic ] ite villainy of nearly every Indian breed | and caste, many of them stolen shameful slavery, but there from choice, And there were lit tie children—little naked brats with round drum tummies, who squealed | and shrilled and stared with bold eyes, keepers of account I : eracy is at criming Hane women + some 0aem i Perhaps a thousand souls came out to watch, all told. Not an eye of on King's trappings, or the govern. ment brand on the mules, and after a minute or two, when the procession was half-way down the street, a man reproved a child who had thrown a stone, and he was backed up by the They classified King correct. Iy, exactly ag he meant they should. As A hakim-—a man of medicine—he could Gil a long-felt want: but by the brand otitrements he walked an | others, i on his nee nt { iim a brother ip crime. cuffed the next child who p stone, He knew the street of old. although It had changed perhaps a dozen times since he had seen it. It was a cul-de. sac, and at the end of 1t, Just as « n his previous visit, there stood a stone mosque, whose roof leaned back at n steep angle against the mountainside. It was a famous mosque in ite way, for the bed sheet of the Prophet is known to hang in It, preserved against the ravages of time and the touch of infidels by priceless Afghan rugs be. fore and behind, so that it hangs lke a great thin sandwich before the rear stone wall. King had scen It. Toward the mosque the one-eyed ruf- flan led the way, with the long, leisure Iy-seeming gait of a mountaineer, At the door, in the middle of the end of the street, he paused and struck on the lintel three times with his gun butt. And that was a strange proceeding, to gay the least, in a land where the mosque is public resting place for homeless ones, and all the “faithful” have a right to entér, A mullah, shaven like a mummy for some unaccountable reason--even his eyebrows and eyelashes had been re. moved-—pushed his bare head through the door and blinked at them. There wis rome whispering and more star. | ing, and at last the mull om turned his The guide The gun-hutt door slammed, grounded his | and the { watched by the crowd that had lost its | interest sufficiently to talk and joke, | In two minutes the muliah returned and threw a | turned out to be the end of a long nar- | row strip that he kicked and unrolled in front of him all across the floor of the mosque, After that it was not astonishing that were allowed to enter. “Which prov I was all!” murmured King t In a box ndum, made place one-eyed on the | stone, procession walted, 50 the horse 8lee] “Il Slew an Englishman!” | body had believed 1 more than | bit it Is good, even Ra 0 ila mmed at was another m faint 1 indows, ig? $ hottie cl v i v and little at the Prophet's bes of white . the relle 1 f the shadow with his back to it nearer. He opm ing section a sul of it {and the pla) rin | lnashless eyes “What Is nak ed——ng a lamb wants. "Audience with her!” K swered, and showed the gold { on his wrist, i The red eyerims of blinked a time or two, anc did t salute the bracele had invariably done, his manner | derwent a perceptible change. “That Is pr | What is thy name?” “Kurram hakim."™ “We necd in i But none énte ho have right There is but one key. Name King #3 wold ing an- though he 1% others the 1 no t. un- Khan, thee fo ente it!” drew in his breath. hdped Vasmini's t to be Ley enough. left hand nearly pierced he sn : “He t man before witnesses in written law!” he said. “And thou?” “1 slew an Englishman!” The boast made his blood run cold, but his ex. pression was one of sinful pride. “Whom? When? Where?” He had ould prove The nails of his the palm, but 1 aii Ean w who would enter v4 i ust siay a the teeth of ~%ent on his way to these ‘Hills’ to spy 1” It was like having spells cast on himself to order! “Where is his body?” “Ask the vultures! Ask the kites!” “And thy witnesses?” Hoping against hope, King turned and waved his hand, As he did 80, being quick-eyed, he saw Ismail drive an elbow home into Darya Khan's ribs, and caught a quick interchange of whispers, “These men are all known to me,” sald the mullah. “They have right to enter here. They have right to tes. tify. Did ye see him slay his man?” “Aye!” lied ismali, prompt as friend ean be, . “Aye!' lied Darya Khan, fearful of Ismail's elbow, “Then enter!” sald the priest re signedly, as one who admits a ecom- munieant against his better Judgment, He turned his back on them so as to. .face the Prophet's bed sheet and hairy hand gripped King's arm from behind, and Ismall’s voice hissed hot breathed in his ear. “Ready of tongue! Ready of wit! skin? be then—but 1 Hers, thou light knows I love The mull: sheet thy kismet as thy not thy life courage ian ' God am hers, of hee 1 though ih seized the Prophet's bed in both reverence they and its rugs ith at much show for whut The whole lot means of noisy rings ay bare, f « covering hands, w yout as as sales men in stock, tO One slid side by on a rod 4 roiled appears a 3 ww} the wihole interior allt nae Some | wisest | Many | a again by i road I “Lead along, Charon I” King grinn He needed some sort of pleasantry to od steady his nerves. But, even 80, he what the nerves India { would be like if her millions knew of | this place, ¢ wondered of CHAPTER XI. The gap closed up behind them and “Then, where But the one-eyed go pa , ind King led the way after him, staring as hakim or prisoner of | any man had right to do on first ade< { mission to such Not to havd stared would have been to proclaim pt ALL ide beckoned (me tiently wonders himself an idiot, They soon began to pass t CAVER, and then at he mouths the road, crazy heights above reached by artificial steps hewn out ! of the were reached from the road by means of lad« that tremi i 3 Bome were nhove stone Others below, ders, ie ived over of the armed men heir ens sound OXL any+« King's men's ink of hen Tsmalg ter of his shod « loves mide the a iq id + ww FS - AsO om igh at us? but he ried to ohey wondered vho would laugh. Witt an hour nm came rom no less a person in Yasmin If, bearing her con nts, and 1w0t food enough to make a By this timg instru 1 4 He savory brass Idol's mouth water. King had his sets of ments and drugs and bandages all laid on of the bed d covered from view by a blanket. It was only one more proof of the British army's luck that one of the men, who set the great brass dish of food on the floor near King, had swollen ~heek, and that he surgical ont ane 3 everiasting a should touch the swelling clumsily as the tunnel begun to echo weirdly. Over | their at irregular intervals, | | there were holes that if they led as | heads, King presumed into caves above, left! not an inch of all the long passage that could not have been swept by rifle fire. It was impregnable: for no artillery heavy enough to pound the mountain ever be dragged within range. Whatever hiding place entrance guarded could be held forever, given food and cartridges ! The tunnel wound to right and left like a snake, growing lighter and light er after each bend ; and soon thelr own din began to be swallowed in a greater one that entered from the farther end. After two sharp turns they came out unexpectedly into the glaze of blue day, | nearly stunned by light and sound. A roar came up from below like that of an ocean in the grip of a typhoon. When his wits recovered from tne shock, King struggled with a wild de sire to yell, for before him was what no servant of British India had ever seen and lived to tell about, and that is an experience more potent than un- broken rum. They had emerged from a round. mouthed tunnel—it looked already like a rabbit-hole, so huge was the cliff be hind-on to a ledge of rogk that formed a sort of rond along one side of a mileewide chasm. Above him, ft seemed a mile up, was blue sky, to which limestone walls ran sheer, with searcely a foothold that eould be seen. Beneath, so deep that eyes could not guess how deep, yawned the stained gorge of the underworld, many-colored, smooth and wet. And out of a great, Jagged slit in the side of the clifr, perhaps a thousand feet below them, there poured down into pieces could this “Does It Pain Thee, Brother?” Asked Kurram Khan, the Hakim, he lifted his hand to shake back a locH of greasy hair. There followed an oath like flint struck on steel ten timey in rapid succession. ; “Does it pain thee, brother? naked Kurram Khan the hakim. the rear wall, and In that minute a
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