By TALBOT MUNDY
Copyright by the Bobbe-Merrill Company
isis
jihad or holy war,
Rewa Gunga, Yasmini's man,
ahead. The Rangar deserts him
brother at Ali Masjid fort.
Ismail, an Afridi, be-
He rescues some of Yasminl's
a dangerous time. He meets his
He enters Khinjan
CHAPTER XIil.—Continued.
Ee
“Aye! The liar the
gave it to him. He swears they
send more. Who are the
Who is a man who talks of a jihad that
Germans
will
says
unbelievers? 1 saw
at Nuklao. He ate
wed it down with
given him by
German once,
wine,
ition and
removed
“Who an
Ik
t I think know thee, |
hurt me al
drawing of a bullet
What thou
gentle fellon who
not at
ut of my
gahout me?
“That I will
thee again !™
Artiess statements are as
their question
the gutle lie deep, that is all,
For she
ml F 3}
1 foul of her, for
all
ais
Divito
knowest
dr the wound
088
useful
way as artless 18.
“Nay, nav! said ng
I fal
bandage?”
the sake
temntntion won
empialion was
terrific to ask
but King
it occurred
» had gi
i:
» Pathan that his ow
it be of
n that order
and presently
n theories on
subject mig! inter
“She will use thee for a rew:
“He who shall win and keeg
A Wretched-Looking Beluchi
Thrust Forward at a Run,
Arms Lashed tec His Sides.
Was
With
favor may have his hurts dressed and
his belly dosed. Her enemies may rot.”
“Does call
mad Anim enemy?’
“Nay, she
nae,”
she
King asked him,
never mentions him by
CHAPTER XIIL
dance went on for fifteen
vb
min.
we arens guards together fired a
at the roof, and the dance
whispered. “Here in
men walt for proof I”
He licked his teeth suggestively, as
when
an afterthought,
“I love thee! ‘Thou
rt a man after my own heart! But 1
am her man! Wait and gee!”
Ti { ah in the ares
Lie
Alt
¥
meal, Then, as
eld hoth arms
of a
ongregn
» great
ver conld
up the ech
i r
LE i
Instantly they
again, “His
iz his prophet!”
rophet I
an-
prophet-—is
his prophet- sald the
stalactites, in lond barks—then in
mnrs
That
then in awestruck whispers
id too he nll
SEI
the relig
tolerate. Considering that the mullah
must have kil his
man in
rioht
perh in it yas enough
"oe
There were men
vho shadd
red.
strangers I"
1 af
nd Is
for what
there, bey
oration
for him
:
Int was coming.
we, and one was
“wy
It
* men ong
mullah he
his
the fir
61 v nan!” the sled 46
! Al
came
other two were
three
witneases
swore that “{ man
from slaying an unbeliever
said he ran from
, a8 the custom ia, I let all
the Inw,
enter
“Good I”
might
“Good I”
gald the
have been
crowd.
foaming at the mouth,
gome of them-—the dancers ran to their
conts nnd set the crowd surging again,
rw
{f the
and
crowd whom King recognized
recognition brought no joy with it.
The mullah without halr or eyelashes,
through the mosque Into the eaves,
strode out to the middle of the arena
all alone! strutting and swaggering, He
recalled the man's last words and drew
no consolation from them, either,
“Many have entered! Some
out by a different road!”
Cold chills went down his baek, All
ant once Ismall’s manner became une:
couraging., He ceased to make a fuss
over the dancer and began to eye King
sidewige, until at last he seemed un-
ahle to contain the maliee that would
well forth.
“At the gate there vere only words!”
went
were,
Yet they licked their lips,
“But later, word came to me saying
So-—agaln as the cus.
is~1 ordered them bound and
held! Does nny speak for them?”
“Speak for them?" said the roof,
There was silence. Then there was
a murmur of astonishment,
posite to where King sat the muliah
up, who the Pathan said
“Bull-with-a-beard "Muhammad
ind
was
Anim,
“The men are mine!” he growled.
His voice was like a bear's at bay: it
was low, but it carried strangely. And
a3 he gpoke he swung his great head
between his shoulders, like a bear that
means to charge. “The proof they
brought has been stolen! They had
I speak for them!
pes
"
men are mine
The Pathan nudged King in the ribs
with an elbow like a club and tickled
his ear with hot breath,
“Bull with-a-beard speaks truth!” he
grinned, “Truth and a He togothor!
Good may it do him and them! They
die, they three Baluchis!"
“Proof I” howled the muliah who had
no hair or eyelashes,
“Proof! Show us proof!” yelled the
crowd,
The Pathan next King leaned over to
whisper to him again, but stiffened tn
re TE ———
er anni
ft ——
the act. There was au great gasp the
same Instant, as the whole crowd
caught its brenth all together. The
mullah In the middle froze into im-
mobility. Bull-with-a-beard stood
mumbling, swaying his great head from
side to side, no longer suggestive of a
bear about to charge, but of one who
hesitates,
The crowd was staring at the end of
the bridge. King stared, too, and
caught his own breath. For Yasminl
stood there, smiling on them all as the
pew moon smiles down on the Khyber!
She had come among them lke a spirit,
ull unheralded.
So much more beautiful than the one
likeness King had seen of her that for
a second he doubted who she was, she
stood there, human and warm and real,
who had begun to seem a myth, clad
gauzy silk transparent stuff that
made no secret of sylphlike shapeli-
ness and looking nearly light enough to
blow away. Her feet—and they were
the most marvelously things
had ever ked and
played restlessly on the naked
Not part of her still
fraction of a second;
molded
Bel Were n
wis
the
ense,
one for
yet
insolently |
fect was of nzy
jewels stitched
sx, and w hen a
to her gossamer
man once looked at
did find It eusy to
in. E Muhammad
ned transfixed, like a great
nimal.,
look
ven mullah
#
scot n
15 tn
iim ov
re two brace
sri t)
Mii i
ler of the two
She nodded once: and then all was
over in a minute, With a ringing “Ho”
and a run, the guards lifted thelr vie.
tims shoulder high and bore them for-
word. At the river bank they paused
for a second to swing them, Then, with
another “Ho!” they threw them like
ter,
went echoing and re-echoing to the
roof. There was scarcely a splash,
and no extra ripple at ail. No heads
came up again to gasp. No fingers
clutched at the surface, The fearful
speed of the river sucked them under,
to grind and churn and pound them
through long caverns underground and
hurl them at last over the great ecata-
ract toward the middie of the world,
“Ah-h-h-h-h!” sighed the crowd in
ecstasy.
“Is there no other stranger?’ asked
Yasmini, searching for King again with
The skin all
turned there and then
And ns her eves met his
Inughed like a bell at him, She
knew! Bhe knew who he was, how he
had entered, nnd how he felt, Not a
doubt of it!
down
his back into
gooseflesh,
she
CHAPTER XIV.
“Kurram Khan!" the In
like a in
light, and King stood up. In that grim
minute he managed to seem about as
much at ease as a native hakis
to feel at such an initiation,
“Come forward!”
and
tween men who were
shless mullah
howled, lone wolf the
the mullnh howled,
tread hes
nx to let
be-
he obeyed, ing gingerly
at Do pd
him by, and silently blessing them,
he was not really in any
nt all,
sweet,
“Who are his witnesses?"
“1! shouted Ismall, Jumping up.
“11 eracked the roof. “It It
at for a second King slmost belleved
crowd of 1 for
$
i did
all, who rose
had a nen to
swenr
fm an not hear Darya Khgn s
from i not very far
Ismail fo
man
clothes
lowed
wading a
gathered
arm ready
an did not
in
in cas
forward a n
len box that Kin
seized it
way
» WN
114
were so ailgke, ex
for so exactly like the
id given hi
name and th A n stolen
in
of removing
stare
nent
with unimpe
he distance was too great.
not quit
tut
wil
ew two
to search the
in nnd then
sitting where
facing
all
ail
them
em
ye and
of us!”
ig felt ten sand burn
in his back, but the one pair of
: 11
eves
v (Hae noeert £2
Rurram Khan!
urs i
HE
gympton
sharply and grew
flicked thr
developed
» free of
out to bring
bid
the
new
recruits,
better than
nt
oa
proof for onr
to
lies for others gate, Nor,
recruit, do
we send men to hunt 8 head for Mm
even those of us who have a lash
kar that we call our own, mullah Mu-
hammad Anim!
own way in!”
switing
not
to stroke his ben
gwor,
“And Muhammad
wandering man eof
lashkar has foolishly
mullah Anim,
that been sent
wns a head, and that the head was
A le is a lle, Muhammad
Anim! Wandering perhaps is good, if
in search of the way. Is it good to
lose the way, and te lle, thou true fol
She smiled, tossing her hair back.
him and her chin scorned. The crowd
breathed hard and watched, The mul-
inh muttered something in his beard,
and sat down, and the crowd began to
roar applause at her. But she checked
it with a regal gesture, and a glance
of contempt at the mullah that was
alone worth a journey across the
“Hills” to see,
“Guards!” she sald quietly. And
the crowd's sigh then was like the night
wind in a forest,
“Away with those three of Muham-
mad Anim's men!”
Twelve of the arena guards threw
down their shields with a sudden clat
ter and seized the prisoners, four to
each. The crowd shivered with de-
liclous anticipation. %'he doomed men
neither struggled nor Jeried, for fatal
ism is an anodyne as dell ax an oxplo-
give. King set hie teotV. Yasmin, with
both hands behind her Youd, continued
to smile down on theth all as sweetly
ns the stars shine on § battlefield,
he re
hin
ha
8 man on a spit
By the time he
ympletely around he
Yasmini
frightened, bu 1 wh bh
Ro
meant he shoul
he cease together
htened and te
o than ever.
Sab
» 10 100K
ipenk, Kurram Khan!”
marred, her lovellest,
thems whom 3
King turned the
rafsing himself
like 2
roops on parade,
otf
er
hout, is
i acing thousan
He nearly gave
away for habit had him
hakim, given
India. would
shouted in that way.
appitin_ Attieystan
i. And he nearly
n when h
34634
nog
Ring !™
jumps i ot
YOILOoe of © rat
roof over-
i% own
fling back at him from the
“Throw it! Throw it! Throw it!"
The crowd wag growing impatient.
Many men were standing, waving their
arms to draw attention to themselves.
Catching Yasmini's eyes, he knew it
had not entered her head that he might
| disobey,
He looked past her toward the river.
| There were no guards near enough to
prevent what he intended; but he had
to bear in mind that the guards had
rifles, and if he acted too suddenly one
of them might shoot at him unbidden.
Holding the head before him with both
hands, he began to walk toward the
river, edging nll the while a little to-
ward the crowd as if meaning to get
nearer before he threw, He reached the
river and stood there.
His next made gavage
who watched him gasp because of its
very unexpectedness. He held the
head in both hands, threw it far out
into the riv@® and stood to watch it
gink., Then, sible emotion of
any kind, he buck stolidiy to
face Yasmini bridge end,
shoulders n stubborn
move every
vithout vi
walked
ut the with
little
more now
too high, for there
gh,
who could act quite perfectly,
“Thou fool!” Yasmini w
through lips that did not move.
Dever wis a
“Throw It! Throw It!”
i betrayed a flash of t
Smner
wel shetiger's, but f
:
| to lowed it
11
stantly with her lovelies
that
rps TYP
“Riay him!” yelled a lone voice
was greeted by an appt
The
unced in a rising
for 1 sur
ig a darbar
rbar
8 a whipped
wi Kurram Khan!
enid smiling
K
the tone
HOT. 3
¥ the cat would It
He bowed k
very low
had to think.
| and
crowd.
w
indeed and
repeats dd
“My brothers”
that of
iligh,
r ahead,
was he
slain?” asked
muliah.
“In the Khyber pass.” sald King.
“Now give proof!”
Without good proof, there is
only one way out of here!”
“Proof!™ the crowd
“Proof I” the roof echoed.
There was no need for Darya Khan
King's hands were behind
and guessed what he had guessed while
at him.
hair,
“Nay,
Khan,
hy the jawbone!
hands I”
King obeyed, without looking at the
His fingers closed on human
it is short!
“Take the two ears, or hold it
Hold it high in both
crowd, rese on tiptoe and filled his
lungs for the effort of his life.
“The head of Cappitin Attieystan
King—infidel — kaffir British
cer!” he howled.
“Good I” the crowd bellowed. “Good!
Throw 11”
The erowd’s roar and the roof's
echoes combined in pandemonium.
“Throw it to them, Kurram Khan!"
Yasmini purred from the bridge end,
speaking as softly and as sweetly as
if she coaxed a child, “It is the cus
tom!”
“Throw It!
thundered, =
He turned the ghastly thing until it
lay face-upward in his hands, and so
at Inst he saw it. He caught his breath,
and only the horn-rimmed spectacles,
that he had cursed twice that night,
saved him from self-betrayal. The
cavern seemed to sway as he looked
into the dead face of his brother
Charles,
If Yasmin! detecte) bls nervousness
she geve Jp aim,
Throw it!” the crowd
an Englishman,
hat had happened, ye would
iamed me ™
Yasmini smiled. Taking its cue from
her, the crowd murmured
sent, but rather recognition of the ha.
kir The game was
won * ere lacked a touch to tip the
n his favor, and Yasminl sup-
plied it with ready genius,
“The hakim speaks the truth !™ she
laughed.
King turned about instantly to face
| her, but he salanmed so low that she
| could not have seen his expression had
{| she tried.
{| “If ye wish it, IT will order him
| tossed ifto Barth's Drink after those
{ other three” .
i
| Mohammad Anim rose, stroking his
i
scnreely
's adroitness,
tl
t
:
genles
beard and rocking where he stood.
“It iz the law!"
King shuddered.
“It is the law.” Yasmini answered in
fn voice that rang with pride and in-
solence, “that none Interrupt me while
1 speak! For such ill-mannered ones
Earth's Drink hungers! Will you test
my authority, Muhammad Anim? Think
ye! If that head had only fallen into
Muhammad Anim’s lap, the mullah
might have smuggled in another man
with it!”
A roar of laughter greeted that
thrust. Many men who had not laughed
at the mullah’s frst discomfiture
Joined in now, Muhammad Aning sat
and fidgeted, meeting nobody's eye and
answering nothing.
“So it seems to me good.” Yasmind
sald, in a volce that did not echo any
more but rang very clear and true (she
seemed to know the trick of the roof,
and to use the echo or not as she
chose), “to let this hakim live! He
shall meditate in his eave a while, and
perhaps he shall be beaten, lest he
dare offend again. He can no more es.
he growled, and
cape from Khinjen caves thap tho
women who are prisoners here, He
may therefore live!”
There was utter silence, Men looked
nt one another and at her, and her
blazing eyes searched the crowd swift-
ly. It was plain enough that there
were at least two parties there, and
that none dared oppose Yasmini's will
for fear of the others.
“To thy seat, Kurramm Khan!” she
ordered, when she had waited a full
minute and no man spoke,
He wasted no time, He hurried out
of the arena as fast as he could walk,
with Ismall and Darya Khan close at
his heels, Ismail overtook him, seized
him by the shoulders, hugged him, and
dragged him to the empty seat next to
the Orakzal Pathan. There he hugged
him until his ribs cracked,
“Ready o' w» he
tongue! Light o Man after
mine heart! Hey, 1 love thee!
Readily I would be thy man, but for be-
ing hers! Turned the joke on Muham-
Anim! Turned it inst her
enemy and raised a Inug ninst hin
' wit!
Allsh
it" erowed,
“Ready
0’ life!
own
mad
men!
! lucky
urely good to thee!”
Have they t All Masjid fort?"
King whispered
“Nav, how
She knows more than any man
King turned to ask t}
tion of his friend the Orakz:
but the Pathan would ha
shnmeless one
aken
shonld 1 know? Ask her!
knows”
ie sun
questions,
whispers f
both
with
aside,
The crowd was very far from }
isfied. An had be
gun to fill the cavern as ¢ + is filled
th the
But
snt murmur
BONE
Even Bo, surm
FOE not easy 1«
[asminl’'s carels
Heys In 1)
¢
grown ver)
Of the “Heart o
gry Wo
md bh g
e “Heart of the Hills”
ian seemed to have 1
He thought of the
wrapped In a handk
hirt with
and told «
bout th
ite hronge
the shate of a
ing w
on
She the owners of
busy at hay
snd their ox
from another wolf-pack in another di
rection “far beyond.”
She urged them to wait a little while.
The ox was big enough and fat enough
to nourish ail the wolves in the world
Let them wall,
about the
who
thomselves
sang
ox,
were
ing all together, overwhelm its pres.
ent owners and devour the ox! Sao
urged the “Heart of the Hills” speak.
ing to the mountain wolves, according
to Yasmini's song.
The little cubs In the burrows know
Are yo grown wolves, who hurry so?
She paused, for effect ;: but they gave
tongue then because they conld not
help it, and the cavern shook to their
terrific worship.
“Allah! Allah!”
They summoned God to come and
gee the height and depth and weight of
their allegiance to her! And because
for their thunder thoge wag no more
chance of being heard, she dropped
from the shield like a blossom. No
sound of falling could have been fvord
in all that din, but one could sey =t=
made no sound. The shield bearers
ran back to the bridge and stood below
it, eyes agape.
Disguised as he is, King is
placed on trial for his life. At a
critical moment a human head Is
thrust into his hands. When he
secu the face, the shook is ter
ribie. The victim lp