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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1917)
WW- RED CLOUD, NEBBA8KA, CHIEF t" ' I : King of the Khyber Rifles By TALBOT MUNDY The Most Picturesque Romance of the -Decade Copyright by Tfc Bofcto-Mtnlll Compy KING IS LED TO VISIT A VAST CAVE THROUGH WHICH AN UNDERGROUND RIVER FLOWS, AND IN A GREAT CAVERN MEETS THOUSANDS OF FANATICS 8ynoplfc At tho beginning of the world wnr Capt. Athclstnn Klag of tho Drltlsh Indian army and or its secret service, la ordered to Delhi to meet Yasmlnl, a dancer, and go with her to Ktnjan to meet tho outlaws there who nro snld by spies to be preparlug for a Jihad or holy war. On his way to Delhi King quietly foils a plan to assassinate him and gets evidence that Ynsmlnl Is after him. Ho meets Rewa Gunga, Ynsmlnl's man, who says sho has already gono north, and at her town house witnesses queer dances. Ismail, an Afrldl, be comes his body servant and protector. Ho rescues somo of Ynsmlnl's hlllmcn and takes them north with him, tricking tho Itnngnr Into going ahead. Tho Rangar deserts him at a dangerous time. He meets his brother nt All Masjtd fort The dlsgulso he assumes thcro fools even the sharp-eyed cutthroats composing hln guard. Ho enters Khlnjnn caves, thanks to his lying guides. CHAPTER XI. Continued. "Are thcro devils In Tophct? Fire And my veins nro onoi" The man did not notice tho eager mm beaming out of King's horn rimmed spectacles, but Ismail did; It seemed to him time to provo his vlr toes as assistant. "This is tho famous hakim Kurram Khan," he boasted. "He can cure any thing, and for a very little fco I" The man looked Incredulous, but King drew tho covering from his row f instruments and bottles. "Take a chance I" ho advised. "None but the brave wins anything 1" Ismail and Darya Khan were new to the business and enthusiastic. -They had the man down, held tight on tho ftoor to the hugo amusement of the rest, before he could even protest ; and his howls of rage did him no good, for Ismail drove the hilt of a knlfo bo tween his open Jaws to keep them open. rery large proportion of King's tores consisted of morphia and co caine. He Injected enough cocalno to tsaden the man's nerves, and allowed It time to work. Then ho drew out three back teeth In quick succession, ts make sure he had the right one. Ismail let the victim up, and Darya Khan save htm water In a brass cup. Utterly without pain for the first time for days, the man was as grateful as wolf freed from a trap. "Are there any others In pain In Khlnjan?" King asked him. "Listen to him I What Is Khlnjan? Is there one man without a wound or sore or a scar or a Blckness?" "Then, tell them," said King. The man laughed. . "When I show my Jaw, there will be fight to be first I Mako ready, hakim I Igol" i King sat down to cat, but he had not Inlshed his meal ho had made the last Uttlo heap of rico Into a ball with his fingers, native style, and was mop ping up the last of tho curried gravy with It when tho advance guard of the lame and the halt and the sick Bade Its appearance. The cave's en trance became Jammed with them, and bo rtet ever made more noise, ' "Hakim t Ho, hakim I Where Is the hakim who draws teeth? Where Is the sun whs knows yunanl?" Tea seen burst down tho passage all together, all clamoring, and one man wasted no time at all but began to tear away bloody bandages to show his wound. King rolled up his sleeves and began, so that eagerness gave place to wonder. The desperate need of winning his first trick, made him horror-proof ; and nobody waiting for the next turn waa troubled because tho man under the knife screamed a little or bled aaore than usual. When they died and more than one did die men carried them out and lung them over the precipice Into the waterfall below. Ismail and Darya Khan became choosers of tho victims. They seized a man, laid him on tho bed, tore off his disgusting bandages and held their breath until the awful resulting stench had more or less dispersed. Then King would probe or lanco or bandage as he saw fit, using anesthetics when he must, but managing mostly without them. They almost flung money at him. He tossed money and clothes and every ether thing they gave him Into a corner at the back of the cave, and nobody tried to steal them back, although a aoaa suspected of honesty In that company would have been tortured to Ceath as an heretic and would have had no sympathy. For hour after gruesome hour he tolled over wounds and sores such as caly battles and evil living can pro- lace, until men began to come at last with fresh wounds, all caused by bul lets, wrapped in bandages on which the blood had caked but bad not grown feat "There has been fighting In the Khy her," somebody Informed him, and he topped with lancet in midair to listen, canning a hundred faces swiftly In the smoky lamplight There wero ten men who held lamps for him, ono of them a newcomer, and It was ho who poke. "Fighting in the Khyber I Aye I Wo were a little lashkar, but we drove them back Into their forti Ayoi we slew many I" "Not a Jihad yet?" King asked, as If tho world might bo coming to an end. Tho words were startled out of him. Under other circumstances ho would never havo asked that question so di rectly; but ho had lost reckoning of everything but these poor devils' dread ful need of doctoring, and he was like a man roused out of a dream. If a holy war had been proclaimed already, then ho was engaged on a forlorn hope. Dut tho man laughed nt him. "Nay, not yet Bull-wlth-a-beard holds hack yet This was a little fight The Jihad shall come later I" "And who Is 'Bull-wlth-a-beard'?" King wondered; but ho did not ask that question because his wits were awako again. It pays not to bo In too much of a hurry to know things In the "Hills." As It happened, he asked no more questions, for thcro came a shout at tho cave entrance whose purport ho did not catch, and within Ave minutes after that, without a word of explana tion, tho cavo was left empty of nil ex cept his own five men. They carried nway tho men too Btck to walk and vanished, snatching the last man away almost before King's fingers had fin ished tying the bandage on his wound. "Why Is that?" he asked Ismail. "Why did they go? Who shouted?" "It Is night," Ismail answered. "It was time." King stared about him. Ho had not realized until then that without aid of tho lamps he could not sco his own hand held out In front of him ; his eyes had grown used to tho gloom, like those of tho surgeons In tho sick-bays below the watcrline In Nelson's fleet "But who shouted?" "Who knows? There Is only one hero who gives orders. Wo be many who obey," said Ismail. "Whoso men were tho last ones?" King asked him, trying a new lino. "Bull-wlth-a-benrd's." "And whoso man art thou, Ismail?" The Afrldl hesitated, and when ho spoke at last there was not qulto the mm sSTvX MM I WfAW if r WW I p the cave she, the woman of the faded photograph the general had given him In Pcshawur and that the cavo be carao filled lth the strange Intoxicat ing scent flint had first wooed his senses in her reception room In Delhi. He dreamed that she called 'im by name. First, "King sahib 1" Then "Kurram Khan!" And her voice was surprisingly familiar. But dreams are strange things." "Ho sleeps I" said the same voice presently. ")t is good that ho sleeps 1" And In his sleep ho thought that a shndowy Ismail grunted an answer. When he nwoko at last It was after dawn, and light shono down the pas sage Into tho cave. "Ismail 1" he shouted, for he was thirsty. But there was no answer. "Darya Klmnl" Again there was no answer. He called each of the other men by name with the same result Ho decided to go to the cave mouth, summon his men, who were no doubt sleeping. But there was no Ismail near the entrance no Dnryn Khan nor any of the other men. The horse was gone. So was tho mule. So was the harness, and every thing he had, except tho drugs and in struments and the-presents the sick lind given lilni; ho had noticed all those lying about in confusion when he woke. "Ismnlll" he shouted at the top of his lungs, thinking they might all be outside. He heard a man hawk and spit, close to the entrance, and went out to see. A man whom ho had never seen before leaned on a mngazlno rlflo and eyed. him as a tiger eyes his prey. "No farther I" ho growled, bringing his rifle to the port. "Why not?" King asked him. "Allah I When n camel dies In the Khyber do the kites ask why? Go In I" He thought then of Yasmlnl's brace let, that had always gained him nt least civility from every man who saw It. He held up his left wrist and knew that Instant why It felt uncomfortnble. Tho bracelet had disappeared! He turned back Into the cavo to hunt for It, and the strange scent greeted him again. In splto of the surround Ing stench of drugs and filthy wounds, thero was no mistaking It If It had been her special scent In Delhi, as Saunders swore It was, and her special scent on the note Dnryn Khan had car ried down the Khyber, then it was hers now, and she had been In the cave. He hunted high and low and found no bracelet His pistol was gone, too, and his cartridges, but not the dagger, wrapped In a handkerchief, under his shirt Tho money, that his patients had brought him, lay on the floor un touched. It was an unusual robber who had robbed him. "Who's 'Bull-wlth-a-beard'?" ho won dcrcd. "Nobody Interfered with mo un til I doctored his men. Ho's In oppo sition. That's a fair guess. Now, who In thunder by the fat lord Horry can 'Bull-wlth-a-beard' be? And why fighting In tho Khyber so early as all this? And why does 'Bull-wlth-a-beard,' whoever ho Is, hang back?" A Man Whom He Had Never Seen Be fore Leaned on a Magazine Rifle and Eyed Him as a Tiger Eyes Its Prey. same assurance In his voice as once there had been. "I am hers I Be thou hers, too I But It Is night Sleep against the toll to morrow, Thcro bo many sick In Khln jan." King made a llttlo effort to clean tho cave, but the task was hopeless. For one thing ho was so weary that his very bones wero water. Ho appointed two-hour watches, to relievo ono an other until dawn, and flung himself on a clean bed. IIo was asleep beforo his head had met the plllqw; and for all ho knew to the contrary ho drcumed of Ynsmlnl all night long. It seemed to him that i.lie enmo Into CHAPTER XII. They came and changed tho guard two hours after dawn, to the accom paniment of orders growled through tho mist, and the crash of rifle-butts grounding on tho rock pnth. King went to tho cavo entrance, to look tho new man over; he was a Mahsudl no Bwceter to look nt and no less treacher ous for tho fact Also, that he had bolls all over tho back of his neck. Ho was not likely to bo better tempered because of that fact, either. But It Is an ill wind that Wows no good to tho secret service. "Thcro Is an end to everything," ho remarked presently, addressing tho world at large, or as much as he could sco of It through tho cavo mouth. "A hill Is so high, a pool so deep, a river so wldo. There Is an end to pnlnl" ho went on, adjusting his horn-rlmmed spectacles. "I lanced a man's bolls last night, and It hurt him, but ho must be well today." "Go In I" growled the guard. "She says tt Is sorcery I She says none aro to let thco touch them!" "I can heal bolls l" said King, retir ing Into tho cave. Then, from a safe distance down .the passage, be added a word or two to sink in as the hours went by. At Intervals throughout tho day Yasmlnl sent him food -by silent messengers. It Is not easy to worry and eat heartily at ono and tho same time. Having eaten, ho rolled up his sleeves and native-made cotton trou sers and proceeded to clean tho cave. After that he overhauled his stock of drugs and Instruments, repacking them and making ready against opportunity. "As I told that heathen with a gun out there, thero's an end to every thing l" ho reflected, "May this como soon l" Thn Rppnnil rrunrrt that afternoon proved, even lets communlcntlvo than tho first, uyi to tho point when, to les sen his ennui, King began to whistle. Bach time ho camo nenr tho entrance tho new guurd could catch n few burs of the tune, After n llttlo whilo tho hook-nccd radian began to clng the 1 words to it, lu a voice like a forgotten dog's. So King stopped at the entrance and saw then a blood-soaked bandage on the right of his neck, not very far from the Jugular. "Hah I" said King. "Was that wound got In tho Khyber the other day?" "Nny. Heroin Khlnjnn." "A man told me last night," said King, drawing on Imagination without any compunction at ull, "that tho fight In tho Khyber was becauso a Jihad Is launched already." "That roan lied I" said the guard, shifting position uneasily, as if afraid to tnlk too much. "So I told hlrol" answered King. "I told him thero never will be another Jihad." "Then thou art a greater llur than he 1" the guard answered hotly. "There will bo a Jihad when she In ready, such nn ono as never yet was I India shall bleed for all the fat years she has lain unplunderedl Not n throat of nn un believer In tho world shall be left un slit! No Jihad? Thou liar! Get In out of my sight I" So King retired Into the cave, with something new to think about Was she planning the Jihad I Or pretending to plan one? Every once In n while the guard leaned far Into tho cave mouth and hurled adjectives at him, the mildest of which was a well of In formation. If his temper was the tem per of tho "Hills," It was easy to rend disappointment for a Jihad that should have been already but had been post poned. King let him alone and paced the cavo for hours. He was squatting on his bed-end In tho dark, llko a spectacled imago of Buddha, when the first of the three men came on guard again and nt last Ismail came for him holding a pitchy torch that filled the dim passage full of ncrld smoke and made both of them cough. Ismnll was red-eyed with It "Comet" ho growled. "Come, little hakim 1" Then he turned on his heel at once, as if afraid of being twitted with desertion. Ho seemed to want to get outside, where he could k'eep out of range of words, yet not to wish to seem unfriendly: But King made no effort to speak to him, following In silence out on to the dark ledge above the waterfall and no ticing that the guard with the bolls was back again on duty. He grinned evilly out of a shadow as King passed. "Make an end 1" he advised. "Jump, hakim, beforo a worse thing happens 1" To Illustrate the suggestion he kicked a looso stone over the cliff, and the movement caused him to bend his neck and so Inadvertently to hurt his bolls. He cursed, and thero was pity In King's voice when he spoke next. "Do they hurt thee?" "Aye, llko the devil I Khlnjan is a place of plagues 1" "I could heal them," King Bald, pass ing on, nnd'the roan stared hard. "Cornel" boomed Ismail through the darkness, shaking the torch to make It burn better and beckoning impatient ly, and King hurried after hlra, leaving behind a savage at the cave mouth who fingered his sores and wondered, mut tering, leaning on a rifle, muttering and muttering again as If he had seen a new light Instead of waiting for King to catch up, Ismail began to lead the way at great speed along a path that descend ed gradually until it curved round the end of tho chasm and plunged Into a tunnel where the darkness grew opaque. For thirty minutes ho led swiftly down a crazy devil's Btnlrway of uneven bowlders, stopping to lend a hand at the worst places, but ever lastingly urging him to hurry. Then the hell-mouth gloom began to grow fnlntly luminous, nnd tho water fall's thunder burst on their ears from close at hand. They emerged into fresh wet nlr and a sea of sound, on a rock ledge llko tho one above. Ismail raised tho torch and waved It The flro nnd smoke wandered up, until they flattened on a moving opal dome, that prisoned all tho noises In tho world. "Earth's Drink 1" ho announced, wav ing the torch and then shutting his month tight, as If afraid to voice sacri lege. It was the river, mllllou-colored In tho torchlight, pouring from a half-mile-long slash in tho cliff above them and plunging past them through the gloom toward the very middle of the world. Somewhere It met rock bottom and boiled there, for a roar like the sea's came up from deeps unimaginable. Ho watched the overturning dome until his senses reeled. Then be crawled on hands and knees to the ledge's brink and tried to peer over. But Ismail dragged him back. "Como I" be howled 7 but In all that din his shout was like a whisper. "How deep Is It?" King bellowed back. "Allah I Ask him who made It I" Tho fear of the falls was on the Afrldl, and ho tugged at King's arm In n frenzy of Impatience. Suddenly he let go nnd broko Into a run. King trotted after him. After ten minutes' hurrying uphill he guessed .they must ho lovel with tho river, In a tunnel run ning nearly pnrnllel. Ismail kept look ing back to bid King hurry and never paused once to rest -"Comol" he urged fiercely. "This lends to tne 'Heart of the Hills' 1" And after that King had to do his best to keep tho Afrldl's back In sight. They began after a time to hear voices and to see the smoky glare made byjither torches. Then Ismail set the prfce yet faster, and they became the last two of a procession of turbaned men, who tramped along a winding tunnel Into a great mountain's womb. The Bound of slippers clicking and rutchlng on the rock floor swelled and died and swelled again as the tunnel led from cavern Into cavern. In one great cave they came to every man beat out his torch and tossed it on a heap. After that there was a ledgo above the height of a man's head on either side of the tun nel, and along tho ledge little oil-burning lamps were spaced at measured Intervals. A quarter of a mile farther along there were two sharp turns In the tunnel, and then at last a sea of noise and a verltablo blaze of light Part of the nolso made King feel homesick, for out of tho mountain's very womb brayed u music-box, such ns the old-tlmo carousals made use of beforo tho days of electricity and steam. It woo being worked by Inex pert hands, for the time was some thing Jerky; but it was robbed of its tinny meanness nnd even lent majesty by the hugeness of a cavern's roof, ns well as by the crashing, swinging music It plnycd wild wonderful Invented for lawless hours and a klngless peo ple. "Mnrchons I Cltoycns I " The procession began to tramp In time to It, and the rock shook. They deployed to left and right into a space I'l 1(1 V1' "Cornel" He Urged Fiercely. "This 'Leads to the 'Heart of the Hills!'" so vast that the eye at first refused to try to measure It It was the hollow core of a mountain, fitted by the sea sound of n human crowd and hung with huge stalactites that danced and shift ed and flung back a thousand colors at tho flickering light below. Across the cavern's farther end for a space of two hundred yards the great river rushed, plunging out of a great fanged gap and hurrying out of view down another one, licking smooth banks on its way with a hungry sucking sound. There were llttlo lamps everywhere, perched on .ledges amid the stalactites, and they suffused the whole cavern in golden glow. In fho midst of the cav ern a great arena had been left bare, and thousands of turbaned men squat ted round It in rings. At the end where the river formed a tangent to them the rings were flattened, and at that point they were cut Into by the ramp of a bridge, and by a lane left to conuect the bridge with the arena. TKe bridge end formed a nearly square platform, about fourteen feet above the floor, and the broad track thence to the arena, as well as all the arena's boundary, had been marked off by great earthenware lamps, whose greasy smoke streaked up nnd was lost by the wind among tho stalactites. "Greek lamps, every ono of 'cm!" King whispered to himself, but he wasted no time Just then on trying to explain how Greek lamps hnd ever got there. There wus too much else to watch and wonder at No stens led down from the bridge end to tho floor; toward tho arenn It was blind. But from tho bridge's far ther end across the hurrying water stairs had been hewn out of tho rock wall and led up to a hole of twice a man's height, more than fifty feet above water level. On cither side of the bridge end a passage had been left clear to the river edge, and nobody seemed to care to Invade It although It was not marked off In any way. Each passage was about fifty feet wide and quite straight. But the space between the bridgo end and the arena, and tho arena Itself, had to be kept free from trespassers by fifty swaggering ruf fians, armed to the teeth. Every man of the thousands there had a knife In evidence, but the arena guards had magazlno rifles as. well as Khyber tulwars. Nobody else wore firearms openly. Some of tho arena guards bore huge round shields of pre historic pattern of a size and sort he had never seen before, even In mu seums. But there was very llttlo that ho was seeing that night of p kind that ho had seen beforo anywhere I Tho guards lolled Insolently, con scious of bruto strength and special favor. When uny mm. trespassed with so much as a too beyoud tho ring of lamps, a guard would slap his rifle-butt until the swivel rattled, and the of fender would scurry Into bemuds amid tho Jeers of any who had Been. Shoving, kicking and elbowing with set purpose, Ismail forced a way through the already seated crowd and drew King down Into the cramped space besldo him, close enough to the arena to be able to catch the guards' low laughter. But he was restless. Hcf wished to get nearer yet, only there seemed no room anywhere In front Then a guard threw his shield dowa with a clang and deliberately fired his rifle at the roof. The rlcochettlng bul let brought down a shower of splint ered stone and stalactite, and he grinned as he watched the crowd dodge to avoid It. Instantly a hundred men rose from different directions and raced for the arena, each with a curved sword la either hand. The yelling changed back into the chant, only louder than before, and by that much more terrible. Cym bals crashed. The music box resumed Its measured grinding of the "Marseil laise." And the hundred began an Afrldl sword dance, than which there Is nothing wilder In all the world. Its like can only bo seen under the shadow of the "Hills." Ismail seemed obsessed by tho spirit of hades let loose drawn by It, ns by a magnet, although subsequent events proved him not to have been altogether without n plan. He got up, with his eyes fixed on the dnncc, nnd thrust himself and King next to somo Orak zat Pnthnns, elbowing savagely to right and left to make room. And patience proved scarce. Tho nenrest man reached for the ever-ready Pathan knife, but paused In the Instant that his knife licked clear. From a swift side glnncc at King's face he changed to a full stare, his scowl slowly giv ing place to a grin as he recognized him. "Allah I" He drove the long blade back again. ' "Well met, hakim 1 See the wound heals finely 1" Baring his shoulder under the smelly sheepskin coat, he lifted a bandage gingerly to show the clean opening out of which King had coaxed a bullet the. day before. It looked wholesome and ready to heal. "Name thy reward, hakim 1 We Orakzal Pathans forget no favors 1" (Now that boast was a true one.) King nodded more to himself than to the other mnn. Ho needed, for In stance, very much to know who was planning a Jihad, nnd who "Bull-wlth- a-beard" might be; but It was not safe to confide Just yet In a chance-made ac qunlntnnce. A very fair acquaintance with some phases of tho East had taught him that names such as Bull wlth-a-beard are often almost photo graphically descriptive. He rose to his feet to look. A blind man can talk, but It takes trained eyes to gather Informa tion. The din had increased, and It was safe to stand up and stare, because all eyes were on the madness in the mid dle. There wero plenty besides him self who stood to get a better view, and he had to dodge from side to side to seo between them. "I'm not to doctor his men. There fore It's a fair guess that he and I are to be kept apart Therefore he'll be as far away from me now as possible, supposing ho's here." Reasoning along thnt line, ho tried to see the faces on the far side, but the problem wns to see over tho dancers' hends. Ho succeeded presently, for the Orakzal Pathan saw what he want ed, and In his anxiety to be agreeable, reached forward to pull back a box from between the ranks In front Its owners offered Instant fight, but made no further objection when they saw who wanted It andwhy. King won dered at their sudden change of mind. He found a man soon who was not Interested In the dancing, but who had eyes and ears apparently for every thing and everybody else. He watched him for tcnlnlnutes, until at last their eyes met Then ho snt down and kicked the box back to its owners. He touched the Pathan's broad shoulder. Tho man smiled and bent his turbaned head to listen. "Opposite," said King, "nearly ex actly opposite three rows from the front, counting the front row as one thero sits a man with a black beard, whose shoulders are like a bull's. As he sits ho hangs his head between them. Look I Seel Tell me truly what his nomo Is 1" The .Pathan got up nnd strode for ward to" stand on the box, kicking aside tho elbows that leaned on It and laugh ing when tho owners cursed htm. Ho stood on It nnd stared for five minutes, counting deliberately three times over, striking a finger on tho palm of his hand to check himself. "Bull-wlth-n-beard 1" he announced at last, dropping back Into place beside King. "Muhammad Anlm. The mullah Muhammad Anlm." "An Afghan?" King asked. "Ho says he Is an Afghan. But un less be lies ho Is from Ishtamboul (Constantinople)." Itching to ask more questions, King tho hakim Kurram Khan blinked mildly behind his spectacles and looked llko ono to whom a savage might safe ly case his mind. "He bade mo go to Slkaram where my village Is and bring him a hundred men for his lashkar. He says ho has her special favor. Walt and watch, I sayl" "Has he money?" asked King, appar ently drawing a bow at a venture for conversation's sake. But there Is an art In asking artless questions. King witnesses wild doings In the cavern and sees harrowing elnhts. Yasmlnl appears, a love ly vision, and the army of fight ers go wild with enthusiasm. (TO BB CONTINUED.) 2 XJ I sV X, i -f up i. .Art I K 'XJUW.-.IWrV.V fayWAnfm. . J.
