Show yellow men sleep zay by jeremy lane illustrated by IRWIN MYERS MYER S copyright by the century co I 1 CHAPTER XI continued 15 do you dream often often I 1 do not care for sleep but tt it la Is pleasant to dream have you found it so he thought carefully yes ive always dreamed it runs in your family and in mine 11 1 I come liere here every day said velen helen the sun must tie be very hot 1 I am accustomed to it I 1 do not resist it there Is great life in it it lifts has made you lovely he said but it was unkind to you slid she replied and a faint cool smile touched her lips innocence or utter titter sophistication from an ultimate degree of one of these opposites she was regarding him it was a helpless moment for tile the young man behind the rock he gazed out for relief over the stinging white yand valid where all of yesterday Is sacrificed in the drift of today one horse borse mail inan dotted out there not far from the city a s pair of keen eyes that might be able to see through stone 1 I had arranged with chee sling aling said the girl irl for you and my father to live in peace with us its now that cannot be tor for you have tried to run away you have wounded ills his emotions your tour father and I 1 expect to get away hut but we are coming back soon no she said no man goes from here to tell the die world what he be has seen chee mint M only of all men poes goes and comes and ud he tells nothing the empire must fall when its secrecy is gone con felt the chill of a stone wall you fire are deeply interested in the empire of the yellow sun he said dully it Is to bear a wonderful fruit said the princess it is very cruel said levington 1 I do not agree with chee ming about everything you have a merciful heart a heart that would be at home in america where this idea of racial fusion the mending blending of till all into one has borne good fruit for two centuries 1 I have learned but little of america except concerning conc eining the red men said helen chee ming has been careful the red men are gone it Is the new IV world ivorid orld ill tell you all about it you would not be satisfied with the oppression and thievery of tau kuan kilan it you ym knew the ways of america mother used to talk like that you belong in america said lev scarcely aware of how much he be dared in making the statement sly father mentioned that yesterday ile he is a good man yes I 1 love him biro too ile he needs you said the girl irl ile he needs you returned con america would be a splendid place for you there are dreams there too if you yon like 1 I am not interested here Is the heart of the world this Is the center of power er the light fight of ages to come here my will Is obeyed and all the good things of earth are brought belore before me ilot of them from america added con but lie was hurt deep lie he felt the snare of dominion around her heart perhaps slie she was without a heart but that did not correspond to her innate kindness she did not agree with the policy of state 1 I am needed here said the princess rather wearily there Is work a of ct cities that have fallen and those cities must be made to bloom again why do you plant seeds of poison you do not understand dreaming it Is unbearable without a dream I 1 bal e not your courage are you happy 1 I urn am not happy as a child Is and you love power that Is part of my destiny 1 cruelty sterility poison that Is tau kunn kuan said levington watching watch ing her closely it need not be so said helen referring to her corning coming regency then you are satisfied happy sometimes but I 1 what Is it 1 1 I cannot say why do you question me oh ob 1 I seem to miss r something 11 I 1 have never seen something that cannot be in the world in the evening I 1 think that in the west where the sun goes may be what I 1 want but then in the morning I 1 do not believe it might light it not be worth while to follow the sun westward and see for yourself self NO io one departs from hero here she said quietly and I 1 have seen the maps and I 1 nm arn not very much drawn chee writ bill had planted a this prejudice in 1 af pf soil soft but Is it you want ito do not nn question me inc I 1 do not nav chee aling says I 1 nm am too young I 1 my milb mother le r knew almi r vs uns oi I 1 a nm 11 birr afraid bild lild t r ienir too rutx sighed and edged away from the hot boulder your tour mother could have helped you he said 1 I come here each day to ask her and she does not speak why the yellow prince help you 1 I have not asked help of him perhaps your fattier father will advise you she shook her head slowly her face was wag serene yet filled with a remote pain beauty was about her eyes but something was holding back now the fires in cons own heart would not wait waft and he be saidi said 1 I wish I 1 could tell you I 1 have nothing of my own to offer except america and I 1 can give that to 3 you ou there are books that have been kept from you the white blood in your veins has been carefully shadowed shadow ed your heart Is american I 1 marvel how well they have made you forget that you tou long for your own birthright that Is why you look into the w west est and are filled with a desire you do not comprehend I 1 never knew what my country meant to me until I 1 90 got t away from it working under its orders in faraway places like this you are longing tor for home and your own people your soul Is sick ot of yellow faces your mind Is wear weary v with oriental contact 11 ne ile checked himself for she did not seem to be following well the distant rider had changed his position coming nearer the rock seemed smaller than at first tile alie sun hotter silence between them from the saddle the princess looked afar 0 over ver the lie yellow earth the palace walls berc indistinct in the trembling heat she seemed lost in ili a cloud of dreams it was maddening to levington until a great light broke within him she said simply without looking at him you tire are making me unhappy even before the full joy of this utterance was clear to him he was up beside her forgetful of the sentinel the sun the whole world but this A honeyed fragrance came to him from her nearness dearness the words that burned his heart stopped in his throat but I 1 his Is eyes held hers nn an instant and tragically her unhappiness deepened yet it made him glad without speaking she spurred her mount N wheeled heeled covering the man who loved her and then rode for the city g gate a t e CHAPTER XII the yellow bowl As he returned to the mouth of the shaft with no thought of caution even the gobi seemed familiar and right to leving levington ton its purple band of horizon its scarlet rocks the mighty pour of tile the sun no ion longer er inimical for his lip V each with a twisted knee and spine made hideous in childhood head was filled with her final words they brought hope and hurt together when once more in a normal state con was frightened at the intensity of his speech the fire lie he had sent out to her earth held no other fear than that he had said too much that he had stumbled over the fealty in her nature in attacking her expectations of empire also he saw afresh the extent of the consequences of marahs blunder the forcing of escape last night helen had secured a sort of truce tor for them but it ft was unavailable now con grimly remembered the blo blows blons Ns lie he had given tile he soldier in marahs rooms lie ile wanted to find her fattier father the drop down the shaft did not seem so long this ume time but the darkness at the bottom was overpowering ills his eyes remained full of green patches of sunlight then he started back as nearly as lie he could remember i along tile the tunnel toward the larger cavern where the gas burned ile he thought lie he could smell the burned gas or tile the baking lentils unmistakably lie ile scented camels ca niels none of the dwarfs was in view ho he had to grope having no torch it was like a starless night it was some time before he saw a glow tar far ahead which satisfied him as the reflected light from the cavern in which he hail had taken leave of his friend and the interpreter lie he was thinking with a newborn new born power and perhaps did not reallie that lie he had been wandering deeper into vie the earth for twenty minutes the light proved t tc be ba a torch carried over a group croup of miners they were little fellows each with a twisted knee and spine made hideous la in childhood under the flaring light con could not steady a shudder at the picture they made naif half starved long armed dark creatures with the eyes narrowed all humanity drawn from their faces they peered at the large man in the tunnel before them and a united whisper rustled from lip to lip where Is my friend whito white roan man levington made signs and variously indicated his desire to find march the eyes turned upon him grew pt alg glike and tile the whisper was repeated heads turned back then toward him hostility was like powder to the match they were blaming ill aming him for tile the taking olt off ot of their kin kill con felt that lie ho was a had bad omen to them which was the he greater need for finding march and the arab friend NO now the little party lined up lip against one side of tile the af pf passage plat plainly n ly intending the white man to pass that way con inquired also with husbands his hands bands it if they were directing him film to go gg on an perhaps they had just come from march now they made no response their stony coun countenances tenancies ten ances full upon him in the flickering light having small choice con nodded his thanks and strode past them again the soft crackle of their voices ne ile turned they were were going on with the torch darkness closed about him once more ills his reverie was spoiled tor for the moment A touch of the horror of numberless generations was upon him the burial fear tie lle could touch the earth over his licad lend as in a tomb and span tile the walls from side to side then ho he laughed at himself it was a relief a necessity ile ho came bock back to himself identity was renewed another necessity for new worlds had been flitting through him and he had bad forgotten much confident of locating his friend or the bro brown sunned skinned sal sailor for who had ila gone from aden to buffalo in his time levington pushed onward down tile the tunnel ile he thought of helens face oval cal calm m day kissed yet ye each moment she seemed different for now slie she was fully awakened a princess n of evening lights and clear wine and music subtle eastern wisdom a princess only a mottled flower this latter was a form of torture to him whose heart had opened but always there was the same pale light in her eyes whether she were learned of kings and princes or quite innocent it further troubled him to find that he be could not be certain as to the color it they were lit with the green of the sea at daybreak or the blue of sky at sunset they could be as steady as jade pure in ili their gaze and their loveliness sent ilyn him out upon a tide of yearning A warm flood seemed to rise when lie be remembered her slim throat and it startled him to recall the manner of her breathing at moments now with the earthen blackness beating in upon him con was almost ready to believe that she was a phantom that the gobi had done something to him that possibly there was no sha mo at all and h was werely merely coming to the surface after a plunge deeper and darker than usual to find himself ill III with life in a room at the old club that this helen was the shadow of ills his unrealized desires of all ail his postponed aspiration and nothing more yet lie he could hear her voice as it if she were just ahead alfend in the darkness and he had so sometime melline touched her hand the delicacy of that moment was still upon him lie ile it off and and tried to laugh again to clear his mind but this time the happy effect was more elusive direction was an impossible subject and depth another lie ile reached on an intersection ter ler section a trying moment tor for the nerves its as his hands went out into soft nothing ile he waited in a tension and heard a slow thudding like the tread of giants within the earth the air of the passages NA was as narcotic jn in thinking of the fierce evaporation of the desert this difference was grateful well aware that lie he was lost lie he thought of many things old find and tew new dwelling strangely upon the potentialities of ills his own spirit the well rub bed coinage of life had enriched him rind end he longed to spend spead leaning against the rough walls scarcely able to see hee ills his hands before ills face levington discovered the innermost door of himself soul soui currents that lie he had touched in boyhood seemed close about him again hearts dusk cried softly within a lonely twilight in spring the air was nas figured with the memory of bill the yellow cook of those tales in a magic tongue told in the hot thick evenings to the sway of the ship probably bills stories had been of 0 tau kuan its piled up curving roofs of close guarded maidens in their misty silks of the diamonds that spatter from the shaken plumage of a cockatoo at tile the fountain down upon white and ivory limbs or perhaps of these choking tunnels where one tiny flawed nerve would set the luckless ii a tearing off on ills his nails in frenzy against sandstone walls the louice source of the fragrant web of koresh korch levington smiled a mad taint faint welcome to the shade of the murdered chiney and drove himself erect onward so gr gradual abdual was the soul dark in its cial claiming ming of him that ills his will was relieved of the struggle crushing brushing for ward along the walls be knew the delicious weakness ot of con convalescence vales cence a helpless liel pless joy lie ile was reduced and exalted ills five senses had slipped past every dauger danger signal and in ili a temporary death lie he blundered on wondrous lovers of gossamer grew about his feet and a thunder that was profound and musical was possessing will him far ahead a new light cut across the shaft greenish and wavering lovington lost many minutes in making up his mind to po go nearer but it did not seem long to him and he did not feel alarmed odor odell like lilies in a settled sealed now as aa an for fo r air tremble rouin m made hla his itt lungs it or ending in a wa wall the tunnel was an of which barrier across the top artificial light reached I 1 the wanderer of the wall short he could not stop moments against it him feet carried ills his to his bis came clarity of an unreal in which everything was outlined brain inki ines with indelible severity severI was an uncanny there of mel memory nory street in dory of a certain room view 0 long ago a man sleeping n mumbling the ca as he slept one hand band twitching n g upon he was wit whispering side of the cot the room was surcharged am im going and cinnamon with the warl warm n scent of and roses Lev levington logton gasped and this v vision snatching at the wall and koresh broke away of his father with a green glow dark again only the overhead somewhere I 1 and a gr great eat threats S something like seismic pulsing that was dis distantly bantly yet truly himself commanded and with surprising now difficulty con stretched his the barrier a and nd began to lift fingers up with the level himself ills his eyes came and lie he blinked into the glow top A low altar of rock was sending up tile the very crysta crystalline allne soul of smoke water rising in a spring or clear as air round about la in still lifting gas the against tile the altar or reclining low chamber were figures g walls of the motionless their colored robes and the silken draperies of their couches as lifeless as the sandstone that encased lit all the light came from an inverted bowl of jade upon the wall one couch than the rest nearer r the higher will was s P peak eak of stones that made |