OCR Text |
Show M c&authoxof timcmeA? '"ARmU&CfTCN 'M- JLLUSTPATJOmV a.w&u "There are no rubles," said the kept by my fathers for 14 generations stranger. "Show them to me and I if it were so easy to find out," she said. "The way Is not easy, but I will believe." The girl laughed very low, and took know it" from her neck a bag of antelope skin, "Lead," replied the traveler. "I will no larger than her closed hand, and follow." "No," returned girl. ' "I will go a gave it to him with the thin thong by little way down the gorge and watch, which it bad hung. ' "When you have seen them In the while you go in.' The man did not trust her. How sun you will want others," she said. "I will take you to the place, and could he tell but that she had brought when you have filled your sack with him to an ambush where he was to be them you will love me enough to take murdered for the sake of his money me away.- It is not far to the place. and his good weapon? The rubies In two hours we can go and come. were real, so far as be could tell, but night, about this time, I they might be only a bait He shook will wake you again. It will not be' his head. safe to unbar the door, so you must "Listen," said Baraka. "At the other let me down from this roof by a camel side of the pool there Is a place where the water from this spring flows away rope, and then follow me." When Baraka was gone the stranger under the rock. That Is the passage." "I have seen the entrance," ansat up on his carpet and opened the small bag to feel the stones, for he swered the traveler. "It Is so small knew that he could hardly see them that a dog could not swim through It." "It looks so. But It is so deep that in the starlight; but even the touch and the weight told him something, otie can walk through It easily, with and he guessed that the girl had not one's head above water. It is not more tried to deceive him childishly with than 50 steps long. That is how I bits of glass. Though the bag had found it (or one day I wandered here been in her bosom, aud the weather alone In the morning for shade, when was , hot, the stones were as the air was like fire; and being alone cold as Jade; and moreover he felt I bathed In the clear pool to cool mytheir shape and knew at once that self, and I found the way and brought they might really be rough rubies, for back the stone, which I have hidden he was well versed in the knowledge ever since. For If my father and brothers know that I have seen the of precious stones. When the day began to dawn he treasure they will surely kill me, bewent down from the roof to the com- cause the women must never learn the mon room of the where secret You see," she laughed a little, guests were quartered, yet althoigh "I am the first of us WhiT has known there was no other stranger' there he it since many generations, and I have would not take the bag from bis ntck already betrayed it to you! They are to examine the stones, lest some one quite right to kill us when we find should be watching blm from a place It out!" "This Is an idle tale." said the travof hiding; but afterwards, when he was alone In the foothills and out of eler. "Go Into the pool before me and sight of the town, searching as usual I will believe and follow you under for new plants' and herbs, he crept the rock. I will not go and leave you Into a low cave at noon, and sat down here." "You are not very brave, though you Just Inside the entrance, so "that he could see any one coming while still are so handsome! If they come and a long way off. and there he emptied find me here, they will kill me first" "You say It but I do not believe it the contents of the little leathern wallet into bis hand, and saw that Bara- 1 think there is a deep bole in the ka had not deceived him; and as he passage and that' I shall slip into it looked closely at the stones in the and be drowned, for no man could strong light at the entrance of the sw.'m in such a place. I have but one cave, the red of the rubles was re- life, and I do not care to lose it In a flected In the blue of his bright eyes, water-rat'trap. You must go in and and made a little purple glare in them lead the way if you wish me to' trust that would have frightened Baraka; you." Baraka hesitated and looked at bim. and he smiled behind his great yellow "How can I do this before you?" beard. He took from an inner pocket a she naked. "I will not go alone," the man anfolded sheet on which a map was traced in black and green Ink, much swered, for he suspected foul play. corrected and extended In pencil; and "Do as you will." The girl took from her head the he studied the map thoughtfully In the cave while the great heat of the day large cotton cloth with which she lasted; but the lines that his eye fol- veiled herself, and folded It and laid lowed did not lead towards Persia, it down on the rock by the pool; then Palestine, and Egypt, where Baraka she let her outer tunic of thin white wished to live with him in a marble woolen fall to the ground round her palace and eat fat quails and fig feet and stepped out of It and folded it also, and laid it beside her veil, and paste. She came to hlin again that night she stood up tall and straight as a on the roof, bringing with her a small young Egyptian goddess in the starbundle, tightly rolled and well tied light, clothed only in the plain shirt up. He wrapped his blanket round without sleeves which the women of her body, and brought It up under her her country wear night and day; and arms so that the rope should not hurt the traveler saw her cream-whither when her weight came upon it, arms near him In the soft gloom, and and so he let her down over the edge heard her slip off her light shoes. "I will go before you," she said; of the roof to the ground, and threw the rope after her; and he let himself and she stepped into the pool and over, holding by his hands, so that walked slowly through the water. The traveler followed her as he when he was hanging at the full length of his long arms he had only was, for he was unwilling to leave a Tew feet to drop, for he wished to behind him anything he valued, and what he had was mostly In the pocktake the rope with blm. Baraka's bouse was at the head of ets of his coat and could not be the town, towards the footkllls; every much hurt by water. Even his one was sleeping, and there was no pressed herbs and flowers would dry moon. She followed the stony sheep-trac- again, his cartridges were quite wathut struck into the hills only a terproof, his letters were In an Imfew hundred paces from the last pervious case, and his money was In houses, and the stranger followed her coin. When he entered the pool he closely. He had his sack on his shoul- took his revolver from Its place and der, his book of plants and herbs was he held It above the water in front of slung behind him by a strap, and in him as he went on. With his other his pockets he had all the money he hand he carried the sack he had carried for his travels and his letters brought, which was one of those that to the chiefs, and a weapon; but he are made of Bokhara carpet and are had left all his other belongings, judg- meant to sling on a camel. ing them to be of no value compared , Baraka was almost up to her neck with a camel's bag full of rubles, and in the water when she reached the only a hindrance, since he would have other side of the pool; a moment to travel far on foot before daylight, later she disappeared under the rock, and the traveler bent his "knees to by dangerous paths. The girl trod lightly and walked shorten himself, for there was only fast, and as the man followed In her room for his head above the surface, footsteps he marked the way turn by and he held up his revolver before his turn, and often looked up at the stars face to keep the weapon dry, and also overhead as men do who are accus- to feel his way, lest he should strike tomed to Journeying alone in desert against any jutting projection of the For some time Baraka led stone and hurt himself. He counted places. him through little valleys he had often the steps he took, and made them as traversed, and along hillsides familiar nearly as possible of equal length. He to htm, and at last she entered a nar- felt that he was walking on perfectly row ravine which he had once fol- smooth sand, Into which his heavily lowed to its head, where he had found shod feet sank a very little. There it ended abruptly In a high wall of was plenty of air, for the gentle rock, at the foot of which there was draught followed him from the en a clear pool that did not overflow. It trance and chilled the back of his was darker in the gorge, but the rocks neck, which bad got wet; yet It were almost white, so that It was seemed hard to breathe, and a he quite possible to see the way by the made his way forward his imaglna tlon pictured the death he must die faint light. The man and the girl stood before if the rock should fall in behind him. the pool; the still water reflected the He was glad that the faint odor of Baraka's wet hair came to bis nostrils stars. "This Is the place," Baraka said. in the thick darkness, and it was very "Do you see anything?" pleasant to hear her voice when she , "I see water and a wall of rock," spoke at last. "U is not far," she said quietly. "I the man answered. "I have been here I know this place. begin to see the starlight on the wa alone by day. There is nothing here, and there Is no ter." , The passage did not widen or grow way up the wall." Baraka laughed softly. , higher as It went on. If it had been "The secret could not have been dry, it would have been a commodious " - fore-hous- "That It the Passage." CHAPTER I. There la a ruby mine bidden in the heart of the mountains near a remote little city of central Asia, unknown to European travelers; and the secret of the treasure belongs to the two chief families of the place, and has been carefully guarded for many generations, handed down through the men from father to son; and often the children of these two families have married, yet none of the women ever learned the way to the mine from their fathers, or their brothers, or their husbands, none excepting one only, and her name was Baraka, which may perhaps mean "Blessed;" but no blessing came toher when she was born. She was much whiter and much more beautiful than the other girls of the little Tartar city; her face was oval like an ostrich egg, her skin was as the cream that rises on sheep's jnilk at evening, and her eyes were like the Pools of Peace in the Valley of Dark Moons; her waist also was a slender pillar of ivory, and round her ankle she could make her thumb meet her second finger; as "for her feet, they were small and quick and silent as young 'mice. But she was not blessed. When she was in her seventeenth year a traveler came to the little city, who was not like her own people; he was goodly to see, and her eyes were troubled by the sight of him, for the stranger was tall and very fair, and bis beard was like spun gold, and he feared neither man nor evil spirit, going about alone by day and night. Furthermore, he was a great physician, and possessed a small book, about the size of a man's hand, in which was contained all the knowledge, of the world. By means of this book, and three small buttons that tasted of mingled salt and sugar, he cured Baraka's father of a mighty pain in the midriff which had tormented him a whole week. He brought with him also a written letter from a boly man to the chiefs of the town; therefore they did not kill him, though he had a good Mauser revolver with ammunition, worth much money, and other things useful to believers, Satan entered the heart of Baraka, and she loved the traveler who dwelt In her father's house, for she was not blessed; and she stood before him in the way when he went out, and when be returned she was sitting at the door watching, and she took care to show her cream-whitarm and her slender ankle, and even her beautiful face when neither her father nor her mother was near. But he saw little and cared less, and was as grave as her father and the other graybeards of the town. When she perceived that he was not moved by the sight of her, she watched blm more closely; for she said In her girl's heart that the eyes that are blind to a beautiful woman see one of three things: Gold, or power, or beaven; but her sight was fixed only on him. Then her throat was dry, her heart fluttered in her maiden breast like a frightened bird, and sometimes, when she would have tried to speak, she felt as if her tongue were broken and useless; the Are ran lightly along her delicate body, her eyes saw nothing clearly, and a strange rushing sound filled her ears; and then, all at once, a fine flew wet her forehead and e 4 cooled it, and she trembled all over and was as pale as death like Sapman was pho, when a certain god-lik- e near. Yet the stranger saw nothing, and his look was bright and cold as a winter's morning In the mountains. Almost every day he went out and climbed the foothills, and when the sun was lowering he came back bringing herbs and flowers, which he dried carefully and spread between leaves of gray paper in a large book; and he wrote spells beside them In an unknown tongue, so that no one dared to touch the book when he went out, lest the genii should wake and come out from between the pages, to blind the curious and strike the gossips dumb, and cast a leprosy on the thief. At night he lay on the roof of the forehouse beside the gate of the court, because it was cool there. Baraka came to him, before midnight, when her mother was in a deep Bleep; she knelt at his side while he slept in the starlight, and she laid her head beside his, on the sack that was his pillow, and for a little while she was happy, being near him, though he did not know she was there. But presently she remembered that ber mother might wake and call her, and she spoke very softly, close to bis ear, fearing greatly lest he should start from his sleep and cry out "The ruby mine is not far off," she "I know the secret place. said. Rubles! Rubies! Rubies! You shall have as many as you can carry of the blood-re- d rubies!" He opened his eyes, and even in the starlight they were bright and cold. She stroked his hand softly and then pressed it a little. "Come with me and you shall know the great secret," she whispered. "You shall fill this sack that Is under your head, and then you shall take me with you to Egypt, and we will live in a marble palace and have many slaves, and be always together. For you will always remember that It was Baraka who showed you where the rubles were, and even w hen you are tired of her you will treat her kindly and feed her with fig pnste and fat quails, such as I hear, they have in the south all winter, and Frank rice, and coffee that has been picked over, bean by bean, for the great men." She said all this In a whispers stroking bis hand; and while she whispered he smiled in his great golden beard that seemed as silvery In the starlight as her father's. , . .That Is women's talk," he answered. "Who has seen mines of rubles T And If you know where they are, why should you show them to me? You are betrothed. If you bad knowledge of hidden treasures you would keep It for your husband. This is some trick to destroy me." "May these hands wither to the wrists if a hair of your head be harmed through me," she answered; and as she knelt beside blm, the two little hands held his face towards her very tenderlv. and then one of them smoothed th thick balr back from his forehead. "You are betrothed," he repeated, "and I am vnur father's gue&t Shall I betray hlhiT" "I care nothing, neither for father, nor mother, nor brothers, nor be trothed," Baraka answered. "I will give you the riches of Solomon if you will take me, for I will have no other man." s e k Baraka Was Almost Up to Her Neck. cave, open at each end, wide at the bottom and narrowing to a sharp angle above. But the pool was fed by a spring that never failed nor even ebbed, though It must sometimes have overflowed down the ravine through which the two had reached the pool. They came out from under the rock at last, and were In the refreshing outer air. The still water widened almost to a circle, a tiny lake at the bottom of a sort of crater of white stone that collected and concentrated the dim light On two sides there were little crescent beaches of snow-whit- e sand, that gleamed like silver. The traveler looked about him and upward to see if there was any way of climbing up;, but as far as he could make out In the half darkness the steep rock was as smooth as if it had been cut with tools, and it sloped away at a sharp angle like the sides of a funnel. Baraka went up towards the right, and the bottom shelved, so that presently the water was down to her waist, and then she stood still and pointed to a dark hollow just above the little beach. Her wet garment clung to her, and with her left hand she began to wring the water from her bald behind her head. "The rubles are there," she said, "thousands upon thousands of them. Fill the sack quickly,, but do not take more than you can carry, for they are very heavy." The traveler waded out upon the beach, and the water from his clothes ran down In small rivulets and made little round holes In the white sand. He put down bis revolver in a dry place, and both his hands felt for the precious stones In the shadowy hollow, loosening small fragments of a sort of brittle crust In which they seemed to be clustered. ' "You cannot choose," Baraka said, "for you cannot see, but I have been here by daylight and have seen. The largest are on the left side of the hollow, near the top." By the stars1 the traveler could see the pieces a little, as he broke them out for the white rocks collected the light; he could see many dark crystals, but as to what they were he had , to trust the girl. "Do not take more than you can carry," she repeated, "for you must not throw them away to lighten the burden." "You can carry some of tbein," answered the traveler. He broke up the crust of crystals with a small geologist's hammer and tore them out like a madman, and his hands were bleeding, for though he was a philosopher the thirst for wealth had come upon him when be felt the riches of empires in his grasp, and the time was short; and although he knew that he might some day come back with armed men to protect him, and workmen to help him, he know also that to do this he must share the of that wild secret with the country, and that his portion might be the loss of his head. So he tore at the ruby crust with all his might and as he was very strong, he broke out great pieces at once. "We cannot carry more than that both of us together," said Baraka, though she judged more by the Bound of bis work than by what she could over-lor- d hands, and he knew by its weight that she was right Under the wtter it would be easy enough to carry, hut It would be a heavy load for a man to shoulder. , "Come," Baraka said, "I will gobacJt . first." She moved down Into the deeper water again, till it was up to her neck; and feeling the way with her hands she went in once more under the rock. The traveler followed her cautiously, carrying the heavy sack under water with one hand and holding up his revolver with the other to keep it dry, "I begin to see the starlight on tho water," Baraka said, just as iefore, when they had been going In. When she had spoken, she heard a heavy splash not far off, and the water In the subterranean channel rose suddenly and ran past her in short waves, three of which covered her mouth In quick succession and reached to her eyes, and almost to the top of her head, but sank again and they passed her companion in the same way, wetting his . weapon. , "Go back," Baraka said, when she could speak; "the rock is falling." The traveler turned as quickly as he could, and she came after him, gaining on him because he carried the heavy sack and could not move as fast as she. lie felt his damp hair rising with fear, for he believed that, after all, she had brought him into a trap. They reached the opening and came out into the pool again. "You have brought me here to die," he said. "Your father and your brothers have shut up the entrance with great stones, and they will go up the mountain and let themselves down from above with ropes and shoot me like a wolf in a But you shall die first, because, you have betrayed me." So he cocked his revolver and set the muzzle against her head, to kill her, holding her by her slender throat with his other hand; for they were In shallow water and he had dropped the sack in the pool. Baraka did not struggle or cry out "I would rather die by your hand than be alive in another man's arms," she said quite quietly, He let her go, merely because she was so very brave; for he did not love her at all. She knew it, but that made no difference to her, since no other woman was near; if they could get out alive with the rubles she was sure that he would love her for the sake of the great wealth she had brought bim. If they were to starve to death at the bottom of the great rock wall In the mountains, she would probably die first, because he was so strong: and then nothing would matter. It was all very simple. (TO BE CONTINUED.) pit-fal- t Hint for a has not provided an If a groom-elec- t extra room to his house for storing hit bride's linen he should build it In time, for in these days whenever a girl marries, her mother closes her Hps grimly, goet after pa's pocketbook, and does the right thing with nine dozen towels, IS dozen napkins, 84 pairs of sheets, 'tc. She doesn't expect her daughter to open a boarding house, but sh oa proper pride, and intends Groom-Elec- r see. to do the uht thing by the girl, even ,' He lifted the sack with both his If it breaks pa. Atchison Globe. |