OCR Text |
Show A TELEGRAM SERIAL TO THE HILT r?st which was near the ghan's fort of Khalrabad, and had an his departure depar-ture Induced Richard Wendover, alia Cul Mahommed, the Pathian soldier of fortune, to ride out with him a short distance and put him on his way. When they were alone he had suddenly addressed Wendover by name, told him who he himself was and forced him to drop his pretense pre-tense of being a genuine Pathan who understood no English. Gradually Wendover had thawed to hia friend, had expressed his gratitude to him for devoting a whole leave to going Into hi csss with a view to proving hie innocence, inno-cence, but had added that In point of fact he really wasn't Interested nowaday. He hadn't the slightest desire to go back to India, or to hav anything any-thing more to do with the people who had so easily believed in his guilt Th army had kicked him out and out he would stay. Besides, Be-sides, he loved his present way of life and far preferred It to that of "civilization," that of a European in India. Waitl sTNorsif Firing Officer John Vere-Veuehaa of the Brute air lore la India Is captured by natives after bombing the etraoihald of tbe Slngln Hadll of Buted KM. His Jailer and ether natives, among them Huaeeln, promlee te set him safely beck ta Oil-traae Oil-traae fort In British India. Huaeeln reveals blmeelf as Major Heaslrtaf. dlaculaed as a native. In the meantime. mean-time. Richard Wendover leaves England En-gland to maks a name for himself In the Indian ermr. Oybll Pfoulkee has been In love with htm since childhood child-hood When word aomea that BJch-erd BJch-erd hea keen dlamlaeed from the army In dlagraos for drunkenness. Bybll rafueee ta believe It. Then ward eomse that while hunting, Richard Rich-ard has baea killed by a lion, but a mend of her fathev'e telephones that Wendover has reeently seen seen alive. CHAPTER ELEVEN , Yea, I've got It Well, most awfully good of you. J don't know how to thank you. Good-by. And thanks again. Good-by." .General Ffoulke flung open the. door of th telephone cabinet hi ye wide and bright hi face flushed. "Sybil!" ha called. Oh, there she was In tha halL Good God I In her white dress she looked lika a marble figure, a corpse. "Sybil, he' alive!" There was no reply. The general etrode forward and touched her. "Sybil, darling, he's alive." "I heard, daddy. I heard," ah whispered. And for th tint tlm In th general' gen-eral' memory aha auddenly buret Into a flood of tear, shaken from head to foot by violent sobs. "There, there, my dear. He' alive. He's been seen. He'a all right Don't cry." Th girl (prang to her feet and fled up the broad staircase. "Well, well," sighed the general a he returned to the library. "Kittle "Kit-tle cattle, women." And now what? e e e As Haxelrlgg said good-by to Wendover he had begged him not to disappear from Khalrabad, but to wait Just to wait a little longer, to which Wendover had with a sarcastic sar-castic laugh replied only "Walt!" And again tha brilliant huea of happiness and hop restored, beautified beau-tified the thoughu and oul and life of Sybil Ffoulke. He was alive, he waa well, he waa known to be living In Khairastan, Khairas-tan, and sh had a link with him in Major Hazelrlgg. And now what waa tha beat thing to do? Obviously Obvious-ly sh must go to India and to th town or other inhabitable place that was nearest to Khairastan. "Where ia Khairastan, daddy?" she asked that night when she went for her usual session In the library before going to bed. "Northeast frontier, I'm not absolutely ab-solutely certain as to whether it is on th Tochi river In Wazirastan, or on tha Kurram river farther north. I rather fancy it is that way, between Sated Koh and Jalalabad. Ja-lalabad. I'll look it up." "Which would be th nearest town in India? Quel tar "Oh, dear nol I'm quite sure that Peshawar la th nearest point in British India. I'll show you a map In tha morning. But you can tak it for certain that Peshawar It is." "Right daddy. Then It Is Peshawar Pesha-war for ma. Whom do we know there T" "Oh, lota of people. I'm not cer-I cer-I tain who ia commissioner of Pesha- war, or who ia governor of the . northwest frontier province at the . moment; but Archie Vere-Vaughan I command th Peshawar brigade. : He' an old friend of mine.. Coming ' home next year, as a matter of fact I made a note to ask him to come and hoot " Grief Drop! By next morning Sybil Ffoulke waa a different girl. A crushing weight of grief had fallen from her shoulder a If sh had dropped a load of lead. Grief, misery, aching despair had turned to Joy, delirious happiness. He waa alive. What else mattered? mat-tered? What If ha had been court-martialed court-martialed and cashiered, dismissed from the army with ignominy, publicly pub-licly proclaimed as -unfit ever again to serve the Mat In any capacity whatsoever. He waa allv. And then on day that dawned Just like any ordinary day, there came a letter Inclosing on addressed ad-dressed to Colonel Harrlngton-Spens Harrlngton-Spens and sent on for General Ffoulke to read, a letter bearing an Indian stamp with the Pashawar postmark, and in it was fresh Information. In-formation. Actually Major Haxelrlgg had seen Richard Wendover In a Pathan village beyond the northwest frontier fron-tier and, although ha had been unable to communicate with him, had no shadow of doubt that It waa really he, alive and well. Major Haxelrlgg, himself In disguise, dis-guise, had had to go on hia way to India, but, hia Immediate Job being completed, he had spent his ensuing ensu-ing leave In 'trying to get to the bottom of the truth of the matter of Wen dove r'a dlsgrac and degra-' degra-' datlon now that he knew for certain cer-tain that Wendover was alive. He had found Wendover living aa a Pathan in the retinue of the Khan of Khairastan, whose son, Sher i Khan, had been trooper In Na-i Na-i pier' horn and had always followed fol-lowed the fortune of Captain Rich-I Rich-I ard Wendover, te whom b waa de-i de-i voted. In th role of Inayatullah Hus- seln, Afghan horse dealer, he had visited the houa of Shere Khan, L. on tlm after you and your mother had gone home. I went to see her at school, too. In England, when she was a long-legged flapper, at Vere-Vaughan'i request Looked after her a bit Oh, yes, they'd be delighted to see you. And what d'you think you're going to do when you get there?" "Don't know, daddy. But I've got all sorts of plans and wild idea and I shan't come back from India until un-til I've eeen Dlckl. And then one again th long week of waiting and hoping, this tlm for an answarlng totter from Major Haxelrlgg. The one from Sir ArchlbakrVere-Vaughan ArchlbakrVere-Vaughan cam quit quickly in Utile Ut-ile more than six weeks and contained con-tained a warm and kindly Invitation Invita-tion for Sybil to visit them at Peshawar as soon as th general returned to hi headquartera there. Inclosed was an equally cordial Invitation In-vitation from hia daughter, Char-mlan, Char-mlan, hoping that Sybil would come as soon a they were In Peehawar agaln, that she would stay for a long aa sh could. To be continued Monday. . Copyright 1939, for Th Telegram. "Vere-Vaughan. Is there a Mrs. ' or lady?" "No. He's a widower. Got a son ! and daughter out there. Son in the ' flying corps. I think th boy went out with th tint flight or squadron squad-ron that went eaat." "Do you know the general well enough to tell him I am coming out to India and want to a Peshawar and the Khyber pass and all that and could he you know smooth my way, give m a helping hand and a leg up? I suppose he has got th key of the Khyber in hia pocket" "Write Ilka that with a view to hi replying that , he hopes you'U com and atay with him and hi daughter, eh?" "That th Idea." "Yea, Archie Vere-Veughan would bo delighted, I'm sure. And I've not the slightest doubt that hi daughter would be very glad of a girl visitor. I remember her aa a toddler when I waa up at Murrrc |