Show I T king K ng of the Khyber Rifles By TALBOT MUNDY t. t i S Tie The Most Picturesque Romance of the Decade Bobbt Company Copyright by The Tb CHAPTER XIV XIV Continued 9 4 9 Rewa ReVa spoke truth in Delhi when he assured King he should some someday someday someday day wonder at dancing She became Joy and bravery anc and youth I 1 She danced a story for them of the things they knew She was the I dawn light touching the distant peaks She was the wind that follows It sweeping among among the junipers and kissIng kissing kiss Ing each as she came She was laughter laugh ter as the little children laugh when the cattle are loosed from the byres at last to feed in the valleys s. s She was the s scent ent of spring uprising She was blossom She was fruit I Very daughter daugh ter of the sparkle of ot warm sun on snow she was the Heart of the Hills Hills' herself I 1 Never was such dancing I 1 Never such an audience I Never such mac mad applause l I She danced until the great rough guards had to run round the arena arena with clubbed butts and beat back trespassers who would have mobbed her And every movement movement- every every gracious wonder wonder curve curve and step with which she told her tale was was wa's as as purely purely- Greek as the handle on m Kings King's knife and the figures on the lamp lamp lamp-b lamp bowls bowls and as the the bracelets on her arm V V Greek I And she modern half-modern Russian ex ex- wife girl of a semi civilized hill hlll rajah I IWho Who ta taught her her There is nothing new even ev ri in Kh jaI in II the Hills I And when the crowd defeated the thearen arena aren guards at fast and burst through the swinging butts butt to s seize her er and fling her high and worship her with mad barbaric rite she sh ran toward the shield The four men raised it shout shout- der high again She went to It like a leaf In the wind sprang wind sprang on It as If V wings wings' had lifted her scarce touching It with naked toes toes and and leapt to t the bridge with a laugh She went over the bridge on tiptoes like nothing else under heaven but at her And without pausing on the far side she danced up the hewn stone stairs dived into the dark hole and was gone 1 Come I 1 yelled Ismail In Kings King's ear He could h have ve heard nothing less for forthe forthe forthe the cavern was like to burst apart from the tumult Whither the Afridi shouted In disgust Does the wind ask whither t Come like the wind and see 1 They will remember next neat that they have haves s a bone to pick with thee 1 Come away I That seemed good enough advice He followed as fast as Ismail could shoulder shoulder shoulder der a way out between the frantic hUmen hillmen hill hU- men deafened stupefied numbed almost almost almost al al- most cowed by the ovation they were 2 giving the Heart of their Hills t. t CHAPTER XV f. f As they disappeared after a scramble c. c through the mouth month of the same tunnel tunnel tun tun- VV nel net they had entered by a ft roar went birth of earth earth- up behind them like Uke the quakes Looking back over his shoulder shoulder shoulder der King saw come back Into the holes hole's mouth to stand framed In It 11 and bow acknowledgment For the V space of five minutes she stood In the r I 1 j r c b 7 V T I Ii i ft f s L. L 1 r t Such Dancing Never Was great great hole bole smiling and watching the ther r crowd below Then she went and tho the J guards began to loose random volleys down hundredweights hundredweights hun hun- roof and brought at the stalactite of splintered hunk hundred hundred hun hun- Within a minute there were a the spUn dred men busy sweeping up minute twenty In another f had begun a sword dance yellIng yelling yell- yell i Ing like demons A hundred Joined the three minutes more them In whole ar arena na was a dinning whirlpool and the rivers river's voice was drowned In houting shouting and th th stamping of naked feet teet on stone atone f. f Come Cornel I urged Ismail and led the Way Kings XI lat as of earths earth's I womb on fire and of hellions brewing wrath The stalactites and the hurry hurry- hurryIng hurryIng Ing lag river multiplied the dancing lights into a million and the great roof hurled the din diri down again to x make ake confusion with the new din coming up Ismail went like a rat down a run and it became so dark that King had bad to follow by ear He imagined they were running back toward the ledge under the waterfall yet when Ismail I called a halt at last panting groped gr ped behind a a great r rock ck for a lamp and lit the wick with a common safety match they were In a cave cave he had never seen before Where are we King asked I I Where none none dare seek us Art ArtI thou afraid asked Ismail holding the lamp to Kings King's face Kuch dar hall hai I he answered There Ther is no such thing as fear Suddenly the blew the lamp out and then the darkness became solid soUd Thought Itself left off oft less than thana a yard away away Ismail 1 he whispered But Ismall Ismail did not answer him He faced about leaning against the rock with the flat fiat of both hands pressed tight against it for the sake of its company and almost at once he saw a little bright red light glowing in the distance It might have been belo below him Lim him It it was perfectly impossible to judge for the darkness was not measurable Flowers turn to the light I 1 droned Ismail's Ismall's voice vol e above sententiously and turning he thought he could see red rede e eyes ejes es peering over the rock He Jumped and made a a n grab for the flowing beard that surely must be below them but he missed Little fish swim to the light 1 I droned Ismail Moths fly to th the light I Who Is a a man man that he should know less than they He turned again and stared at th the the light Dimly very vaguely he could make out that a causeway led downward downward downward down down- ward from almost where he stood He was convinced that should he try too toe climb back Ismail would merely react reach out a hand and shove him down again and there was no sense in being put putto putto putto to that indignity He decided to go gc forward for there was even less sense In standing still So he stooped to feel the floor with his hand before deciding to go forward There was wal no nn mistaking the th finish given bv by the v 0 tread of countless feet He was on t a a highway and there are not often pitfalls pit falls where so many feet have been For all that he went forward as t a a certain Agag once did and it was many minutes before he could see i a a certain glowing blood red blood red in the light behind two lamps at the top of a flight of ten stone steps When he went quite close clos he saw carpet down th the the middle of the steps so BO ancient that the stone showed through in places all nIl the pattern supposing It ever had hai any was worn or faded away Carpet Carpe and steps glowed red too His own owr face and the hands he held In front of him were red red poker hot poker color Yet outside the little ellipse of light th the the darkness looked like a thing to lean leai against and md the silence was so Intense that he could hear the arteries singing singIng sing sing- singing Ing by his ears He saw the curtains move slightly apparently In a little pun puff of wind that made the lamps waver Then he walked up the steps and a dat at the top he stooped stooped to examine the lamps They were bronze cast polished ant and graved All round the cir circumference u of each bowl howl were figures in half half- relief representing a a woman dancing She was the woman of the knife hilt an and i of the lamps in the arena I But B ne two figures o of the dance were alike It t was the same woman dancing but the artist had hud chosen twenty different different different differ differ- ent pos poses s with which to immortalize his skill and hers Both lamps burned sweet oil with a wick and each had hail hada haila a chimney of horn not at all unlike a modern lamp chimney The horn was stained red As he set the second lamp down he became aware of ot a n subtle interesting smell and memory took him back alonce at al once to t room in lathe the In Delhi where he had smelled it t first It was the the peculiar scent he hemd had md been told was Y own own own-n a alend blend lend blend of scents like a chord of music music In n which musk did not predominate He lie took three strides and and touched the he curtains discovering now for for the first time that there were two of ot them divided down the middle They were of leather and though they looked old themselves the leather as the Hills was supple as ns good cloth Khan hat hal he announced anne need But the echo was the only answer There here was no sound beyond the th cur cur- tarns ains With his heart n n Ms his ts mouth month m th he lie parted them with oth hinds bunds startled by iy the sharp jar gle if II f retal r-etal ona ona on a n rod So he stood rith Alth arn arms i outstretched outstretch staring with staring with e ey s skilled swiftly to take in details but with a brain that tried to explain explain- formed ormed a hundred bundred wild suggestions suggestions- and then reeled He was face to face with the unexplainable the the riddle of ol caves The leather curtains slipped sUpped through his ils fingers and closed behind him with the clash of rings on a rod But b h he was was beyond being startled He wa was not really sure he was In the world He was not certain whether hether It was th thi the twentieth th century or 55 B. B C. C or ear eai earlier Her lier yet or whether time had ceased The place where he was did no not look like Uke a cave but a palace chamber for the rock walls had been trimmer trimmed square and polished smooth then the they had been painted pure white except for a wide blue frieze with a line o of gold leaf drawn draw underneath it Amon Am Amon And Andon on the frieze done in gold leaf gold leaf too toe was the Grecian lady of the lamps lamp always dancing dan ing There were fifty o or sixty slaty figures of her no two alike A dozen lamps were burning set it ii In niches cut in the walls at measures measure measured intervals They were exactly like lIk th two outside except that their horn hori chimneys were stained yellow Instead o of red suffusing everything In a golde glow Opposite him was a curtain rathe rather like that through which he had en en- en Near to the curtain was a bed whose great wooden posts were cracked with age In spite of Its ag agit agit age it was spread with fine new new linen liner 1 o On It Above the Linen a Man and s a Woman Lay Hand in Hand Richly embroidered not very ancient Indian draperies hung down from 11 it It to the floor on either side On It above the linen a man and a woman lay hand In hand and the woman was wasso wasso wasso so exactly like even to her hei clothing and her naked feet teet that II it It was not possible for tor a man to be self self- possessed They both seemed asleep sleep It was minutes before he satisfied himself that the mans man's br breast ast did not rise anc arid and fall under the bronze Roman armor armol and that the womans woman's jeweled gauzy stuff was still Imagination played such tricks with him that In the stillness stillness stillness still still- ness he Imagined he heard breathing After he was sure they were both bott dead he went nearer but It was e a minute yet before he knew the woman woman was not she At first a wild thought possessed him that she had bad killed her her- self The only thing to show who he had hac been were the tho letters letter S. S P. P Q R. R on n a a great plumed helmet on n a little table by the bed But she was the woman of the lamp-bowls lamp and the frieze A size life stone statue in a corner was wasso wasso wasso so like tike her and like too that thai It was difficult to decide which of the tWo two it represented She had bad lived when he did for tor her hei fingers were locked In his And he had lived two thousand years ago because because because be be- cause his armor was about as old as that and for proof that he had died in it part of f his bre breast st had turned to tc powder Inside the breastplate The rest of his body was whole and perfectly perfectly perfectly per per- preserved Stern handsome In a high hIgh beaked beaked Roman way gray on the temples firm firm- lipped he be lay like an emperor emper r. r In In har har- ness But the pride and resolution on on his face were outdone by the serenity of hers V ry surely those two had been lovers Both of them looked young and healthy the healthy the woman younger than twenty thirty thirty twe twenty five five ty-five at a guess guess and and the man man perhaps forty perhaps forty- forty five Every stitch of the mans man's clothIng clothIng clothing cloth- cloth Ing had hod decayed Aso o that his armor ested Bested on un the naked skin except for a dressed leather ther kilt about his middle The leather was as ns old as af the curtains at the e trance entrance and as well preserved But the womans woman's clothing w was wasas wasas s sas as new as M the bed betiding bed Yet they both died about the same salve time or how could their fingers have ha va been interlaced And some of the jewelry on the womans woman's womans wom worn ans an's clothes was very ancient as well as priceless He looked closer at the fingers for signs of force and suddenly caught his breath Under the womans woman's flimsy sleeve was a wrought gold bracelet smaller than that one he himself had worn In Delhi DeIhl and up the Khyber He raised the loose sleeve to look more closely c at It and the movement laid S bare another bracelet on the mans man's right wrist Size for size this was the same as the he one that had been stolen from himself Memory prompted him He felt its outer edge with a finger nail There was the little nick that he had made In the soft gold when he struck It against the cell bars in the jail at the Mir Khan palace I He touched the gold It was warm He repeated the test on the womans woman's wrists Hers was warm too Both bracelets had been worn by a living being within an hour hour hour- He muttered and frowned in thought and then suddenly jumped backward The leather curtain near the bed had moved on its bronze rod Arent they dears a voice said In ID English behind him Arent they sweet stood not two arms' arms lengths away lovelier than the dead woman because of the merry life In Jn her young and aglow but ut looking like the thede de dead d woman and the woman of the frieze friez the frieze the woman of the lamp lamp bowls bowls the come statue statue come to life speaking to tc him in English more sweetly th than n if 11 It had h d been her mother tongue The The English abuse their language langU ge Yas Yas- mini caressed it and made it do its work twice over over Being dressed as a native he hei salaamed l low w. w Knowing him for what what he was she gave gave- him the senna- senna stained tips of her warm warm fingers to kiss and he thought she trembled when he touched them But a second later she had snatched them away and was treating him to raillery Man of pills and blisters I she said tell me how those bodies are preserved preserved pre pre- served l I Spill knowledge from that thai learned skull of thine 1 He did not answer He never shone In conversation at any time having made as many friends as enemies b by saying nothing until the spirit moves him But sh she did not know that yet If I knew for certain why those thos two did not turn to worms she he went wenton on almost I would choose to die now while I am beautiful I What would they say think you King sahib II It they found us two dead beside b those thos two Speak man speak l 1 Has Khin- Khin jan struck you dumb But he did not speak He was starIng star- star staring staring Ing at her arm where two whitish marks on the skin betrayed that that- brace brace- lets had been Oh those 1 They are theirs I 1 would not rob the dead or the gods would |