Show or r the me r r Rifles A Thrilling Trilling Story o of f German Intrigue Among By y Talbot Mundy Fundy the Fierce Hillmen of India During the War Wat- Copyright by the Merrill Bobbs-Merrill Company KING FACES THE BIGGEST ADVENTURE OF HIS CAREER SO FAR WHEN HE COMES TO THE ENTRANCE OF KJ N CAVES AND PROVES HIMSELF HIMSELF HIM- HIM h SELF A MURDERER Synopsis At At the beginning of ot the world war Capt Athelstan King of the British Indian army and of Its secret service ser Is ordered to Delhi to meet a dancer and go with her to to meet the outlaws there who aro arc said by spies to be preparing for a jihad or holy war On his way to Delhi King quietly foils a plan to assassinate him and gets evidence that is after him He meets Rewa newa man who says she has already gone north and at her town house witnesses queer dances Ismail an Afridi becomes becomes becomes be be- comes his body servant ser and protector He rescues some of hillmen and takes them north with him tricking the Hangar Into going ahead The Hangar Bangor deserts him at dangerous a time He meets his brother at All AU fort The disguise he assumes there fools even the eyed sharp cutthroats composing his guard CHAPTER X s 6 sEen Even en with the man with the och mounted on the spare horse for the saKe salie of extra speed and he was not suffering one-fifth one so much ashe as ashe he pretended with Ismail to urge and King to coax and the fear of mount mountain lIn death on every ery side Ide of them they were the part of a night and a aday aday aday day and antI ri a night and a part of another day In reaching At night and at noon they slept fitfully fitfully fitfully fit fit- fully at the met chance shrine of some holy man anan The Hills Ellis are full of them marked by fluttering rags that can can be tie seen for miles away and though Quran's meaning must be d to find excuse and hillmen are Brei adept le t ti at i stretching things and hold those as ns sacred as the book itsel itself It it- it sel self lien en r who would almost rather cui c throat Ethan than gamble regard them themas I as sanctuaries aries So a man may rest ta to temporary peace even eyen on the road to although I and pease peace have ha nothing whatever er In com com- mon i It was was at such a shrine surrounded by tattered tattered rags tied to sticks that fluttered In the wind three or four fourth th thousand feet above Khyber level that King drew v Ismail Into conversation and deftly deWy forced on him the role of ot questioner How thou see the ca' ca caves es 1 he asked for King had hinted at his Intention intention in In- and for answer er King gave him hima a it glimpse of the gold bracelet Aye JAye e Well and g good od I But even she dare dare not disobey the rule was was there before she came and the rule was there from the beginning when the first men found the caves I ISome Some hundreds Some hundreds have gained admIssion admission sion slon lacking the right But Bat who e ever er saw them again Allah I I for one would not chance It 1 thou rhou and I are two men 1 answered Ki King I T 1 shall see the caves cayes Aye But listen How many Inolan Indian Indian In In- dian olan servants of the British Raj have set set out to see the caves Many many aye aye ye very very many Some having got by entered the caves None ever came out again Then Then what Is my case to thee King asked him I If I 1 cannot come out s II I If f I d r f l 1 J VP 6 1 W L h Are Ar You Howled a a Human Human B Being ln Whose Voice Was So Like a Wolfs Wolf's That the Words at First Had No Meaning ng again In and md there Is a secret then the Js secret cret will be kept ept and and what Is the trouble i I love thee the tho ArIdi Afridi answered simply Thou art f. f fe h man after atter mine own heart Turn Go back before I It its jis t too late King shook his head hend I I 1 was In once before my friend I 1 know the rule I I 1 failed to Teach reach the caves that other time because be be- cause ause I nod nad no witnesses to swear they had bad seen en me slay a man In hi the teeth o ot of written law I 1 know I IWho Who saw v thee theo this time Ismal Ismail j asked and began hegan to cackle with th the cruel humor of the Hills that sees see amusement Jt in a mans man's undoing or In inthe the fUle destruction of ot his plans B Br Be and r 4 go HO back Lack I Come with me then Nay I am her man She waits Walts waits for former for forme me mer I l II lI I OIl Imagine she waits for tor me met l laughed King Forward l' l lWe We have I rested In this place long enough I It was ten of a blazing forenoon and the sun had heated up the rocks until It was yas pain to walk on them and agony to sit when they topped the last escarpment escarpment escarpment es es- es- es and came in sight of Khin- Khin jans jan's walls across a n wide mile-wide rock ravine ravine the unregenerate that has no other human habitation within a march because n none ne dare build It was midday when at last they stood on bottom and swayed like men In a dream fingering their bruises and scarcely able for the heat haze to see seethe seethe seethe the tangled mass of stone towers and stone mud-and-stone walls that faced them a n mile away awny They were nearly across the valley hunting for shadow where none was to be found when a salute brought them up standing all-standing in ina ina ina a cluster Six or eight nickel-coated nickel bullets spattered on the rocks close by and one so narrowly missed King ling that that he could feel Its wind Up went all nIl their bands together and they held them so until they ached Nothing whatever happened Their arms ceased aching and grew numb They ad advanced another two hundred yards and another volley rattled among the rocks on either hand frightening one of ot the mules so that it stumbled and fell and had to be helped up again When that was done and the mule stood tood trembling they all aU faced the tho wall But they were too weary to hold theIr heir hands up any more Thirst had begun to exercise Its sway One of the men was half halt delirious 0 Who are ye yei howled a human beIng being beng be- be Ing ng whose VoIce was so like a wolfs wolf's that hat the words at first had no meaning He peered over the parapet a hundred bundred feet above with his head so swathed In n dirty linen that he looked like a bandaged corpse What will ye Who comes uninvited uninvited Into King ling bethought him of talisman allsman He Be held it up and the gold goldband goldband band and glinted in the sun Yet although a humans Hillmans eyes are keener than an eaglets eagles he did not believe tho the thing could be recognized at that angle and from rom that distance Another thought suggested itself to him He turned his head and caught Ismail Isman In the act of signaling with both hands Ye may come howled the watchman watchman watchman watch watch- man on the parapet disappearing Ins In- In s King trembled trembled perhaps perhaps as ns a racehorse racehorse race- race horse lorse trembles at th the starting gate though hough he be was weary enough to tremble tremble tremble trem trem- ble from fatigue But nut that passed He Be was all ali in hand when he led his men up over oyer a rough stone causeway to a adoor adoor door In the bottom of ot a high battlemented battlemented battle- battle m wall and waited for somebody to o open t It tt The great teak door looked as If It it had been stolen from some Hindu temple temple tem- tem ile and he be wondered how bow an ani when they hey could have brought It there across those savage Intervening miles nl High h above the door was a ledge Of ot rock that crossed like a bridge from wall to wall with a parapet of stone built upon it pierced for rifle As they approached a Hangar turban turban turban tur tur- ban not unlike Kings King's own appeared above e the parapet on the ledge and a voice he recognized hailed him good- good Salaam l 1 lAnd And upon thee be peace I l King answered answered an an- in the tong ton for the Hills nIlls are polite voute whatever the other principles r Rewa face beamed down dow on him wreathed In smiles that thai seemed to include mockery as ns well as ns triumph Looking up at hl him at Qt an angle that t made his neck ache and dazzled his hise e eyes es King could 1101 be be sure sure but it seemed to him hint that the smile said Here nere you are my my man and arent aren't you in for It IU JIe ne more than half hult suspected sus sus- he was Intended to understand that But the Hangars Hangar's conversation took another line By tIny Jove f It he chuckled She expected expected ex ex- ex- ex you She guessed you are a a. hound who can hunt well on a dry scent and she dared bet you will come comeIn comeIn comein In spite of all Adds 1 But she me didn't 1 expect you in dress I No by Jove jovo I l You Jolly well will take the wind out of her sails 1 King made no answer For one thing the word hound even In English is not essentially a compliment But he ho had a 0 better reason than that Did you find the way easily the Hangar asked but King kept silence Is he parched Have they cut his tongue out on the road That question was in directed direct direct- ed at nt Ismail and the others but King answered ItOh it itOh tOh t. t Oh as for that that he said salaaming again In ID the fastidious manner of ot a native naive na na- I tIve ive g gentleman I know no other tongue longue than and my own Rn- Rn My name Is Khan Khao I ask admittance He held up his wrist to show the I gold bracelet and high over his head the laughed like a n bell he laughed Well done Enter Khan and be welcome thou hou and thy men Be welcome in her name lame Somebody pulled a rope and th the thedoor door yawned wide giving on on a kind of ot courtyard whose high walls allowed no view of ot anything but not blue blue sky Through n a gap under an arch In a far corner of th the courtyard came a one- one eyed looking lean-looking villain In dress who leaned on a n long gun and stared at them under his hand After a leisurely consideration ion of ot them he be rubbed his nose slowly with one finger spat contemptuously and then used the he finger to beckon them crooking It queerly and turning on on his heel He did not say one word King led th the way after him on on foot for or even In the Hills where cruelty Is s a virtue a n man may be excused on grounds for showing mercy to o his beast His men tugged the tho weary animals along b be behind ind him through the gap under the arch and dong afong an nn almost Interminable smelly maze of alleys whose sides were the walls of square stone towers or sometimes sometimes some- some times Imes of ot walled stone compounds compounds compounds com com- pounds and here and there of sheer slab-sided slab cliff Like Old Jerusalem the he place could have contained a civil war of a hundred factions and still have opposed stout resistance to an outside army Alley AIley gave on to courtyard and filthy square quare to alley until unexpectedly at lost last a seemingly blind passage turned sharply and opened on a straight street treet of ot fair width and more than half a mile long It is marked Street of ot the Dwellings on the secret army maps and It has been burned so ottenby often otten by rioters as well as by expeditions expeditions expeditions out of India that a man who goes on a long Journey never expects to o find it the same on his return It was lined on either hand with motley y dwellings out of which a motHer mother motier mot- mot Her ier crowd of people swarmed to stare at King and ant his men There were Hindus BIn Hin dus sycophants dus-sycophants sycophants keepers of accounts and und writers to the chiefs since literacy literacy lit lit- racy is at a premium in these parts In n proof of catholic taste and indiscriminate villainy there were women of nearly every Indian breed and caste many of at them stolen Into shameful slavery but some of ot them there here from choice And there were little lit lit- tle le children chIldren little little naked brats with round drum tummies who squealed tad and shrilled and stared with bold eyes Perhaps a thousand souls came out outto outto to o watch all told Not an eye of them all missed th the government marks markson on Kings King's trappings or the government government govern govern- ment brand on the mules and after a minute or two when the procession was way half-way down the street a man reproved a n child who had thrown a astone astone astone stone and he was backed up by the others They classified King correctly correct correct- ly exactly as he meant they should As Asa a hakim hakim-a hakim a man of medicine medicine medicine-he he could fill a long-felt long want but by the brand brandon on his accoutrements he walked an openly avowed robber and that made him a brother In n crime Somebody cuffed the next child who picked up a stone Ho ne knew the street of ot old although It had changed perhaps a dozen times s since Inco he had seen it It was a culdesac de cul-de- sac and at the end of It Just as on his previous visit there stood a stone mosque whose roof leaned back at a steep angle against the mountainside It was a famous mosque in its way for forthe the bed sheet of ot the tho Prophet is II a known to hang in It preserved against the ravages of time and the touch of Infidels by priceless Afghan rugg rugs before before before be be- fore and behind So that it hangs like a a. a great thin sandwich before the rear stone wall King had seen It Toward the mosque the one-eyed one ruffian ruffian ruffian ruf ruf- ruf- ruf fian led the way with the long leisure leisure- seeming ly-seeming gait of ot a mountaineer At Atthe Atthe the door In in- inthe the middle of the end of pf the street he paused and struck on the lintel three times with his gun gua butt And that was a strange proceeding to say the least IQ In a lane land where the mosque is public resting place for homeless ones and all nIl the faithful have a n right to enter A mullah shaven like a mummy for some unaccountable reason reason even even his eyebrows and eyelashes had been removed re re- moved pushed moved pushed his bare head through the door and blinked bUnked at them There was some whispering and more moro star star- lag and at last the mullah mullah- turned his 1 back The door slammed The one-eyed one guide grounded his gun-butt gun on the stone and the procession waited watched by the crowd that had lost its interest sufficiently to talk and joke In two minutes the mullah returned and threw a n mat over the threshold It turned out to be the end of a long narrow narrow narrow nar nar- row strip that he kicked and unrolled In front of him all across the floor of the mosque After that it was not so astonishing that the horses and mules mutes were allowed to enter Which proves I was right after all 1 murmured King to himself In a steel box at Simla is a memorandum memorandum mem mem- made after his former visit I to the place to the effect that the entrance into caves might I possibly be Inside the mosque NoI Nor No- No I r I 1 Vt-Al Vt C VA J Nii I 1 Slew an Englishman I body had bad believed It likely and he had bad hadnot hadnot not more than half favored It himself but It Is good even when the next step may l ad d into a trap death to see Bee ones one's first opinions con confirmed He ne nodded to himself as the outer door slammed shut behind them for or that was another most unusual circum circum- stance A faint light shone through windows changing darkness s Into gloom and little more than vaguely hinting at the Prophets Prophet's bed sheet But for a section of white wall to either side of ot It the relic might have seemed part of ot the shadows The mullah stood with his back to It and beckoned King nearer He approached until he could see the pattern on the the- covering rugs and the pink rims round the tho mullahs mullah's eyes What is thy desire the mull mullah a asked asked asked-as as a wolf might ask asic what a n lamb wants |