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Show ; ACTION BY jjjB BEST WRITERS I BY ELEANOR STUART I Calvin's diplomatic opportunity came to him after days of depression and temptation not that depression Is not always temptation. But Galvln, M.D.. could divide his state of mind down the middle and say: 'This much Is B depression consequent upon climate and the dear girl I left behind me-and me-and this much is temptation to quit Bustorah instantly consequent upon a lust to be something better than a mediocre medical man under contract to British Government, rushed out to a green pool with scum on it, merely because a clerk in the Foreign Office happened to notice its name on the map. " The place of the pool is called Madgeldar and gives on the v. ilderncss. being policed by lions and furtively patrolled by flies who are dedicated to the Devil's secret service, spreading b disease from eye to eve and mouth to mouth; the are sentinels of sonow upon the bronze faces of Arab children. chil-dren. But one learns nothing of Madgeldar Mad-geldar from the maps, except that it ii almost on the southern line of So- 4 maliland In East Africa, bar one map. printed at Milan, which says on its ample margin. "Mall service via Aden B' or Zanzibar " j Galvin, M D. never anticipated mail; his whole trouble was that he never ' anticipated anything He was. extrfn- 5 Bically. a tragedy I e. a first rate mind -with fifth-rate opportunities but it is B ever God's mercy that heads wins in 9 such toss-ups with Destiny when a h oot o-ot hoi is not playing the game. Also it is well to remember that whale's dle- turn as he disgorged Jonah for It is i hard to keep a good man clown. it The mail brought him. as a rule, a I ; letter from Sybil Rae who was the manager of the Alexandra Hat Shop "Every Lady's Every Wish Anticipated." Antici-pated." Bond Street. London W He t kissed these letters when they came c j if his Bly Somali servants weren't s looking and when he had finished readintr them he put his red. Scotch head in his hands and cursed with ar dor Curses anJ prayers are twin .brothers in simple natures like Gal-' Gal-' vin's Within his mighty heart the ache of personal failure throbbed on, rand always Sybil receded, home grew blurred even in the clear light of his life's desire. The Arabs about him "would have been surgical opportunities ''had not their religion forbidden the 'knife's healing uses, and sons of the -wilderness know such a lot of pre ventive medicine that other 'han surgl-cal surgl-cal emergencies do not arise except ffwlth women; and. hu r,itcndu, these ivomcn of emergencies do not arise either, but die without doctors as priv- -a''y dictates, and are burled In shallow agraves. L J And he had never anticipated a mail aflless than on the day when his oppor Wtunity arrived by it Dawn hail broken fcpver the tangled green and waving palms, bent In a sand-laden breeze from the Somali desert. Day meant jjDotblng but glare to him now as he Btood In his pajamas on the housetop ranr) looked into the swiftly lllumin-j.ted lllumin-j.ted emptiness. "God," he cried. In kjhis Intolerable loneliness. "If it breaks 7. me. I ve got to get away!" 3 As his eyes fell again to the heavy ateely sea whose breakers threw out ( Jjthelr own complaint on the shore's tawny strip, he caught sight of the Baratra arrived unexpectedly from .Mogdesha and dropped anchor with a wattle In the harbor he wished he had never seen I' II This sight of the little steamer. Which weaves Occident and Orient together to-gether into the shadowed pattern of mens lives, stimulated Galvin to a I point where he bathed and called his boy, Bultak. to go for his letters. "Go you, Bultak," he called in Arabic, "and bring me good news quickly. The steamer's anchor has cried out in the town, while you still sleep like a dead f elephant " Then half as a memorial Service to his mother, half as a petition rfor mitigation of his unspeakable lot n life, he said the Lord'H Prayer. f standing and in a loud whisper. His xoffee and two Impeccable eggs were Jlispatebed with his tired eyas on the brilliant vacancy outside a J decently 'Curtained window He deihroned a blaek ant on the eumralt of his jam pot and leaned back in jbls chair dreaming of power and ono woman's I kindneas and wondering If either .would ever be his except lor the pur-pose pur-pose of dreams. He was still sitting i-Tit the breakfast table w hen the letters camc to him one from the Foreign t ''Office and the other from Sybil Rae His mood of apprehension was ever Oreai before he opened home letters and now he snatched at the note which Cifte felt most threatening of barm, and ftore off a strip from th heavy paper gffef Great Britain's official envelope for rforeign Office Mall. I "Magnus Ga vin, Esy.. M.D" the B letter ran. Sik As a consequence of terri-; terri-; toi ial readjustment ( for purposes of administration, w.e have named you Commissioner for the Busto : rah District; frouL the Italian jfjK boundary on the nojrth to the Zln- gua Zlngua River (on the south, from Tlpi as a wewtern border to 4 Mageldar and the littoral. Your 0 salary Is l,(i()u, vvvlth house prlvi-lg prlvi-lg leges and traveling allowance, and Jt the maintenance of a household staff We suggest Tipl as your jjj residence. The post of District Surgeon which you now bold Is deemed unnecessary and is herc-jfl herc-jfl with abolished! Permission is jC' granted you lVowover, to practise i your medical 1 profession as you W think fit I luive the honor to be, ,J$ sir. lj "Your obedlont, humble servant. u "Miiii.ano" His face went) white under the glar-" glar-" ng thatch of h is deep red hair, but r a smile woke In It and after a few moments mo-ments of bewildered joy, he drew toward to-ward him an ornate and massive inkpot ink-pot and a rusty, spluttering pen. Without With-out a moment's consideration be wrote on a bit of note paper in his pedantic, over-careful script: "Sybils I've a house as well as a heart to offer you now, and a thousand pounds a year For to day some Evangelic impulse having hav-ing stirred the earthly powers I've been made Commissioner of this backwater of barbarism. Will you come out to me instanter'1 1 think you will. I hope you will no I believe you will. Tlpi Is a better place than this in climate and Inshallah! we shall dwell there. "Galvin. M D "N B I love you. "P. S. If you start on receipt of this you'll be arriving April first, hut don't deal me an April Fool's Paradise I want all the assurances assur-ances you can send oe of good faith!" Still dazed at the fulfillment of his dream, he touched Sybil's unopened letter because she had once touched It and gave a free rein to all hopes his common sense had held so long In check It's a wonderful thing." he said, "that good fortune leaps Into a man s life at one bound I had almost ceased to believe In happiness." He heard the slap of naked, native feet hunying alone his tiled corridor. A young Somali stood In the arch of his doorway bearing himself insolently insolent-ly as Somalis do He was slim and taut as a fiddle-string, and was fingering finger-ing his prayer beads busily with sallow sal-low bands. Interrupting his devotions, he spoke with a thick voice in vile Arabic: "A lady, an English lady, comes from the steamer to speak with you She Is here now " "Bring her in." Galvin cried, "bring her in here." Bultak put his beads about his arm and lied while Galvin exclaimed at the strangeness of his dav. He had been twenty-Six months In Madgeldar and had seen but one woman, a nun. w ithin the walled city. But even a missionary Is a boon to a lonely man. and Galvin hastened to dress, fluttering at the thought of meeting a European woman, even of the somewhat formidable mis sionary type which invades East Africa. Af-rica. That his visitor could br anything any-thing but a missionarv never dawned upon him He already saw her, with his mind's eye her face wet from the exertions of a grilling walk from the shore her pince-nez slipping from a nose not classic, but her sweet English voice and stereotyped piety echoes of the land that he loved, the country from which his chance to serve had (orae. He heard the rustle of her gown as she entered the next room quietly and all his memories of Sybil, all his heated hopes of her, flowed through him at the rippling noise of a silken skirt He sat down on a disordered little bed while his blue eyes filled painfully. I never knew I had noticed the rustle rus-tle of women's skirts." Galvin said faintly, brushing his hair arduously with a pair of military brushes His tunic was spotless, his hair was smooth, and he wore his very best Dumps the left one was a little eaten by white ants and then he stood in the doorway and looked straight into the gray and tender eyes of Sybil Rao. who sobbed with excitement at the sight of him. "Sybil!" he cried, as if she had been a half-mile from him, "how came you here?" Ill Sybil Rae and Galvin. M.D were essentially es-sentially practical people. After the first ecstatic Interlude between a life of separation and the fact of reunion, she told how she came to Madgeldar very succinctly In the French mail to Aden and the Bnrana to Madgeldar. nor did she dwell upon the agonies of nocturnal transhipment She had read his open letter to her before he had emerged from his bedroom and was much elated at its contents. "We shall be almost rich." she said thoughtfully, "foi Aunt Phoebe is dead, and It wa3 the first fruits of her legacy which paid my fare out here" Galvin. M D.. looked at her with a smile of appreciation "You had good courage to come alone." he observed, "but I wish you had had time to write or you might have cabled Aden and they could have posted me the cable from there but never mind, you're here'" "I'm here," she answered with a lit tie echo of satisfaction. "Still, I could have gone off to meet you if I'd known, and I hate to think of you alone with Somali boatment." "The captain sent an Indian mechanic mechan-ic with me " she declared quickly. "What a knight! er if I had but known you were coming. I could have had a parson on the spot. There's a glut of vaiiega'ed religions in Africa, dear girl, but parsons are almost unknown un-known In this region." Sybil turned pole "But you wrote lots about such a nice missionary." she cried in alarm. ' and I felt we could hardly afford tables In rase of mar rlage only In case of death besides, oh, Galvin, M.D., I did love the thought of a surprise!" He took a great letter-book from a shelf near at hand, a big book with painfully few letters between Its pages "He was a proper good sort, that missionary," mis-sionary," he said slowly, "and you did well to remember him. He's to the north of Tlpi somewhere, hut It will be a hard ride on Somail ponies who don't know what leg-wise means. His name is Fedder, the missionary man's, and he goes In for botany and vermin. ver-min. 11 we should send out for him he'd come lilie a shot at this date he lfi at the N'gambo of Band! with specimens speci-mens of bats and moths and things Well, because I'm Commissioner oi a tented community you won't have to establish a residence out here to get married, any more than a lion does before be-fore he eats a man that's one advantage advan-tage " She laughed then a whole-souled peal of sound English laughter the like of which he hadn't heard in literally At fitt their cnnicl" ro kod nauwatiDirlv. but they prr'viitlv rtfl 1 into th rloBncd rhythm oi i-hip i tbc dfort ond Sybil emilixl whenever her oiirjl v.os released (rum tbc adverse- a..r?Btioas oi nausea, glare and chafed knee years; It healed homesickness and spread the calm of absolnte courage through him. for sometimes there's much more sympathy in laughter than in tears "I fancy you mean that I'm gobbling you up," she said. "Swallow me whole." he answered with a boy's ardor, and their foolish hands gripped each other, and they looked long at one another as lovers will 'Sybil," he said, in his deep Scotch voice, "true love is as rare aa true beauty, and both are God's truth But who's to go fetch Fedder?" he added presently. Naked, bronze savages were carrying her luggage over the veranda, and a detached being, also bronze, stood at gaze with a valise well balanced upon his shapely head. "I brought a ring," Sybil confessed with a shamed face, "but somehow I looked to you for the clergyman I should like awfully to be married today. to-day. I should like It lots better than hanging about with a nun or a sick nurse until Mr. Fedder packs up his beetles and comes OAer to marry us at his convenience." "That's the rub," Galvin said thoughtfully. "You're the only white woman in Madgeldar. I've leen here six and twenty months and I never saw but one other." They sat staring at one another eye to eye and without laughter "At least there's no one to say catty things," she said, with scared eyes and a faltering falter-ing voice, while a cheap clock ticked emphatically and the bare feet of savages sav-ages slapped to and fro In the excitement excite-ment of shifting luggage. An overgrown over-grown thicken was chased from the veranda, making strange noises of pro-tee pro-tee in lis great haste and tho increasing increas-ing heat It was then that Sybil spoke at length. "My dear," she began in a voice which betrayed Increasing agitation, "don't let's wait for Mr Fedder to come to us, let's go to him. will you?" "It's the only thing to do," ho answered an-swered slowly; it's perfectly safe you know, for we don't even tap the Mul lah's countrv yes, that same Mad Mullah of the morning papers at home " it will be less of a fag than getting married with bridesmaids, and licenses, licen-ses, and things." she cried excited. 'in this letter" Galvin continued thoughtfully, "Feebler distinctly says that he'll le at this date in the N -gambo of Bandi with hli specimens of bats and moths and entomological what-not Band! isn't bo far off Sybil; with luck and willing nnss we'll get there h'm about midnight. Can you ride?" ' No." she said fearlessly, hitherto, I've uever had the chance." IV. Galvin, M.D, poHes-ed the first requisite re-quisite of a useful medbal man, he could bluff beyond the dreams of poker players; and when he heard thai Sybil bad never ridden, he behuved as If that knowledge were a great relief to his mind Baltuk." he called, "go thou lo Iph-raim Iph-raim bin Salf say to him we have need of three camels and much water, alBo the food of France In (ins, but no salt pig, for we journey fast in desert places and ham makes thirst." It cost Calvin a pang to renounce his Somali pony, "Soda Mint." who was small aud white, and in Madgeldar's sedentary routlue avowedly ood tor the digestion; but he still smiled happily hap-pily at Sybil "Camels." he told her. "smell shocking and are rnther slow, but they aren't thirsty and they know' the way lo Bandi, and somehow sand doesn't tire them; therefore I choose camels " Then they sat together on the veranda ver-anda while the noon hours passed in scathing glare, from whose pulsing agony of light a rough voice summoned the faithful to their prayers. The wind grew brisker moving like a busy presence pres-ence in tho drying heat and tv rannous sun Galvin read Sybil's letter aloud to her and l hey smiled at the announcement an-nouncement of her legacy and Immediate Imme-diate departure for the East They were decorously disposed in wicker armchairs In full sight of all passers, talking over all things in their heart's content After three when their heavy luncheon lunch-eon had been consumed and their midday mid-day rests taken, three humpnosed, humpbacked camels passed the dwell ing's white angle, biting at one another an-other and baring long, discolored teeth. They were laden with water-bottles of goatskin and tin of food Incomparably prepared In France, under which bur-dens bur-dens they knelt grousing between the depleted well and the tiled veranda. Sybil had dressed for her wedding In a stout serge skirt of blue with a thick llannl blouse to protect her shoulders shoul-ders from the blistering sun Her col lars and cuffs were the last word of fashion's glittering babble, but Galvin. M D . ignored them, and spread a shawl of white linoleum over her shoulders, packing the nape of her neck with wet sponges from his unsought surgery. "Tiar" (ready!) he said as she mounted (he kneeling camel and Baltuk, Bal-tuk, naked now except for a loin-cloth of ''American" (unbleached muslin from Fall River) kicked her animal upright, and screamed curses on him in his own name and the Prophet's, diopplng on his knees to pray God's favor for their journey with an adaptability adapta-bility usually and only ascribed to American Am-erican women in diplomatic life. Galvin Gal-vin then leapt to the summit of his kneeling brute, who rose, flirting a flail-like caudal appendage aud adding his noises to the stress of departure. At first their camels rocked nauseat-Ingly nauseat-Ingly but they presently settled into the defined rhythm of ships of the desert, des-ert, and Sybil smiled whenever her mind was released from the adverse sensations of nausea, glare, and chafed knees not to dwell too long on hands stiffened with tense hold on the one great pommel about which the chuck ling water bottles were packed as securely se-curely as she herself Baltuk had filled her hat's crown with a bit of ice purchased pur-chased from the cook of (he Haiti" a loi tho price of some surcharged post-stamps post-stamps but this sped down her neck into the regretted past in a few delicious de-licious freezing rills She loved them in their fleeting. Icy passage into the remembered luxuries of Western living, liv-ing, but she laughed 8S she called herself her-self an immigrant and declared herself able (o endure the country of her choice. Sometimes Galvin gave her a sop of lint, wet with diluted myrrh which she held In her mouth lovingly while be cautioned her not to swallow It. and when at last she cast the thing (o the desert's floor, (he once saturated wad grown dry as powder In her burning burn-ing mouth she felt an Inrush of new life and marvelled at the power of re-freshment re-freshment In so neglected a simple But after an hour's rocking on tho hilly back of the great brute who sped onward without an apparent though! for the burning strand beneath him. or (he unmitigated, sun-fllled sky above him and (he desert she found succor from above as if the shielding wing of a guardian angel had come between her aud (be excessive light Shadows of the camels, the only shadows In the glowing expanse of all that treeh pace, shone on the desert's dusky faco In lively mauve or a curious unbelieve-able unbelieve-able magenta: audi the network of nameless growth half vine, hall fun gus, which breaks from the baked and sandy surface of this wilderness, showed itself in sudden detail as luo sun lost Its overwhelming quality and became weakened by nigh( s advance, mere ligh( rather than a malign ele meut which conquers man's sense of sight Far in (he glowing west (he clearness of atmosphere and the brll Itance of omnipotent sun still dominated, domin-ated, but In the east grown Buave and tender with (he flrs( hues of nightfall night-fall a fluff of cloud like the flowing scarf of a veiled woman beckoned one to the relief of darkness And every swell upon Hie breast of the wild upland up-land their camels turned suddenly to traverse, stretched its purple shadows toward the east as a beggar's cup irf held for greed of gold from traveler's purse, or gush of water from a travel er's bottle. Nothing human assailed their senses; the world was a picture In wild color from the hand of God: painted In crcai Ion's dawn before man had obtruded himself as an object to be recorded. The shadows lost (heir color, becoming becom-ing a gray and dusty purple, when the sun left the sky abruptly and only a golden line hung on in the western horizon like a postscript to the brightness bright-ness that wa3 gone. Enjoyment seemed to leap from the earth and descend from the sky. for a tyrant had left the world In the sun s passing, almost as Baltuk folded away Sybil's shawl of linoleum and took the sop from her neck's nape bone dry "What news of the evening?" he asked respectfully, to which Galvin like a true Arab responded, "Good news; It is cool by God's mercy and a sea wind." A great gaiety had wakened In their souls and they looked at one another and laughed like children In the soundless desola Hon about them, racing their camels over the hard baked desert track to a space of green the northern part of the oasis of Tlpi. at whose border is Bandi and its fabled N'gambo. populated popu-lated with Arabs and their negroid progeny, who ply desert trades and speak in the language of poets of practical prac-tical matters too small for the mind of an Occidental boarding house keeper, or metaphysical considerations too ample for the Intelligence of a Spinoza to lind Us way among them. i camels called to one another as they set foot in the green bunch-grass of Tlpi, and staggered along a steep and sandy track sharply upward to a verdant tableland, from which the desert des-ert looked like a sullen sea. its sheen and color quenched in the growing darkness, but an outline of billows and tightly crimped rlpple3 quite visible In the light of a round moon, shining above in a clump of weird and leafless trees at the plateau's edge. Their animals ani-mals traveled so much faster now that speech was an effort, and with the coolness cool-ness of the night came a great desire not to molest its quiet, Sybil looked reverently at the thickening array of - above her and the grotesque out-line out-line Of the camels' heads silently picturing pic-turing to herself the quest of the Magi a-; they bore fragrance and gold to the child of the world's desire the human, helpless ultimatum of Hebraic ambition. ambi-tion. The coolness kissed her cheek, but the thorns tore at her skirts and teased her camel while furtive creatures of the underbrush dashed between his forelegs. She sang one snatch of a Christmas ballad. ' We three Kings of Orient are." stimulated by a sweet and sudden wind, which had gathered a burden of perfume in faraway locust groves to blow upon one pair of white, girlish cheeks, in all Its African Journey Jour-ney There was In this stillness, this perfumed peace no atmosphere of inn M no environment of clothes; the murk and crowd of London was but a dream: the noise of fires, the clang of ambulances, the raucous sound of riots were BUggested to her reluctant mem-o: mem-o: b the actualities of former life P-tii the peace of (he desert was a new thing it was as simple and unusual as holiness, and like holiness, it was as empt M a sacred symbol to a mind profane Great verses from (he first chapter of Genesis strode through her mind with the measure of Creation's Titanic progress, as she threw out a i i am I and aching hand toward Calvin Cal-vin and achievc-d her first conscious epigram: "All great moments," ahe panted are trysts with God' Calvin said in reply but his answer-Ing answer-Ing hand-clasp satisfied her "Oh, don't be metaphysical, or I shan't think you're happy. ' V. Their camels hurried on as camels will when water He before them, and n sudden glare of red azalea leapt out ,,i the fall) ti Bight It breathed on Sybil as she passed, reflected for a moment mo-ment in Baltuk 8 moonlit and perspir-ng perspir-ng faCe Date palms clustered about them now. as they sped north and west, while calls lilies grew closelv bloom to bloom, like decorations on an faster card The whole world seemed a work-shop work-shop of Christmas and Easier special-ties special-ties -.nu bad they seen an angel practising prac-tising bis Miltonlan wings oi purple and a me in the Ineffable ultramarine of the star-punctured vault above them, it would have seemed but natural. Baltuk took their pending arrival ex- cltedly He was anlo,'VVTriL !!! self well and to have GaMn say he owed comfort to him He pointed with a conjuror's gesture to a well, placed on the side of a sudden acclivity; a wide expanse of hoof trodden dust before be-fore It, and two rough-hewn, commemorative commem-orative pilars before Its wide walled pool. On a crosbeam, resting on these square columns, were these words In the Mullah's hybrid Arabic: "What father closes his door even at night to his sons? or which father's heart even In sleep but pities them9" This was a recruiting station of Islam where men are won to war by words of fervent tenderness. Baltuk tapped (he knees of his camel on the dusty space before the pool, and the beasts knelt, athlrst and docile Sybil and Galvin dismounted, stiff and roeilng. and Baltuk bade them heed: 'Over the hill to the right," he said. "Is the N'gambo of Bandi My place Is with these camels who must drink.'' They moved ever stiffly, numbed hand in numbed hand, up I he hill rosetted with low scrub, drinking from their flasks as they gained a painfully won resting place on the summit of a sudden sud-den illogical hillock, about whose minor min-or base a city of huts rested, like a dirty crescent of kennels, under the bright full moon. Beyond (his make shlfl city tom-toms beat and dancers whirled amid the premeditated plenty of a feast The great round moon impersonally im-personally and dispassionately lighted each spare, active figure, until it stood out from the blackness of its back ground. "It can't he a religious feast." Galvin Gal-vin muttered I know their damned calendar and there Isn't the pretext for a 'pigeon-wing' In all this empty-month empty-month What is It for which (hey dance" H strode on down-hill. They came suddenlv on a precinct where camel3 were tied to pegs driven deep In the e.irtli Tlir.ir locc woro f-iotonort together with cruel thongs and there were hordes of them thus picketed on that hillside; they raised their ugly heads on long and writhing necks, seeming like snakes about to bite poi sonously It was hard to tread one's way among them, but Galvin pushed his road through long aisles of muzzles unsy mmetrlcally chewing coming out at the far end of the crescent formed by a strangely straggling town, and sHting down on a stone, still radiating heat for all It was night catching Sybil's hand and his breath at the one moment, while he considered his next step. A roofless stone house vanned skyward lust at their feet, and not ten yards below them ten yards which stretched in sheer clay exuding clamp from the overflow of a well close at hand which rippled audibly down the steep to the town (roughs. "Sybil." Gahln commanded, "stay-here "stay-here More people than Bandi con-talno con-talno ordinarily are feasting and dancing danc-ing Before I tako you within the town, I want to know why." "Don't be long." she ar ered rather faintly as he started down the sheer bank. He kissed her as he left her and with his lingering handclasp came the sense of parting, the night seemed to close over her and choke her with Its blackness. She saw him plunge downward Into the town's nether darkness dark-ness and she knew that riot was abroad there, or Borne evil, patent to his decivillzed faculties and undiscern- ible to hers. It was awful to be alone there where a moment before it had been good to be with him When she dared to look below her the moon showed him to her as he scaled the wall of (he roofless house furiously Once within it he lighted many matches, bending over what seemed to be a dead animal But presently pres-ently it stirred she saw its black bulk shift while chains clanked distinctly and Galvin prodded it when it stirred again with the same cheerless noise of bondage After those second sounds he kh 1 ed at a wooden door in the least Hgh(ed corner of the roofless building, and its boards fell away from their fastenings and opened a way out; she called to him and he called to her, "Hush!" the hardest command a man may give his anxious helpmeet. He left the house then and sled.- along the shadowed shad-owed side of a dusty track until he was lost in the darkness, except for one glimpse she had of him emerging from (he door of a hut At last he re entered the roofless house, and by the apparent Iv increased bulk of (he inert thing within it she knew (hat he was beside it and wondered what he did that he could leave her aloue In a lions' countrv and Islam's domain In sudden anger she slipped to the edge of the cliff of clay, digging her heels into K as she had seen hlni do to retard her passage dow n its precipitous slope. Breathless, she stole to the broken door and entered its jagged open Ing his strength had achieved at one kick coming toward him timidly, al l uued at a grating sound she had not heard before. ' nailing,' he said, and she knew from his voice (hat he exuKed, "see If yon can work out his gag." He put her hand on the protruding part of the dark bundle and Sybil started back fiom a bearded, sweating face Calvin laughed nt her wild re-coll re-coll lust like me." he whispered. but It's Fedder. good old Feebler! Do get out (hat gag he's haiued and I'm filing mv last link Can't you see he's the Mullahs prisoner7 Cheer oh. Sybil, and ireu ft ' "So (hats what they're out dancing about?" she hissed fiercely, groping for bis mouth with a sudden cessation of fear and hands which (femblcd from the sirainiug grip of her ride Galvin grunted, fliinx valiantly at the metal link while Sybils fingers pulled at a -it range, stone-like thing betweeD Fed-ier's Fed-ier's parted, burning lips. Strange sounds, unlike speech came from him while ahe worked, but at last she held something and dragged It ,Hf sharply away, when her hand was H caught In a jaw swiftly closed and she H sent out one cry of absolute agony "He has bitten my hand." she walled when she could speak, pressing herself 'H to Gall in s side. IH "I know ' he answered, "poor Sybil, WEi dear girl, suck at it for God's sake, for we must see this through It's the big- iH gest day's work we have ever seen Rs Come, the chains are off; we muBt get out of this quickly." He groaned when he saw her hand. 'Keep on sucking." he whispered, Hi 'and help me help Fedder walk." Hi At that the long creature beside IHH them stirred Excuse the bite," he jHg said faintly, i am sorry, it was purely ' iK involuntary" He rose and fumbled at his breast with some half-executed de- I IH sign of signing the cross upon it. and reeling between them rushed for tho shattered door through which the moonlight also had b"rst "We have no came, for him," Sybil cried isH "Have we not?" Galvin inquired iH grimly, while they pushed on in dark-ness, dark-ness, suffering but alert. The hill they had toiled over in as- B cent seemed swiftly steep in Its down- jK ward repassing, but they avoided the Hk cliff beside which the roofless house K stood bare and tenantless. Tomtoms H& beat fainter In the peopled background HE of deserted Bandi. and before them Hii the desert stretched, mute, empty of JM men. but full of meaning. Its little hill- IL tops tawny under the flood of a moon flHtf at the full. Its empurpled swales BeV stretching In sharp lines, like so many arrows fallen from a quiver. It seemed Btf : sheer Impossibility that they could Hp hold out until the well was reached. flu Pulses beat in Sybil's head and breath rushed In and out of her lungs, shak- - ing her as it came and went. Fedder K' . leaned on her intolerably and strange Bff'V, thoughts of wanting to lie down, of Wt' longing to die, shot like lightning fltl through her mind. Then Galvin paused, In the shadow of an odorous locust tree, taking his IBe watch from his wrist where he wore It g In a leather bracelet and hiding It flsWli within his tunic. JEe The light caught Fedder's face and M showed them his beard, the ends of Hfc which had been stuffed into his mouth Bp., to 'make part of his gag The halra K? BtUCk to his lips now and he picked H? them off painfully, borrowing Sybil's IBr!' handkerchief to wipe away the blood K When tho came to Baltuk and the camels Calvin spoke: Go back to the m N'gambo, Baltuk, and tell your Mullah K that I dropped my watch in his village fl!, where I lifted b(s sick man. When it K? Is found, bid him keep It, as a present ilfci. for his kindness to me tonight. We rej- wlll stay here." fl Baltuk stood staring at them before K he turned on his naked heel and ran R' up the steep, scrub bordered path. 'We jBv have now," Galvin continued, ever 30 Eft gently a camel for Fedder. I couldn't BP-i think how else to get one." K! Their flight was too serious for ex- Jr planations or speech, but when the coral shades of dawn flared in the east mi?' they saw Madgeldar's walls white In B the distance, and saw each other's faces e white too. and livid with fatigue, and ,F racked with the bitter pains of such a w. Journey. ,t "It's the first time, old Galvin." Fed- F der shouted, for their pace was still If swift, "that the Mullah has had to give jp up his quarry He had me four days." fl "Curse him!" Galvin called genially. "Don't cur?e him." Fedder screamed. L "He's a man and lives up lo his llght6. I Who's this ladv?" ' "My wife, when you get round to It. , We needed a parson, so we rescued ft you. Miss Rae arrived out with yes- P" terday's mall." L They pounded on the city's gate un- opened for the day. and sent boy-? for !fe two prominent Arabs to be witnesses 'L to the marriage. S Galvin had hard work prying plaster ' of Paris away from Fedder's teeth, but I at last they were all three bathed and dressed, fed and festive It was then r that Fedder told them of his capture, with the hand of each deliverer clasped I close in his. J I was coming toward Bandi with no -end of rare moths, a new one, blue, jr. with gray ' 1 "That will do later." Sybil said p. firmly. "And I saw a train of desert men. unmounted 1 knew It was the Mullah leading them, and although he tried j lo kill me with a queer kulfe, I liked II him awfully. A man with him heard from one of ray porters that. I was a bit of doctor, so they decided to take I; me to a smallpox district back of fl Band) When we got to the town. I tried to run away, so they look the ' roof off my house that the sun might kill me, but a spring overflowed above L me somewhere, and I was drenched With it and felt the sun but little Jk They made light of my beard, like a 1 lot of Moslems aud gagged me be- t cause I frightened the townsmen, tell- j Ing them how English love remembers 1 and how English arms ever win at it long last They were all gone to a feast to celebrate some defeat of our men somewhere, when you got there. f. Well, even four days in chains seem centuries You're credits to your countrv coun-trv you two" he ended thoughtfully When Calvin's brief chronicle of all P. this reached Lord Midland with his ac- L ceptance of his new post, that august ; person sent for an under secretary "Why did we choose Galvin for Bus torah?" he inquired. r "To save expense. He was on Hi- " spot more or less He was the flist pawn to be advanced in the Bustorah I;, game " M "A splendid pawn.' Midland cried p loudly, and so the House said, when L the matter was put before them and p they broke up after cheering. |