Show yellow y 0 W men en sleep e ve j v d by JEREMY LANE copyright by the century company CHAPTER vill VIII continued 12 the princess was startled and her face seemed rather pale as she stared nt at him it was apparent that she cherished the plan ot of the empire of the yellow sun perhaps because she was born to be an american levington wondered it she know knew what the asiatic interpretation of this idea might require from herself in particular in caliphate and chanate there can be no plan of priest or king that Is not discussed behind the lattices of the female courts and no girl la Is too young to know her place in the scheme indeed the statecraft of the orient often originates within these fragrant sanctuaries tau tan nuan KIMU imprisoned much lucli of beauty helen had been broadly educated levington was tossed unhappily beti between een tile girlish purity of tile the princess and the probable depths of her sophistication something per naps a masculine pride hinted to him that she wa s amusing herself with two credulous white men something reminded him film that she had irish blood the spring of subtlety find and grave humor the same faculty in con reminded hiru him also how nicely she had concealed a surprise that would have been natural ura lupon upon meeting two americans for tile the first time in her life and particularly one of them her ono 01 n father yet this might be nothing more than a result of chinese training the self control that hat nothing can disturb yes she said slowly 1 I have heard of the melting pot pol but chee ming says there is no DO fire under it lie ile knows better than that for lie he has been scorched by it said con cut but a race does not rise to greatness by fear and force andrew march was saying ardently arden A city cannot beet become we perfect against its will there is no love in tau ac kuan helen vas nas pensive that is abhat hat mother used to tell me she said march sighed bro brokenly Lenly ri kien on desur halted ills his icle inspection anti anil turned sad end small eyes upon ills his mi mistiest Levinz levinston ton lias has told yo you u the truth about our or country march continued the ore fire that chee ming has overlooked Is freedom it is not in ills philosophy under ilis his guidance tau kuan might one day be a unified nation but it mould be a race of de be stirs does bebur trouble youl you she asked of cun con not hesitating to wreck her ber fathers fal liers conversation not at all said levi levington n ton as lie removed the die ape from his neck for the lite fifth time nor did con intend to grow serious but lie felt suddenly that tills this was the penalty tor for ills wasted life to come into her presence only in time to find that ahe be was being drawn into tin an inevitable gray aki LI their hairy countenances were a fourfold replica of hate cruelty flee ue he did not obrene the glance march gave him a look of trust and appeal helen did not comprehend the like new intensity in gray blue eyes site she knew nothing of the pain he she s started in the heart of this tt anderer then her father humbly asked are yau are you fond of prince she glancie at him quickly and sniffed smiled you tou are like mother she asked that question many times when the prince anil and I 1 were small very young people and what reply did you glive give your mother I 1 1 I do not rem remember elliber site she counseled me and made me pron promise alse but I 1 hae forgotten the prince can ride and khoot lie ile recites all the bongs of 0 li 11 po ile ho Is twenty four 31 cars ars old a pure lure mongol if this were wanton torture tor turp she delivered 1 livered it with perfect calm levington caught ills his breath and storm threatened within him it was both a relief and an agony to know that she did not love the prince levinstone Levins Leving tons personal state was sunk deeper when lie he recalled that he was himself a prisoner and would doubtless be out of the way in a short while and then he be caught the sentence from her lips a casual mention our nuptials begin at the me new moon andrew march leapt to the center of tile the rug and his eyes were idere ablaze little girl you do not know life you speak of things unbearable this Is criminal you tou are white as your mother tried to impress upon you and they have made you forget it you cannot be handed about in the oriental fashion they are crazy out here yes they are devils now the withered and double scarred chinese servant entered the room and ot at his heels carne came four of the huge soldiers the same who had ridden down the white men in the ravine find and who also had bad app appeared eared against them before the prince their swords dangled and chinked their boots were free from dust and the alie cloaks upon their high shoulders were of heavy raw silk a golden yellow their halry hairy countenances were a fourfold replica of late hate and cruelty they hall come to remove the prisoners con levington had bad to be urged CHAPTER IX below the walls on his roof again con noted that an awning of green silk had been stretched over his doorway and a couch placed beneath it in n the open air r for his added comfort A silver pitcher of wine stood on a and he found that the wine was acceptable cep table having been cooled in springwater A ater but all was secondary even the silent departure of the guards for I 1 he e was thinking in a whirl of helen march her innocence was amazing like her wisdom an american personality with strange diagonals of the orient con loved the tang of desert sund sunlight lit upon her face her throat and arms her shoulders were neither wide nor narrow arld and she was not tall lie ile remembered everything she hall had said and d was ivas unable to evade her final utterance which became more and more inore a sublimated poison to him ile he turned back to yesterday recalled how she had bad ridden how her pony had galloped frum from the top of the ravine after her word had saved them how lier her brown hair had streamed out from the soft gray cloak no chinese princess could eer have ridden tit at such a pace but again there was utis the gentle almost lifeless movement of her hands and the low fullness of her voice when slie site talked of tau kuan kann she was ns a delightful sorrow to levington as if all ills his days too had foretold her she did not know herself she was eighteen the ways of these outland people were familiar to her and it was natural she should love their national interests strangely like americas bitterly different the reddish palace was home her mother was gone the grand had bad brought her Arrie american gowns street suits and other articles the models lad had displayed at Sper mans in the city terribly tar far distant there was no do estimating the pains pain the old chinese lad had taken to secure such thin things gs tor for her con knew at least of ills connection with the houe which must have been arranged by secret means and it t was clear that choe chee ming hall taken many a point front from cecil hedgers Wed gers incipient queens of the cinema the had bad been content to cook tor for a young snob merely to garner some Inform information atlon as to liow how a young american girl should be dressed how she must talk and think and what if anything might please pie ase her con appreciated the genius ge that had bad malle made the exclusive hedgers n part of chee plan for the completion of tau I 1 zuan kuan empire of the yellow sun the tangle of east and west troubled levington more and more helen had almost lost her mothers counsel rard regarding ing prince it was too easy to feel the lead dead Elt hnas horror of the young mongol and of the plan she had foreseen his marriage with her little while daughter the mother must have striven to develop american instincts the riding of ponies love of oak trees independence and natural frankness levington saw more vividly how march must have loved rit eathna bria how the loss of her had nearly broken down his sanity and at last liow how lie he had I 1 ept secret ills his innermost intention for another journey into the perilous gobi it hall had meant too much for him to put his hope in words lie ile had planned to run down the international beast koresh rill all that side of the story as jut as he hall had confided it to levin levang ton tan but then there had been much more marahs interests did not begin or end iu in a federal commis commission slon con realized now the deep and double jov of ills his when he had first found clice ming in dory street marketing the drug only to find that the tracings led to the gobi desert the affair of the present morning recurred to mind the in his enchanted garden despite seeming leisure events in the palace went too swiftly for a final valuation con was puzzled to find that the more closely he tried to recall the garden the appearance pea bearance pe arance nance of the fat lord the singing bird the dancer and the magician the less he knew about them had the juggler poured his hia wine into the fourth dimension or was tile the watcher merely transported by a breath of the drug levington went now to the outer corners of his prison enduring the hostile eyes of a double guard to look for the vine covered lower bower of royal entertainment hut but could see nothing of it he must have turned into a courtyard of the palace itself one grim assurance clung to him the sinister fragrance of koresh through sll mid afternoon as often as ills active mind abandoned some new and equally futile plan of escape ills his thought circled around to Il helen cleri he reclined under tile the green silken awning and repented repeated her name ue ile was awakened to the center of his being and was scarcely aware that every new plan for escape included two others besides himself and one a princess mentally she remained with him in the throne loom her glance toward the prisoner she had bad spared her boredom with the proceedings her beauta ful feet a western woman as lie he must hane hac guessed had bad it not been for the slight tilt of her brows and this he had seen more closely to be but the running cunning work of her maid servants in her own apartment surrounded by things american the transformation that was not complete because of her chinese training personal qualities that tantalized him the first words that had thrilled him so unaccountably and the last bringing a clutch of terror the clear young beauty of her face her lips the lie soft brown of her hair the curve of girlish shoulders tile the grave pleasure at meeting that stranger her father and the unemotional view she mie held of her on own onn n future as queen of this fantastic state these fi fragmentary abou thoughts lits posses possessed 1 I levington brought him life as it had neer come before hurt him savagely so that aliat lie he sighed and tossed about on the green cushions then lie he remembered once again that they would not permit liim him to live this fact had a totally new aspect and the novelty of it now nov brought him to ills his feet ills gray slave started up lip in surprise ur prise and the pair of big awod ed soldiers made themselves felt at the stair head for the first time in ills his career con rebelled against depth death seemed no a pirt part of the be game instant or slow death did not interest him film now it was a stupid rule of the play lie ile wanted mightily to live there was something thing both sweet and very bitter in dwelling in the same desert city with mith helen march there were so many things he had to tell her so sn much he longed to ask also an additional urgency for a tall talk with her father late in the afternoon lie retreated to liis ills inner chamber hot and impatient in the smaller ol 01 two rooms which were barely furnished the walls a creamy white lie he thin flung himself self upon tile the soft couch but its touch was oddly unpleasant like ille f s caress from the wrong person ile he arose in disgust and stared at the brass lamp with its fragrant green oil the gray boy also ball come in out of the sun stin and was now it a quint beside the dhan slowly lie he pulled the cord that set the long curtains swaying overhead from time to time he sprinkled water upon these curtains then resumed the fanning nut but physical comfort only heightened cons unea uneasiness sine ile he felt the power of the fact that they were bestowing these thee elaborate attentions upon hlin him only to make mill him a better white in the history of tau kuan no one came the sun laid a golden path across the rug of the outer room Leving tons repented rep requests invitations and demands for chee ming resulted in nothing the day seemed interminable at the hour of sunset his two warriors tipp appeared eared at the door fill tyro two others they were always the name fame sort hort of tall muscular riders and seemed to represent a certain blend of large boned races epee especially lally besig designed 1 e 1 for war they led con to the beths and march was already there prone upon the mat mif suffering fering the barber the familiar key sl shaped 1 1 aped blade was poised and darting 1 bout about 1 ills his face they brought me ni a curdish woman said march with a tan tinge e of disgust what Is our move asked le levington v its as they unwound his costume and tile amateur maii mat eur appeared at his side 1 I cant hear berr it said mareb march weve got to ond find a way inay nave have you figured out anything 1 I forgotten that we tire are at least five weeks journey from frola anywhere and tind every hour of those hose weeks an impossibility to us the ahr irony hurt the younger man nho bo saw that ills his friend avns broken the gilds dismayed marii ills his beloved was dead ills 1118 had ended culled in this weird defeat and it Is too late to stop their marriage he concluded ills despair was very hard for con the baths were accomplished without another opportunity for words and con was taken under guard to hla his two rooms and the roof he had seen no more of the palace than before the same dira scented corridors the spray of three fountains the broad shadow crescents that its roofs cast down upon the houses clustered under the eastern wall ile he could not guess how many human beings were contained here he saw nothing of the stunted and crooked men of the mines for they did not dwell within the city the soldiery was in evidence mostly upon steeds that were more sturdy than symmetrical on the return across the palace lawn con had noted a small mall party of women closely veiled moving toward tho the fountains their robes ceroi were of figured stuffs the ends of their head veils drifting white two coffee colored giants had walked behind them food was served as before attendance was servile and silent the dinner was worth eating for it included 2 5 r j t k it I 1 I 1 I 1 Z the maid faced again the man who puzzled and terrified her roast lamb a salad of small oranges orange colored leaves spicy and each Is as round as a penny and vegetables nelch were in flavor like potato cro crossed sed with celery the wine was an evenin evening breath from fruitful places again A aj n lie sent for the and no ono one came the mists of days end 11 lifted fled from tile the western fields and once were herded away aay for the night just over the western fortification four camels were unhitched from their plows find and driven to the rushy spring near the sheds the little litlie monkey visited the chita mim again in time thue to share and green tea lecington Le Ington all over pacing the roof searching mentally for escape lie ile wanted to talk with avith march final rays of sunlight touched tile the high apartments of the palace but left his own in III blue twilight the carvin carving tiles jutted butted down closely over every window like clinging shadows shade the walls f felt e it cruel to tile the nuite nian man ile he began to imagine the marriages |