Show y V V y imen sleep by JEREMY LANE copyright by the century nt amp company IY I 1 CHAPTER XIII 16 the ape repays when he wakened some time later his first link ot of consciousness was that the altar fire was out the air changing and he knew without looking that nelen helen was no longer on the other side of the wall the same green twilight suffused the top of the tunnel ile he recalled as from months ago how the party of dwarfs had drawn aside to permit him to pass on olinto into this maze below the palace con wondered vaguely if the whole world were honeycombed then he managed to rise and ills his feet at first were like diving weights nothing less than his intensity of emotion lifted him up the tha notched barrier again his firms arms were shaking his eyes dim again the greenish glow in his face the chamber was empty now save for one drugged mandarin ling full length in his blue robe one gaunt arm touching the floor cleor the altar was dead and only an oppressive feeling in the air remained of the koresh ko resli the wooden door ot at the further side was not quite closed I 1 she had bad come down to this pit of royal iniquity because he was making lier her con knew this she had come to dream in sem Ideath under fingers from the yellow bowl yet lie he was not so fatuous as to believe that it could be her first communion with ith the darker gods in fact the tale dais here resembled that in the throne room a permanent affair con was sick at heart Ece needless diess of the sleeping chinese he be drew himself up tip and across the wall the exertion seemed to bring back his strength the space at the roof of the tunnel was small he slid through bild dropped down on the other side near the altar the yellow bowl too was pone gone the bowl of jade gave an opalescent light close up itself a dream with the ceaseless dry pouring of the gas con glanced at the prone figure a face of smooth putty no eyes a 11 white mouth nerveless it was ais the of all that ailed tan tali kunn kuan Leving levington toa grasped the iron fin ring in the door and pulled back softly it swung to liim him with a gush of better air from froin the black passage beyond the darkness was damp and thick lie ile moved into it and the door closed after him lie ile stumbled upon the lowest step of a stairway the stones were wet and worn A feeling of oil was about the place ile he began to ascend carefully taking no reckoning nothing mattered but this inner draw the great master passion perhaps if his brain had been clearer he would have questioned himself perhaps held back from this rashness but he was burning inside he lost count of the ascending steps lie ile had no thought of bravery presently another door at the top another iron ring more important than any material surroundings was the fact that he was waa making her unhappy at first he had 14 A helen he whispered helen wake apt they are giving you death felt secret exultation because of the confession it measured the possibility of power for him it meant he could make a difference front from that vantage his fate had quickly led him to the reverse side af of it her side the pain the the new giddy whirlpool of 0 her eighteenth year levington plucked the second iron ring and instantly knew anc w whore where he was A corridor before him a window opened out und and the shade of oak trees with their leaves no ko one appeared in the corridor out cut tide side the apartment of tile the princess lie ile realized anith n uh a s fiock that the short shaft of the mines wan a mile to eastward ile he had groped a icia tang ihlae hile underground new in the u par cassare lingered the tb perfume of the procession that had bad passed con imagined the borne hammocks with the silken sleeping burdens especially one he moved into the hall keeping close to the inner wall hi he came to the familiar door there was no time to knock the was still there with a little cry of dismay the servant of the princess arched his back end and ran forward quite hideous in haste and hate bate levington stopped him and picked up the knife that fell from the yellow hand there was further brief bustness business of wadding the mouth of old fu ali ah lind and securing his bis enraged members then the white man his bis heart pounding ran to the raised couch she was there he closed his eyes a moment because of her loveliness his own relief reher and the strange hurt her face held the calm of that shadow of sable wings con knew the satiny black beneath her eyes in fact the yellow bowl had been left here within her reach when alien she wakened he bent over and stated stared into her face helen he be whispered helen wake up I 1 they are giving you death I 1 do not cot mean to make you unhappy do not sleep it Is poison you must not I 1 I 1 want you to live oh princess there Is america he did not know what he was saying to her her arms and shoulders ocre limp as he touched her lifted her a little from the colored cushions without opening her eyes she smiled faintly and it maddened him to think that slie she was pleased with some phantasm in a subtler world perhaps entirely unaware of his own owa presence the deep shallows shadows about her eyes seemed to stab him ile he raised her closer to him he was pleading ile he smoothed her temples ills his hands shook as lie breathed the full story of his heart the universe was only this that she lay faint in his arms that her white beauty possessed him that lie he could not reach her a web always between delicate yet unbreakable zhe she sighed as a child who nho enters a new nev depth of rest and it punished him she had not opened her eyes the leaves rustled outside the casement from a silver vase on a white dose rose petals drifted down to the rug curtains swayed gently in the movement of the air afternoon sunlight crossed golden through the oaks out of the age old secrets of the he heart levington knew the mystery of high desire as it if a race of men stalwart tender true had gone before him 11 hied ed and loved and perished that he might breathe the same air with his princess in this hour might feel the softly rushing storm within himself and pledge 1 his all to the beauty of one who did not speak 14 again lie he leaned over her and whispered rapidly only the great hazards mattered now tell me tell me Il helens elens throat trembled beneath the smooth skin a ripple of effort but she did not unseal her lips con covered his eyes with his bis arm out of this moment of intense quiet he heard beard footsteps great leaping falls ue e t turned crouching A nubian a fraed giant J ait 1 assed his dagger steady as bronze his eyes red ile he rushed and levington stepped aside the f fray ray must be led away from helen the negro also reckoned on this con made sure of the knife he had taken from the servant fu ah who was still tightly bandaged lying near the door they faced each other the great black rushed again levington Leving tou grappled parried and they swung around ile he could do nothing with his knife another wild down thrust from the nubian a lunge with mith lion power in it gray cray foam stood out upon the negros lips A mighty hinge of ebony was closing upon levington who felt his legs giving way vay and the borrowed knife pried steadily out of his hand nig his head was gradually being forced backward catlike he writhed loose his right arni arm and flashed it a blow to tile the black neck but it was like hitting a rug the african was mouthing hotly for all that life meant con clung to the dagger arm lie ile was lifted clear clea of the floor to enable the black to adjust him at his leisure for the final stroke all the agony of lifes cup came to levington as he thought of helen lie ile could see her suddenly the nubian cried out and seemed to lose control ile he dropped levington who snatched the weapon from him ne he was screaming and stamping upon his shoulders clung a small white faced monkey his teeth holding deep eyes staring out at nothing the infuriated black would summon the entire palace with his howls con drove the dagger twice below the ribs and ant the giant toppled into silence while the little beast bit and bit doubtless repaying black cruelty and A white friendship at the same time bebur turned inquiring eyes eye up to levington Levin glon who ho had no time to t express thanks retaining the nubians Nub ians weapon capon vv he led fled past the gagged and fright ridden fu ah and out of the apartment dodging down the corridor there were running shuffles behind him lie ile gained jie he door to the stairway and stumbled down having entered the passage from a known direction con had no difficulty in continuing eastward toward the location of the air shafts ills HIS thoughts were a riot hot of things beginning with their talk in the open near her mothers grave almost before lie he expected he saw andrew march who was searching for him many were with the elder american including the interpreter ter preter how far did you go par far enough to hear bear the oak leaves blowing outside her window you cross no queried the arabian yes lie he recounted their morning meeting his return to the mines the strange silent malice of the dwarfs who had allowed him film to go on into the fumes from the devotional what he be had seen over the rim of the wall the blackness that had fallen and then the events beyond the stairs you have profaned the holy of holies olles li said march they have no higher religion there Is no end to your crimes march was smiling gravely oddly it did not seem te tc k I 1 4 they faced each other levington that he was talking to the father of his princess march seemed to forward no such parental claim what arrangement have you made here for today we are secure after that hat it depends upon what disposition Is made of the tour four who were taken away this morning on our account it la Is a gift said the sailor lie he moans means our lives explained march ne ile cannot always influence his men to think as he does they are not inclined to make much of 0 american aid will they give us up risked con today no replied the arabian grinning in the torchlight to con in its his present mood today was forever in his health and the power of new love he could not think of life coming to an end ever lie ile felt invincible to 0 march he said today we WB not only escaped from their big walls but fooled their wise serpent and even returned to the palace to the apartment of their princess 11 the same boy mused mareb march wit vit something despair in his voice the spirit that brought you up the cut in the road when uben the riders were coming down on us and you were going like that one night in cincinnati clun cin nati things Ti lings are just beginning said sad con rather absently as lie he walked abreast of his friend while the arabian with the torch followed with his hobbling workers 1 the latter were talking softly what Is it they say con had turned sharply the arab es ballor smirked uneasily then said they want their four brothers where are they in the city perhaps to dle die because you there was a murmur from the background as if the broken bodied human creatures knew the meaning of the english words levington saw that they could scarcely be expected to sacrifice four of their own to save two fugitive strangers you have more men here under underground than they number in the city said con to lie foreman yes then say to your men that tomorrow we will go and get their tour four brothers not no 1 cried the amb yes said levington with assurance the seaman turned to lils his men with the word my god sald eald andrew march CHAPTER XIV the prince rides out the ardors tt f the past day and night brought deep sleep to the two white men con who wakened but bitt once la in the night and then merely to relax into deeper rest again noted that the spaces in the caves were seething with little ugly me men n whose twisted spines bobbed in a light that was sickish and cold the crowd seemed to grow as the hours passed as if the innermost crevices of earth were giving up their human ants more hoeltke weapons were brought to add to the rusty knives there were tubes for or blowing darts containing now a long accumulation of the dust of peace in fact the present generation could not recall a day of revolt in their subterranean history the arabian sailor rushed about all this night like one possessed his old hopes ignited primitive military system prevailed the horde was grouped into units there were lieutenants the white men when wakened would rank as colonels with no less a person than the arab as their generalissimo the miners seemed lost in a dull glow of excitement within lives nothing had occurred to interrupt the next days labor the seizing of their four brothers had not seemed unusual but ut the effect promised an infinity of new turns there was no thought of sleep the old humors of an uprising seemed at last about to be fulfilled the hour was near their lot cast every tortured heart was eased somewhat of its burden of hate in the prospect of action they had never before attempted to express their loathing of the city of their masters they had been born to pain follst toll silence rome home shop and grave were one to them there were no families F from rom some warriors house in the city each manchild man child returned to the pits crippled forever its spine an arch of horror there was seldom any way of identifying the broken creature of ten or twelve all thought of parentage was lost when by chance kinship was reestablished established re such meeting was but a renewal of bitterness and always la in the city cellars the precious store of roots grew and grew on the far edges of the state the essence of thee the e roots was bartered or exchanged for silver always the yellow bowl in the apartment ef ct the future queen was kept filled with dream po potency ency the state re r algion was perpetuated in the lower room which was so situated as to be symbolic of its connection with the ot of all dreams the mines themselves elves thus chee illig wrought upon the whole world the substance of li hs s meditations the whose thin eyelids had never been touched and soothed and damned by one taint of koresh karesh ills web was spreading beyond the sea chose the blood of princes and of queens to blend at his leisure in his own interpretation of right the old had become no more than a warm silken bag of clay under the skinny hands of his chom chee ming was ready to rule the planet intire entire now in the caverns the miners were eating wherever they stood sticks flicking in and out of brown jars the women slinking about in mortal fear it was long after midnight march dropped down deside beside ton surprising the riders do rot come wait for daylight they have the four they feel fee sure of us the two friends sat a little way off from the swarm and bookel idly into the gas fire cre con grew drowsy with the warmth in hs his face after a while he said the green ereen hair of you mean fhe the gas yes the way it co comes m es up lip find floats like something drowned in air the flowing green hair rather fiendish I 1 cant say what I 1 mean if the fire happened to go 90 out said march we should all go 90 out with it 11 from what depth do you suppose it comes march looked quickly at his comrade and smiled you are sleepy yes ill take a nap here but do you think the gas lias has anything to do with the crusted seeds they dig out of the pits here herec 1 I dont know nor can I 1 tell tel ayou you how the koresh seeds millions of them ever got down so deep in the earth to begin with the arab says that there are shafts as deep as wells and from these chasms the worker with a torch brings vp up seeds that must have laid in the clay ever since the planet condensed and cooled and tile the same seeds will sprout in a months time when he n planted on the surface and watered 11 something left over preserved from the days or of the |