Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-06-07
XARTELLA
Florence CARPENTER DieudOnne.
Copyrighted by the author, and Pub
tished by Special Pernlission.
CHAPTER /.
TIE DESERT.

deserts ghostly breast, our camp fires
burned low upon the sands and won
drous hosts of stars marched across the
,kies. On one side rose a crumbling
pyramid, on the other were the still
tents, their striped folds tInged red
from the dying embers. The camels,
heaped III ungainly rest, had groaned
themselves TO sleep. The horses were
motiunless Silence had fallen upon
tho explorers camp.
| had cast myself down upon a pile
of saddle clotrs and rugs to look awhile
at the glory of the stars, to glance,
with an eerie chill, at the darkening
form of the old stone pile, to mediate
upon the mystery which seemed to live
with the sands.
Some one moved beside me. It was
that old stranger who had joined US the
day before we left Cairo. He might
have been the spirit of the desert, he
seemed in such accord with time and
place. His tall form WAS wrap
ped with a cloak of white wool, a great
white turban was on his head, his dark
face was earnest and anxious, his eyes,
fierce and black, glared from under
heavy brows.
"You do not believe in Xartella?" he
questioned.
l had been told that Xsrtells was a
deathIess creature, more than man,
who had been seen, for centuries, in
the vicinity of this pyramid. Whlle 1
bad not the slightest faith in these
legends, noting the remonstratIve eI-
preston in the aged face hesitsted to
speak my skepticism.
81 confess-to me there seems in
sufficient evidence -"
"ComeP interrupted the stranger,
81 will prove that Xartella has ex-
isted."
An adventure with a maniac, i
thought, AS L walked beside him.
"Twelvo ycurs have passed since the
eveuts which l shall relate" continued
my companion as We noiseIessly cross
ed the sands. II wish to find q GER
tain broken spear handle"
Very mad but, likely, harmless, 1
thought. With him 1 climbed mp the
rocks until he paused and began to
search among the rubbish.
"Look. friend" said he, "your
young eyes may be able to find the
point and part of the handle of q
spear.
With assumed diligence l searched
until L did find the spear. When ii
was withdrawn from the sands, in the
starlight we could see that the two
parts, one of which he carried, united
perfectly.
at is the very spear. My spesrl" he
said e1citedly. "No~ let me tell you
of Xartella." We sat upon the cIun5.
ling stones, and as the stars paled for
dawn. ] heard this story:
"Xartella! Xartellal'
"Nhen first L heard that cry rise
from the foot of this pyramid it was
white noon. The air shimmered like q
veil above the hot surface of the stone.
The waste of sand was binding as 4
billowed into distance, broken only by
those fragments of dead empires which
marked their own graves.
I'm unb, lief I had come, with the
others, to search for the lost daughter
of one Vor, who was considered to bs
the wealthIest merchant in Cairo. The
maiden had been for moIths infatu
ated, or hypnotized, by Xartells and
had been wa ched constantly, to pre-
vent her flying across the desert to his
home. At last she had escaped hel
guards. Immense rewards were offer
ed and, l thought | might find the
foolish lady. So, it Glanced, there We
all stood, IL the blistering noon, ~her
in an instant's time all doubt vanished
For there stood Xartella. at the foot o.
the pyramid.
"No wonder that they called him {
god. A man so maiestic that not even
that mass of stone towering above hin
could dwarf him into human insight.
/ fcance. Robed in fabric wrought over
with gems, from head to foot he blaze1
like another sun. Beneath his antique
crown was a face grand, dark, strong
I 1t might have borrowed its repost
from the Sphinx, its glory from ar
eternity, Its cruelty from demon.
"When the gaze OF those wondrou:
! deep ewes struck mine l could no
move, felt myself grow chill. tried
to call ou;, as did all the others, .Xar
tella! but my lips were cold and trem
bled. L could utter 10 word. Then the
mystery looked away. 1 breatheG
again, moved and called 'Xartellal
with the rest. With others hastenec
forward to capture him.
Capture XartellsI-Capture the
stones of the pyramid! Capture the
Loneliness of tue desertl The Arab.
were right. He was more than human
he might he a thousand years old
! When he looked with those terrible
eyes across that plain, of which ths
very legends had been stolen. bY=+ip4
tpto what s. lendors OF SusetnpTy dbl th,
ruins lend, ,,k,r., What was that ancien
glory of 2hieG he Was left the only
exisfipg miraelss There was stern
supcepe,niaiestY on. his face. Their,
was ID pysterious -menance in his taper
bronze Gand 4uplifted = to. the sun.
There was'sa clond of white-a dnzzlt
In our eyesi Xartella stood no
at the foot. of the pyramid. NJ
one was there The briIliance had
| vanished. No more should / see tha
glorious face; it was gone.
"a yell of rage rose from the com
pany, together men rnshed to the spo
where be had stood, they searched il
the sands for the print of his foot
They hammered the moveless blocks
of stone bnd pried great slahs of rocE
from the du It, as if they thought th,
mighty man had digged himself {
grave. Incantations and prayer,
v,Ingled with beast-like howls of rage
We had all seen him and he had escaped
as ell.
''Thro. sh the wosry day we searched