The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-04-04
At the Court of PeIesu.
(Story Of the Malay Peninsula In ten
parts.)
PART VI.

! in large quantities had just been pro-
| duced, when suddenly the quiet stiffness
Of the soft MaIayan night was rent by
peal after peal Of shrill screenings, suh
as no throat but that of woman in
misery or pain can produce. Jack started
up, moved by that instinct which always
prompts white man, who Is alone among
natives, to take the lead in all emergen-
cies. It is the instinct of the dominant
race and natives as a rule are well con-
| tent to follow and obey on such occa-
sions. The endahara, however, put forth
a restraining hand. and begged Norris 10
be seated.
Its but the bowling of a dog" said
he. and. moreover. thou knowest the
custom. Tuan; none may leave the Balai
when food is served without they have
partaken thereof"
Very reluctantly Jack sat down once
more. Malay custom, he knew. was like
unto the laws OF the Modes and Per-
slams. which aItereth not. Quickly, he
dipped his hand into the dish, ate a
mouthful If sickly sweetmeat composed
| in equal proportions of sugar, -four and
eggs, and then, swinging himself over
the edge Of the verandah on to the ground
| beneath, he set off at a run down the vii
| lage street.
The night had been dark few minutes
| before, but row q rudy moon was lying
on the horizon, amid a bed of fieecy
| clouds. A broad line of light lay on the
surface of the river, ribbed with the
! thousand ripples of the water, and the
| huts bordering the path down which
| Norris ran looked black and shapeless,
| and threw heavy, impenetrable shadows
across his way. A few hundred yards
down the street a small knot Of silent
and terrified natives stood. pressing one
againsts the other, half in and half out
| Of the shadow. A black heap was dimly
discernable in the shallow ditch that sep
| arated the huts from the pathway and
| the continuous means and sobs of a wo-
man in sorrow broke upon the stiffness.
! AS Jack drew nearer, this black heap re-
| solved itself into the body of a man, lying
with all the abandon of death or of insen-
sibility, with the form of woman thrown
PROSTATE across it, and her head and
arms beating the ground in all the rest
| less, unrestrained grief of an Oriental. AS
! Norris approached and the woman caught
! sight Of him, her cries broke out once
more with redoubled energy, the pealing
| screams running up the scales till they
! broke on note deafeningly shril, which
sent thrill of almost pain through Jack S
nerves. The man was Che All Ku, and
the woman was Chik, his wife.
What is this?' asked Jack, and the lit
tie group of Malays broke silence, all
| speaking at once, and each now Offering
different explanation of the catastro-
| phe.
He smote his head against the Intel
of the door, He has fallen into a fitr'
THE madness of the pig epilepsy has
come upon him. He hath been attack
ed by a devil" "An evil spirit hath laid
hold upon him!" were some of the phrases
which came, all in one breath from the
various on-lookers.
Jack Norris was kneeling by the side of
the unconscious Chinaman by this time
and as the clamor Of voices ceased, his
clear young tones, speaking with the per-
feet Malay accent for which he was ia
nous, fell upon the ears of the people, and
hushed their noisy vaporings into the still
silence of fear.
This man has been stabbed" he said
stabbed at the very door of the kings
house. Where are the kings men who
keep watch and ward here by day and
by night? How CHANGED it that they saw
naught of what passed, and why has no
man aided this woman to carry her hus-
band into his house?"
There was not a man in this crowd but
D
that Che All ku had been stabbed at
the kings instance, but in Pelesu men
who desired that their days should be
long in the land knew better than to say
all that they thought, Jack Norris plain
speaking filed them with fear, for even
to listen to such things might be regard
ed as crime, and one by one they skunk
away.
Aided by his own people. Jack then car
ried the still unconscious All <u into his
house, and laid him on the opium-bench
in the inner-room. He had been badly
mauled. A stab from a kris had pierced
his upper lip, splitting il from the nostril
to the gums, and knocking away all the
front teeth of his upper jaw. The point
of the blade had come out in the center
of All Ku's left cheek A second stab
had struck him in the forehead above his
left eye, but the steel had been stopped
by the bone of the skull. This wound
was a very clean one, and Jacks keen
eyes saw by it's shape that it had been
made by kris with a ridged blade, such
as only the kings bodyguard were wont
to carry. All Ku had fallen backwards
when he was stabbed, and as he lay upon
the ground he had received several heavy
blows on the chest from a wooden club,
or some other similar blunt instrument.
Jack pulled off his coat and rolled up
his sleeves. Then he drove all the spec
tators from the room except Raja Halt
Hamid, and set TO work to do what he
could to mend Che All Ku. He washed
and dressed the wounds on All Ku's fore
head and cheek, put a couple OF stitches
into the severed lip and applied a COM
press to the injured chest He Piled his
patient with stimulants. and eventually
had the satisfaction of restoring him TO
consciousness. Then. having given orders
that he was to be tended carefully. and
TO be fed at regular intervals, he return
ed to his own house.
Next day All Ku was better, and as
Jack had dressed his wounds, a statement
was made, and taken down in writing.
which gave Norris enough information to
hang several Of his most intimate ac-
quaintances, members of the kings BODY
guard. All Ku had been sent for by the
kings treasurer upon some trivial pre-
text. and on his return TO his own house
four men had leaped from the shadow OF
the kings house and had only ceased their
unConsciousness which they mistook for
death
The Source of Dante's Inspiration.
A Roman correspondent Of The Uni
verse "a responsible for the statement
that Mrs. MulhalI. wife Of the noted sta
tistician and Secret Chamberlain 70 the
Holy Father, who is making active stu
dies in the Vatican on this subject. holds /
the theory that Dante may have received /