The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-06-23

the camp, ana the inevitable Mullah
quickly let it be known that she was a
hereto from the faith-whatever that
was in their eyes. AS she was wealthy,
her existence was a shame, danger
and reproach.t 1t was not long before
she was doomed an outcast, a defiled
infidel, a rebellious woman. They came
quickly to the point of passing sentence
of death on her; and they came to it the
quicker that the news was brought to
them that Grierson was married &C.
cording to the English religion to one
of his own race. What the poor tor
tured girl did or said in her rage is not
known, but it sealed her fate. It also
cast the hatred of the entire tribe on
Grierson. He had debauched one of
their women, and for two years had
cast shame on them.
On gloomy winter morning, be-
tween dark and dawn, they led her to
the place of execution in the Gorge of
Shame. No women were near. They
stripped her, and left her standing
naked in the midst of ring of cruel
men, pitiless and needless of her
beauty. The Mullah worked himself
and his hearers into religious frenzy,
and then, at the height of it, sprung on
her with, his keen; heavy saber and cut
her through the spine. She reeled with
scream and fell on her hands and
knees. He struck her again, and she
fell on her side in q torrent of blood,
with strangling cry for mercy. A
shower of big stones. crashed on her,
battering the shape out of her body
and 'piling a mount above, her.. Hardly
had her dying groans ceased when sand
and earth and pebbles completed the
tomb. and effectually wiped out every
trace of her existence .n
The men lounged slowly off to join
the caravan, which was lurching and
struggling away two or three miles
ahead toward their native mountains.
And her relations divided between them
her property. But the atonement was
not complete. 1t was needful that
every trace of Grierson and his race
should be wiped out. The blood of the
murdered woman was on him, and the
shame of the tribe.a Year by year the
traders passed through Hindustan, and
sought always Grierson; sought him
for years; sought him till his hair,
which they had known black, was IRON
gray; sought him until many years
later two men of the Zillah Khel passed
native regiment camping on the line
OF march, while moving in relief, and
learned that Grierson was in command.
They left their servants and comrades
to journey on with their merchandise,
and took to the jungle, following the
regiment. Grierson was keen sports
man, and they looked to seeing him
alone some day out shooting. At last
their time came.
Two days march from the destined
| environment Mrs. Grierson came out to
meet her husband, and brought her
three little boys with her. She was to
stay in camp that night, and go ahead
into cantonment next day. double
march. Grierson took his gun, and said
he would go and shoot some game for
her; and he went with only his orderly.
All unseen and unsupported, his two
hours later he came to duck-jeel, and
sent his orderly round to a point mile
away to drive the duck toward him,
| where he crouched in mud and water
behind a heap of weeds. AS soon rs he
was alone the two men dashed for him.
Grierson turned at the noise they made
in splashing through the water. He
-
"What do you want?" he shouted.
"Vengeance!' they cried, and rushed
at him with their knives drawn. s.
For answer he fired both barrels at
them. He knew what they meant, and
| IN his furry one man. took both charges,
and dropped dying. Grierson dubbed
his gun. The second man took smash
ing blow on his left arm, but got home
with his knife, and Grierson went down.
The man dispatched him and fled, leav-
ing gun and, cartridges and his dead
comrade. : l. &, Z ~ 6 4 Z
When the bodies were found there
was fierce hue and cry. The story of
Grierson's conduct on the frontier came
up, and the tribe was oyerhauled by
the apoliticals.& But, of course, nothing
came of it. Poor Mrs. Grierson went
home with her little boys, ignorant of
the cause of her. husbands murder, for
who could tell 5her?$.@ $50 ~ s8@>%
She had not been out of India month
when her husbands only brother was
stabbed in the Delhi streets by fa-
natic.
"And if any of his sons come out here,
even 20 years from now, theywills de-
said Bakshan Khan. NJ. ~s& af*s ~ u ]
x ''Why,' said,the boy, young Grierson
who was at Sandhurst with me, came
out and went to Peshawur. He was
out shooting up Abbotab bad way and
was found deadat the foot Of cliff. It
was thought. he had accidentally shot
himself, and SO fallen, down. a%
1T may be-" said Bakshan Khan.
but only the Zillah Khel know for
certain" ~
"By Jove!" said the boy. Now I
know why his brother, who came out
in the police at the same time, went
home again. He told me that he had
been warned that his life wasn't safe.
And his passage home was paid by
government" ~, .&4s4
'sThat was wise,' said Bakshan Khan.
From On the Edge of the Empire, l1y
Edgar Jepson and Capt D. Beames,
ss we 70 III rs ~ ~ ear So ~ ssss
~ 4 u 81 ~ ~ IA ~ 9.sss.gs
. i . + '.s-.= r. 4 FL