The Republican., 1899-07-13

he had taken her two years before.
He did not think he was acting un-
kindly. He had found her poor, and
he left her rich. No doubt, too. he felt
a pang at parting. But as soon as he
was gone the women of the tribe fell
on her. She retaliated ON them, scoffing
at their dirt and savagery, and refused
to do the old menial Offices. She refused,
too, to marry any one of the men, who
would have been quite content to take
her for her wealth. Then the men
turned, too. The women began to
teach them to regard her as a spy in
the camp, and 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 a reproach. 1t was not long before
she was doomed an outcast, a defiled
infidel, a rebellious woman. They came
quickly to the point of passing sertence
of death on her, and they came To It the
quicker that the news was brought TO
them that Grierson was married ac-
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. 1t 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 a 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 a ring of cruel
men, pitiless and needless of her
beauty. The Mullah worked himself
and his hearers into a 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 torrent of blood,
with a strangling cry for mercy. A
shower of big stones crashed on her,
battering the shape out of her body
and piling 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.
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. 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 a 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
cantonment 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, a double
march. Grierson took his gun, and said
he would 90 and shoot some game for
her; and he went with only his orderly.
| All unseen and unsupported, his two
enemies dogged him, until some two
hours later he came to a 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 heap of weeds. AS soon as he
was alone the two men dashed for him.
Grierson turned at the noise they made
in splashing through the water. He
| recognized the dress of their tribe.
what do you want ?" he shouted.
''Vengeance!" they cried, and rushed
at him with their knives drawn.
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 a smash
ing blow on his left arm, but got home
with his knife, and Grierson went down.
The man dispatched him and fed, leav-
ing gun and cartridges and his dead
comrade.
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 overhauled by
the politicals. 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 her?
She had not been out of India a month
when her husbands only brother was
stabbed in the Delhi streets by ia.
natic.
''And if any of his sons come out here
even 20 years from now, they will die, v
said Bakshan Khan.
"Why," said the boy, young Grierson
who was at Sandhurst with me, came