Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1902-05-07
count to the gods, fare you well, Deu-

az AcA oSSAAIS "
me. It is only the weak who permit
their sleep to be broken on these oc-
casions. And when the dark was well
set, I reused and fetched those who
should attend to the rope. Our Lady
the Moon did not shine at that turn
of the month, and the air was full of
a great blackness. So 1 was out of
sight all the while they lowered me.
reached the tumbled rocks that
at the deep foot of the cliff, and tken
commenced to use a nice caution, be-
cause Phorenice's soldiers squatted
uneasily round their camp-fires, as
though they had forebodings of the
coming evil. had no mind to further
stir their wakefulness So I 'crept
swiftly along in the darkest of the
shadows, and at last came to the spot
where that passage ends which before
I had used to get beneath the walls of
the city.
The lamp was in place, and 1 made
my way along the windings swiftly.
The air, so it seemed to me, was even
more noxious with vapors than it had
been when [ was down there before,
and 1 judged that Zaemon had already
begun to stir those internal activities
that were shortly to convulse the city.
But again I had difficulty in finding n
exit, and this, not because there were
people moving about at the places
where l had to come out, but because
the set of the masonry was entirely
changed. In olden time the Priests
clan oversaw all the architects plans,
and ruled out anything likely to clash
with their secret passages and cham
bers. But in this modern day the
priests were of small account, and had
no say in this matter, and the archi-
tects often through sheer laundering
sealed up and made useless many of
these outlets and hiding places.
AS it was, then, had to get out of
the network of tunnels and galleries
where I could, and not where I would,
and in the event found myself at the
farther side of the city, almost up to
where the outer wall joins down to
the harbor. l came out without being
seen, careful even in this moment of
extremity to preserve the ordinances.
and closed all traces of exit behind
me. The earth seemed to spring be-
meath my feet like the deck of ship
in smooth water; and though there
was no actual movement as yet to dis
turb the people-and indeed these
slept on in their houses and shelters
without alarm could feel myself
that the solid deafness of the ground
was gone, and that any moment it
might break out into devastating
waves of movement.
Gods! Should l be too late to see
the untombing of my love? Would
she be laid there bare to the public
gaze when presently the people
swarmed out into the open spaces
through fear at what the great earth
tremor might cause to fall? I could
see, in fancy, their rude, cruel hands
thrust upon her as she lay there help
less, and my inwards dried up at the
thought.
ran madly down and down the mar
row winding streets with the one
thought of coming to the square which
lay in front of the royal pyramid be-
fore these things came to pass. With
exquisite cruelty 1 had been forced
with my own hands to place her alive
In her burying-place beneath the
granite throne, and if thews and speed
could do it, l would not miss my re-
ward of taking her forth again with
the same strong hands.
And so in time I came to the great
square, and was there none too soon.
The place was filing with people who
Hooked away from the narrow streets,
and it was full of darkness and noise
and dust and sickness. Beneath us the
ground rippled in fluctuations like a
sea, which with terrifying slowness
grew more and more intense.
Ever and again house crashed down
unseen in the gloom and added to the
tumult. But the great pyramid had
been planned by its old builders to
stand rude shocks. It's stones were
dovetailed into one another with a
marvellous cleverness, and were fur
Their clamped and Joined by ponderous
tongues of metal. It was a boast that
one-half the foundations could be dug
from beneath it, and still the pyramid
would stand four-square under heaven,
more enduring than the hills.
Pickering torches showed that its
great stone doors lay open, and ever
and again I saw some frightened inr
mate scurry out and then be lost to
sight in the gloom. But with the royal
pyramid and its ultimate fate / had
little concern; did not even care then
whether Phorenice was trapped, or