Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1902-03-05

time to make sure we followed. On all
sides others were pressing in the same
direction-black shadows against the
night; the rain spat noisily on the
camp fires as We passed them; and
from behind US came up others. There
were no sleepers in the camp now; all
were pressing on to hear this preacher
who stood on the pedestal of the war
engine; and if we had tried to swerve
from the straight course, we should
have been marked at once
So we held on through the darkne SIS,
and presently came within earshot.
Still it was little enough of the
preachers words we could make out at
first. ''Who are your chiefs?'' came
the question at the end of fervid ha-
rangue, and Immediately all further
rational talk was drowned in uproar
1--WE have no Chiefs" the people shout
ed; 1--WE are done with chiefs; we are
| all equal here. Take away your silly
magic You may kill us with magic
if you choose, but rule us YOU shall
not. Nor shall other priests rule. Nor
Phorenice. Nor anybody. We are
done with rulers"
The press had brought us closer and
closer to the man who TODD on the war
engine. We saw him to be old, with
white hair that tumbled on his shout
ders, and long white beard, un-
trimmed and uncurled. Save for wisp
of rag about the loins, his body was un-
clothed, and glistened in the wet.
But in his hand he held that which
marked his caste. With it he pointed
his sentences, and at times he whirled
it about, bathing his wet, naked body
in halo of light. 1t was wand whose
tip burned with an unconsuming fire,
which glowed and twinkled and b,azed
like some star lent down by the gods
from their own place in the high
heaven. 1t was the symbol of our
Lord the Sun, credential no one could
forge, and one on which no civilized
man would cast a doubt.
Indeed, the ragged frantic crew did
not question foreone moment that he
was member of the Clan of Priests,
the clan which from time out of num-
bering has given rulers for the land,
and even in their loudest clamors they
freely acknowledged his powers.
you may kill us with your magic, if
you choose" they screamed at him.
But stubbornly they refused to come
back to their cd allegiance. ''We have
suffered too many things these later
years. they cried. eve are done with
rulers now for always
But for myself / saw the old man
with a different emotion. Here was
10 i, e.
mon that had seen me yesterday seat
ed on the divan at Phoreniee's elbow.
and who to-day could denounce me as
Deucalion if so he chose. These rebels
had expended navy in their wish to
kill me four days earlier, and if they
knew of my nearness, even though
Nals were my advocate, her cold rea-
soning would have little chance of an
audience now. The high gods who
keep the tether of our lives hide their
secrets we'll, but did not think it i'm
pious to be sure that mine was very
near the cutting then.
The beautiful woman saw this too.
She even went so far as to Irvine her
myers in mine and press them as a
-arewell, and pressed hers in return,
for l was sorry enough not to see her
more. Still, 1 could not help letting
my thoughts travel with grim gloat-
ing over the fine mound of dead l
should build before these ragged, I'M
skilled rebels pulled me down. And it
was inevitable this should be so. For
of all the emotions that can ferment
IN the human heart, the, JOY of strife is
keenest, and none but an old fighter,
face to face with what must necessari-
ly be his final battle, can tell how deep
this lust is embroidered into the very
foundations of his being.
But for the time Zaemon did not see
me, being too much wrapped in his
cutlery, and SO Twas free to listen to
the burning words which he spread
around him, and to determine their eff
feet on the hearers.
When he had finished came the turn.
ing point of my life. At first, like, L
take it, everyone else in that crowd,
[ imagined that the old man, having
finished his mission, was making a
way to return to the place from which
he had come. But he held steadily to
one direction, and as that was towards
myself, it naturally came to my mind
that, having dealt with greater things,
he would now settle with the less;
or, in palmer words, that hav-
ing put his policy before the
swarming people, he would now