The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-05

|
 or night, and the chance of show
 was almost as welcome as letter from | home.
 Except for the colonel and the major l surgeon we had no chairs and the au-
 dience squatted around in circle upon
 the sand. We borrowed few torches
 from the quartermaster, though we didn't need them, as it turned out, for
 the moon was well over the low roof of
 my quarters before Pitcairn, as self
 important as Mrs Jarley herself, came
 in with All Beg, the volunteer mystic, who alone could make sure my personal guarantee that the entertainment was
 worth the fee Pitty led his adept into
 the center of the ring, space about
 twenty feet in diameter, and introduced
 him with pompous salutatory and a
 grand wave of the hand The Tommies,
 who had no respect for anything na-
 tive hooted the miserable Indian, who
 almost groveled before them, calling
 him Alley beggar and asking him.
 'Avent you any happaratus? The
 performer. who was elmost a skeleton,
 had brought with him none of the para
 phernala which European magicians'
 always have about them, though he
 wore upon his skinny shoulders dirty
 drab-colored cloak, which he unwound and dropped upon the sand as he sa- luted Colonel Dinwiddie and the ribald ring of 'sahibs' round about. Perhaps some of you have seen these strange necromancers of the East? No Well, they are quite past understanding. This one, like all I have known, being as agile as he was thin, with deep-set, scintillating black eyes, skin like a faded yellow parchment and fingers like the talons of a. hawk.
 But hear what Ali Beg did before our unbeleving eyes and if you can, explain 1t, for I can't. Having dropped his cloak upon the sand, he unbelted crooked scimitar that hung by his side and laid it behind him. Then with strange exclamation he fell upon the cloak, rolled it between his flat palms, padded it, smoothed it and peeped be- heath its hem, as it seemed suddenly to swell and spread. The silence of cu- riosity, if not of respect, fel upon us, but I confess that my hair stood on end and I could feel the goose-flesh on my spine, when the wizard jerked away the cloak and disclosed a chubby bright eyed naked Indian boy sitting squarely before us upon the sand It could have been no ordinary hallucina- ton, for the child leapt nimbly to his feet, chattering to his creator. Ali Beg, as we exchanged cries of wonder. I'm afraid I'm telling it very badly, am I Anne?" (Ths to Mrs. Montford, who had come to listen at the doorway.) But she said "No. it's all right. Only don't go past the place where I come in, please, Harry
 All right, Anne. Then. let's see. Oh, yes, the boy was there as real as any boy I ever saw at night by the light of either moon or torch. The adept lowing and grinning like a pleased ChimpanZee now dropped the cloak again, went hysterically to work with his lean bands, turning from his task only twice to look at the boy who stood silent beside him gazing about at the white faces of the fascinated audience | When the cloak began to assume the | form and size that seemed to satisfy | the adept he whipped 1t away again. |
 
 boy, yawning as if just awakened, it's | mean, furtive, yellow eyes darting lurid glances upon us, lay fujl-Srown leop- | ard, the hair on his tawny back rising | angrily as Ali kicked him into a stand l ing posture, his foetid breath coming | to our nostrls as he snarled with rage, | his tail whipping the sand into our faces as he lashed it about. Oh, it was a real leopard, I think. At all events, I remember some of us who happened to have them slipped out our | pistols, and I can still see old 1 biting his gray mustache as he reached for his saber.
 But it was the climax of the weird which followed, By series 1f vindictive kicks and cuffs the adept 1 was working the sinister beast into a fury The great cat was snarling and 5napping, leering and striking at him, when he suddenly furled the cloak round the boy, who all calmness and silence, was standing near, Then trusting the drab mass of boy and cloak at the creature, Ali stepped aside and stood motionless while the brute 'ell tooth and claw upon the covered )oy. There was a roar, a fountain of sand, the men jumped up, some scared, some furious, some ran to the house 'or weapons and it would have gone 1ard with Ali Beg and his diabolical beast if Pitcairn had not jumped up, ,ool as a veteran on dress parade, to 'estore order. But we were all stand ng. excited and panic stricken over l, a ia hat, he N,.;p 4,l 1 laid his band on the leopard, x,;t ha oIn + T | |