The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-01-10
THE POWER OF TIE SADHU
BY DEREK vANE.


suspicious nature were once reused |
there might be trouble. | could not |
quite understand the girl, but then |
don't know much about women. 1t |
seemed to me that she was fiatered |
by Burton's devotion, and that she !
liked to make him feel her power I'll
could not warn her that she was
playing with FIRE.
One night the Colonel had had a
dinner party, and afterward some of
the men went outside to smoke,
where they could listen at their ease
to the music In She drawing-room,
which opened on the veranda. hap
pened to be sitting opposite Burton,
who was lying back in a lounge chair,
aud was pulling. as l often puzzled,
over the fleeting likeness to somebody
had met before.
l would not acknowledge that /
could be mistaken. | prided myself
on my memory for faces and facts.
The likeness seemed to be about the
eyes, which we're Oriental in their
dark briiliance and fire. though now
they only glinted under the heavy,
half-closed lids AS he lay back
smoking in the dreamy. absorbed
fashion, which, to my mind, again
betrayed his Eastern nature, the
moonlight filtered through the trellis
work and a shaft fell full on his
face.
l started violently. Surely this
Jerome Burton, this pseudo English
| fho al Of ft.ff foI nt,
his foreheadl
The trifala are three lines drawn
upward between the eyebrows. and is
the sign used by sect of Sadhus, or
Hindu ascetics. The sign should
have the centre line painted in red
and the outer ones in white, the triple
lines signifying the three gods of the
Hindu triad: Vishnu, silva and Brah-
ma. But the marks, of course, were
, uncolored in Burton's forehead, and
had evidently been effaced as much
as possible. If the light had not hap
. pened to catch the lines In certain
way l should never have noticed
them. / knew now where had seen
} this man; the sign had wakened my
, memory. 1t was among the lonely
snow-fastnesses of the Himalaya
) and venerated sadhu.
l wondered what / should do. 1t
} would be useless to try and expose
} him with nothing to support my ex-
r traordinary statement but those three
almost obliterated lines, and yet
> could not endure the idea that the
man whom l had last seen in native
dress apparently living the native
[ life, should take his place among Eu-
Q ropeans unquestioned.
e wondered II he remembered me
? We had only met for few hours
3 when l was accorded an interview
[ with the recluse of whose extraordi
nary powers l had heard, and whom
q / had journeyed some distance to see
v in my eagerness to learn as much al
L possible of Indian mysticism. Burton
|. had certainly never given me the
: slightest reason to think that he haC
e seen me before, but then he had thu
e Oriental command of feature and ex
!, preston.
s Cynthia Langley was singing now
n and he was listening with rapt ex
f preston. | could see her seated
at the piano, with Harold standing
l. beside her, her fair face turned up ;
e little, her soft white gown fallin!
e away from her rounded throat anC
= dimpled arms, and it angered mi
Il that Jerome Burton should dare t
covet this loneliness.
It For it was evident to me that h
e fingered on in the hope of winning
e Cynthia away from her allegiance
4 Sic had seemed to avoid him of late
He had shown his hand too plainl
s. and frightened her, perhaps,
v, thought.
n l was determined to stay and sc
IS the play out, though l fancy Harol
ID wondered a little at my change c
TO plans, but | thought might be c
a. use to him presently, though as yt
/ did not know how. II l could hav
been present at his marriage | shoul
lie have gone away quite content, bu
IN Colonel Langley postponed 1t first o
III one excuse and then on another, Ill
is til Harold began to get irritable an
l suspicious.
re calmed him as much as / coul'
Of for 1t seemed to me that the Colon'
"a would gladly seize on any excuse
We break off the match, and | was afrai
/ that, in some impetuous momea
Harold might give him the opp0rt'
n nifty he sought. Either Burton ha
We got Cynthia's father into his pow'
ms in some way, or else the Colonel WI
dazzled by the new sui.ors wealth.
es / was returning alone late one ev
at ming from the club when, as | pass'
st. the Langley house l saw some oil
moving about in the compound.
en- should have thought nothing of
for natives are to be met anywhe
- at any hour, but there was somethiI
secretiye and stealthy about the (
ri lent figure which reused my atte
nd tion. / stopped to look more closel
re and then saw that the soft, glidii
nd movements did not belong to a n
I'D tive, but to Jerome Burton,
In he was STOPPING over some whi
lot stones, and seemed to be writing
,at making some sign on them.
he watched him in amazement, but in
nd few minutes he got up and came
lis ward the gate, and hurried awe
no. l did not want him to find me watc
ing. / should learn nothing OF