Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-01-27

/ Logotheti looked quietly at the slim
young thing in a ready made blue
serge frock, who said such things as a
Lady Clara We're de We're would
scarcely dare to say above her breath
in these democratic days; and he
watched the noble little features, and
| the small white hands, that had come
| down to her through generations of
chieftains, since the days when the
! primeval shepherds of the world
counted the stars in the plains Of
! KAT.
| He himself, with his long Greek de-
| scent, was an aristOcrat to the mar
| row, and smiled at the claims of men
who traced their families back to the
Crusaders. With the help of a legend
or two and half a myth, he could al
most make himself far descendant of
the Tyndaridae. But what was that
compared with the pedigree of the lit
tie thing in blue serge frock? Her
race went back to time before
! Hesiod, before Homer, to a date that
might be found in the annals of Egypt,
but nowhere else in all the dim tradi-
tons of human history.
NO" he said, after a long pause.
81 begin to understand You had not
told me that your father was great
man, and that his sires before him
had joined hand to hand, from the
hand of Adam himself"
This polite speech, delivered in his
best Tartar, though with sundry Turk
ish examinations and accents, some
what Modified Baraka, and she pushed
her little head backwards and up
wards against the top of the deck
chair, as il she was drawing herself
up with pride. Also, not being used
to European skirts, she stuck out one.
tiny foot a little further across the
other, as she stretched herself, and
she indiscreetly showed a pale-yellOw
silk ankle, round which she could
have easily made her thumb meet her
second finger. Logotheti glanced at it.
You will never understand" she
said, but her tone had relented, and
she made a concession. IF you will
take me to him, and if he will not be
my husband, I will let Spiro kill him."
THAT might be better" Logotheti
answered with extreme gravity, for he
was quite sure that SpirO would never
kill anybody. IF you will take an
oath which | shall dictate, and swear
to let Spiro do it, l will take you to
the man you seek
What must be, must be-" Baraka
said in a tone of resignation. when
he is dead, Spiro can also kill me and
take the rubies and the money"
That would be a pity" observed
the Greek, thoughtfully.
why a pity? 1t will be my por-
ton l will not kill myself because
then | should go to hell-fire, but Spiro
can do it very we'll. Why should l
still live, them
Because you are young and beau
tiful and rich enough to be very hap
by. Do you never look at your face in
the mirror? The eyes of Baraka are
like the pools of paradise, when the
moon rose upon them the first time,
her waist is as slender as a young
willow sapling that bends to the
breath of a spring breeze, her mouth
is a dark rose from Gulistan-"
But Baraka interrupted him with a
faint smile.
You speak emptiness" she said
quietly. What is the oath, that l
may swear it? Shall I take Allah, and
the prophet and the Angel Israft to
witness that l will keep my word?
Shall l prick my hand and let the
drops fall into your two hands that
you may drink them? What shall I
do and say? [ am ready"
you must swear an oath that my
fathers sWore before there were Chris
tians or Mussulmen in the world
when the old gods were still great"
Speak. l will repeat any words
you like. Is it a very solemn oath? p
1t is the most solemn that ever
was sworn, for 1t is the oath of the
gods themselves. l shall give it to
you slowly, and you must try to pro-
nounce it right, word by word, holding
out your hands, like this, with the
palms doWnwards."
Il am ready said Baraka, doing as
he babe her
He quoted in Greek the oath that
Hypnos dictates to JLera in the
'Iliad,' and Baraka repeated each
word pronouncing as we'll as she
could.
Il swear by the inviolable water of
the StyX, and I lay one hand upon the
all-nOurishing earth, the other on the
sparkling sea- that all the gods below
may be our witnesses, even they that
stand round about Kronos. Thus /
swear!"
AS he had anticipated, Baraka
was much more impressed by the i'm
portance of the words she did not I'M
derstand than if she had bound her
self by any oath familiar to her.
Il am sorry she said but what is
done is done, and you would have it
so"
She pressed her hand gently to her
left side and felt the long steel bod
kin, and sighed regretfully.
You have sworn an oath that no
man would dare to break said Logo
theft solemnly. "a man would rath-
er Kill pigs on the graves of his ia
Their and his mother than break it,"
Il shall keep my word. Only take
me quickly where I would be-
Logotheti produced a whistle from
his pocket and blew on it, and a quar-
termaster answered the call, and was
sent for the captain, who came in q
few moments.
Head her about for Jersey and