Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-17
THE WHITE BLACKBIRD
-
HUDSON DOUGLAS.
Copyright by
Copyright. 1912. by Little. Brown & co..


Till then YOU can mourn her you know
The white horse leaped and plunged. as
though he had roweled 1t cruelty. and
then he was gone at breakneck gallop.
the white shadows that were his body
guard hard at his heels. with lances free.
The gravediggers paused in their dig
ging as he disappeared a dozen or more
tongues broke into eager talking. and a
fiendish. squealing laugh outshrilled them
all. Salle. with her face between her ell
bows. haG thrust finger into each car
and her ewes were tightly closed.
She opened them little. involuntarily.
as the heavy arm that had been holding
her down was taken away. Reuben Yox-
all nudged her and she looked round with
infinite caution.
distance. had suddenly fared up on the
near ridge above the ravine that led to
the camp. And in its CHASTITY glow an
unforgettable picture was vaguely visible
for a moment or two.
The last of the emir's mounted men
were streaming after him into the gorge
between whose open jaws lay three prone
trampled bodies. two very still. the other
writhing round and round on the axis of
a long lance.
The breakers on the beach beyond the
intervening sand waves reared up and
combed and fell in blue-green foam. Out
side them black sea heaved ceaselessly.
Inland a segment of the circular rock
rampant which inclosed the camp doomed
up above the endless, empty desert, and
on Its summit showed a number of white
clad. crouching figures with rifles. all fir
ing inward and downward on the pande-
mOnium raging below
Only a few yards away from where the
two helpless Onlookers lay the man in
the scarlet mask was standing. his hands
behind him. between the two big negroes
Sallie had seen in the emirs tent. And
grouped about them. staring at the blue
light with wide eyes. were a dozen or
more armed Arabs. Two other negroes.
knee deep in hole. were leaning on
Farther off. beside the lagoon where the
boats were lying. the third mate and his
men were making the best fight they
might for their lives against overwheim-
Ing odds. More than one Of them had al
ready fallen before the blue light gut
tered away and that inferno was blotted
out.
But the renewed darkness lasted only
Tor few seconds before the searchlight
on the bridge of the Olive Branch in the
blight answered the signal from the ridge.
cutting through the inky night a long,
white. fanlike swath. which swept the
coast i'm sections until it finally found it's
objective and settled there.
The group about the half-dug grave
were at first almost paralyzed with fear
OF that phenomenon. The two black eu-
nuchs seized their prisoner and pulled
him to the ground. the men Of the guard
toOh tONeI WITH titles ready, the grave
diggers dropped incontinently into the
grave and covered there.
But when, after its first gyrations, it
steadied on to the ridge round the camp,
leaving them quite unframed and outside
its focus. they fell to talking again in
awed whispers. while they gazed blink
fngly at its effect--all but the two who
were busy digging again.
YOxall plucked at SaIlie's sleeve She
crept after him, and by very slow de-
grees they got safely round in rear of the
burial party.
wait here he breathed I'm her ear.
and left her behind a low swell of the
sand.
She crawled to its brink He was wig
CLING back toward the shapes silhouetted
against the dusky light. She clinched
both her hands tightly over her lips as
he reached the one that was lying mo-
ticnless. knee appraised, quite close to
the others heels.
The appraised knee slowly Strengthened
One of the two negro guards looked round
and kicked at their prisoner. The other
spoke and squealing laugh reached her
ears.
Each instant seemed an eternity until
she thought she could see Reuben Yo&all
turn and begin to worm his way back to-
ward her. with another steaIthy shadow
following him.
He reached her side
up and run for it now, lass" he pant
ed. and stopped and lifted her to her feet
They can't hear us from there. For
Gods sake. don't give way now
tTo be continued tomorrow