The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-17


l. elaborate and prevaricate, twist
and distort. as only the Asiatic
knows how, having an innate horror of
brevlty and directness; but the basic
truth Of Kathlyn's exploit is held in
tact. The hoary old beggar who sits
with his beggar's bowl near the steps
Of the mosque, loquacious, verbose and
fiowery, for an anna piece will tell you
the tale, which happened all Of thirty
years ago.
Thanks, Huzoor!" he will begin.
carefully scrutinzng the coin and test
ing its soldity between two fine rows Of
teeth for a man of 20. "Ah, that was
n day! 1t was like a day knew in
Delhi, when I was a child; for I saw
the Great Mutiny. I saw the powder
magazine. All. yes. HuzCor: 1t Is about
the white goddess that you wish to
know. But help me over to Ais cof-
fee house, for it Is hot here, and 1t In
a long story"
So you take the old rascal over to
and seat him under the umbrellas OF
Ali, and you will buy him sugar drink
and q smoke from, a water bottle. he
having brought forth SUCCESSFULLY a
cracked amber mouthpiece.
e.
in a chain armor that shone like rip
ping water in the sunshine. She wac
tall and 1.-THE and vigorous, and as beau
tful az dream of paradise.
when we saw the sahibs and RAM
abai trapped by the cowardly soldiers
Of the palace we found ourselves with
out a head. The men who led us had
vanished. We huddied like sheep, scat
tered, formed. fired aimlessly. began to
run away. And brave old Lal Singh.
with a bullet through his stomach, stag
gered off. We were without hope. We
were brave enough, but bravery has to
be directed. We knew only part of Ram
abais plans"
And what about this man Ahmed?"
'As the kite flies, he ran back to the
house of Ramabai when everything had
apparently come to an end. For Ahmed
loved the white goddess even as you
and / love life. He was brave, but as
the serpent is-wlsely. Did not the
white queen of all the English give him
a bit OF copper to wear on his breast
because he was wise as we'll as brave?"
The old beggar tilted his cup without
touching it with his lips, and let the
sweetened water trickle down his throat.
when one Is old. one Is always
thirsty" he observed. ITO go on. So
there we were. like sheep. The ma
jority of us did not have sense enough
to run away. Huzoor, Cmballa had
lined up the white men and Ramabai
against the wall in the throne room and
was about to send them to their gods.
VIXEN suddenly / noticed a commotion
in the rear of us. A pathway seemed
to be hewn out among us. We were
thrown about like sticks in whirlpool.
"And then I saw her! All, Protector
of the Poor, you white people rule the
world because you always know what
you want and when you want 1t. But
It is not natural for we brown people to
think and act quickly at the same time
/ saw her; and I thought at first that
the gates of paradise had opened and
Allah himself had set her down among
u.s."
The water bubbles in the bowl Of the
pipe and a thin stream OF smoke trickles
from his bearded lips. You must have
patience, for he will tell this tale only
In his own fashion.
Straight to the palace steps she ran,
waving her arms. Behold She spoke
to us in her own tongue, but Allah is
witness that we understood what she
was saying, First we grew ashamed,
then we stopped running, then we be-
came men. Huzoor The lead tubes be-
gan. to speak again; and we too found
our voices. With yells we followed.
And there was battle. battle, battle, to
the very foot of the throne.
"She threw herself between the lev
elled guns and her people. The soldiers
could not fire. And Cmballa, seeing that
in truth he had lost this time-Umballa
fled toward the corridors and none was
quick enough to prevent him.
"But we went shouting after him.
through this corridor and that We
could not find him. 1t seems he escaped
through one of the chambers in the
zenana."
A shrilling of rifles and a rafting of
drums distract you and break in upon
the story. A company of trim, wry
Gurkhas tramp past. and you know by
the flag they carry under whose rule
Alfalfa works out its destiny to-day.
What became Of the captain of the
guards?"
He was ordered to the arena lions.
But we saved him, loosing the arena