Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-06-14

ing he asked at once if any knew
where the cave was. One man did know
the way, but he refused to show it.
There We're spirits there, ruled by an
evil god.
Take me there, you. and 1 will enter
without harm. Am 1 not holy?"
That put rather a new face upon the
situation. If the holy man was will
ing to risk an encounter with the god.
far be it that they should prevent him.
An ordinary seeker would not have
found the entrance in a lifetime UNI
ballah had not known exactly where
the cave was. but he knew all that the
cave contained When they came to it
Jmba!lah shifted; the tang of sulphur
became evident both in his nose and
Oh his tongue He understood. 1t
was simply a small spring, mineral,
in which sulphur predominated. He
came cut with some cupped in his
hards. He drank and showed them
that it was harmless. Besides. he was
a holy man, and his presence made
Intellectual all evil spirits which might
roam within the cave.
Umballah. impatient as he was, had
to depend upon patience. By dint of
inquiries he learned that wild Mo-
hammedans had cast the spell upon the
cave, set a curse upon its threshold.
Umballah tottered and destroyed this
by reasoning that the curse of a Mo-
hammedan could not affect a Hindu.
Finally, he offered each and all of
them a fortune-and won.
Torches were lighted and the cave
entered. There were many side pas
sages; and within these the astute UNI
ballah saw the true reason for the
curse of the Mohammedans: guns and
powder hundreds and hundreds of
pounds of black destruction! A lower
gallery-the mouth of which lay under
a slab of rock-led to the pit wherein
rested the filigree basket For
a time Umballah acted like mailman.
He sang, chanted. dug his hands into
the gold and stones; choked, sobbed.
Here was true kingship; the private
treasures of dozen decades, all his
for the taking. He forgot his enemies
and their nearness as the fortune re-
vealed itself to him.
AS his men at length staggered out
slung upon an improvised litter he
espied his enemies marching up the
hill, Back into the cave again. UNI
ballah cursed and bit his nails He
was unarmed as were his men, and he
had not time to search among the
smuggled arms to find his need
'Heaven-born," spoke up the man
who had known where the cave was.
there is an exit on the other side. We
can go through that without yonder
people noticing u.s.
"a fortune for each of you when you
put this on the sloop!''
Back through the cave they rushed
torches f1aring. Once a bearer stumbled
over a powder can. and the torch
holder all but spraw1ed over him UNI
ballahs hair stood on end. Fear i'm
PEELED the men toward the exit
There is powder enough here to
blow up all of Hind, Hasten."
At the mouth of the exit the men
with the torches. finding no further
need of them, carelessly flung them
aside.
"Foolsn roared Umballah; you have
destroyed u.s."
He fed. The bearers followed with
the burden. Down the side of the
promontory they slid Under a pro-
jecting ledge they paused. sweating
with terror. Suddenly the whole island
rocked An explosion followed that
was heard half hundred miles away.
where the gunboat of the British raj
patrolled the shores Rocks, trees.
sand filed the air, and small fires broke
out here and there. The bulk of the