Arizona republican., 1914-05-17


 And many have offered to buy?" inquired the colonel "Many"
 When the colonel appeared at supper simple but su5- stantal, he was He stood up straight. though his back still smared from the lash Kathlyn was delighted at the change.
 After the meal and coffee was drunk the Khan conducted his guests his armory. of which l.. very proud. Guns of all descriptions lined the wals Some of them Bruce would have liked own, to decorate the walls of his armory, thousands of miles away.
 The colonel whispered forgotten prayer as later laid down his weary aching limbs upon the rope bed Almost immediately he sank into sumber as deep and silent the sea. Kathlyn and Bruce, however, up to the hanging gardens and remained there till g. marveling the beauty of the night The Pahan city lay their gaze with likeness to one those magic cities one reads about in the chronicles of Snbad the Sailor But they spoke word of love. When alone with this markable young woman, Bruce found himself invariably tongue-tied
 At the same hour less than fifty miles away, Um- balah stood before the opening of his elaborate ten. erected at sundown by the rivers brink and scowed at the moon He beauty in the translucent sky ;a the slvery paleness of the world below He wanted revenge, and the word hissed in his brain as viper hisses in the dark of it's cave.
 Dung fires twinkled and soldiers lounged about theD smoking and gosspns. They had been given earnest against their long delinquent wages and they iu a happy frame of mnd Their dead comrades dead and mourning for widows; but for them would be the pleasures of swift reprsas The fugtives had gone toward the desert, and in that bleak stretch S treeess land it would be difficult to find them, they started in pursuit.
 Midnight.
 In the compound the moonlight lay upon rything; upon the fat sides and back of the sacred white phant, upon the three low keepers, free o the vigiant eye of their Brahmn chief The gates barred and closed; all inside the house of Bala Kha. asleep. Ear away a sentry dozed his rife, the wall. The three keepers whispered and chucklei among themselves
 Who will know?" said one.
 The moon will not speak," said another.
 Then let go and smoke"
 The three approached the elephant. bit of gymnas- ties and one of them boosted to the back of the elephant to whom this episode less familiar. Another followed; the third pulled up, and from the elephants back they made the top of the wall and disappeared down into the street. Here they paused cautiously for two guards always patroed the front of the compound during the night. Presently the three truants stole away toward the bazaars which in this desert town occupied but single street. Down they
 
 side them. For opium is the handmaden of all Perhaps twenty minutes later slight sounds from the front of the compound wall. rife barrel clatered upon the cobbes. Then over the wall near the eie- phant, head appeared, then body. This repeated four times and four light footed nomads of the desert lowered themselves into the compound. They quick y to the and noselessy unbarred it. Outside five desert nomads gathered about the nsensble bodies of the sentries.
 These nine men were the dancers who had entered the town in advance of Kathlyn. For weeks they had lain in wait for this moment They had spied upon the three low caste keepers and upon learning their nocturnal junkets into the opium cast the die this night.
 With the utmost caution they approached the sacred elephant took off his chains and led him from the pound Immediately six of the marauders troted far ahead toward the gate they knew to be the least guard ed The sacred elephant, passing through the attended by three men, aroused suspicious in any straggler who So remote was the wall city, seemingly mpregnable and little nterfeed with that only human that its guardians should eventually grow careless
 When the keepers staggering under the fumes of le drug returned daybreak, first to find the gate open second to find their sacred charge gone they fled in terror: for would be death lingering and painful for them to stay and explain how and why they had left their post.
 The wild and lawess brigands knew exactly what they about There several agents of Euro- pean and American circuses after this white elephant and it could not be purchased there why it could not be stolen.
 When the Brahmn arrived at sunrise to find his vocation gone he set up wailing which awakened the household. The Khan furious and ordered gen. eral search. He vowed death the foul hands which had done this sacriege!
 Kathlyn and the others were genuinely sorry when they heard the They in the armory when the Khan announced what had taken place.
 Said he: "Come, you all skilled hunters. Find my elephant and these guns and and shall protect you from Durga Ram should he take it into his head to come this way"
 The colonel, Bruce, and Ramabai set out at once After they had gone camel rider entered the compound and sought audience with Baa Khan. Kathyn and Pundita in the compound at the time and the former greatly interested in the saddle bags, tached to of which bnocular case Kathlyn could not resist the inclination to open this It contained exceptionally fine pair of glasses, such used in that day in the British army. No doubt