The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-07-06
Copyright: 1914: By Harold MacGrath.)
CHAPTER XIV.

-" wv RoFceo to use the elephant trails. Let us keep
our eyes about us, sahib. When one speaks Of gold, tho
wind carries the word far. And then :" He
paused, seOwling.
"And then WHAT"
Il do not want the Memsahib to hear" Ahmed whia-
pered. But who shall say that this is not the work Of
the gurus who never forget, who never forgive, sahib2"
But they would not followI"
"Nay, but their servant would, on the fear Of death.
I will watch at night hereafter"
Ahmed searched thoroughly about the ledge from which
the east side of the bridge had swung, but the barren
rocks told him nothing. Armed with his rife, he plunged
boldly back along the elephant trail, but returned without
success. Whoever was following them was an adept an
secret as a Thuggee. All this worried Ahmed not a little.
He readily understood that the murderous attempt had
not been directed against Kathlyn alone but against all
OF them. But For her eagerness and subsequent warning.
some of them would have been dead at this moment.
"Sahib, it would be better to make camp on the other
side Of the ford. The Memsahib is weak from the shock
and might collapse IL we proceeded"
II leave everything to you. Ahmed. But 10 there not
some place farther below where the water does not run
90 fast2"
"Ramabai win know"
But Ramabai knew only the bridge. They would have
to investigate and explore the bank. Half an hours jour
ney-rather a difficult one-brought them to still and
shallow water. Here they crossed and made camp beyond,
in q natural clearing. They erected the small tent for
Kathlyn, inside of which she changed her clothes, drank
her tea, and lay down to sleep.
"what does Ahmed Think" asked Bruce anxiously.
"That we are being followed by some assassins hired
by our friends the priestS'
"Colonel, let MS make straight for the ssaport and let
this damnable bushel OF trinkets stay where IL b." urged
Bruce, the lover.
THAT is not possible now" replied Ramabai. 1--WE
can now reach there only by the seacoast Itself, or return
to the desert and journey ever the old trail. We must
60 on"
The Colonel smoked his pipe modify. He was pulled
between necessity and desire. He had come to Asia for
this fligree basket, and he wanted It, with q passion
which was almost misery. At one moment he silently
vowed to cast the whole thing into the sea, and at the
next his fingers would twitch and he would sigh.
Sometimes it seemed to him that there was some In
visible force working In him, drawing and drawing him
against the dictates Of his heart. 3e had experienced
this feeling back in California, and had fought against
1t for weeks, without avail. And frequently now, when
alone and undisturbed, he could see the old guru, shaking
with the venom of his wrath, the blood dripping from his
lacerated fingers, which he shook in the Colonelh face,
uecklng j Win OLooo. CURSE J. was 30 aS aus
obey that invisible will he must 60 on and on.
His pipe slipped from his fingers and his head Tell upon
his knees; and thus Kathlyn found him.
"Let him sleep, Memsahib," warned Ahmed from across
the fire. "He has been fighting the old guru."
WHAT" Kathlyn whispered back. "Where?"
Ahmed smiled grimly and pointed toward his forehead.
~Is there really such evil. Ahmed7"
EVIL begets evil, heaven born, just as good besets
good. The Colonel sahib did wrong. And who shall
deny some Of these gurus a supernatural power? T have
seen I know" @ 49,.
But once you said that we should eventually escape
all of US"
"And I stn say II. Memsahib. What Ia written ID
written" phlegmatcaly.
YEARLY she. turned toward her tent, but paused to
touch the head Of her sleeping father as she passed. Her
occidental mind would not and could not accept as posi-
bilities these mysterious attributes of the oriental mind.
That q will could reach out and prearrange q mans mis-
fortunes was to aer mind incredible, for there were no
~precedents. She never had witnessed a genuine case Of
hypnotism; those examples she had seen were miser-
able bufooneries, travesties, ~hoodwinking not even tha
newsboys in the upper gallery. True, she had read OF
such things, but from the same angle with which she
had read the Arabian Nights-fairy stories. b.
Yet, here was her father, thoroughly convinced Of the
efficacy of the gurus curse; and here was Ahmed, com.
placently watching the effects and not doubling in the
least that his guru would in the end prove the stronger
of the two.
One of the elephants clanked his chains restlessly. He
may have heard the proving Of q cat. Ear beyond the
fire, beyond the sentinel, she thought she saw a naked
form fash out and back Of q tree. She stared intently at
the tree for a time; but as she saw nothing more, she
was convinced that her eyes had deceived her. Besides
her body seemed dead and her mind too heavy for thought.
Umballah, having satisfied himself, that the camp wouli
not break till morning, skunk away into the shadows. He
had failed again; but his hate had made him strong. He
was naked except for q lcin clout. His beard and hair
were matted. the latter hanging over his eyes. Els body
was smeared with ashes. Not even Ahmed would have
recognized him q yard of. He had something less than