The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1915-04-10
CHAPTER VII.
"Truce Water.u


she swerved toward the broadcast
part of 1t. Twice she stumbled over
boulders. but rose pluckily and,
bruised and GREATNESS, plunged into
the water. 1t was swift running and
shoulder deep, and she was forced to
swim strongly to gain the opposite
shore. She dragged herself UP to the
bank and, once there. looked back.
What she saw rather astonished her.
She could not solve the riddle at first.
The lion seemed to be struggling
with some invisible opponent. He
stood knee deep in the sands, Juggling
and pulling. He began to roar. Even
touch the sand and his swelling TANKS
sink lower. Fascinated. she could not
withdraw her gaze. How his mighty
shoulders heaved and pulled! But
down, down, lower and lower, till
nothing but the great named head re-
manned in view. Then that was drawn
down; the sand filled the animals
mouth and stopped his roaring; low
er, lower.
Quicksands! The spot where he
had disappeared stirred and glistened
and shuddered, and then the eternal
darkness Of sand
She was not then, to die? Should
she return to the temple? Would
they not demand of her the restora.
ton of the lion? She must go on,
whittier she knew not She regret
ted the peace OF the temple in the
daytime. She could see the dome from
where she stood. Like Ishmael, she
must go on, forever and forever on.
Was God watching over her? Was
it his hand which stayed the on-
slaught Of the beast and defeated the
baser schemes of man? Was there
to be haven at the end2 She smiled
wanly. What more was to beset her
| path she knew not, nor cared just
then, since there was to be haven
| at the end.
Perhaps prescience brought to her
minds eye picture: she saw her
| father, and Bruce, and Winnie. and
| her sweetheart, and they seemed to
| be toasting her from the end of a
| long table, under the blue California
| sky. This vision renewed her strength.
| She proceeded onward
| She must have followed the river
at least mile when she spied raft
moored to clump Of trees. Here
she saw way of saving her weary
limbs many rugged mile. She ford
ed the stream, Tread the raft and poled
out into the middle of the stream.
| Ii happened that the Mohammedan
hunters who owned the raft were at
this moment swinging along toward
the temple. On the shoulders of two
rested pole from which dangled the
lifeless body of newly killed leopard.
| They were bringing 1t in as gift to
| the headman of the village, who was
4 thoroughgoing Mohammedan. and
who held in contempt Hinduism and
all its amazing ramifications.
| The white priestess was indeed
puzzle; for, while the handful of Mo-
hammedans in the village were fanat-
lcal in their belief in the true prophet
and his Koran, and put little faith in
miracles and still less in holy men
who performed them, the advent of
the white priestess deeply mystified
them. There was no getting around
this: she was there; with their own
eyes they saw her. There might be
something in Hinduism after all.
| When the hunters arrived at the
portico of the temple they found two
greatly terrified holy men, shrilling
their "Ai! All" in lamentation and
beating their foreheads against the
earth.
Holy men, what is wrong?" asked
one of the hunters, respectfully.
1.-The lion has killed our priestess;
the sacred fires must die again! Al!
All"
| Where is the lion?"
They fled toward the river, and
there he has doubtless destroyed her.
| for in evil silva, represented by the
lion, is more powerful than Vishnu. re-
incarnated in our priestess. All! Al!
She is dead and we are undone."
Come" said the chief huntsman.
Let us run to the river and see what
these qteer gods are doing. Well
present the skin of silva to our mas.
teri" He laughed
The leopard carriers deposited their
burden and all started off at a dog.
trot. They had always been eager re-
garding this lion. In the temple he
was inviolable; but at large, that was
a different matter
Arriving at the river brink, they
saw the footprints of the lion on the
wet sand which ran down to the wa
ter. To leap from this spot to the
water was not possible for any beast
OF the jungle. Yet the lion had van
ished completely, as though he had
been given wings. They stood about
in awe till one of the older hunters
knelt, reached out, and dug his hand
into the innocent looking sand. In