Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1915-04-01
CHAPTER xxlV-continued.

ney-rather difficult one-brought
them to still and shallow water Here
they crossed and made camp beyond,
in 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 us make straight for
the port and let this damnable bushel
of trinkets stay where it is" urged
Bruce, the lover.
That Is not possible now" replied
Ramabai. I'VE can now reach there
only by the seacoast itself, or return
to the desert and journey over the old
trail. We must go on"
The colonel smoked his pipe mood
lily. He was pulled between necessity
and desire. He had come to Asia for
this filigree basket, and he wanted it,
with a 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 1t seemed to him that
there was some invisible force work
ing in him, drawing and drawing him
against the dictates Of his heart He
had experienced this feeling back in
California, and had fought against 1t
Tor weeks, without avail. And frequent
ly now, when alone and undisturbed,
ne could see the old guru, shaking
with the venom of his wrath, the blood
dripping from his lacerated fingers,
which he shook in the colonel's face,
necking it with blood. A curse. 1t
was so. He must obey that invisible
Will; he must go on and on.
His pipe slipped from his fingers and
his head fell 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 to-
ward his forehead.
is there really such evil, Ahmed?"
Evil begets evil, heaven born, just
as good begets good. The Colonel Sa-
nib did wrong. And who shall deny
some of these gurus a supernatural
power? l have seen; l know"
But once you said that we should
eventually escape, all Of u.s.
And still say it, memsahib. What
Is written is written" phlegmatically.
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 possibilities these mys-
FERROUS attributes of the oriental mind
That a will could reach out and pre-
arrange a mans misfortunes was to
her mind incredible, for there were no
precedents. She never had witnessed
genuine case of hypnotism; those ex-
amples she had seen were miserable
buffooneries, travesties, hoodwinking
mot even the 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.
Yet, here was her father, thoroughly
convinced Of the efficacy of the gurus
curse; and here was Ahmed, compla-
GENTLY watching the effects, and not
Idoubting 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 prowling OF cat. Far beyond the |
lire, beyond the sentinel she thought
she saw a naked form flash out and |
back of tree. She stared intently at
the tree for 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 TOR thought.
Umballa, having satisfied himself |
that the camp would not break till
morning, skunk away into the shadows.
He had failed again; but his hate had
made him strong. He was naked ex-
cept for loin clout His beard ard
hair were matted, the latter hanging
over his eyes. His body was smeared
with ashes. Not even Ahmed would
have recognized him yard off. He
had something less than nine hours to
reach the cape before they did; and it
was necessary that he should have &C.
The fishermen he knew to
be Of predatory habits. and the prom
ise of gold would enmesh them.
The half. island which constituted
the cape had the shape Of miniature
There was verdure at the
base of its slope and trees lifted their
heads here and there hardly. 1t was
a mile long and a hall mile wide; and
In the early morning It stood out like
huge sapphire against the rosy sky.
Between the land and the promontory
there lay stretch of glistening sand;
there was half a mile of it. Over this
a flock Of gulls were busy, as scaven-
gers always are. At high tide, yonder