The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1915-05-01

very proud Guns of all descriptions
lined the walls. Some of them Bruce
would have liked to own. to decorate
the walls of his own armory, thou.
sands Of miles away.
The colonel whispered a forgotten
prayer as, later. he laid down his
weary aching limbs upon the rope bed
Almost Immediately he sank into slum.
Der as deep and silent as the sea.
Kathlyn and Bruce, however, went
up to the hanging gardens and re-
NAMED there till nine, maryeling over
the beauty of the night The Pathan
city lay under their gaze, with a like.
reads about in the chronicles of Sin.
bad the Sailor. But they spoke nc
word Of love. When alone with this
remarkable young woman, Bruce found
himself invariably tonguetied.
At the same hour, less than fifty
miles away Umballa stood before the
opening of his elaborate tent, erected
at shutdown by the rivers brink, and
sccwled at the moon. He saw no
beauty in the translucent sky, in the
silvery paleness of the world below
lie wanted revenge, and the word
Kissed in his brain as a viper Kisses
in the dark of its cave.
Dung fires twinkled and soldiers
lounged about them, smoking and COS.
siping. They had been given an earn.
est against their long delinquent
wages, and they were in a happy frame
Of mind. Their dead comrades were
dead and mourning was for widows; for
them would be the pleasures of swift
repr.sals. The fugitives had gone to.
ward the desert, and in that bleak
stretch of treeless land it would not be
difficult to find them, once they started
in pursuit.
Midnight.
In the compound the moonlight lay
upon everything; upon the fat sides
and back of the sacred white ele.
plant. upon the three low caste keep
ers, now free of the viglant eye OF
their Brahmin chief. The gates were
barred and closed all inside the house
of Bala Khan were asleep. Far away
sentry dozed on his rife, on the
wall. The three keepers whispered
and chuckled among themselves.
who will know" said one
"The moon will not speak," said an,
other.
Then let us go and smoke"
The three approached the elephant
A bit of gymnastics and one of them
was boosted to the back of the ele.
plant, to whom this episode was more
or less familiar. Another followed;
the third was pulled up, and from the
elephants back they made the top of
the wall and disappeared down into
the street. Here they paused cautious
ly, for two guards always patroled the
mont OF the compound during the
night Presently the three truants stole
away toward the bazaars, which in this
desert town occupied but a single
street. Down they went into cellar
way and the gurus curse stalked be-
side them. ror opium is the hand.
maiden of all curses.
Perhaps twenty minutes later slight
sounds came from the front of the
compound wall. A rifle barrel clat,
tered upon the cobbles. Then, over
the wall, near the elephant, head ap-
peared, then body. This was repeat
ed four times, and four light-footed
nomads of the desert lowered them
selves into the compound They ran
quickly to the gate and noiselessly un-
barred it. Outside were five more des-
ert nomads, gathered about the insen-
sible bodies of the sentres.
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 of their nocturnal
junkets into the opium den had cast
the die this night.
With the utmost caution they ap-
preached the sacred elephant, took off
his chains and led him from the com.
pound. Immediately six of the maraud.
ers trotted far ahead toward the gate
they knew to be the least guarded. The
sacred elephant, passing through the
streets, attended by three men,
aroused no suspicious in any strag-
gler who saw. So remote was the
wall city, so seemingly Improbable,
and so little interfered with that it was
only human that it's guardians should
eventually grow careless.
When the keepers, staggering under
the fumes Of the drug, returned near
daybreak, first to find the gate open,
second to find their sacred charge
gone, they fled in terror; for it would
be death, lingering and painful, for
them to stay and explain how and why
they had left their post.
The wild and lawless brigands knew
exactly what they were about There
were several agents of European and
American circuses after this white ele.
plant; and as it could not be pur-
chased there was no reason why it
could not be stolen.
When the Brahmin arrived at sun.
rise to find his vocation gone he set