New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-12-28

him, following in silence out on to the
dark ledge above the waterfall and no.
ticing that the guard with the boils
was back again on duty. He grlnned
evilly out of a shadow as King passed.
Make an end !" he advised. "Jump,
hakim, before Il worse thing happens !"
To Illustrate the suggestion he
kicked a loose stone over the cliff, and
the movement caused him to bend his
neck and so inadvertently to hurt his
boils. He cursed, and there was pity
in Kings voice when he spoke next.
"Do they hurt thee?"
"Aye, like the devil! Khinjan is a
place Of plagues"
Il could heal Them" King said, pass
ing on, and the man stared hard.
Come! doomed Ismail through the
darkness, shaking the torch to make
1t burn better and reckoning inpatient
ly, and King hurried after him, leaving
behind Il savage at the cave mouth who
fingered his sores and wondered, NUT
tering, leaning on a rifle, muttering
and muttering again as if he had seen
a new light.
Instead of waiting for King to catch
up, Ismail began to lead the way at
great speed along a path that descend
ed gradually until it curved round the
end Of the chasm and plunged into a
tunnel where the darkness grew
Opaque. For thirty minutes he led
swiftly down a crazy devils stairway
of uneven powders, stopping to lend
a hand at the worst places, but ever.
lastingly urging him to hurry.
Then the hell-mouth gloom began to
grow fnintly luminous, and the water
falls thunder burst on their ears from
close at hand. They emerged into
fresh wet air and a sea of sound, on a
rock ledge like the one above. Ismail
raised the torch and waved it. The
fire and smoke wandered up, until they
fiattened on a moving opal dome, that
prisOned all the noises in the world.
"Earth's Drink !" he announced, wav.
ing the torch and then shutting his
mouth tight, as If afraid to voice sacri-
lege.
1t was the river, milliOn-cOlOred in
the torchlight, pouring from a half
mile-lOng slash in the cliff above them
and plunging past them through the
gloom toward the very middle of the
world. Somewhere it met rock bottom
and boiled there, for n roar like the
seas came up from deeps unimagin-
able.
He watched the overturning dome
until his senses reeled. Then he
crawled on hands and knees to the
lodges brink and tried to peer over.
But Ismail dragged him back.
"COme !" he howled; but in all that
din his shout was like a whisper.
"How deep Is it?" King beloved
back.
"Allah! Ask him who made it,"
The fear of the falls was on the
and he tugged at Kings arm In
a frenzy of impotence. Suddenly he
let go and broke into a run. King
after him. After ten minutes
hurrying uphill he guessed they must
be level with the river. in a tunnel rum
ming nearly parallel. 1smail kept look
ing back to bid King hurry and never
once to rest.
"Come" he urged fiercely. This
leads to the Heart of the Hllls'!" And
after that King had to do his best to
keep the Afridi's back in sight.
They began after a time to hear
and to see the smoky glare made
)y other torches. Then Ismail set the
pace yet faster, and they became the
asst two of a procession of turbaned
men, who tramped along a winding
.unnel into a great mountains womb.
The sound of slippers clicking and
on the rock floor swelled and
lied and swelled again as the tunnel
ed from cavern into cavern.
In n great cave they came to
very man beat out his torch and
ossed it On a heap. After that there
vas a ledge above the height Of a
mans head or either side of the tun-
lei, and along the ledge little Oil-burn-
ng lamps were spaced at measured
intervals. A quarter of a mile farther
long there were two sharp turns in
he tunnel, and then at last a sea of
loise and a veritable blaze of light.
Part Of the noise made King feel
lomesick, for out of the mountains
cry womb brayed a music-box, such
S the old-time %carOusals made use of
efore the days Of electricity and
team. 1t was being worked by mex
hands. for the time was some
hing jerky; but it was robbed. of its
inny and even lent majesty
Y the hugeness of a cavern's roof, as
'ell as by the crashing, swinging music
{
Or lawless hours and a kingless peo- {
lie. {
"Marchons !-CitOyens =" {
The procession began to tramp In I
me to it, and the rock shook. They
eplOyed to left and right into a space {
D vast that the eye at first refused to I
y to measure it. 1t was the hollow
ore OF a mountain, flied by the sea- t
ound Of a human crowd and hung with S
uge stalactites that danced and shift
i and flung back n thousand colors at q
.e Pickering light below. Across the t
farther end for a space Of two q
yards the great river rushed, v
Iunging out Of a great fanged gap and t
out of view down another one, v
cking smooth banks on its way with &
hungry sucking sound. 4
There were little lamps everywhere, Il
on Lodges amid the stalactites, t
nd they suffused the whole cavern in
,lden glow. In the midst of the cav s
a great arena had been left bare, q