The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1917-07-31
kINC-%Me KHYBER RIFLES
Il Romance %Mar@0h<>e
BY TALBOT MUNDy

"a thirsty throat and crazy head
are one!" he counse1ed. "A man
needs wit and a wet tongue who
would talk with her,'
Where is she?" asked King, when
he had finished drinking.
go and look!"
1smail gave him a sudden shove,
that sent him feet first forward over
the edge. He fell distance rather
greater than his own height, to an
other ledge and stood there looking
up. He could see Ismails red-rimmed
eyes blinking down at him in the Ian
tern light, but suddenly the Afridi
blew the lamp ont, and then the dark
ness became solid Thought itself
left Off less than a yard away
'Ismail!" he whispered. But Ismail
did not answer him. He faced about,
leaning against the rock, with the
! fiat of both hands pressed tight
against it for the sake of it's company.
And almost at once he saw a little
bright red light glowing in the dis
lance. 1t might have been a hun
dred yards, and it might have been
| mile away below him; it was per-
fectly impossible to Judge, for the
darkness was not measurable.
Flowers turn to the light" droned
1smaiPs voice above sententiously,
and turning, he thought he could see
red eyes peering over the rock. He
jumped, and made grab for the
flowing beard that surely must be
below them, but he missed.
Little fish swim to the light"
droned Ismail Moths fly to the
! light! Who is man that he should
know less than they?"
He turned again and stared at the
light. Dimly, very vaguely he could
make out that causeway led down
ward from almost where he stood.
Eie was convinced that should he try
to climb back Ismail would merely
reach out hand and shove him down
again, and there was no sense in be-
ing put to that indignity. He decided
TO go forward, for there was even less
sense in standing still.
Come with me! Come along, Is
MALL" he called.
"Allah!s Hear him! Nay, nay, nay,
Who was it said a little while ago,
There is no such thing as feal,' am
afraid, but thou and / are two men!
Go thou aloneH
Reason is a mans only dependable
faculty. Reason told him that at a
word from Ysmini he would have
been flung into "Earths Drink hours
ago Therefore, added reason, why
should she forego that spectacular op-
portunity when death would have
amused Khinjan's thousands, only to
kill him now in the dark alone? He
had treated a few dozen sick men, but
surely she had not been afraid to Of
fend them. Had she not dared forbid
the sick coming to him altogether?
Forward" says Cocker, In at least
dozen places. go forward and find
out. Better bed in hell than a seat
on the horns of dilemma! Forward"
There was no sound now anywhere
He stretched a leg downward and felt
a rock two or three feet lower down,
and the sound Of his slipper sole
touching it, being the only noise, made
the short hair rise on the back Of his
neck. Then he took himself, so to
speak. by the hand and went forward
and downward, for action is the only
curb imagination knows.
He forgot to count his pulse and
Judge how long 1t took him to descend
that causeway in the dark. 1t was
not so very rough, nor so very dan
gerous, but of course he only knew
that fact afterward. He had to grope
his way inch by inch, trusting to
sense Of touch and the British army's
everlasting luck, with an eye all the
while on a red light that was some
thing like the glow through hell's key
hole. When he reached bottom, after
perhaps twenty minutes, and stood at
last on comparatively level rock, his
legs were trembling from tension, and
he had to sit down while he stretched
them out and rested. The light still
looked a quarter OF mile away, al
though that was guesswork. 1t made