Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-11-23

prisoned all the noises in the world.
"Earths 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 a 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 |
ledges brink and tried TO peer over.
But Ismail dragged him back.
Gomez he howled but in all that
din his shout was like whisper.
"How deep is it?" King beloved
back.
Allah! Ask him who made it."
The fear of the falls was on the
Afridi, and he tugged at Kings arm in
frenzy of impatience. Suddenly he
let go and broke into a run. King
trotted after him. After ten minutes
hurrying uphill he guessed they must
be level with the river, in tunnel run
ming nearly parallel. Ismail kept look
ing back to bid King hurry and never
paused once to rest.
Gomez he urged fercely. "This
leads to the Heart of the Hills'!" And
after that King had to do his best to
keep the Afridi's back in sight.
They began after time to hear
voices and to see the smoky glare made
by other torches. Then Ismail set the
pace yet faster, and they became the
last two of a procession of turbaned
men, who tramped along a winding
tunnel into great mountains womb.
The sound of slippers clicking and
rutching on the rock floor swelled and
died and swelled again as the tunnel
led from cavern into cavern.
In one great cave they came to
every man beat out his torch and
tossed it on a heap. After that there
was a ledge above the height of a
mans head on either side of the tun-
mel, and along the ledge little oil-burn-
ing lamps were spaced at measured
intervals. quarter of a mile farther
along there were two sharp turns in
the tunnel, and then at last a sea of
noise and veritable blaze of light.
Part of the noise made King feel
hOmesick, for out Of the mountains
very womb brayed a music-box, such
as the old-time carousals made use of
before the days of electricity and
J steam. 1t was being worked by mex
pert hands. for the time was some
thing jerky; but it was robbed of its
tinny meanness and even lent majesty
} by the hugeness of a cavern's roof, as
: well as by the crashing, swinging music
| it played-wild-won wonderful-invented
for lawless hours and kingless peo-
pie.
"Marchons !-Citoyens !"
The procession began to tramp in
time to it, and the rock shook. They
deployed to left and right into a space
, so vast that the eye at first refused to
try to measure it. 1t was the hollow
, core of a mountain, flied by the sea.
] sound of human crowd and hung with
huge stalactites that danced and shift
I ed and flung back a thousand colors al
r tie Pickering light below. Across the
cavern's farther end for a space of two
l hundred yards the great river rushed
E plunging out of a great fanged gap anC
D hurrying out of view down another one
| licking smooth banks on its way will
4 a hungry sucking sound.
: There were little lamps everywhere
= perched on ledges amid the stalactites
q and they suffused the whole cavern il
golden glow. In the midst of the cav
h ern a great arena had been left bare
S and thousands of turbaned men squat
q ted round it in rings. At the ent
e where the river formed a tangent t,
e them the rings were fiattened, and a
|. that point they were cut into by tn
l. ramp of a bridge, and by a lane lef
l. to connect the bridge with the arena
d The bridge end formed nearly squar
d platform, about fourteen feet above tn
t. floor, and the broad track thence t
d the arena, as well as all the arena
boundary, had been marked off b
# smoke streaked up and was lost by tn
'e wind among the stalactites.
st Greek lamps, every one of 'em
y King whispered to himself, but
IL wasted no time just then on trying t
m explain how Greek lamps had ever &C
there. There was too much else t
le watch and wonder at
Ell No steps led down from the bride
ID end to the floor; toward the arena
TO was blind. But from the bridges ia
oI ther end across the hurrying wate
70 stairs had been hewn out Of the roc
wall and led up to a hole of twice
to mans height, more than fifty fe,
ne above water level.
o. On either side of the bridge end
Is passage had been left clear to II
ed river edge, and nobody seemed to cal
!. to invade it, although it was n
p, marked off in any way. Each passa,
!" was about fifty feet wide and qui
ne straight. But the space between Il
nd bridge end and the arena, and Il
lis arena itself, had to be kept free fro
lis trespassers by fifty staggering RI
ty fans, armed to the teeth.
Every man of the thousands the
had a knife in evidence, but the arel
guards had magazine rifles as well
Khyber tulwars. Nobody else wo
S. firearms openly. Some of the arel
guards bore huge round shields of pl
he historic pattern of size and sort
Ike had never seen before, even in m
Mt seums. But there was very little th
ng he was seeing that night of kind th
no he had seen before anywhere!
ut The guards lolled insolently, &C
ng scious of brute strength and spec
zen favor. When any man trespassed wi
so much as q toe beyond the ring
tch lamps, a guard would slap his rif1e-bl
at until the swivel ratified, and the
nd fender would scurry into bounds an
the the jeers of any who had seen.
} Showing, kicking and elbowing wi
ew set purpose, Isnail forced a W
led through the already seated crowd a