Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1917-11-24

Come with me, then"
"Nay, l am her man. She waits for
mel"
Il imagine she waits for me-"
laughed King. Forward! We have
rested in this place long enough :"
1t was ten of blazing forenoon, and
the sun had heated up the rocks until
it was pain to walk on them and agony
to sit, when they topped the last es-
carpment and came in sight of kim
/ JAMS walls, across a mile-wide rock
ravine-khinjan the unregenerate,
that has no other human habitation
within a march because none dare
| build.
1t was midday when at last they
stood on bottom and swayed like men
in dream lingering their bruises and
scarcely able for the heat haze to see
! the tangled mass of stone towers and
mud-and-stOne walls that faced them,
mile away. They were nearly across
the valley, hunting for shadow where
none was to be found when a shotted
/ salute brought them up outstanding in
cluster Six or eight nickel-coated
| bullets spattered on the rocks close by,
and one so narrowly missed King that
! he could feel its wind.
Up went all their hands together,
and they held them so until they ached.
Nothing whatever happened. Their
arps ceased aching and grew numb.
They advanced another two hundred
yards and another volley ratified among
1 the rocks on either hand, frightening
one of the mules so that it stumbled
and fell and had to be helped up again.
! When that vas done, and the mule
| stood trembling they all faced the
wall. But they were too weary to hold
| their hands up any more. Thirst had
| begun to exercise its sway. One of
| the men was half delirious.
"Wh0 are ye?" howled a human be
Jig, whose voice was so like VOLTS
| that the words at first had no mt aiming.
He peered over the parapet. hundred
! feet above, with his head so swathed
| in dirty linen that he looked like
bandaged corpse.
'What will ye? Who comes unin-
vited into Khinjan?'
King bethought him of Yasimini's
talisman. He held it up, and the gold
/ band glinted in the sun. Yet, although
| a Hilman's eyes are keener than an
eagles, he did not believe the thing
could be recognized at that angle, and
| from that distance. Another thought
suggested itself to him. He turned his
| head and caught IsnaiI in the act of
! signaling with both hands.
| "Ye may comet" howled the watch
man on the parapet, disappearing in
stantly.
King trembled-perhaps as a race
horse trembles at the starting gate,
| though he was weary enough to trem-
BILE from fatigue. But that passed. He
was all in hand when he led his men
up over a rough stone cauSewaT to a
door in the bottom of a high battle
mented wall and waited for somebody
10 open +.
The great teak door looked as If 1t
had been stolen from some Hindu tenn
! pie, and he wondered how AMI when
they could have brought 1t there across
/ those savage intervening miles High
above the door was ledge Of rock
| that crossed like a bridge FROM wall TO
wall, with a parapet Of stone built
upon ii. pierced for rifc-fre.
As they approached a Hangar tur-
ban, not unlike Kings own. appeared
above the parapet on the ledge and
voice he recognized hailed him good
humored.y.
"Salaam aleikoum -
and upon thee be peace" King an
swered in the Pashtu tongue for the
Hills" are polite, whatever the other
principles
Rewa Gunga's face beamed down on
/ him, wreathed in smiles that seemed to
| include mockery as well as triumph.
Looking up at him at an angle that
made his neck ache and dazzled his
eyes. King could not be sure, but il
seemed TO him that the smile said.
+ Here sou are. my man, and aren't you
in for it," He more than hall ms
+ pected he was intended TO understand
+ thar. But the Raugar's conversation
took another line.
by jove.' he chuckled, "She ez-
pected YOU. She guessed you are a
hound who can hunt well on a DR..
I scent. end she dared bet you win come
3 -s,. Etsrf4