The Kadoka press and Kadoka reporter. [volume] (Kadoka, S.D.) 1910-1923, 1917-12-07

| bare another bracelet, on the mans
right wrist. Size for size, this was the
same as the one that had been stolen
/ from himself
Memory prompted him. He felt its
outer edge with a finger nail. There
was the little nick that he had made
! in the soft gold when he struck it
against the cell bars in the Jail at the
/ Mir Khan palace! He touched the
/ gold 1t was warm. He repeated the
| test on the woman'S wrists. Hers was
warm, too. Both bracelets had been
worn by a living being within an
hour
He muttered and frowned in thought,
and then suddenly jumped backward.
| The leather curtain near the bed had
moved on its bronze rod.
Aren't they dears?" voice said in
English behind him. aren't they
sweet"
iasmini stood not two arms lengths
away, iovelier than the dead woman
because Of the merry life in her, young
and warm, aglow, but looking like the
dead woman and the woman of the
frieZe-the woman of the lamp-bowlS-
the statue-come to life, speaking to
him in English more sweetly than if
1t had been her mother tongue The
English abuse their language Yas-
mini caressed it and made it do it's
work twice over.
Being dressed as native, he
salaamed low. Knowing him for what
he was, she gave him the senna-
stained tips of her warm fingers to
kiss, and he thought she trembled
when he touched them. But second
later she had snatched them away and
was treating him to raiilery.
Man of pills and bliStersw she said,
tell me how those bodies are pre-
served! Spill knowledge from that
learned skull of thiner'
He did not answer. He never shone
In conversation at any time. having
made as many friends as enemies by
saying nothing until the spirit moves
him. But she did not know that yet.
IF l knew for certain why those
two did not turn to worms" she went
on, almost l would choose to die now,
while l am beautiful. What would
they say, think you. King Sahib, if
they found us two dead beside those
two? Speak, man. speak. Has Khin-
jan struck you dumb?"
But he did not speak. He was star
ing at her arm, where two whtish
marks on the skin betrayed that brace
lets had been.
"Oh. those! They are theirs. i
would turn on me. / robbed you, in
stead, while you slept. Eie, King sa-
hib, while you sleptw
But her steel did not strike on flint.
1t was her eyes that flashed. He would
have done better to have seemed
ashamed, for then he might have
fooled her, ut least for while. But
having judged himself, he did not care
fig for her judgment of him. She
realized that instantly and having
found tool that would not work,
discarded it for better one. She
grew confidential.
II borrow them" she explained.
but l put them back. | take them
for so many days, and when the day
comes-the gods like us to be exact
You were near death when l took the
bracelet last night. The time was up.
| would have stabbed you if you had
tried to prevent mer
Now he spoke at last and gave her
ii first glimpse of an angle of his mind
she had not suspected
princess" he said. He used the
word with the Difference some men can
combine with effrontery, so that very
tenderness has barbs. you might
have had that thing back if you had
sent a messenger for it at any time.
A word by a servant would have been
enough"
'YOu could never have reached
Khinjan then !" she retorted. Her eyes
flashed again, but his did not waver.
"Princess," he said, "why speak Of
what you don't know?"
He thought she would strike like
snake, but she smiled at him instead.
And when Yasmini has smiled on
man he has never been just the same
man afterward. He knows more. for
one thing. He has had lesson in
one of the finer arts.
II will speak of what 1 do know
she said. mo, there is no need. Look
Look ~
She pointed ut the bed-at the man
on the bed-fingers locked iH those Of
a woman who looked so like herself.
He looked, knowing well there was
something to be understood, that
stared him in the face. But for the
life of him he could not determine
question or answer.
''What is in your bosom?" she
asked him.
He put his hand to his shirt.
"Draw it out - she said, as teacher
drills child.
He drew out the gold-hilted knife
with the bronze blade, with which
man had meant to murder him. He let
it lie on the palm of his hand and
looked from it to her and back again.
The hilt might have been a portrait of
her modelled from the life.