Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1918-02-23
CHAPTER XI.-Continued.

Are there devils in Tophet? Fire
and my veins are one y
The man did net notice the eager
aess beaming out of Kings horn
trimmed spectacles, but Ismail did; it
seemed to him time to prove his vir-
tues as assistant
"This is the famous hakim Kurram
Yhan," he boosted. 'He can cure any
thing, and for very little feel"
The man looked incredulous, but
King drew the covering from his row
of instruments and bottles.
"Take a chancer' he advised. "None
but the brave wins anything
Ismail and Darya Khan were new to
the business and enthusiastic. They
had the man down, held tight on the
door to the huge amusement of the
rest, before he could even protest; and
his bowls of rage did him no good, for
Tsmail drove the hilt of knife be-
tween his open jaws to keep them open.
A very large proportion of Kings
stores consisted of morphia and CO.
caine. He injected enough cocaine to
deaden the mans nerves, and allowed
1t time to work. Then he drew out
three back teeth in quick succession,
to make sure he had the right one.
Ismail let the victim up, and Darya
Khan gave him water in a brass cup.
Utterly without pain for the first time
for days, the man was as grateful as
wolf freed from trap.
"Are there any others in pain in
Khinjan?" King asked him.
Listen to himl What is Khinjan?
Is there one map without wound or
sore or scar Or q sickness"
"Then, tell them" said King.
The man laughed
when | show my jaw, there will be
fight to be first Make ready, hakim
gow
King sat down to eat, but he had not
finished his meal-he had made the
last little heap of rice into ball with
his fingers, native style, and was mop
ping up the last of the curried gravy
the lame and the halt and the sick
made its appearance. The caves en-
trance became jammed with them, and
no riot ever made more noise.
"Hakim Ho, hakim Where is the
hakim who draws teeth? Where is the
man who knows yunani?"
Ten men burst down the passage all
together, all clamoring, and one man
wasted no time at all but began to tear
away bloody bandages to show his
wound. King rolled up his sleeves and
began, so that eagerness gave place to
wonder. The desperate need of winning
his first trick, made him horror-proof
and nobody waiting for the next turn
was troubled because the man under
the knife screamed a little or bled
more than usual.
When they died-and more than one
did die-men carried them out and
flung them over the precipice into the
waterfall below.
Ismail and Darya Khan became
choosers of the victims. They seized
man, laid him on the bed tore off his
disgusting bandages and held their
breath until the awful resulting stencil
had more or less dispersed. Then
King would probe or lance or bandage
as he saw fit, using anesthetics when
he must, but managing mostly without
them.
They almost flung money at him. He
tossed money and clothes and every
other thing they gave him into corner
at the back of the cave, and nobody
tried to steal them back, although a
man suspected of honesty in that
company would have been tortured to
death as an hereto and would have
had no sympathy.
For hour after gruesome hour he
toiled over wounds and sores such as
only battles and evil living can pro-
duce, until men began to come at last
with fresh wounds, all caused by bull
let's, wrapped in basdages on which
the blood had cakeG out had not grown
foul
There has been fighting in the Khy-
ber," somebody informed him, and he
stopped with lancet in midair to listen,
scanning a hundred faces swiftly in
the smoky lamplight. There were tn
men who held lamps for him, one Of
them newcomer, and it was he who
spoke.
"Fighting in the Khyberl Aye! We
were little lashkar. but we drove