Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1918-02-01
By TALBOT MUNDY

ulU IL dI1 III a cave SnOWoO CuoIu, ludI
they think, and he thinks, has only one
entrance to it. Muhammad Amin sealed
it, and he has the key. But I have
the ammunition!
There was another way out Of that
cave, although there is none now, for
I have blocked it. My men, whom
trust because know them, carried ev-
erything out by the back way, and ]
have it all. We, my warrior, when Mu-
hammad Amin gets the word from Ger
many and gives the sign, and the Hills
are afre, and the whole East roars in
the flame of the jihad-we will put our
eelves at the head of that jihad, and
the East and the world is oursi''
King smiled at her.
'"The East isn't very well armed"
he objected ssMere numbers"
"Numbers?". She laughed at him.
''The West has the West by the throat
It is tearing itself They will drag in
America! There will be no armed ma
ton with its hands free-and while
those wolves fight, other wolves shall
come and steal the meat! The old
gods. who built these caves in the
Hills are laughing! They are get
ting ready! Thou and T."
AS she coupled him and herself to-
gether in one plan she read the
changed expression Of his face-the
very quickly passing cloud that even
the best-trained man cannot control.
II know!" she asserted, sitting up
right and coming out of her dream to
face facts as their master. She looked
more lovely now than ever, although
twice as dangerous. "You are thinking
of your brother-of his head! That
am murderess who can never be your
friend! Is that not so?"
He did not answer, but his eyes may
have betrayed something, for she
looked as if he had struck her.
"Oh, I have needed you so much,
these many years! And now that you
have come you want to hate me be-
cause you think I killed your brother
Listen!
without my leave, Muhammad Amin
sent five hundred men on a foray
toward the Khyber. Bull-with-a-beard
needed an Englishman's head, for
proof for a spy Of his who could not
enter Khinjan caves. They trapped
your brother outside Ali Masiid with
fifty of his men. They took his head
after long fight, leaving more than
hundred of their own in payment.
"Rull-with-a-beard was pleased. But
he was careless, and sent my men to
steal the head from his men. needed
evidence for you. And swear to you
II swear to you by my gods who have
brought us two together-that I first
knew it was your brothers head when
you held it up in the Cavern of Earth's
Drink Then knew it could not be
anybody else's head -
''Why bid me throw it to them,
then?' he asked her, and he was aware
Of her scorn before the words had left
his lips.
She leaned back again and looked at
hi1n through lowered eyes, as il she
must study him all anew. She seemed
to find it hard to believe that he really
thought SO in the commonplace.
"What is head to me, or to you
a head with no life in it-carriOn -
compared to what shall be? Would
you have known it was his head if you
had thrown it to them when ordered
you"
He understood. Some Of her blood
was Russian, some Indian. She stood
up, and Of course he stood up, too. So,
she on the footstool Of the throne, her
eyes and his were on a level. She laid
hands on his shoulders and looked into
his eyes until he could see his own
twin portraits in hers, that were glow
ing sunset pools. Heart of the Hills?
The heart of all the East seemed to
burn in her, rebellious!
"Are you believing met" she asked
him.
He nodded, for no man could have
helped believing her. AS she knew
the truth, she was telling it to him,
as surely as she was doing her skill
full best to mesmerize him. But the
secret service is made up Of men
trained against that.
"COme!" she said, and stepping
down she took his arm.
She led him past the thrones to
other leather curtains in a wall, and
through them into long hewn passages
from cavern to cavern, until even the
Rock of Gibraltar seemed like dolls
house in comparison. She showed him
a cave containing great FORCES, where
the bronze had been worked, with
charcoal still piled up against the wall
at one end. There were copper and tin
ingots in there of a shape he had never
seen.
II know where they came FROM"
she told him. II made it my business
to know all the Hills I know things
the hillmen's great-great-great-grand-
fathers forgot! know old workings
that would make modern nation rich!
We shall have money when we need
it, never fear! We shall conquer In
Gia while the English backs are turned
and the best troops are overseas"
Then she called him her warrior and