The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-03-08

same instant, as the whole crowd
caught its breath all together. The
mullah in the middle froze into i'm
mobility. Northumberland stood
mumbling, swaying his great head from
side to side, no longer suggestive of a
bear about to charge, but of one who
heSitateS.
The crowd was staring at the end of
the bridge. King stared, too, and
caught his own breath. For Yasmini
stood there, smiling on them oil as the
new moon smiles down ON the Khyber
She had come among them like spirit,
all unheralded.
So much more beautiful than the one
likeness King had seen Of her that for
a second he doubted who she was, she
stood there, human and warm and real,
who had begun to seem myth, clad
in gauzy silk transparent stuff that
made no secret of sylphlike shapeli-
ness and looking nearly light enough to
blow away. Her feet-and they were
the most marvelously nodded things
he had ever seen-were naked and
played restlessly on the naked stone.
Not one part Of her was still for a
fraction Of a second; yet the whole eff
feet was Of insolently lazy ease.
Her eyes blazed brighter than the lit
tie jewels stitched to her gossamer
dress, and when man once looked at
them he did not find it easy to look
away again. Even mullah Muhammad
Amin seemed transfixed, like great
foolish animal.
But King was staring very hard in
deed at something else-mentally
cursing the plain glass spectacles he
wore, that had begun to film over and
dim his vision. There were two brace
let's on her arm, both barbaric things
of solid gold. The smaller Of the two
was on her wrist and the larger on her
upper arm, but they were SO alike, ex-
cept for size, and so exactly like the
one Rewa Gunga had given him in her
name and that had been stolen from
him in the night, that he ran the risk
of removing the glasses a moment to
stare with unimpeded eyes. Even then
the distance was too great. He could
not quite see.
But her eyes began to search the
crowd in his direction, and then he
knew two things absolutely. He was
sitting where she had ordered sIsmail
to place him; for she picked him out
almost instantly, and laughed as if
somebody had struck silver bell. And
one of those bracelets was the one that
he had worn; for she Haunted 1t at
him, moving her arm so that the light
should make the gold glitter.
Then, perhaps because the crowd
had begun to whisper, and she wanted
all attention, she raised both arms to
toss back the golden hair that came
cascading nearly to her knees. And as
if the crowd knew that symptom well,
1t drew its breath in sharply and grew
very still.
"Muhammad Amin " she said, and
she might have been wooing him.
"That was devils trickv
It was rather an astounding state
ment, coming from lovely lips in such
a setting. 1t was rather suggestive of
drivers whiplash. flicked through the
air for a, beginning. Muhammad Amin
continued glaring and did not answer
her, so in her own good time, when she
had tossed her golden hair back once
or twice again, she developed her
meaning.
"We who are free of Khinjan caves
do not send men out to bring recruits.
We know better than to bid our men
tell lies for others at the gate. Nor,
seeking proof for our new recruit, do
we send men to hunt head for him.
not even those Of us who have LASH
kar that we call our own, mullah Mu-
hammad Amin! Each of us earns his
own way int"
The mullah Muhammad Amin began
to stroke his beard, but he made no an
swer.
"And-mullah Muhammad Amin,
thou wandering man of God-when
that lashkar has foolishly been sent
and has failed, Is 1t written in the Kala-
mullah saying we should pretend there
was head, and that the head was
stolen? A lie is a lie, Muhammad
Amin! Wandering perhaps is good, If
in search Of the way. Is it good to
lose the way, and to lie, thou true fol-
lower of the Prophet"
She smiled, tossing her hair back.
Her eyes challenged, her lips Knocked
him and her chin scorned. The crowd
breathed hard and watched. The null
lah muttered something In his beard,
and sat down, and the crowd began to
roar applause at her. But she checked
1t with regal gesture, and a glance
of contempt at the mullah that was
alone worth journey across the
"Hills" to see.
"Guards!" she said quietly. And
the crowds sigh then was like the night
wind In forest.
away with those three Of Muham-
mad Anim's menr'
Twelve Of the arena guards threw
down their shields with sudden clat-
ter and seized the prisoners. four to