New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-01-04

my authority. Muhammad Amin? Think
ye! If that head had only fallen into
Muhammad Anim's lap, the mullah
might have Struggled in another man
with it !"
A roar of laughter greeted that
thrust. Many men who had not laughed
at the mullah's first discontinue
Joined in now. Muhammad Amin sat
and fidgeted, meeting nobody's eye and
answering nothing.
$50 it seems to me good" Yasmini
said, in a voice that did not echo any
more but rang very clear and true (she
seemed to know the trick of the roof,
and to use the echo or not as she
chose), "to let this hakim live! He
shall mediate in his cave a while, and
perhaps he shall be beaten, lest he
dare offend again. He can no more es-
cape from Khinjan caves than the
women who are prisoners here. He
may therefore live"
There was utter silence. Men looked
at one another and at her, and her
blazing eyes searched the crowd swift
ly. 1t was plain enough that there
were at least two parties there, and
that none dared oppose Yasmini's will
for fear of the others.
"TO thy seat, Kurram Khan!" she
ordered, when she had waited a full
minute and no man spoke.
He wasted M time. He hurried out
of the arena as fast as he could walk.
with Ismail and Darya Khan close at
his heels. Ismail overlook him, seized
him by the shoulders, Rugged him. and
dragged him to the empty seat next to
him until his ribs cracked.
"Ready O. wit !" he crowed. "Ready
O tongue! Light O. life! Man after
mine own heart! Hey. 1 love thee!
Readily l would be thy man. but for be-
ing hers! Turned the joke on Muham-
mad Amin! Turned it against her
enemy and raised a laugh against him
from his W men! Ready O. wit!
Shameless one! Lucky one! Allah
was surely good to thee"
"Have they taken Ali Masjid fortT
King whispered.
NAY, how should I know? Ask her!
She knows more than any man knOws!"
King turned to ask the same ques-
ton of his friend the Orakzai Pathan;
but the Pathan would have none of his
questions, he was busy listening for
whispers from the crowd, watching
with both eyes, and he showed King
aside.
The crowd was very far from being
satisfied. An angry murmur had be-
gun to fill the cavern as a hive Is filled
with the song Of bees at swarming
time. But even so, surmise what one
1t was not easy to persuade the
eye that Yasmini's careless smile and
easy pOise were assumed. If she rec
ognized indignation and feared it, she
disguised her fear amazingly. Leisure
ly, languidly, she raised both arms I'M
til she looked like an angel poised for
flight. The little jewels stitched to her
gauzy dress twinkled like f~irefies as
she moved. The crowd gasped sharp
ly. She had it by the heart-strings.
She called. and four guards got un-
der one shield, bowling their heads and
the great rim on their shout
ders. They carried it beneath her and
stood still. With a low delicious laugh,
sweet and true, she sprang on 1t, and
the shield scarcely trembled; she
lighter than the silk her dress
was woven from!
They carried her so, and in the midst
Of the arena before they had ceased
she began to sing, with her
head thrown back and bosom swelling
like q birds.
The East would ever rather draw its
own conclusions from a hint let fall
Than he puzzled by what the West be-
ieves are facts. And parallels are not
good evidence in courts Of law, which
IS always a consideration. So her song
took the form of a parable.
And to say that she took hold of
them and played rhapsodies of her
making on their heartstrings would
,e to undervalue what she did. They
1900 A~-A -hfIA ~h~ -.- - Il