The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1918-05-30
xi-contlnued.

-
Are there devils In Tophetf Fire
and my veins are one!"
The man did not notice the eager
ness beaming out Of Kings horn
-Emmed ~spectacles. but Ismail did II
seemed to him time to prove his viz
tues a assistant.
'This IL the famous hakim Kurram
Khan" he boosted. He can cure any.
thing. and for q very little fee"
The man looked incredulous, but
King drew the covering from his row
Of instruments and bottles.
take a chance |" he advised. "None
but the brave wins anything I"
Ismail and Darya Khan were new to
the business and enthusiastic. They
had the man down. held Eight on the
door to the huge amusement Of the
: rest, before he could even protest and
bis bowls Of rage did him no good, for
Ismail drove the hilt Of a 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
it time to work. Then he drew out
three back teeth In quick succession,
to make sur he had the right one.
Ismail let the victim up. and Darya
Khan gave him water in n brass cup.
Utterly without pain for the first time
Tor days, the man was as grateful as
Q wolf freed from q trap.
Are there any others In pain In
Khin1anf" King asked him.
Listen to him What Is Khinjan?
Il there one man without a wound or
. sore or a scar or a ~sicknessf"
Then, tell them" said King.
The man laughed.
"When I show my jaw. there will be
q hight to be nrst Make ready, hakim /!
Igor
King sat down to eat, but he had not
finished his meal-he had made the
last little heap OF rice into a ball with
his fingers, native style. and was mop
ping up the last Of the curried gravy
with it-when the advance guard Of
the lame and the halt and the sick
made Its appearance. The caves en-
trance became TANNED with them, and
no riot ever made more noise.
"Hakimi Ho, hakim! Where IL the
hakim who draws teethf Where IL the
man who knows yunanir
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. 20 that eagerness gave place to
wonder. The desperate need Of winning
his nrst trick. made him horror-proof /;
and nobody waiting for the next turn
was troubled because the man under
the knife screamed q little or bled
more than usual.
When they died-and more than one
did die-men carried them but and
flung them over the precipice into the
waterfall below.
lsmail and Darya Khan became
choosers Of the victims. They seized a
man. laid him on the bed. tore of 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 ft, using a~nesthetics when
he must. but managing mostly without
them.
They almost flung money at him. Hs
tossed money and clothes and every
other thing they gave him into a corner
at the back Of the cave. and nobody
tried to steal them back. although Z
mar suspected OF honesty In that
company would have been tortured Il
death 40 an hereto and would have
had no sympathy.
For hour after gruesome hour HI
toiled yer wounds and sores such al
only battles and evil living can pro
duce. until men began to come at las
with fresh wounds. all caused by bull
lets, wrapped In bandages on which
the blood had caked but had not grown
foul.
'.There has been fighting In the Khy
her," somebody informed him, and b,
stopped with lancet In midair TO listen
scanning q hundred faces swiftly II
the smoky lamplight. There were tel
men who held lamps for him. one O
them . newcomer. and II was he wb,
spoke.
Fighting in the Khyberi Ayei W
were n little lashkar. but we drov'