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

" .' esNe - pso~e ooeoNe oAeoe
on the right OF his neck, not very far
from the ~jugular.
"Hah !" said King. "wns that wound
got In the Khyber the other dayf'
"Nay. Here In Khlnjan."
"A man told me last night" said
King, drawing on Imagination without
any conjunction at all, that the fight
In the Khyber was because q jihad is
launched already"
THAT man lied I" said the guard.
shifting position uneasiiy, as II afraid
to talk too much.
$50 I told him !" answered King. II
told him there never will be another
jihad."
"Then thou art q greater liar than
heV I" the guard answered holly. "There
will be a jihad when she Is ready, such
an n as never yet wasi India shall
bleed for oil the fat yenrs she has lain
unplundered Not q throat Of an I'M
believer In the world shall be left un.
slit No jihad1 Thou liarl Get In
out Of my sight ~
So King retired into the cave, with
something new to Think about. Was
she planning the jihad! Or pretending
to plan one7 Every once In n while
the guard leaned far into the cave
mouth and hurled adjectives Mt him,
the mildest Of which was a well Of in
formation. II his temper was the TEN.
per OF the Hills" It was easy to read
disappointment for q jihad that should
have been already but had been post.
poned. King let him alone and paced
the cave for hours.
He was sQuatting on his bed.end
In the dark, like n specialized Image OF
Buddha, when the first OF the three
men came on guard again and ut last
lsmail came for him holding a pitchy
torch that filed the dim passage full
Of acrid smoke and made both of them
cough. Ismail was red-eyed with It.
Come" he growled. "Come. little
hakim !" Then he turned on his heel
Mt once, rs II afraid Of being twitted
with desertion. He seemed to want to
get outside, where he could keep out OF
range Of words, yet not to wish to
seem %unfriend'y.
But King made no effort to speak to
him. following In silence out on to the
dark ledge above the waterfall and no.
ticing that the guard with the boils
was back again on duty. He grinned
evilly out Of a shadow as King passed.
Make an end :" he advised. Jump,
hakim, before n worse thing happens :"
To illustrate the suggestion he
kicked n loose stone over the cliff, and
the movement caused him to bend his
neck and so Inadvertently to hurt his
boils. He cursed, and there was pity
In Kings voice when he spoke next.
"Do they hurt theei"
"Aye, like the devill Khinjan IL a
place Of plaques"
81 could heal them" King said, pass
Ing on, and the man stared hard.
Come !" doomed Ismnil through the
darkness, shaking the torch to make
It burn better and reckoning impatient
ly. and King hurried after him, leaving
behind n savage at the cave mouth who
fingered his sores and wondered, nut.
tering, leaning on a rife, muttering
and muttering again as II he had seen
q new light.
Instead Of waiting for King to catch
up, Ismail began to lead the way ut
great speed along a path that descend.
ed gradually until II curved round the
end Of the chasm and plunged into a
tunnel where the darkness grew
Opaque. For thirty minutes he led
swiftly down n crazy devils stairway
OF uneven powders, stopping to lend
a hand at the worst places, but ever
lastingly urging him to hurry.
Then the hell-mouth gloom began to
grow family luminous. and the water.
falls thuLder burst on their ears from
close at hand. They emerged into
fresh wet mir and a sea Of sound, on a
rock ledge like the one above. Ismail
raised the torch and waved II. The
fire and smoke wandered up. until they
i'attened on a moving opal dome, that
prisoned all the noises In the world.
"Earth's Drink !" he announced, wav.
Ing the torch and then shutting his
mouth tight, as II afraid to voice sacri-
lege.
II was the river, mlllion.colored In
the ~torchlight, pouring from a half
mile-long slash In the cliff above them
and plunging past them through the
gloom toward the very middle OF the
world. Somewhere 1t met rock bottom
and boiled there, for a roar like the
seas came up from deeps unimagin.
able.
He watched the o%verturning dome
until his senses reeled. Then he
crawled on hands and knees to tbs
lodges brink and tried to peer over.
But Ismail dragged him back.
"Come! - he howled but In all that
din his shout was like a whisper. .
How deep is III" King beloved
back.
"Allah! Ask him who made III"
The fear Of the falls was on the
Afridi, and he tugged ut Kings arm in
a frenzy OF impotence. Suddenly he
let 60 and broke into a run. King
trotted after him. After ten minutes
hurrying uphill he guessed they must
he level with the river. In a tunnel run
ming nearly parallel. Ismail kept look
80 = ~