New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-01-11

''Nf '"''" N' WV '&"A ''' h'''
two? Speak, man, speak! Has Kiln
Jan struck you dumb?"
But he did not speak. He was star
ing at her arm, where two whitish
marks on the skin betrayed that brace
lets had been.
"Oh. those! They are theirs.
would not rob the dead, or the gods
would turn on me. l robbed you, in
stead, while you slept. File, King sa-
hib, while you slept"
But her steel did not strike on flint.
1t was her eyes that flashed. He would
have done better to have seemed
ashamed, for then he might have
fooled her, at least for a while. But
having judged himself, he did not care
a fig for her judgment of him. She
realized hat instantly and having
found n tool that would not work,
discarded it for a better one She
grew confidential.
II borrow Them" she explained,
'but l put them back. l take them
for so many days, and when the day
cOmes-the gods like us to be exact !!
You We're near death when l took the
bracelet last night. The time was up.
! would have stabbed you if you had
tried to prevent me
Now he spoke at last and gave her
a first glimpse of an angle of his mind
she had not suspected.
"~Princess," he said. He used the
word with the Difference some men a
combine with e%ffrontery, so that very
tenderness has barbs. you might
have had that thing back if you had
sent a messenger for 1t at any time.
A word by q servant would have been
enough"
"YOu could never have reached
Khinjan then" she retorted. Her eyes
flashed again, but his did not waver.
"Princess," he said, "why speak of
what you don't know?'
He thought she would strike like a
snake, but she smiled at him instead.
And when Yasmini has smiled on a
a he has never been just the same
man afterward. He knows more, for
one thing. He has had a lesson in
one of the finer arts.
II will speak of what l do know
she said. mo, there is no need. Look
Look !"
She pointed at the bed-at the man
on the bed-fingers locked in those of
a who looked so like herself.
He looked, knowing well there was
something to be understood, that
stared him in the face. But for the
life of him he could not determine
question or answer.
what is In your bosomT she
asked him.
He put his hand to his shirt.
Draw it out !" she said, as a teacher
drills Il child.
He drew out the gOld-hilted knife
with the bronze blade, with which a
man had meant to murder him. He let
1t lie on the palm of his hand and
looked from 1t to her and back again.
The hilt might have been a portrait Of
her modelled from the life.
ACi Il uiOtllCl llhc IL, Sic Sulu,
stepping to the bedside. She drew back
the woman's dress at the bosom and
showed a knife exactly like that in
Kings hand. "One lay on her bosom
and II on his when l found them !"
she said. Now, think again !"
lie did think, of thirty thousand pos
sibilities, and of one impossible idea
that stood up prominent among them
all and insisted on seeming the only
likely one.
81 saw the knife in your bosom last
night" she said, land laughed so that
l nearly Weakened you"
why didn't you take 1t with the
bracelet?" King asked her, holding it
out. Take it now. l don't want it,"
She accepted it and laid it on the
mans bronze armOr. Then, however,
she resumed it and played with it.
Look again !" she said. think and
look again!"
He looked, and he knew now. But
he still preferred that she should tell
him, and his lips shut tight.
Can you guess why I changed my
mind about yOu-wise man?"
She looked from him to the man on
the bed and back to him again. Hav-
ing solved the riddle. King had leisure
TO be Interested in her eyes, and
watched them analytically, like a jew
eler appraising diamonds. They were
strangely reminiscent, but much more
and colorful than any he
had e seen. They had the battling
trick of changing while he watched
them.
Having sent a man to kill you, why
did I cease to want to kill you? In
steHl of losing you on the way to kim
Jan, why did l run risks to protect
you after you reached here? Why did
| save your life in the Cavern of |
Drink tonight? You do not
know yet? Then l will tell you some
thing else you do not know. l was in
when you were! 1 watched and
listened while you and Rewa Gunga
talked in my house! l was In Rewa
iunga's carriage on the train that he
look and you did not! l have learned
first hand that you are not a fool.
But that was not enough You had to
De three things-clever and brave and
me other. The one other you arei
Brave you have proved yourself to
,e! Clever you must be, to trick your
way into Khinjan caves. even with
small at your elbowI That is why
saved your life-because you are
hose two things and - and - one