The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-10-21
CHAPTER TX.
Below the Walls.

Below the Walls.
On his roof again, Con noted that
an awning Of green silk had been
stretched over his doorway, and a
couch placed beneath it in the open
air, for his added comfort. A silver
pitcher of wine stood on a taboret,
and he found that the wine was ac-
ceptabIe, having been cooled in spring
water. But all was secondary, even
the silent departure of the guards, for
he was thinking in a whirl of Helen
March.
Her innocence was amazing, like her
wiSdOm-an American personality
with strange diagonals of the Orient
Con loved the tang of desert sunlig ht
upon her face, her throat and arms.
Her shoulders were neither wide nor
narrow, and she was not tall. He re-
membeTed everything she had said,
and was unable to evade her final ut
terance, which became more and more
sublimated poison to him. He turned
back to yesterday, recalled how she
had ridden, how her pony had gal
Hoped from the top of the ravine after
brown hair had streamed out from the
soft gray cloak. No Chinese princess
could ever have ridden at such a pace.
But, again, there was the gentle, al
most Hfeless movement of her hands,
and the low fuIlness of her voice when
she talked of Tau Kuan.
She was a delightful sorrow to Lev
! ingtOn, as if all his days, too, had fore
told her. She did not know herself
She was eighteen. The ways of these
Outland people were familiar to her,
and it was natural she should love
their national interests, strangely like
Americas, bitterly different. The red
dish palace was home. Her mother
was gone. The grand vizir had
brought her American gowns, street
suits, and other articles the models
had displayed at Sperman's in the city
terribly far distant.
There was no estimating the pains
| the old Chinese had taken to secure
| such things for her. Con knew at least
of his connection with the Wedger
house, which must have been arranged
! by secret means, and it was clear that
/ Chez Ming had taken many a point
from Cecil Wedger's incipient queens
| of the cinema. The vizir had been
| content to cook for a young snob,
merely to garner some information as
to how a young American girl should
| be dressed, how she must talk and
think, and what, if anything, might
please her. Con appreciated the genius
! that had made the exclusive Wedgers
part Of Chez Ming's plan for the
completion of Tau Kuan, empire OF
| the Yellow Sun.
The tangle of East and West trou-
| bled Lexington more and more. Helen
| had almost lost her mothers counsel
regarding Prince YekutOi. 1t was too
easy to feel the dead Eithna's horror
of the young Mongol, and OF the plan
she had fOreseen, his marriage with
| her little white daughter. The mother
must have striven to develop American
/ instincts-the riding Of ponies, love of
oak trees, independence, and natural
| frankness.
Lexington saw more wildly how
March must have loved Eithna, how
| the loss of her had nearly broken down
| his sanity, and, at last, how he had
kept secret his innermost intention for
another journey into the periIous Cobb
/ 1t had meant too much for him to put
| his hope in words. He had planned to
run down the international beast,
koresh; all that side Of the story was
| just as he had confided it to Leving-
ton. But then there had been much
more. March's interests did not begin
or end in a federal commission. Con
realized now the deep and double Joy
of his friend when he had first found
Chez Ming in Dory street, marketing
the drug, only TO find that the tracings
led to the Cobb desert.
The affair of the present morning
required to mind-the monzouI in his
| enchanted garden. Despite seeming
leisure, events in the palace went too
swiftly for final valuation. Con was
puzzled to find that the more closely
he tried to recall the garden, the ap-
pearance of the fat lord, the singing
bird, the dancer, and the magician, the
less he knew about them. Had the
| Juggler poured his wine into the fourth
dimension, or was the watcher merely
| transported by a breath Of the drug7
Lexington went now to the outer COR
ners OF his prison, enduring the hostile
eyes Of double guard, to look for the
vine-covered bower OF royal entertain
ment. but could see nothing OF IT. He
must have turned into a courtyard OF
the palace itself. One grim assurance
chung to him-the sinister fragrance
OF koresh.
Through mid-afternOon. as often as
his active mind abandoned some new
and equally futile plan OF escape, his
thought eircled around to Helen. He
Feclined under the green sIIken awning
/ and repeated her name. He was aWsk-