The Washington herald., 1920-02-15
CHAPTER XIV.
BELOW THE WALLS.

CHAPTER XIV.
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 II 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-
ceptable, 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 sunlight
upon her face. her throat and arms.
Her shoulders were neither wide nor
narrow. and she was not tall. He
remembered everything she had said,
and was unable to evade her final ut
terance, which became more and more
a subiimated poison to him. He
turned back to yesterday, recalled
how she had ridden, how her pony
had galloped from the top of the
rayine after her word had saved them
how her brown hair had streamed out
from the soft gray cloak No Chinese
princess could ever have Ridden at
such pace. But, again, there was
the gentle, almost lifeless movement
Of her hands. and the low fullness Of
her voice when she talked OF Tau
kuan.
She was a delightful sorrow to Lev
ington. as IL all his days, too, had
forctold her. She cid not know her
self. 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 reddish palace was home. Her
mother was gone. The grand vizier
had brought her American gowns,
street suits. and other articles the
gentle criminal. Norma. had displayed
at Sperman's. in a city terribly far
|distant.
! There was no estimating the pains
the old Chinese had taken to secure
ssch 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
I
young snob. merely to garner some
information as TO how a young Amer
ican girl should he dressed, how she
must talk and think. and what. IL any
thing. might please her. Con appre-
iciated the genius that had maze the
ieXclusive Wedgers a part of Chez
Ming's plan for the completion OF Tau
Kuan, Empire of the Yellow Sun.
| The tangle of East and West tror-
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 Ameri-
can instincts-the riding of ponies,
love of oak trees, independence, and
natural frankness.
Lexington. saw more vividly 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 inten-
tion for another journey into the peril
Gus Cobb 1t had meant too much for
him to put his hope in words. He had,
planned to run down the international
/
story was just as he had confided il
to Lexington. 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
10y of his friend when he had hrsr
found Chez Ming in Dory street. mar
keting the drug, only to find that the
tracings led to the Cobb Desert
The AFFAIR Of the present morning
! recurred TO mind-the monzouf in his
enchanted garden. Despite seeming
| leisure, events in the palace went too
swiftly for a 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 or
the drug? Lexington went now to the
| outer corners of his prison. enduring
the hostile eyes of double guard, 10
| look for the vine-covered bower OF
royal entertainment, but could see
nothing of it. He must have turned
into a courtyard of the palace itself.
One grim assurance clung to him
the sinister fragrance of koresh.
Though mid d-afternoon, as often as
his active mind abandoned some new
and equally futile plan Of escape. his
thought circled around to Helen. He
reclined under the green silken avn
ing and repeated her name. He was
awakened to the center of his being,
and was scarcely aware that every
new plan for escape included two
others besides himself. and one a
| princess. Mentally she remained with
him-in her throne-room, her glance
toward the prisoner she had spared.
her boredom with the proceedings, her
beautiful feet, a Western woman as
he must have guessed had II not been
for the slight tilt of her brows and
this he had seen, more closely. to be
but the cunning owrk Of her maid
servants; in her own apartment, sur
rounded by things American. the
Transformation was not complete be-
cause OF her Chinese training, per-
| sonal qualities that tantalized him,
the first words that had thrilled him
SO unacountably and the last bringing
clutch of terror; the clear young
beauty Of her face. her lips, the sort
brown Of her hair. the curve of girlish
shoulders. the grave pleasure at meet
ing that stranger, her father. and the
\ Unconditional view she held of her own
future as queen Of this fantastic state.
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