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irish fail to disturb the peace of head of a foreigner that foreigner is certain to be a superior man the white were as conscientious in choosing their wine as in charging the enemy all that they possessed including some wondrous brandy was placed at the absolute disposition of and he enjoyed himself even more than among the black but he remained european through it all the white were my dear true friends glorious and brothers inseparable he would himself by the hour on the glorious future that awaited the combined arms of england and russia when their hearts and their should run side by side and the great mission of asia should begin that was unsatisfactory because asia is not going to be after the methods of the west there is too much asia and she is too old you cannot reform a lady of many lovers and asia has been in her she will never attend or to vote save with swords for tickets the man who was knew this as well as any one else but it suited him to talk and to make himself as genial as he could now and then he volunteered a little a very little information about his own of left apparently to look after themselves somewhere at the back of beyond he had done rough work in central asia and had seen rather more help yourself fighting than most men of his years but he was careful never to betray his superiority and more than careful to praise on all occasions the appearance uniform and of her majesty s white and indeed they were a regiment to be admired when lady widow of the late sir john arrived in their station and after a short time had been proposed to by every single man at mess she put the public sentiment very neatly when she explained that they were all so nice that unless she could marry them all including the colonel and some already married she was not going to content herself with one wherefore she wedded a little man in a rifle regiment being by nature and the white were going to wear on their arms but by attending the wedding in full force and the aisle with unutterable reproach she had them all from the senior captain to little the junior who could have given her four thousand a year and a title the only persons who did not share the general regard for the white were a few thousand gentlemen of who lived across the border and answered to the name of they had once met the regiment and for something less than twenty minutes but the interview which was complicated with life s many had filled them with prejudice they even called the white children of the devil and sons of persons whom it would be perfectly impossible to meet in decent society yet they were not above making aversion fill their money the regiment possessed beautiful that would a bullet into an enemy s at one thousand yards and were even than the long rifle therefore they were all along the border and since demand inevitably supply they were supplied at the of life and limb for exactly their weight in seven and one half pounds weight of or sixteen pounds sterling reckoning the at par they were stolen at night by thieves who crawled on under the nose of the they disappeared mysteriously from locked arm and in the hot weather when all the doors and windows were open they vanished like of their own smoke the border people desired them for family and but in the long cold nights of the northern indian winter they were stolen most the traffic of murder was among the hills at that season and prices ruled high the guards were first doubled and then a does not much care if he loses a weapon government must make it good but he deeply the loss of his sleep the regiment grew very angry and one rifle thief bears the visible marks of their anger upon him to this hour that incident stopped the for a time and the guards were reduced accordingly and the regiment devoted itself to with unexpected results for it beat by two to one that very terrible corps the light horse though the latter had four apiece for a j i the man who was short hour s fight as well as a native officer who played like a flame across the ground they gave a dinner to the event the team came and came in the fullest full uniform of a officer which is as full as a dressing gown and was introduced to the and opened his eyes as he regarded they were lighter men than the and they carried themselves with the swing that is the peculiar right of the frontier force and all irregular horse like everything else in the service it has to be learnt but many things it is never forgotten and remains on the body fill death great beam mess room of the white was a sight to be remembered all the mess plate was out on the long table the same table that had served up the bodies of five officers after a forgotten fight long and long ago the dingy battered standards faced the door of entrance of winter roses lay between the silver and the portraits of eminent deceased looked down on their from between the heads of and pride of all the mess two that had cost four months leave that he might have spent in england instead of on the road to and the risk of his life by ledge snow slide and grassy slope the servants in white muslin and the crest of their on the brow of their waited behind their masters who were clad in the scarlet and gold of	39
the white and the cream and silver of the light horse s dull green uniform was the only dark spot at the board but his big eyes made up for it he was s with the captain of the team who was wondering how many of s his own dark down could for in a fair but one does not speak of these things openly the talk rose higher and higher and the band played between the courses as is the tin all tongues ceased for a moment with the removal of the dinner slips and the first toast of obligation when an rising said mr vice the queen and little from the bottom of the table answered the queen bless her and the big spurs as the big men heaved themselves up and drank the queen upon whose pay they were supposed to settle their mess bills that of the mess never grows old and never ceases to bring a lump into the throat of the listener wherever he be by sea or by land rose with his brothers glorious but he could not understand no one but an officer can tell what the toast means and the bulk have more sentiment than comprehension immediately after the little silence that follows on the ceremony there entered the native officer who had played for the team he could not of course eat with the mess but he came in at all six feet of him with the blue and silver and the big black boots below the mess rose as he thrust forward the of his in token of for the colonel of the white to touch and dropped into a vacant chair amid shouts of rung ho which being translated means go in and win did i you over the knee old man what the devil made you play that kicking pig of a pony in the last ten minutes then the voice of the colonel the health of i the man who was after the shouting had died away rose i to reply for he was the of a royal house the son of a king s son and knew what was due on these occasions thus he spoke in the colonel and officers of this regiment much honour have you done me this will i remember we came down from afar to play you but we were beaten no fault of yours played on our own ground y know your were cramped from the railway don t therefore perhaps we will come again if it be so ordained hear hear hear indeed then we will play you afresh happy to meet you till there are left no feet upon our thus far for sport he dropped one hand on his sword and his eye wandered to back in his chair but if by the will of god there arises any other game which is not the game then be assured colonel and officers that we will play it out side by side though they again his eye sought though i say have fifty to our one horse and with a deep mouthed rung ho that sounded like a butt on he sat down amid who had devoted himself steadily to the brandy the terrible brandy d not understand nor did the offered to him at all convey the point decidedly s was the speech of the evening and the might have continued to the dawn had it not been broken by the noise of a shot without that sent every man feeling at his left side then there was a and a yell of pain stealing again said the calmly life s sinking back in his chair this comes of the guards i hope the have killed him the feet of armed men on the flags and it was as though something was being dragged why don t they put him in the till the morning said the colonel see if they ve him the mess fled out into the darkness and returned with two and a all very much perplexed caught a man sir said the e was towards the sir past the main road an the e sir the limp heap of rags by the three men groaned never was seen so destitute and an he was with dirt and all but dead with rough handling started slightly at the sound of the man s pain took another glass of brandy what does the say said the colonel e speaks english sir said the so you brought him into mess instead of handing him over to the if he spoke all the tongues of the you ve no business again the groaned and muttered little had risen from his place to inspect he jumped back as though he had been shot perhaps it would be better sir to send the men away said he to the colonel for he was a much privileged he put his arms round the horror as he spoke and dropped him into a chair it may not have been explained that the of lay in his being six feet four and big in proportion the seeing that an officer was disposed to look after the man who was the capture and that the colonel s eye was beginning to blaze promptly removed himself and his men the mess was left alone with the thief who laid his head on the table and wept bitterly and as little children weep to his feet colonel said he that man is no for they weep ai ail nor is he of for they weep oh i ho i he after the fashion of the white men who say ow i owl now where the did you get that knowledge said the captain of the team hear him said simply pointing at the figure that wept as though it would never cease he said said little i heard him say it the	39
colonel and the mess room looked at the man in silence it is a horrible thing to hear a man cry a woman can sob from the top of her or her lips or anywhere else but a man must cry from his and it him to pieces poor devil said the colonel we ought to send him to hospital he s been now the loved his they were to him as his the men standing in the first place he i can understand an stealing because he s built that way but i can t understand his crying that makes it worse the brandy must have affected for he lay back in his chair and stared at the ceiling there was nothing special in the ceiling beyond a shadow life s as of a huge black n owing to some in the construction of the mess room this shadow was always thrown when the candles were lighted it never disturbed the of the white they were in fact rather proud of it is he going to cry all night said the colonel or are we supposed to sit up with little s guest until he feels better the man in the chair threw up his head and stared at the mess oh my god he said and every soul in the mess rose to his feet then the captain did a deed for which he ought to have been given the victoria cross distinguished gallantry in a fight against overwhelming curiosity he picked up his team with his eyes as the hostess up the ladies at the moment and pausing only by the colonel s chair to say this isn t our you know sir led them into the and the gardens was the last to go and he looked at but had departed into a brandy paradise of his own his moved without and he was studying the co n on the ceiling white white all over said the what a he must be i wonder where he came from the colonel shook the man gently by the arm and who are you said he there was no answer the man stared the mess room and smiled in the colonel s face little who was always more of a woman than a man till boot and saddle was sounded repeated the question in a voice that would have drawn confidences from a the man only smiled at the far end of the table slid gently from his chair to the floor the man who was no son of adam in this present imperfect world can mix the champagne with the brandy by five and eight glasses of each without remembering the pit whence he was and descending thither the band began to play the tune with which the white from the date of their formation have concluded all their functions they would sooner be than abandon that tune it is a part of their system the i man straightened himself in his chair and on j the table with his fingers i don t see why we should entertain said the colonel call a guard and send him off to the we ll look into the business in the morning give him a glass of wine first though little filled a glass with the brandy and thrust it over to the man he drank and the tune rose louder and he straightened himself yet more then he put out his long hands to a piece of plate opposite and it lovingly there was a connected with that piece of plate in the shape of a spring which converted what was a seven three springs on each side and one in the middle a sort of wheel spoke he found the spring pressed it and laughed weakly he rose from his chair and a picture on the wall then moved on to another picture the mess watching him without a word when he came to the he shook his head and seemed distressed a piece of plate representing a mounted in full uniform caught his eye he pointed to it and then to the with inquiry in his eyes what is it oh what is it said little then as a mother might speak to a child that is a horse yes a horse life s very slowly came the answer in a thick yes i have seen but where is horse you could have heard the hearts of the mess beating as the men drew back to give the stranger full room in his wanderings there was no question of calling the guard again he spoke very slowly where is our horse there is but one horse in the white and his portrait hangs outside the door of the mess room he is the drum horse the king of the band that served the regiment for seven and thirty years and in the end was shot for old age half the mess tore the thing down from its place and thrust it into the man s hands he placed it above the it on the ledge as his poor hands dropped it and he staggered towards the bottom of the table falling into s chair then all the men spoke to one another something after this fashion the hasn t hung over the since how does he know go and speak to him again colonel what are you going to do oh dry up and give the poor devil a chance to pull himself together it isn t possible anyhow the man s a lunatic little stood at the colonel s side talking in his ear will you be good enough to take seats please gentlemen he said and the mess dropped into the chairs only s next to little s was blank and little himself had found s place the wide eyed mess the glasses in deep silence once more the colonel	39
rose but his hand shook and the port on the table as he looked straight at the man in little s chair and said hoarsely mr vice the queen there was a little pause but the man sprung to his feet and answered without m th v the man who was tion the queen god bless her and as he emptied the thin glass be snapped uie between his fingers long and long ago when tlie of india was a young woman and there were no in the land it was the custom of a few to drink the queen s toast in broken glass to the vast delight of the mess the custom is now dead because there is nothing to break anything for except now and again the word of a government and that has been broken already that settles it said the colonel with a gasp he s not a what in the world is he the entire mess echoed the word and the of questions would have scared any man it was no wonder that the ragged filthy could only smile and shake his head from under the table calm and smiling rose who had been roused from slumber by feet upon his body by the side of the man he rose and the man shrieked and it was a horrible sight coming so swiftly upon the pride and glory of the toast that had brought the strayed wits together made no offer to raise him but little heaved him up m an instant it is not good that a gentleman who can answer to the queen s toast should lie at the feet of a of the hasty action tore the wretch s upper clothing nearly to the waist and his body was with dry black there is only one weapon in the world that cuts in parallel lines and it is neither the cane nor the cat saw the marks and the pupils of his eyes dilated also his face changed he said something that sounded uke ve and the man answered z a life s what s that said everybody together his number that is number four you know spoke very thickly what has a queen s officer to do with a qualified number said the colonel and an unpleasant growl ran round the table how can i tell said the oriental with a sweet he is a how you have it escape run a way from over there he nodded towards the darkness of the night speak to him if he ll answer you and speak to him gently said little settling the man in a chair it seemed most improper to all present that should brandy as he talked in russian to the creature who answered so feebly and with such evident dread but since to understand no one said a word all breathed heavily leaning forward in the long of the conversation the next time that they have no engagements on hand the white intend to go to st in a body to learn russian he does not know how many years ago said facing the mess but he says it was very long ago in a war i think that there was an accident he says he was of this glorious and distinguished regiment in the war the rolls the rolls get the rolls said little and the dashed off bare headed to the orderly room where the muster rolls of the regiment were kept he returned just in time to hear conclude therefore my dear friends i am most sorry to say there was an accident which would have been if he had to that our colonel which he had insulted the man who was then followed another growl which the colonel tried to beat down the mess was in no mood just then to weigh to russian he does not remember but i think that there was an accident and so he was not exchanged among the prisoners but he was sent to another how do you say the country so he says he came here he does not know how he came eh he was at the man caught the word nodded and shivered at and i cannot understand how he escaped he says too that he was in the forests for many years but how many years he has forgotten that with many things it was an accident done because he did not to that our colonel ah instead of echoing s sigh of regret it is sad to record that the white exhibited delight and other emotions hardly restrained by their sense of hospitality flung the and yellow rolls on the table and the men flung themselves at these steady fifty six fifty fifty four said here we are lieutenant missing that was before what an infernal shame insulted one of their and was quietly off thirty years of his life wiped out but he never said he d see him damned first the mess poor chap i suppose he never had the chance afterwards how did he come here said the colonel the dingy heap in the chair could give no answer do you know who you are it laughed weakly do you know that you are lieutenant of the white life s swiftly as a shot came the answer in a slightly surprised tone yes i m of course the light died out in his eyes and the man watching every motion of with terror a flight from may fix a few facts in the mind but it does not seem to lead to of thought the man could not explain how hke a pigeon he had found his way to his own old mess again of what he had suffered or seen he knew nothing he before as instinctively as he had pressed the spring of the sought the picture of	39
the drum horse and answered to the toast of the queen the rest was a blank that the dreaded russian tongue could only in part remove his head bowed on his breast and he and alternately the devil that lived in the brandy prompted at this extremely moment to make a speech he rose swaying the table edge while his eyes glowed like and began fellow soldiers true friends and it was an accident and deplorable most deplorable here he smiled sweetly all round the mess but you will think of this little little thing so little is it not the i slap my i snap my fingers at him do i believe in him no but in us who has done nothing him i believe seventy how much millions that have done nothing not one thing napoleon was an episode he a hand on the table hear you old we have done nothing in the world out here all our work is to do and it shall be done old get a way he waved his hand and pointed to the man you see him he is not good to j the man who was see he was just one oh so accident that no one remembered now he is tliat so will you be brother soldiers so so will you be but you will never come back you will all go where he is gone or he pointed to the great coffin shadow on the ceiling and muttering seventy millions get a way you old fell asleep sweet and to the point said little what s the use of getting let s make this poor devil comfortable but that was a matter suddenly and swiftly taken from the loving hands of the white the had returned only to go away again three days later when the wail of the dead march and the tramp of the told the wondering station who saw no gap in the mess table that an officer of the regiment had resigned his new found commission and bland and always genial went away too by a night train little and another man saw him off for he was the guest of the mess and even had he smitten the colonel with the open hand the law of that mess allowed no of hospitality good bye and a pleasant journey said little said the russian indeed but we thought you were going home yes but i will come again my dear friends is that road shut he pointed to where the north star burned over the pass by jove i forgot of course happy to meet you old man any time you like got everything you want ice that s all right well am x life s um said the other man as the tail lights of the train grew small of all the little answered nothing but watched the north star and a selection from a recent that had much delighted the white it ran i m sorry for i m sorry to cause him pain but a terrible there s sure to be when he comes back again i the head of the district there s a more in the central jail behind the old mud wall there s a less on the border trail and the queen s peace over all dear bo rs the queen s peace over all for we must bear our leader s blame on us the shame will fall if we lift our hand from a land and the queen s peace over all dear bo rs the queen s peace over all the running of the had risen in flood without warning last night it was a shallow to night five miles of muddy water parted bank and bank and the river was still rising under the moon a litter borne by six bearded men all unused to the work stopped in the white sand that bordered the plain it s s will they said we dare not cross tonight even in a boat let us light a fire and cook food we be tired men they looked at the litter within the of the district lay dying of fever they had brought him across country six fighting men of a frontier dan that he had i life s won over to the paths of a moderate when he had broken down at the foot of their hills and his assistant rode with them heavy hearted as heavy eyed with sorrow and lack of sleep he had served under the sick man for three years and had learned to love him as men associated in toil of the hardest learn to love or hate dropping from his horse he parted the curtains of the litter and peered inside old man can you hear we have to wait till the river goes down worse luck i hear returned a dry whisper wait till the river goes down i thought we should reach camp before the dawn knows she ll meet me one of the litter men stared across the river and caught a faint twinkle of light on the far side he whispered to there are his camp fires and his wife they will cross in the morning for they have better boats can he live so long shook his head was very near to death what need to vex his soul with hopes of a meeting that could not be the river at the banks brought down a of sand and the more the litter men sought for fuel in the waste dried thorn and refuse of the that had waited at the ford their sword as they moved softly in the haze of the moonlight and s horse to explain that he would like a blanket i m cold too said the voice from the litter i fancy this is the	39
end poor the blankets seeing this stripped off his own heavy coat and added it to the pile i shall be the head of the district i g warm by the fire presently said he took the wasted body of his chief liis arms and held it against his breast perhaps if they kept him very warm might live to see his wife once more if only blind providence would send a three foot fall in the river that s better said faintly sorry to be a nuisance but is is there anything to drink they gave him milk and and felt a little warmth against his own breast began to it isn t that i mind dying he said it s leaving and the district thank god we have no children dick you know i m dipped awfully dipped debts in my first five years service it isn t much of a but enough for her she has her mother at home getting there is the difficulty and you see not being a soldier s wife we ll arrange the passage home of course said quietly it s not nice to think of sending round the hat but good lord how many men i lie here and remember that had to do it s dead he was of my year is dead and he had children i remember he used to read us their school letters what a bore we thought him is dead killed him of is dead and i m going too man that is bom of a woman is small potatoes and few in the hill that reminds me dick the four villages in our border want a one third this spring that s fair their crops are bad see that they get it and speak to about the canal i should like to have lived that was finished it means so much for the north villages but is an idle beggar wake him up life s you ll have charge of the district till my successor comes i wish they would you you know the folk i suppose it will be though good man but too weak for frontier work and he doesn t understand the priests the blind priest at will bear watching you ll find it in my papers in the uniform case i think call the men up i ll hold my last public audience the leader of the men sprang to the side of the litter his companions following men i m dying said quickly in the and soon there will be no more to twist your tails and prevent you from cattle god forbid this thing broke out the deep bass chorus the is not going to die yes he is and then he will know whether speaks truth or moses but you must be good men when i am not here such of you as live in our borders must pay your taxes quietly as before i have spoken of the villages to be gently treated this year such of you as live in the hills must refrain from cattle lifting and burn no more and turn a deaf ear to the voice of the priests who not knowing the strength of the government would lead you into foolish wars wherein you will surely die and your crops be eaten by strangers and you must not sack any and must leave your arms at the police post when you come in as has been your custom and my order and will be with you but i do not know who takes my place i speak now true talk for i am as it were already dead my children for though ye be strong men ye are children and thou art our father and our mother broke in with an oath what shall we do j the d of the district now there is no one to speak for us or to teach us to go wisely there remains go to him he knows your talk and your heart keep the young men quiet listen to the old men and obey take my ring the watch and chain go to thy brother keep those things for my sake and i will speak to whatever god i may encounter and tell him that the are good men ye have my leave to go the ring upon his finger choked audibly as he caught the well known that closed an interview his brother turned to look across the river the dawn was breaking and a speck of white showed on the dull silver of the stream she comes said the man under his breath can he live for another two hours and he pulled the newly acquired watch out of his belt and looked at the dial as he had seen englishmen do for two hours the sail and up and down the river still clasping in his arms and his feet he spoke now and of the district and his wife but as the end more frequently of the latter they hoped he did not know that she was even then her life in a crazy native boat to regain him but the awful of the dying deceived them himself forward looked through the curtains and saw how near was the sail that s he said simply though his mouth was with agony and the practical joke ever played on a man dick you ll have to explain and an hour later met on the bank a woman in a riding habit and a sun hat who life s cried out to him for her husband her boy and her darling while threw himself on the sand and covered his eyes the very simplicity of the notion was its charm what more easy to win a reputation for far seeing originality and above	39
hands and i shall have to leave my work and help you pull through i needn t ask you to stand by the man in every possible way you ll do that for your own sake for s i can t say that i care personally don t be an ass it s grievous enough god knows and the government will know later on but that s no reason for your you must try to run the district you must stand between him and as much insult as life s le you must show him the ropes you must the and just warn of the police to look out for trouble by the way i m always at the end of a telegraph wire and willing to peril my reputation to hold the district together you ll lose yours of course if you keep things straight and he isn t actually beaten with a stick when he s on tour he ll get all the credit if anything goes wrong you ll be told that you didn t support him i know what i ve got to do said wearily and i m going to do it but it s hard the work is with us the event is with as used to say when he was more than usually in hot water and rode away that two gentlemen in her majesty s civil service should thus discuss a third also in that service and a and man withal seems strange and yet listen to the of the blind of the priest of the sitting upon a rock overlooking the border five years before a chance hurled shell from a screw gun battery had dashed earth in the face of the then urging a rush of half a dozen british so he became blind and hated the english none the less for the little accident knew his failing and had many times laughed at him dogs you are said the blind to the listening round the fire whipped dogs because you listened to and called him father and behaved as his children the british government have how they regard you ye know is dead ai ai ai said half a dozen voices he was a man comes now in his stead whom think the head of the district ye a of an of fish from the south a lie said and but for the small matter of thy i d drive my gun down thy throat art thou there of the english go in to morrow across the border to pay service to s successor and thou shalt thy shoes at the tent door of a as thou shalt hand thy offering to a s black fist this i know and in ray youth when a young man spoke evil to a holding the doors of heaven and hell the gun butt was not down the s no the blind hated with hatred both being rivals for the of the tribe but the latter was feared for bodily as the other for spiritual gifts looked at s ring and i go in to morrow because i am not an old fool preaching war against the english if the government smitten with madness have done this then then the thou wilt take out the young men and strike at the four villages within the border or thy neck black of for a bearer of ill tidings his long locks with great care put on his best belt a new cap and fine green shoes and accompanied by a few friends came down from the to pay a visit to the new of also he bore tribute four or five gold of s time in a white handkerchief these the would touch and the little ceremony used to be a sign that so far as s personal j life s ence went the would be good boys till the next time especially if happened to like the new in s his visit concluded with a dinner and perhaps forbidden certainly with some wonderful tales and great good fellowship then would back to his hold that was one prince and another and that went a into british territory would be alive on this occasion he found the s tents looking much as usual regarding himself as privileged he strode through the open door to a in english writing at a table in the influence of education and not in the least caring for degrees promptly set the man down for a the native clerk of the a hated and despised animal said he cheerfully where s your master i am the said the gentleman in english now he the effects of university degrees and stared in the face but if from your earliest infancy you have been accustomed to look on battle murder and sudden death if blood affects your nerves as much as red paint and above all if you have faithfully believed that the was the servant of all and that all was vastly inferior to your own large self you can endure even though a very large amount of looking over you can even stare down a of an oxford college if the latter has been bom in a of stock bred in a and fearing physical pain as some the head of the district i g men fear sin especially if your opponent s mother has frightened him to sleep in his youth with horrible stories of devils and dismal legends oi the black north the eyes behind the gold spectacles sought the chuckled and swung out to find hard by here said he roughly thrusting the before him touch and that answers for my good behaviour but o has the gone mad to send a black dog to us and am i to pay service to such an one and are you to work under him what does it mean it is an	39
then he and shouted that the dead might hear they re out old man wish me luck in the chill of the dawn he was with a iron at the gate of fort where fifty of that tattered regiment the were supposed to guard her majesty s interests along a few hundred miles of border this particular fort was commanded by a who bom of the ancient family of the naturally answered to the name of him foimd in a coat shaking with fever like an and trying to read the native s list of so you ve come too said he well we re all sick the head of the district io here and i don t think i can horse thirty men but we re blessed willing stop does this impress you as a trap or a lie he tossed a scrap of paper to on which was written painfully in we cannot hold young horses they will feed after the moon goes down in the four border villages issuing from the pass on the next night then in english round hand your sincere friend good man said that s s work i know it s the only piece of english he could ever keep in his head and he is immensely proud of it he is playing against the blind for his own hand the treacherous young an don t know the politics of the but if you re satisfied i am that was pitched in over the gate head last night and i thought we might pull ourselves together and see what was on oh but we re sick with fever here and no mistake is this going to be a big business think you said gave him briefly the outlines of the case and whistled and shook with fever alternately that day he devoted to the art of war and the of the till at dusk there stood ready forty two lean worn and whom surveyed with pride and addressed thus men if you die you will go to hell therefore endeavour to keep alive but if you go to hell that place cannot be than this place and we are not told that we shall there suffer from fever consequently be not afraid of dying file out there they grinned and went v it will be long ere the forget their night attack an the villages the had io life s promised an easy victory and unlimited plunder but behold armed of the queen had risen out of the very earth cutting and riding down under the stars so that no man knew where to turn and all feared that they had brought an army about their ears and ran back to the hills in the panic of that flight more men were seen to drop from wounds inflicted by an knife upwards and yet more from long range then there rose a cry of treachery and when they reached their own guarded heights they had left with some forty dead and sixty wounded all their confidence in the blind on the plains below they swore and argued round the fires the women wailing for the lost and the shrieking curses on the returned then eloquent and for he had taken no part in the fight rose to improve the occasion he pointed out that the tribe owed every item of its present to the blind who had lied in every possible particular and talked them into a trap it was undoubtedly an insult that a the son of a should presume to administer the border but that fact did not as the pretended herald a general time of and lifting and the inexplicable madness of the english had not in the least their power of guarding their on the contrary the baffled and out tribe would now just when their food stock was lowest be from any trade with until they had sent for good behaviour paid compensation for disturbance and blood money at the rate of thirty six english pounds per head for every that they might have slain and ye know that those dogs will make oath that we have slain scores will the j the head of the district pay the or must we sell our guns a low growl ran round the fires now seeing that all this is the s work and that we have gained nothing but promises of paradise thereby it is in my heart that we of the lack a shrine to pray we are weakened and henceforth how shall we dare to cross into the border as has been our custom to kneel to s tomb the men will fall upon us and rightly but our is a holy man he has helped two score of us into paradise this night let him therefore accompany his flock and we will over his body a dome of the blue of and bum lamps at his feet every friday night he shall be a saint we shall have a shrine and there our women shall pray for fresh seed to fill the in our fighting tale how think you a grim chuckle followed the and the soft of knives followed the chuckle it was an excellent notion and met a long felt want of the tribe the sprang to his feet glaring with withered at the drawn death he could not see and calling down the curses of god and on the tribe then began a game of blind man s round and between the fires whereof the poet has sung in verse that will not die they him gently the with the knife point he leaped aside screaming only to feel a cold blade drawn over the back of his neck or a rifle his beard he called on his to aid him but most of these lay dead on the plains for had been at some pains to arrange their	39
men described to him the glories of the shrine they would build and the children clapping their hands cried run run there s io life s a man behind you in the end when the sport wearied s brother sent a knife home between his ribs wherefore said with charming simplicity i am now chief of the no man him and they all went to sleep very stiff and sore on the plain below was on the beauties of a cavalry charge by night and bowed on his saddle was gasping because there was a sword dangling from his wrist with the blood of the the tribe that had kept in so well when a pointed out that the s right ear had been taken off at the root by some blind of its rider broke down altogether and laughed and sobbed till made him lie down and rest we must wait about till the morning said he i to the colonel just before we left to send a wing of the after us he ll be furious with me for the fun though those beggars in the hills won t give us any more trouble then tell the to go on and see what has happened to on the canal we must the whole line of the border you re quite sure that that stuff was was only the s ear oh quite said you just missed cutting off his head saw you when we went into the mess sleep old man noon brought two of and a knot of furious brother officers demanding the of for the and a gallop across to the canal works where and were the terror stricken the head of the district iii on the of good work and high pay merely because half a dozen of their fellows had been cut down the sight of a troop of the restored wavering confidence and the police hunted section of the had the joy of watching the canal bank humming with life as usual while such of their men as had taken refuge in the and were being driven out by the by began the of the border by police and most like the cow boys eternal ride round restless cattle now said to his fellows pointing out a line of twinkling fires below ye may see how far the old order changes after their horse will come the little devil guns that they can drag up to the tops of the hills and for aught i know to the clouds when we crown the hills if the tribe council thinks good i will go to who loves me and see if i can off at least the do i speak for the tribe ay speak for the tribe in god s name how those accursed fires wink do the english send their troops on the wire or is this the work of the as went down the hill he was delayed by an interview with a hard pressed which caused him to return hastily for something he had forgotten then handing himself over to the two who had been chasing his friend he claimed escort to then with at the border was safe and the time for reasons in writing had begun thank heaven said that the trouble came at once of course we can never put down the reason in black and white but all india will under l life s stand and it is better to have a sharp short outbreak than five years of impotent administration inside the border it costs less d has reported himself sick and has been transferred to his own province without any sort of he was strong on not having taken over the district of course said bitterly well what am i supposed to have done that was wrong oh you will be told that you exceeded all your powers and should have reported and written and advised for three weeks until the could really come down in force but i don t think the authorities will dare to make a fuss about it they ve had their lesson have you seen s version of the affair he can t write a report but he can speak the truth what s the use of the truth he d much better tear up the report i m sick and over it all it was so utterly except in that it rid us of that entered a stuffed net in his hand and the behind him may you never be tired said he cheerily well that was a good fight and s mother is in debt to you a clean cut they tell me through jaw coat and deep into the well done but i speak for the tribe there has been a fault a great fault thou that i and mine kept the oath we to on the banks of the as an keeps his knife sharp on one side blunt on the other said the better swing in the blow then but i speak god s truth only the blind carried the young j the head of the district men on the tip of his tongue and said that there was no more border law because a had been sent and we need not fear the english at all so they came down to that and get plunder ye know what and how far i helped now five score of us are dead or wounded and we are all and sorry and desire no further war moreover that ye may better listen to us we have taken off the head of the blind whose evil counsels have led us to i bring it for proof and he heaved on the floor the head he will give no more trouble for am chief now and so i sit in a higher place at all yet there is an to	39
this head that was another fault one of the men found that black beast through whom this trouble arose wandering on horseback and weeping reflecting that he had caused loss of much good life whom if you choose i will to morrow shoot whipped off this head and i bring it to you to cover your shame that ye may bury it see no man kept the spectacles though they were of gold slowly rolled to s feet the crop haired head of a gentleman open eyed the head of terror bent down yet another blood fine and a heavy one for this is the head of the man s brother the is safe long since all but the fools of the know that well i care not for quick meat for me the thing was under our hills asking the road to and showed him the road to being as thou but a fool remains now what the government will do to us as to the who art thou of dog s flesh thundered life s tire to speak of terms and get hence to the hills go and wait there starving till it shall please the government to call thy people out for punishment children and fools that ye be your dead and be still best assured that the will send you a ay returned for we also be men as he looked between the eyes he added and by god may thou be that man without benefit of clergy before my i autumn s gain out of her time my field was white with grain the year gave up secrets to my woe forced and each sick lay in mj of increase and decay i saw the sunset ere men saw the day who am too wise in that i should not know if it be a lord of my life it cannot be i have prayed for so many nights and sent gifts to s shrine so often that i know god will give us a a man child that shall grow into a man think of this and be glad my mother be his mother till i can take him again and the of the shall cast his god send he be bom in an and then and then thou wilt never weary of me thy slave since when hast thou been a slave my queen since the till this mercy came to me how i be sure of thy love when i knew that i had been bought with silver nay that was the i paid it to thy mother and she has buried it and sits upon it all day long like a hen what talk is yours of i was bought as though i had been a dancing girl instead of a child i art thou sorry for the sale i have but to day i am glad thou wilt never cease to love me now answer my king never never no not even though the log the white women of thy own blood love thee and remember i have watched them driving in the evening they are very fair i have seen fire by the hundred i have seen the moon and then i saw no more fire clapped her hands and laughed very good talk she said then with an of great it is enough thou hast my permission to depart if thou wilt the man did not move he was sitting on a low red couch in a room furnished only with a blue and white floor cloth some and a very complete collection of native cushions at his feet sat a woman of sixteen and she was all but all the world in his eyes by every rule and law she should have been otherwise for he was an and she a s daughter bought two years before from her mother who being left without money would have sold shrieking to the prince of darkness if the price had been sufficient it was a contract entered into with a light heart but even before the girl had reached her bloom she came to fill the greater portion of john s life for her and the withered her mother he had taken a little house overlooking the great red walled city and found when the had sprung up by the well in the and had established herself according to her own ideas of comfort and her mother had ceased grumbling at the of the the distance from the daily market and at matters without benefit of clergy of house keeping in general tliat the house was to him his home any one could enter his bachelor s i by day or night and the life that he led there was an one in the house in the city his feet only could pass beyond the outer to the women s rooms and when the big wooden gate was bolted behind him he was king in his own territory with for queen and there was going to be added to this kingdom a third person whose arrival felt inclined to i resent it interfered with his perfect happiness it j the orderly peace of the house that was his own but was wild with delight at the thought i of it and her mother not less so the love of a man and particularly a white man was at the best an affair but it might both women argued be held fast by a baby s hands and then would always say j then he will never care for the white log i hate i them all i hate them all i he will go back to his own people in time said i the mother but by the blessing of god that time is yet afar off i sat silent on the couch thinking of the	39
future j and his thoughts were not pleasant the of i a double life are manifold the government with i singular care had ordered him out of the station for a fortnight on special duty in the place of a man who was watching by the bedside of a sick wife the verbal of the transfer had been edged by a cheerful remark that ought to think himself lucky in being a bachelor and a free man he came to break the news to it is not good she said slowly but it is not all bad there is my mother here and no harm will come to unless indeed i die of pure joy go thou to i life s thy work and think no troublesome thoughts when the days are done i believe nay i am sure and and then i shall lay him in thy arms and thou wilt love me for ever the train goes to night at midnight is it not go now and do not let thy heart be heavy by cause of me but thou wilt not delay in returning thou wilt not stay on the road to talk to the bold white log come back to me swiftly my life as he left the to reach his horse that was to the gate post spoke to the old who guarded the house and bade him under certain despatch the filled up telegraph form that gave him it was all that could be done and with the sensations of a man who has attended his own went away by the night mail to his exile every hour of the day he dreaded the arrival of the and every hour of the night he pictured to himself the death of in consequence his work for the state was not of quality nor was his temper towards his of the most amiable the fortnight ended without a sign from his home and torn to pieces by his anxieties returned to be swallowed up for two precious hours by a dinner at the club wherein he heard as a man hears in a voices telling him how he had performed the other man s duties and how he had himself to all his associates then he fled on horseback through the night with his heart in hia mouth there was no answer at first to his blows on the gate and he had just wheeled his horse to kick it in when appeared with a lantern and held his has aught occurred said the news does not come from my mouth protector without benefit of clergy an of the poor but he held out his shaking hand as the bearer of good news who is entitled to a reward hurried through the a light burned in the upper room his horse in the and he heard a shrill little wail that sent all the blood into the apple of his throat it was a new voice but it did not prove that was alive who is there he called up the narrow brick staircase there was a cry of delight from and then the voice of the mother tremulous with old age and pride we be two women and man thy son on the threshold of the room stepped on a naked dagger that was laid there to ill luck and it broke at the under his impatient heel god is great in the half light thou hast taken his misfortunes on thy head ay but how is it with thee life of my life old woman how is it with her she has forgotten her sufferings for joy that the child is bom there is no harm but speak softly said the mother it only needed thy presence to make me all well said my king thou hast been very long away what gifts hast thou for me ah ah i it is i that bring gifts this time look my life look was there ever such a babe nay i am too weak even to clear my arm from him rest then and do not talk i am here little woman well said for there is a bond and a heel rope between us now that nothing can break look thou see in this light he is without spot life s or never was such a man child he shall be a no a of the queen and my life dost thou love me as well as ever though i am faint and sick and worn answer truly yea i love as i have loved with all my soul lie still pearl and rest then do not go sit by my side here so mother the lord of this house needs a cushion bring it there was an almost movement on the part of the new life that lay in the hollow of s arm she said her voice breaking with love the babe is a champion from his birth he is kicking me in the side with mighty was there ever such a babe and he is ours to us thine and mine put thy hand on his head but carefully for he is very and men are in such matters very cautiously touched with the tips of his fingers the head he is of the faith said for lying here in the night watches i whispered the call to prayer and the profession of faith into his ears and it is most marvellous that he was bom upon a friday as i was bom be careful of him my life but he can almost grip with his hands found one helpless little hand that closed feebly on his finger and the clutch ran through his body till it settled about his heart till then his sole thought had been for he began to that there was some one else in the world but he	39
could not feel that it was a veritable son with a soul he sat down to think and lightly get hence said her mother imder her breath it is not good that she should find you here on waking she must be still without of clergy m i go said here be see that my gets fat and finds all that he needs the of the silver roused i am his mother and no she said weakly shall i look to him more or less for the sake of money mother give it back i have my lord a son the deep sleep of weakness came upon her almost before the sentence was completed went down to the very softly with his heart at ease the old was with delight this house is now complete he said and without further comment thrust into s hands the of a worn many years ago when he served the queen in the the of a goat came from the well there be two said two of the best i bought them and they cost much money and since there is no birth party assembled their flesh will be all mine strike i tis an ill balanced at the best wait till they raise their heads from the and why said bewildered for the birth sacrifice what else otherwise the child being from fate may die the protector of the poor knows the fitting words to be said had learned them once with little thought that he would ever speak them in earnest the touch of the cold in his palm turned suddenly to the clinging grip of the child upstairs the child that was his own and a dread of loss him strike said never life came into the world but life was paid for it see the have raised their heads now with a drawing cut hardly knowing what he did cut twice as he life s muttered the prayer that runs in place of this my son i life for life blood for blood head for head bone for bone hair for hair skin for skin the waiting horse and bounded in his at the smell of the raw blood that over s riding boots well smitten said wiping the a was lost in thee go with a light heart heaven bom i am thy servant and the servant of thy son may the presence live a thousand years and the flesh of the is all mine drew back richer by a month s pay himself into the saddle and rode off through the low hanging wood smoke of the evening he was full of exultation with a vast vague tenderness directed towards no particular object that made him choke as he bent over the neck of his horse i never felt like this in my life he thought i ll go to the club and pull myself together a game of pool was beginning and the room was full of men entered eager to get to the light and the company of his fellows singing at the top of his voice in a walking a lady did meet i did you said the club secretary from his comer did she happen to tell you that your boots were wringing wet great goodness man it s blood i said picking his cue from the rack may i cut in it s dew i ve been riding through high crops my faith my boots are in a mess though i and if it be a girl she shall wear a wedding ring and if it be a boy he shall fight for his king with his and his cap and his little jacket blue he shall walk the quarter deck without benefit of clergy yellow on blue green next player said the be walk the quarter deck am i green he shall walk the quarter deck eh that s a bad shot as his used lo do i don t see that you have anything to crow about said a zealous junior the is not exactly pleased with your work when you relieved does that mean a from said with an abstracted smile i think i can stand it the talk beat up round the ever fresh subject of each man s work and till it was time to go to his dark empty where his butler received him as one who knew all his affairs remained awake for the greater part of the night and his dreams were pleasant ones how old is he now what a man s question he is all but six weeks old and on this night i go up to the with thee my life to count the stars for that is and he was bom on a friday under the sign of the sun and it has been told to me that he will us both and get wealth can we wish for aught better beloved there is nothing better let us go up to the roof and thou shalt count the stars but a few only for the sky is heavy with cloud the winter rains are late and maybe they come out of season come before all the stars are hid i have put on my richest jewels life s thou hast forgotten the best of all ail ours he comes also he has never yet seen the skies climbed the narrow staircase that led to the flat roof the child placid and lay in the hollow of her right arm gorgeous in silver fringed muslin with a small skull cap on his head wore all that she valued most the diamond nose that takes the place of the western patch in drawing attention to the curve of the the gold ornament in the centre of the forehead studded with drop and the heavy of beaten gold that was fastened round her neck by	39
the softness of the pure metal and the silver hanging low over the rosy ankle bone she was dressed in muslin as a daughter of the faith and from shoulder to elbow and elbow to wrist ran of silver tied with silk frail glass slipped over the wrist in proof of the of the hand and certain heavy gold that had no part in her country s ornaments but since they were s gift and fastened with a cunning european snap delighted her immensely they sat down by the low white of the roof overlooking the city and its lights they are happy down there said but i do not think that they are as happy as we nor do i think the white log are as happy and thou i know they are not how dost thou know they give their children over to the nurses i have never seen that said with a sigh nor do i wish to see she dropped her head on s shoulder i have counted forty stars and i without benefit of clergy am tired look at the child love of my life he is counting too the baby was staring with round eyes at the dark of the heavens placed him in s arms and he lay there without a cry what shall we call him among ourselves she said k art thou ever tired of looking he carries thy very eyes but the mouth is thine most dear who should know better than i tis such a feeble mouth oh so small and yet it holds my heart between its lips give him to me now he has been too long away nay let him he he has not yet begun to cry when he cries thou wilt give back eh what a man of mankind thou art if he cried he were only the dearer to me but my life what little name shall we give him the small body lay close to s heart it was utterly helpless and very soft he scarcely dared to breathe for fear of crushing it the green that is regarded as a sort of guardian spirit in most native moved on its perch and fluttered a drowsy wing there is the answer said has spoken he shall be the when he is ready he will talk and run about is the in thy in the tongue is it not why put me so far off said let it be like unto some english name but not wholly for he is mine then call him for that is english ay and that is still the forgive me my lord for a minute ago but in truth he is too little to life s wear all the weight of for name he shall be our to us thou o small one thou art she touched the child s cheek and he waking and it was necessary to return him to his mother who soothed him with the wonderful rhyme of ar which says oh crow go crow baby s sleeping sound and the wild grow in the only a penny a pound only a penny a pound only a penny a pound reassured many times as to the price of those himself down to sleep the two sleek white well in the were steadily the of their evening meal old at the head of s horse his police across his knees pulling at a big water pipe that like a in a pond s mother sat spinning in the lower and the wooden gate was shut and barred the music of a marriage procession came to the roof above the gentle hum of the city and a string of flying crossed the face of the low moon i have prayed said after a long pause i have prayed for two things first that i may die in thy stead if thy death is demanded and in the second that i may die in the place of the child i have prayed to the prophet and to the virgin mary thou either will hear from thy lips who would not hear the word i asked for straight talk and thou hast given me sweet talk will my prayers be heard how can i say god is very good f that i am not sure listen now when i die or the child dies what is thy fate living wilt without of clergy return to the bold white kind calls to kind not always n with a woman no with a man it is otherwise j thou wilt in this life later on go back to thine own folk that i could almost endure for i should be dead but in thy very death thou wilt be taken away to a strange place and a paradise that i do not know will it be paradise surely for who would harm thee but we two i and the child shall be elsewhere and we cannot come to thee nor thou come to us in the old days before the child was born i did not think of these things but now i think of them s it is very hard talk it will fall as it will fall to morrow we do not know but to day and love we know well surely we are happy now so happy that it were well to make our happiness assured and thy should listen to me for she is also a woman but then she would envy me it is not for men to worship a woman laughed aloud at s little of is it not why thou not turn me from worship of thee then thou a and of me my king for all thy sweet words well i know that i am thy servant and thy slave and the dust under thy feet and i would not have it otherwise	39
see before could prevent her she stooped forward and touched his feet recovering herself with a little laugh she closer to her bosom then almost savagely is it true that the bold white log live for three life s times the length of my life is it true that they make their marriages not before they are old women they marry as do others when they are women that i know but they wed when they are twenty five is that true that is true at twenty five who would of his own will take a wife even of eighteen she is a woman every hour twenty five i shall be an old woman at that age and those log remain young for ever how i hate them what have they to do with us i cannot tell i know only that there may now be alive on this earth a woman ten years older than i who may come to thee and take thy love ten years after i am an old woman gray headed and the nurse of son that is and evil they should die too now for all thy years thou art a child and shalt be picked up and carried down the staircase have a care for my lord thou at least art as foolish as any babe tucked out of harm s way in the hollow of her neck and was carried downstairs laughing in s arms while opened his eyes and smiled after the manner of the lesser angels he was a silent infant and almost before could that he was in the world developed into a small gold coloured little god and of the house overlooking the city those were months of absolute happiness to and happiness withdrawn from the world shut in behind the wooden gate that guarded by day did his work with an immense pity for such as were not so for without benefit of clergy as himself and a sympathy for small children that amazed and amused many mothers at the httle at nightfall he returned to full of the wondrous doings of how he had been seen to clap his hands together and move his fingers with intention and purpose which was a miracle how later he had of his own crawled out of bis low on to the floor and swayed both feet for the space of three and they were long for my heart stood still with delight said then took the beasts into his the the gray the that lived in a hole near the well and especially the whose tail he pulled and screamed till and arrived o child of strength this to thy brother on the house top but i know a charm to make him wise as and solomon and now look said she drew from an embroidered bag a handful of see we count seven in the name of god she placed very angry and on the top of his cage and herself between the babe and the bird she cracked and an less white than her teeth this is a true charm my life and do not laugh see i give the one half and the other with careful took his share from between s lips and she kissed the other half into the mouth of the child who ate it slowly with wondering eyes this i will do each day of seven and without doubt he who is ours will be a bold speaker and wise eh what wilt thou be when thou art a and i am gray headed tucked his fat legs into j life s he could crawl but he was not going to waste the spring of his youth in idle speech he wanted s tail to when he was advanced to the dignity of a silver belt which with a magic square engraved on silver and hung round his neck made up the greater part of his clothing he staggered on a perilous journey down the garden to and proffered him all his jewels in exchange for one little ride on s horse ha seen his mother s mother with in the wept and set the feet on his own gray head in sign of and brought the bold adventurer to his mother s arms that would be a leader of men ere his beard was grown one hot evening while he sat on the roof between his father and mother watching the never ending warfare of the that the city boys flew he demanded a of his own with to fly it because he had a fear of dealing with anything larger than himself and when called him a spark he rose to his feet and answered slowly in defence of his new found individuality hum park hai hum hai i am no spark but a man the protest made choke and devote himself very seriously to a consideration of s future he need hardly have taken the trouble the delight of that life was too perfect to endure therefore it was taken away as many things are taken away in india suddenly and without warning the little lord of the house as called him grew sorrowful and complained of pains who had never known the meaning of pain wild with terror watched him through the night and in the dawning of the second day the life was shaken out of v without benefit of clergy him by fever the autumn fever it seemed altogether impossible that he could die and neither nor at first believed the evidence of the little body on the then beat her head against the wall and would have flung herself down the well in the garden had not restrained her by main force one mercy only was granted to he rode to his in broad daylight and found waiting him an unusually heavy	39
mail that demanded concentrated attention and hard work he was not however alive to this kindness of the gods the first shock of a bullet is no more than a brisk pinch the wrecked body does not send in its protest to the soul till ten or fifteen seconds later his pain slowly exactly as he had his happiness and with the same imperious necessity for hiding all trace of it in the beginning he only felt that there had been a loss and that needed comforting where she sat with her head on her knees shivering as from the house top called total later all world and the daily life of it rose up to hurt him it was an outrage that any one of the children at the band stand in the evening should be alive and when his own child lay dead it was more than mere pain when one of them touched him and stories told by over fond fathers of their children s latest performances cut him to the quick he could not declare his pain he had neither help comfort nor sympathy and at the end of each weary day would lead him through the hell of self questioning reproach which is reserved for those who have lost a child life s and believe that with a little just a more care it might have been saved perhaps would say i did not take sufficient heed did i or did i not the sun on the roof that day when he played so long alone and i was my hair it may be that the sun then bred the fever if i had warned him from the sun he might have lived but oh my life say that i am thou that i loved him as i love thee say that there is no blame on me or i shall die i shall there is ro blame before god none it was written and how could we do aught to save what has been has been let it go beloved he was all my heart to me how can i let the thought go when my arm tells me every night that he is not here o come back to come back again and let us be all together as it was before peace for thine own sake and for mine also if thou me rest by this i know thou dost not care and how the white men have hearts of stone and souls of iron oh that i had married a man of mine own people though he beat me and had never eaten the bread of an alien am i an alien mother of my son what oh forgive forgive the death has driven me mad thou art the life of my heart and the light of my eyes and the breath of my life and and i have put thee from me though it was but for a moment if thou away to whom shall i look for help do not be angry indeed it was the pain that spoke and not thy slave without of clergy i know i know we be two who were three the greater need therefore that we should be one they were sitting on the roof as of custom the night was a warm one in early spring and sheet lightning was dancing on the horizon to a broken tune played by far off thunder settled herself in s arms the dry earth is like a cow for the rain and i i am afraid it was not hke this when we the stars but thou me as much as before though a bond is taken away answer i love more because a new bond has come out of the sorrow that we have eaten together and that thou yea i knew said in a very small whisper but it is good to hear thee say so my life who art so strong to help i will be a child no more but a woman and an aid to thee listen give me my and i will sing bravely she took the light silver studded and began a song of the great hero the hand failed on the strings the tune halted checked and at a low note turned off to the poor little nursery rhyme about the wicked crow and the wild grow in the only a penny a pound only penny a pound only then came the tears and the piteous rebellion against fate till she slept moaning a little in her sleep with the right arm thrown clear of the body as though it protected something that was not there it was after this night that life became a little easier for the ever present pain of loss drove him into his work and the work repaid him by g up his mind for nine or ten hours a day sat alone in the house and life s but grew happier when she understood that was more at ease according to the custom of women they touched happiness again but this time with caution it was because we loved that he died the jealousy of god was upon us said i have hung up a large black jar before our window to turn the evil eye from us and we must make no of delight but go softly underneath the stars lest find us out is that not good talk worthless one she had shifted the accent on the word that means beloved in proof of the sincerity of her purpose but the kiss that followed the new was a thing that any deity might have envied they went about saying t is naught it is naught and hoping that all the powers heard the powers were busy on other things they had allowed thirty million people four years	39
of plenty wherein men fed well and the crops were certain and the rose year by year the districts reported a purely agricultural population varying from nine hundred to two thousand to the square mile of the earth and the member for lower wandering about india in pot hat and frock coat talked largely of the benefits of british rule and suggested as the one thing needful the establishment of a duly qualified system and a general of the his long suffering hosts smiled and made him welcome and when he paused to admire with pretty picked words the blossom of the blood red tree that had for a sign of what was coming they smiled more than ever it was the of staying at the club for a day who lightly told a tale r without benefit of clergy that made s blood run cold as he overheard the end he won t bother any one any more never saw a man so astonished in my life by jove i thought he meant to ask a question in the house about it in his ship dined next over by and died in eighteen hours you needn t laugh you fellows the member for lower is awfully angry about it but he s more scared i think he s going to take his enlightened self out of india i d give a good deal if he were knocked over it might keep a few of his to their own parish but what s this about it s full early for anything of that kind said the of an salt don t know said the we ve got with us there s all along the north at least we re calling it for decency s sake the spring crops are short in five districts and nobody seems to know where the rains are it s nearly march now i don t want to scare anybody but it seems to me that nature s going to her accounts with a big red pencil this summer just when i wanted to take leave too said a voice across the room there won t be much leave this year but there ought to be a great deal of promotion i ve come in to persuade the government to put my pet canal on the list of works it s an iu wind that blows no good i shall get that canal finished at last is it the old programme then said famine fever and h no only local and an unusual of sickness you ll find it all in the life s reports if you live till next year you re a lucky chap you haven t got a wife to send out of harm s way the hill stations ought to be full of women this year i think you re inclined to the talk in the y said a young in the now i have observed i you have said the but you ve a great deal more to observe my son in the meantime i wish to observe to you and he drew him aside to discuss the construction of the canal that was so dear to his heart went to his and began to that he was not alone in the world and also that he was afraid for the sake of another which is the most soul fear known to man two months later as the had foretold nature began to her with a red pencil on the heels of the spring came a cry for bread and the government which had that no man should die of want sent wheat then came the from all four quarters of the compass it struck a pilgrim gathering of half a million at a sacred shrine many died at the feet of their god the others broke and ran over the face of the land carrying the with them it smote a walled city and killed two hundred a day the people crowded the trains hanging on to the and on the roofs of the carriages and the followed them for at each station they dragged out the dead and the dying they died by the roadside and the horses of the englishmen at the in the grass the rains did not come and the earth turned to iron lest man should escape death by hiding in her the english sent their wives away to the hills and went about their work coming forward as they were to without benefit of clergy fill the in the fighting line sick with fear of losing his treasure on earth had done his best to persuade to go away with her mother to the s why should i go said she one evening on the roof there is sickness and people are dying and all the white log have gone all of them all unless perhaps there remain some old who her husband s heart by running risk of death nay who stays is my sister and thou must not abuse her for i will be a head too i am glad au the bold log are gone do i speak to a woman or a babe go to the hills and i will see to it that thou like a queen s daughter think child in a red cart veiled and with brass upon the pole and red cloth i will send two for guard and peace thou art the babe in speaking thus what use are those toys to me ee would have patted the and played with the for his sake perhaps thou hast made me very english i might have gone now i will not let the log run their husbands are sending them beloved very good talk since when hast thou been my husband to tell me what to do i have but borne thee a son thou art only ah the	39
t raise anything more than a fat smile from the commander when i find out the troops are three months in and old begins to weep when i speak to him he has taken to the king s brandy for and for water that s what the of took to even a native can t last long at that said he ll go out and a good thing too then i suppose we ll have a council of and a for the young prince and hand him back his kingdom with ten years whereupon that young prince having been taught all the vices of the will play ducks and with the money and undo ten years work in eighteen months i ve seen that business before said i should tackle the king with a light hand if i were you they ll hate you quite enough under any circumstances that s all very well the man who looks on can talk about the light hand but you can t clean a pig with a pen dipped in rose water i know my risks but nothing has happened yet my servant s an old and he for me they are hardly likely to bribe him and i don t accept food from my true friends as they call themselves oh but it s weary work i d j at the end of the passage sooner be with you there s shooting near your camp would you i don t think it about fifteen deaths a day don t a man to shoot anything but himself and the worst of it is that the poor devils look at you as though you ought to save them lord knows i ve tried everything my last attempt was but it an old man through he was brought to me apparently past hope and i gave him gin and with it cured him but i don t recommend it how do the cases run generally said very simply indeed bricks to the feet and then the burning the last seems to be the only thing that stops the trouble it s black you know poor devils but i will say little lai my works like a demon i ve recommended him for promotion if he comes through it all alive and what are your chances old man said don t know don t care much but i ve sent the letter in what are you doing with yourself generally sitting under a table in the tent and on the to keep it cool said the man of the survey washing my eyes to avoid which i shall certainly get and trying to make a sub understand that an error of five degrees in an angle isn t quite so small as it looks i m altogether alone y know and shall be till the end of the hot weather s the lucky man said flinging himself into a long chair he has an actual torn as to the ceiling cloth but still a roof over his head he sees one train daily he can get beer and water and ice em when god is good he has books pictures so life s they were torn from the and the society of the excellent sub besides the pleasure of receiving us weekly smiled grimly yes i m the lucky man i suppose is how not yes went out last monday by his own hand said quickly the suspicion that was in everybody s mind there was no near s section even fever gives a man at least a week s grace and sudden death generally implied self slaughter i judge no man this weather said he had a touch of the sun i fancy for last week after you fellows had left he came into the and told me that he was going home to see his wife in market street liverpool that evening i got the in to look at him and we tried to make him lie down after an hour or two he rubbed his eyes and said he believed he had had a fit hoped he hadn t said anything rude had a great idea of himself he was very like in his language weu then he went to his own and began cleaning a rifle he told the servant that he was going to shoot buck in the morning naturally he with the and shot himself through the head accidentally the sent in a report to my chief and is buried somewhere out there i d have to you if you could have done anything you re a queer chap said if you d killed the man yourself you couldn t have been more quiet about the business at the end of the passage good lord what does it matter said calmly i ve got to do a lot of his work in addition to my own i m the only person that suffers is out of it by pure accident of course but out of it the was going to write a long on suicide trust a to when he gets the chance why didn t you let it go in as suicide said no direct proof a man hasn t many privileges in this country but he might at least be allowed to his own rifle besides some day i may need a man to up an accident to myself live and let live die and let die you take a said who had been watching s white face narrowly take a and don t be an ass that sort of talk is anyhow suicide is your work if i were job ten times over i should be so interested in what was going to happen next that i d stay on and watch ah i ve lost that curiosity said hu liver out of order said no can t sleep	39
that s worse by jove it is said i m that way every now and then and the fit has to wear itself out what do you take nothing what s the use i haven t had ten minutes sleep since friday morning poor chap you ought to attend to this said now you mention it your eyes are rather and swollen still watching laughed lightly i ll patch him up later on is it too hot do you think to go for a ride where to said wearily we shall have to go away at eight and there ll be riding enough for us then i hate a horse when i have to use him as a necessity oh heavens what is there to do begin again at points a is supposed to be eight shillings and a gold on the rub said promptly a month s pay all round for the pool no limit and fifty raises somebody would be broken before we got up said can t say that it would give me any pleasure to break any man in this company said there isn t enough excitement in it and it s foolish he crossed over to the worn and battered little camp piano of a married household that had once held the and opened the case it s used up long ago said the servants have picked it to pieces the piano was indeed hopelessly out of order but managed to bring the rebellious notes into a sort of agreement and there rose from the ragged something that might once have been the ghost of a popular music hall song the men in the long chairs turned with evident interest as the more that s good said by jove the last time i heard that song was in or just before i came out ah said with pride i in and he mentioned a song of the streets popular at that date executed it roughly and volunteered dashed into another not of the music hall character and made as if to rise sit down said i didn t know that you had any music in your composition go on playing until you at the end of the passage can t think of anything more i ll have that piano timed up before you come again play something very simple indeed were the tunes to which s art and the of the piano could give effect but the men listened with pleasure and in the pauses talked all together of what they had seen or heard when they were last at home a dense dust storm sprung up outside and swept roaring over the house it in the choking darkness of midnight but continued and the crazy reached the ears of the listeners above the flapping of the tattered ceiling cloth in the silence after the storm he glided from the more directly personal songs of scotland half humming them as he played into the evening hymn sunday said he nodding his head go on don t for it said laughed long and play it by all means you re full of surprises to day i didn t know you had such a gift of finished sarcasm how does that thing go took up the tune too slow by half you miss the note of gratitude said it ought to go to the s this way and he glory to thee my god this night for all the of the light that shows we really feel our blessings how does it go if in the night i sleepless lie my soul with sacred thoughts supply may no ill dreams disturb ray rest quicker or powers of darkness me i n as life s what an old you are don t be an ass said you are at full liberty to make fun of anything else you like but leave that hymn alone it s associated in my mind with the most sacred recollections summer evenings in the country stained glass window flight going out and you and she your heads together over one hymn book said yes and a fat old you in the eye when you walked home smell of hay and a moon as big as a sitting on the top of a milk and said also mothers i can just recollect my mother singing me to sleep with that when i was a little chap said the darkness had fallen on the room they could hear in his chair consequently said he you sing it when you are seven deep in hell it s an insult to the intelligence of the deity to pretend we re anything but tortured take two said that s tortured liver the usually placid is in a vile bad temper i m sorry for his to morrow said as the servants brought in the lights and prepared the table for dinner as they were settling into their places about the miserable goat and the smoked took occasion to whisper to well done david look after then was the reply what are you two whispering about said suspiciously f at the end of the passage ass only saying that you are a damned poor host this fowl can t be cut returned with a sweet smile call this a dinner i can t help it you don t expect a banquet do you throughout that meal contrived laboriously to insult directly and all his guests in succession and at each insult kicked the persons under the table but he dared not exchange a glance of intelligence with either of them s face was white and pinched while his eyes were large no man dreamed for a moment of his savage but as soon as the meal was over they made haste to get away don t go you re just getting amusing you fellows i hope i	39
haven t said anything that annoyed you you re such devils then changing the note into one of almost abject entreaty added i say you surely aren t going in the language of the blessed where i i sleeps said i want to have a look at your to morrow if you don t mind you can give me a place to lie down in i suppose the others pleaded the of their several duties next day and up departed together begging them to come next sunday as they off himself to and i never felt so like kicking a man at his own table in my life he said i cheated at and reminded me i was in debt told you you were as good as a liar to your face you aren t half indignant enough over it not i said poor devil did you ever know old behave like that before or within a hundred miles of it i s ufe s that excuse was my all the time so i kept a hand on myself else i should have no you wouldn t you d have done as did about judge no man this weather by jove the of my bridle is hot in my hand trot out a bit and ware rat holes ten minutes trotting jerked out of one very sage remark when he pulled up from every pore fi good thing s with him to night ye es man our roads turn here see you again next if the sun doesn t bowl me over s pose so unless old minister to dress some of my food night and god bless you what s wrong now oh nothing gathered up his whip and as he s mare on the flank added you re not a bad little chap that s all and the mare bolted half a mile across the sand on the word in the assistant engineer s and smoked the pipe of silence together each narrowly watching the other the capacity of a bachelor s establishment is as elastic as its arrangements are simple a servant cleared away the dining room table brought in a couple of rude native made of strung on a light wood frame a square of cool over each set them side by side pinned two to tjie so that their should just sweep clear of the nose and mouth and announced that the were ready the men themselves down ordering the by all the powers of hell to pull every door r l at the end of the passage js and window was shut for the outside air was that of an oven the atmosphere within was only as the bore witness and heavy with the foul smell of badly trimmed lamps and this combined with that of native tobacco baked brick and dried earth sends the heart of many a strong man down to his boots for it is the smell of the great indian empire when she turns herself for six months into a house of torment packed his pillows so that he rather than lay his head at a safe elevation above his feet it is not good to sleep on a low pillow in the hot weather if you happen to be of thick build for you may pass with lively and from natural sleep into the deep slumber of heat pack your pillows said the doctor sharply as he saw preparing to lie down at full length the night light was trimmed the shadow of the wavered across the room and the of the and the soft of the rope through the wall hole followed it then the almost ceased the sweat poured from s brow should he go out and the it started forward again with a savage jerk and a pin came out of the when this was replaced a in the lines began to beat with the steady throb of a swollen inside some brain skull turned on his side and swore gently there was no movement on s part the man had composed himself as rigidly as a corpse his hands at his sides the was too hurried for any suspicion of sleep looked at the set face the jaws were and there was a round the quivering eyelids s life s he s holding himself as tightly as ever he can thought what in the world is the matter with him yes in a thick constrained voice t you get to sleep no head hot throat feeling or how neither thanks i don t sleep much you know feel pretty bad pretty bad thanks there is a outside isn t there i thought it was my head at first oh for pity s sake give me something that will put me asleep asleep if it s only for six hours he sprang up trembling from head to foot i haven t been able to sleep naturally for days and i can t stand it i can t stand it poor old chap that s no use give me something to make me sleep i tell you i m nearly mad i don t know what i say half my time for three weeks i ve had to think and spell out every word that has come through my lips before i dared say it isn t that enough to drive a man mad i can t see things correctly now and i ve lost my sense of touch my skin my skin make me sleep oh for the love of make me sleep it isn t enough merely to let me dream let me sleep all right old man all right go slow you aren t half as bad as you think the flood gates of reserve once broken was clinging to him like a frightened child you re my arm to pieces i ll break	39
your neck if you don t do something for me no i didn t mean that don t be angry old p at the end of the passage fellow he wiped the sweat off himself as he fought to regain composure i m a bit restless and off my and perhaps you could recommend some sort of sleeping mixture of of why didn t you tell me this before let go of my arm and i ll see if there s anything in my case to suit your complaint hunted among his day clothes turned up the lamp opened a little silver case and advanced on the expectant with the of fairy the last appeal of said he and a thing i hate to use hold out your arm well your hasn t ruined your muscle and what a thick hide it is might as well a now in a few minutes the begin working lie down and wait a smile of and delight began to creep over s face i think he whispered i think i m going off now it s positively you must give me that case to keep you the voice ceased as the head fell back not for a good deal said to the unconscious form and now my friend of your being very apt to the moral fibre in little matters of life and death i ll just take the liberty of your guns he into s saddle room in his bare feet and a twelve bore rifle an express and a revolver of the first he the and hid them in the bottom of a case of the second he abstracted the kicking it behind a big wardrobe the third he merely opened and knocked the head bolt of the grip up with the heel of a s o ufe s that s settled he said as he shook the sweat off his hands these little precautions will at least give you time to turn you have too much sympathy with accidents and as he rose from his knees the thick muffled voice of cried in the doorway you fool such tones they use who speak in the intervals of delirium to their friends a little before they die started dropping the pistol stood in the doorway rocking with helpless laughter that was ly good of you i m sure he said very slowly feeling for his words i don t to go out by my own hand at present i say that stuff won t work what shall i do what shall i do and panic terror stood in his eyes lie down and give it a chance lie down at once i t it will only take me half way again and i shan t be able to get away this time do you know it was all i could do to come out just now generally i am as quick as lightning but you had my feet i was nearly caught oh yes i understand go and lie down no it isn t delirium but it was an awfully mean trick to play on me do you know i might have died as a a slate clean so some power unknown to had wiped out of s face all that stamped it for the face of a man and he stood at the doorway in the expression of his lost innocence he had slept back into terrified is he going to die on the spot thought then aloud all right my son come back to bed and tell me all about it you couldn t sleep but what was all the rest of the nonsense a place a place down there said with at the end of the passage simple sincerity the was acting on him by waves and he was flung from the fear of a strong man to the fright of a child as his nerves gathered sense or were good god i ve been afraid of it for months past it has made every night hell to me and yet i m not conscious of having done anything wrong be still and i ll give yon another dose we ll stop your you unutterable idiot yes but you must give me so much that i can t get away you must make me quite sleepy not just a little sleepy it s so hard to run then i know it i know it i ve felt it myself the symptoms are exactly as you describe oh don t laugh at me confound you before this awful came to me i ve tried to rest on my elbow and put a spur in the bed to sting me when i fell back look by jove the man has been like a horse ridden by the nightmare with a vengeance and we all thought him sensible enough heaven send us understanding you like to talk don t you yes sometimes not when i m frightened i want to run don t you always before i give you your second dose try to tell me exactly what your trouble is spoke in broken whispers for nearly ten minutes whilst looked into the pupils of his eyes and passed his hand before them once or twice at the end of the narrative the silver case was produced and the last words that said as he fell back for the second time were put me quite to sleep for if i m caught i die i die yes yes we all do that sooner or later thank j life s heaven who has set a term to our miseries said settling the cushions imder the head it occurs to me that unless i drink something i shall go out before my time ive stopped and i wear a seventeen inch collar he himself hot tea which is an excellent remedy against if you take three or	39
four cups of it in time then he watched the a blind face that cries and can t wipe its eyes a blind face that him down h m decidedly ought to go on leave as soon as possible and sane or otherwise he did himself most cruelly well heaven send us at mid day rose with an evil taste in his mouth but an eye and a joyful heart i was pretty bad last night wasn t i said he i have seen men you must have had a touch of the sun look here if i write you a medical will you apply for leave on the spot no why not you want it yes but i can hold on till the weather s a little cooler why should you if you can get relieved on the spot is the only man who could be sent and he s a bom fool oh never mind about the line you aren t so important as all that wire for leave if necessary looked very uncomfortable i can hold on till the rains he said you can t wire to for i won t if you want to know why particularly is married and his wife s just had a kid and at the end of the passage she s up at in the cool and has a very nice that takes him into from saturday to monday that little woman isn t at all well if was transferred she d try to follow him if she left the baby behind she d fret herself to death if she came and s one of those selfish little beasts who are always talking about a wife s place being with her husband she d die it s murder to bring a woman here just now hasn t the of a rat if he came here he d go out and i know she hasn t any money and i m pretty sure she d go out too i m in a sort of way and i m not married wait till the rains and then can get thin down here it ll do him heaps of good do you mean to say that you intend to face what you have faced till the rains break oh it won t be so bad now you ve shown me a way out of it i can always wire to you besides now i ve once got into the way of sleeping it ll be all right anyhow i shan t put in for leave that s the long and the short of it my great scott i thought all that sort of thing was dead and done with you d do the same yourself i feel a new man thanks to that case you re going over to camp now aren t you yes but i ll try to look you up every other day if i can i m not bad enough for that i don t want you to bother give the gin and then you feel all right fit to fight for my life but not to stand out in the sun talking to you go along old man and bless turned on his heel to face the echoing life s of his and the first thing be saw standing in the was the figure of himself he had met a similar apparition once before when he was suffering from and the strain of the hot weather this is bad he said rubbing his eyes if the thing away from me all in one piece like a ghost i shall know it is only my eyes and stomach that are out of order if it walks my head is going he approached the figure which naturally kept at an distance from him as is the use of all that are born of it slid through the house and dissolved into swimming within the as soon as it reached the burning light of the garden went about his business till even when he came in to dinner he found himself sitting at the table the vision rose and walked out hastily except that it cast no shadow it was in all respects real no living man knows what that week held for an increase of the kept in camp among the and all he could do was to telegraph to bidding him go to the and sleep there but was forty miles away from the nearest telegraph and knew nothing of anything save the needs of the survey till he met early on sunday morning and heading towards s for the weekly gathering hope the poor chap s in a better temper said the former swinging himself off his horse at the door i suppose he isn t up yet i ll just have a look at him said the doctor if he s asleep there s no need to wake him and an instant later by the tone of s voice calling upon them to enter the men knew what had happened there was no need to wake him m at the end of the passage a s the was still being pulled over the bed but had departed this life at least three hours the body lay on its back hands by the side as had seen it lying seven nights previously in the staring eyes was written terror beyond the expression of any pen who had entered behind bent over the dead and touched the forehead lightly with his lips oh you lucky lucky devil he whispered but had seen the eyes and withdrew shuddering to the other side of the room poor chap poor old chap and the last time i met him i was we should have watched him has he continued his ending by a search round the room no he hasn t he snapped there s no trace of	39
anything call the servants they came eight or ten of them whispering and ing over each other s shoulders when did your go to bed said at eleven or ten we think said s personal servant he was well then but how should you know he was not ill as far as our comprehension extended but he had slept very little for three nights this i know because i saw him walking much and specially in the heart of the night as was arranging the sheet a big hunting spur tumbled on the ground the doctor groaned the personal servant peeped at the body what do you think said catching the look on the dark face j life s ha heaven bom in my poor opinion that was my master has descended into the dark places and there has been caught because he was not able to escape with sufficient speed we have the spur for evidence that he fought with fear thus ha e i seen men of my race do with thorns when a spell was laid upon them to overtake them in their sleeping hours and they dared not sleep you re a mud head go out and prepare to be set on the s property god has made the heaven bom god has made me who are we to inquire into the of god i will bid the other hold aloof while you are reckoning the tale of the s property they are all thieves and would steal as far as i can make out he died from oh anything of the heart s action heat or some other said to his companions we must make an of his effects and so on he was scared to death insisted look at those eyes for pity s sake don t let him be buried with them open whatever it was he s clear of all the trouble now said softly was peering into the open eyes come here said he can you see an thing there i can t face it cover up the face is there any fear on earth that can turn a man into that likeness it s ghastly ob cover it up no fear on earth said leaned over his shoulder and looked intently i see nothing except some gray in the pupil there can be nothing there you know d at the end of the passage even so well let s think it ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin and he must have died at midnight old man go out and the to break ground next to s grave go round the house with and see that the are put on things send a couple of men to me here and i ll arrange the strong armed servants when they returned to their own kind told a strange story of the doctor vainly trying to call their master back to life by magic arts to wit the holding of a little green box that to each of the dead man s eyes and of a bewildered muttering on the part of the doctor who took the little green box away with him the of a coffin lid is no pleasant thing to hear but those who have experience maintain that much more terrible is the soft of the bed linen the and of the bed when he who has fallen by the roadside is for burial as the are tied over tiu the shape touches the floor and there is no protest against the of hasty disposal at the last moment was seized with scruples of conscience ought you to read the service from beginning to end said he to i intend to you re my senior as a you can take it if you like didn t mean that for a moment i only thought if we could get a from somewhere i m willing to ride anywhere and give poor a better chance that s all said as he framed his lips to the tremendous words that stand at the head of the burial ufe s after breakfast they smoked a pipe in silence to the memory of the dead then said t in medical science what things in a dead man s eye for goodness sake leave that horror alone said i ve seen a native die of pure fright when a tiger him i know what killed the deuce you do i m going to try to see and the doctor retreated into the bath room with a after a few minutes there was the of something being to pieces and he emerged very white indeed have you got a picture said what does the thing look like it was impossible of course you needn t look i ve torn up the there was nothing there it was impossible that said very distinctly watching the shaking hand striving to the pipe is a ke laughed s right he said we re all in such a state now that we d believe anything for pity s sake let s try to be rational there was no further speech for a long time the hot wind whistled without and the dry trees sobbed presently the daily train brass steel and steam pulled up panting in the intense glare we d better go on on that said go back to work i ve written my we can t do any more good here and work keep our wits together come on no one moved it is not pleasant to face railway at the end of the passage journeys at mid day in june gathered up his hat and whip and turning m the doorway there may be heaven there must be meantime there is our life here we ell neither nor had any answer to the question the of the p r i in forces i regular forces	39
j l a belonging reserve forces f s to her f forces j navy when three obscure gentlemen in san argued on insufficient premises they condemned a fellow creature to a most death in a far which had nothing whatever to do with the united states they at the top of a house in street an quarter of the city and there calling for certain drinks they because they were by trade known as the third three of the i a a an institution for the of pure light not to be confounded with any others though it is to many the second three live in and work among the poor there the first three have their home in new york not far from castle garden and write regularly once a week to a small house near one of the big hotels at what happens after that a particular section of scotland yard knows too well and laughs at a ridicule more men have been with and dropped into the thames for laughing at head and than for betraying secrets for this is human nature the third three over the of the and a clean sheet of against the british empire and all that lay therein this work is very like what men without call politics before a general election you pick out and discuss in the company of congenial friends all the weak points in your and unconsciously dwell upon and ail their till it seems to you a miracle that the hated party holds together for an hour our principle is not so much active demonstration that we leave to others as passive embarrassment to and said the first man wherever an is crippled wherever a confusion is thrown into any branch of any department we gain a step for those who take on the work we are but the he was a german and editor of a newspaper from whose leading articles he quoted frequently that cursed empire makes so many of her own that unless we doubled the year s average i guess it wouldn t strike her anything special had occurred said the second man are you prepared to say that all our resources are equal to blowing off the of a hundred ton gun or a ten thousand ton ship on a plain rock in clear daylight they can beat us at our own game better join hands with the practical branches we re in funds now try a direct scare in a crowded street they value their greasy hides he was the drag upon the wheel and an of the second generation his own race and the other he had learned caution the third man drank his and spoke no word he was the but unfortunately his knowledge of life was limited he picked a letter from his and threw it across the table that to the life s heathen contained some very directions from the first three in new york it said the boom in black iron has already affected the eastern y where our agents have been forcing down the english held stock among the smaller who watch the turn of shares any immediate operations such as western would increase their to this however cannot be expected till they see clearly thai foreign iron masters are willing to co operate should be to feel the pulse of the market and act accordingly are at present the best for our purpose p d q as a message referring to an iron crisis in it was interesting if not as a new departure m attack on an english it was more than interesting the second man read it through and already surely they are in too great a hurry all that could do in india he has done down to the distribution of his photographs among the ho ho the paris firm arranged that and he has no substantial money from the other power even our agents in india know he hasn t what is the use of our wasting men on work that is done of course the irish in india are half as they stand this shows how near a lie may come to the truth an irish regiment for just so long as it stands still is generally a hard handful to control being reckless and rough when however it is moved in the direction of firing it becomes strangely and content with its lot it has even been heard to cheer the queen with enthusiasm on these occasions but the notion of with the army was from the of the n the point of view of street an altogether sound one there is no shadow of in the of an english government and the most sacred oaths of england would even if engrossed on find very few among colonies and that have suffered from vain but there remains to england always her army that change except in the matter of uniform and the officers may write to the papers demanding the heads of the horse guards in of for the men may break loose across a country town and seriously the but neither officers nor men have it in their composition to after the continental manner the english people when they trouble to think about the army at all are and with justice absolutely assured that it is absolutely imagine for a moment their emotions on that such and such a regiment was in open revolt from causes directly due to england s management of ireland they would probably send the regiment to the forthwith and examine their own as to their duty to but they would never be easy any more and it was this vague unhappy that the i a a were to produce sheer waste of breath said the second man after a pause in the council i don t see the use of with fool army but it has	39
been tried before and we must try it again it looks well in the reports if we send one man from here you may bet your hfe that other men are going too order up they ordered him up a slim slight dark haired young man devoured with that hatred of england that only reaches its full growth across the atlantic he had sucked it from his mother s breast in life s the little cabin at the back of the northern avenues of new york he had been taught his rights and his wrongs in german and irish on the canal fronts of and san held men who told him strange and awful things of the great blind power over the seas once when business took him across the atlantic he had served in an english regiment and being had suffered extremely he drew all his ideas of england that were not bred by the cheaper patriotic prints from one iron colonel and an he would go to the mines if need be to teach his gospel and he went as his instructions advised q which means with speed to introduce embarrassment into an irish regiment half among all wearing of his of the next their hearts and all eagerly expecting his arrival other information equally valuable was given him by his masters he was to be cautious but never to grudge expense in winning the hearts of the men in the regiment his mother in new york would supply funds and he was to write to her once a month life is pleasant for a man who has a mother in new york to send him two hundred pounds a year over and above his pay in process of time thanks to his intimate knowledge of and exercise the excellent wearing the s went out in a and joined her majesty s royal loyal commonly known as the because they were and cattle sons of small farmers in county glare of of much wanted from the bare rainy of the south coast by o hills and the like never to outward the of the s seeming was there more promising material to work on the first three had chosen their regiment well it nothing that moved or talked save the colonel and the roman catholic the fat father who held the keys of heaven and hell and like an angry bull when he desired to be convincing him also it loved because on occasions of stress he was used to up his and charge with the rest into the of the where he always found good man that the saints sent him a revolver when there was a fallen private to be protected or but came as an his own gray head to be guarded cautiously as he had been instructed tenderly and with much beer opened his projects to such as he deemed to listen and these were one and all of that quaint crooked sweet profoundly and profoundly race that fight like argue like children reason like women obey like men and jest like their own of the through rebellion loyalty want woe or war the work of a conspiracy is always dull and very much the same the world over at the end of six months the seed always falling on good ground spoke almost darkly in the approved fashion at dread powers behind him and nothing more nor less than were they not dogs treated had they not all their own and their national to satisfy who in these days would do aught to nine hundred men in rebellion who again could stay them if they broke for the sea up on their way other only too anxious to join and afterwards here followed windy promises of gold and office j d honour ever dear to a certain type of life s as he finished his speech in the dusk of a twilight to his chosen associates there was a sound of a rapidly belt behind him the arm of one dan flew out in the gloom and arrested something then said dan you re a great man an you do credit to whoever sent you walk about a bit while we think of it departed he knew his words would sink deep why the triple dashed did ye not let me belt him a voice because i m not a fat headed fool boys tis what he s been driving at these six months our superior with his education and his copies of the irish papers and his everlasting beer he s b n sent for the purpose and that s where the money comes from can ye not see that man s a gold mine which horse here would have destroyed with a belt it would be throwing away the gifts of providence not to fall in with his little plans of we ll ny till all s dry shoot the colonel on the parade ground the company officers the and then boys did he tell you what next he told me the other night when he was beginning to talk wild then we re to join with the and look for help from and the and spoil the best campaign that ever was this side of hell i d have lost the beer to ha given him the he requires oh let him go this awhile man he s got no no but that s the egg meat of his plan and you must that i m in with it an so are you we ll want of beer to convince us full we ll give him talk for his money and one the of the ty one all the boys come in and he ll have a nest of nine hundred to in an give drink to hat makes me killing mad is his wanting us	39
to do what the did thirty years gone that an his pig s cheek in that other would come along said a man s not so bad as we should loose off on the colonel colonel be i d as soon as not put a shot through his to see him jump and clutch his old horse s head but talks o our ny accidental he said that did he said horse like that can t ye fancy ould a bullet in his lungs like a sick monkey an i do not mind your but you must your liquor like men the man that shot me is i ll for six hours while i get this bullet cut out an then an then continued horse for the major s peculiarities of speech and manner were as well known as his face an then ye faced o if i find a man so much as confused i ll martial the whole company a man that can t get over his liquor k hours is not fit to belong to the a shout of laughter bore witness to the truth of the sketch it s pretty to think of said the man slowly would have us do all the and get clear himself he t be all this fool s in the reputation of the life s reputation of your grandmother s pig said dan well an he had a good reputation tu so it s all right must see his way to clear out behind him or he d not ha come so far powers of darkness did you hear anything of a court martial among the black these days half a company of em took one of the new an hanged him by his arms with a tent rope from a third story they gave no reason for so but he was half dead i m thinking that the are short sighted it was a friend of s or a man in the same trade they d a deal better ha taken his beer returned dan better still ha handed him up to the colonel said horse but sure the news be all over the an give the ment a bad name an there d be no reward for that man he but went about said the man you speak by your breed said dan with a laugh there was never a man yet that t sell his brother for a pipe o tobacco an a pat on the back from a p praise god i m not a was the answer no nor never will be said dan they breed men in would you like to the taste of one the man looked and longed but the odds of battle were too great then you ll not even give a a strike for his money said the voice of horse who regarded what he called trouble of any kind as the of dan answered not at all but crept on tip toe with large strides to the mess room the men following the room was empty in a comer like the king of the of the s state umbrella stood the colours dan lifted them tenderly and in the light of the candles the record of the tattered worn and the white satin was darkened everywhere with big brown the gold threads on the crowned harp were and and the red bull the of the was coffee the stiff embroidered folds whose price is human life down slowly the keep their colours long and guard them very an that was fought close next door here against the very beggars he wants us to join the what are those httle compared to the of general the ny think that the ny an some dirty httle matters in an for that an these an those dan pointed to the names of glorious battles that yankee man with the in his hair as holy moses there s the captain but it was the mess who came in just as the men out and found the colours from that day dated the of the to the joy of and the pride of his mother in new york the good lady who sent the money for the beer never so far as words went was such a the led by dan and horse poured in daily they were sound men men to be trusted and they all wanted blood but first they must have beer they cursed the queen they mourned over ireland they suggested hideous plunder of the indian country side and then alas some of the younger men would go forth and on the ground in of wicked laughter r i o life s the genius of the irish for is remarkable none the less they would swear no oaths but those of their own making which were rare and curious and they were always at pains to impress with the risks they ran naturally the flood of beer wrought but confused the causes of things and when a very smote a on the nose or called his commanding officer a bald headed old and even worse names he fancied that rebellion and not liquor was at the bottom of the outbreak other gentlemen who have concerned themselves in larger have made the same error the hot season in which they protested no man could rebel came to an end and suggested a visible return for his as to the actual of the he cared nothing it would be enough if the english trusting to the integrity of their should be startled with news of an irish regiment from political considerations his persistent demands would have ended at dan s in a which in all probability would have killed him and cut off the supply of beer had not he been sent on special duty some fifty miles away from the to cool his	39
heels in a mud fort and then the colonel of the reading his newspaper diligently and frontier trouble from afar posted to the army and with the commander in chief for certain privileges to be granted imder certain which came about only a week later when the annual little war on the border developed itself and the colonel returned to carry the good news to the he held the promise of the chief for active service and the men must get ready r the of the on the evening of the same day an yet great in conspiracy returned to and heard sounds of strife and from afar off the had broken out and the of the were one white washed a private tearing through the gasped in his ear service active service it s a shame oh joy the had risen on the eve of battle they would not noble and loyal sons of serve the queen longer the news would flash through the country side and over to england and he the trusted of the third three had brought about the crash the private stood in the middle of the square and cursed colonel regiment officers and doctor particularly the doctor by his gods an orderly of the native cavalry regiment through the mob of soldiers he was half half dragged from his horse beaten on the back with mighty till his eyes watered and called all manner of names yes the had with the native troops who then was the agent among the latter that had blindly wrought with so weu an officer almost ran from the mess to a he was by the who closed round but did not kill him for he fought his way to shelter flying for the life could have wept with pure joy and the very prisoners in the guard room were shaking the bars of their and howling like wild beasts and from every poured the as of a big war drum hastened to his own he could hardly hear himself speak eighty men were with fist and heel the tables and eighty men life s flushed with stripped to their shirt sleeves their half packed for the march to the sea made the two inch boards thunder again as they to a tune that knew well the sacred war song of the listen in the north my boys there s trouble on the wind tramp o in front gray great coats behind trouble on the frontier of a most kind trouble on the waters o the then as a table broke imder the furious accompaniment it s north by west we go the chance we wanted so let em hear the chorus from to as we go to the mother of all the saints in bliss and all the devils in where s my fine new the heel howled horse everybody s but his own he was engaged in making up of preparatory to a campaign and in that work he best who last ah you re in good time he shouted we ve got the route and we re off on thursday for a the next door an orderly appeared with a huge basket full of rolls provided by the of the queen for such as might need them later on horse his and it under s nose an bees wax thunder pitch and plaster the more you try to pull it off the more it sticks the faster as i was goin to new the of the you know the rest of it my irish american jew boy by ye have to fight for the queen in the inside a fortnight my a roar of laughter interrupted looked down the room bid a boy defy his father when the cab is at the door or a girl develop a will of her own when her mother is putting the last touches to the first ball dress but do not ask an irish regiment to upon on the eve of a campaign when it has with the native regiment that it and driven its officers into retirement with ten thousand questions and the prisoners dance for joy and the sick men stand in the open calling down all known diseases on the head of the doctor who has that they are unfit for active service at even the might have been mistaken for by one so in their natures as at dawn a girls school might have learned from them they knew that their colonel s hand had closed and that he who broke that iron discipline would not go to the front nothing in the world will persuade one of our soldiers when he is ordered to the north on the smallest of affairs that he is not immediately going to and cook his in the palace of the a few of the younger men mourned for s beer because the campaign was to be conducted on strict principles but as dan and horse said sternly we ve got the beer man with us he shall drink now on his own hook had not taken into account the possibility of being sent on active service he had made up his mind that he would not go under any circumstances but fortune was against him life s sick you said the doctor who had served an to liis trade in you re only home sick and what you call veins come from over eating a little gentle exercise will cure that and later my man everybody is allowed to apply for a sick once if he tries it twice we call him by an ugly name go back to your duty and let s hear no more of your diseases i am ashamed to say that horse enjoyed the study of s soul in those days and dan took an equal interest together they would communicate to their all	39
the dark lore of death which is the portion of those who have seen men die had the larger experience but dan the finer imagination shivered when the former spoke of the knife as an intimate acquaintance or the latter dwelt with loving on the fate of those who wounded and helpless had been overlooked by the and had fallen into the hands of the women folk knew that the for the present at least was dead knew too that a change had come over dan s usually respectful attitude towards him and horse s laughter and frequent allusions to all that the had guessed the horrible of the death stories however made him seek the men s society he learnt much more than he had for and in this manner it was on the last night before the regiment to the front the were stripped of everything and the men were too excited to sleep the bare walls gave out a heavy hospital smell of of lime and what said in an awe stricken whisper after some conversation on the eternal subject are j l the of the you going to do to me dan this might have been the language of an able a weak spirit you ll see said dan grimly turning over in his cot or i rather say you ll not see this was hardly the language of a weak spirit shook under the bed clothes be easy with him put in from the next cot he has got his o goin clean listen all we want is for the good sake of the regiment that you take your death standing up as a man there be heaps an heaps of enemy heaps go there an do all you can and die decent you ll die with a good name tis not a hard thing again shivered an how could a man wish to die better than added dan and if i won t said the in a dry whisper there ll be a of smoke returned dan sitting up and off the situation on his fingers sure to be an the noise of the be an we ll be running about up and down the regiment will but we horse and i we ll stay by you and never let you go maybe there ll be an accident it s playing it low on me let me go for pity s sake let me go i never did you harm and and i stood you as much beer as i could oh don t be hard on me dan you are you were in it too you won t kill me up there will you i m not of the treason though you be glad any honest boys drank with you it s for the regiment we can t have the shame o you shame on us you went to the doctor quiet as a sick cat to get and stay behind an live with the women at the t you that wanted us to run to the sea in life s like the none of your black blood dared to be but we knew about your goin to the doctor for be told in mess and it s all over the regiment bein as we are your best friends we didn t allow any one to you we will see to you ourselves fight which you will us or the enemy you ll never lie in that cot again and there s more glory and maybe less from the enemy that s fair and he told us by word of mouth to go and join with the you ve forgotten that dan said horse to justify sentence what s the use of the man one shot pays for all sleep ye sound but you do ye not for some weeks understood very little of anything at all save that ever at his elbow in camp or at parade stood two big men with soft voices him to commit lest a worse thing should happen to die for the honour of the regiment in decency among the nearest knives but dreaded death he remembered certain things that priests had said in his infancy and his mother not the one at new york starting from her sleep with shrieks to pray for a husband s soul in torment it is well to be of a intelligence but in time of trouble the weak human mind returns to the creed it sucked in at the breast and if that creed be not a pretty one trouble follows also the death he would have to face would be physically painful most have large could see himself as he lay on the earth in the night dying by various causes they were all horrible the mother in new york was very far away and the regiment the engine that once you fall in its grip moves j the of the you forward whether you will or won t was daily coming closer to the enemy they were brought to the field of and with the black to aid they fought a fight that has never been set down in the newspapers in response many believe to the fervent prayers of father the enemy not only elected to fight in the open but made a beautiful fight as many weeping irish mothers knew later they gathered behind walls or across the open in shouting masses and were pot in it was expedient to hold a large reserve and wait for the moment that was being prepared by the shrieking therefore the lay down in open order on the brow of a hill to watch the play till their call should come father whose duty was in the rear to smooth the trouble of the wounded had naturally managed to make his way to the foremost of his boys and lay	39
like a black at length on the grass to him crawled gray demanding wait till you re shot said father sweetly there s a time for everything dan chuckled as he blew for the time into the of his rifle groaned and buried his head in his arms till a stray shot spoke like a immediately above his head and a general heave and the line other shots followed and a few took effect as a shriek or a the officers who had been lying down with the men rose and began to walk steadily up and down the front of their companies this executed not for publication but as a life s of good faith to soothe men demands nerve you must not hurry you must not look nervous though you know that you are a mark for every rifle within extreme range and above all if you are smitten you must make as little noise as possible and roll through the it is at this hour when the breeze brings the first salt of the powder to noses rather cold at the tip and the eye can quietly take in the appearance of each red that the strain on the nerves is strongest scotch can endure for half a day and no whit of their zeal at the end english sometimes under punishment while the irish like the french are apt to run forward by ones and which is just as bad as running back the truly wise of highly strung troops allows them in seasons of waiting to hear the of their own voices uplifted in song there is a legend of an english regiment that lay by its arms under fire sam hall to the horror of its newly appointed and pious colonel the black who were suffering more than the on a hill half a mile away began presently to explain to all who cared to listen we ll sound the from the centre to the sea and ireland shall be free says the shan van sing boys said father softly it looks as if we cared for their peas dan raised himself to his knees and opened his mouth in a song imparted to him as to most of his comrades in the confidence by the then lying limp and fainting on the grass the chill fear of death upon him company after company caught up the words which the of the the i a a say are to herald the general rising of and to breathe which except to those duly appointed to hear is death wherefore they are printed in this place the saxon in heaven s just balance is weighed his doom like s in death has been cast and the hand of the shall never be stayed till his race faith and speech are a dream of the past they were heart filling lines and they ran with a the i a a are better served by their pens than their dan clapped merrily on the back asking him to sing up the officers lay down again there was no need to walk any more their men were soothing themselves thus st mary in heaven has written the vow that the land shall not rest till the blood from the babe at the breast to the hand at the plough has rolled to the ocean like in flood i i ll speak to you after all s over said father in dan s ear what s the use of to me when you do this dan you ve been playing with fire i ll lay you more penance in a week than come along to with us father dear the are on the move they ll let us go now the regiment rose to the blast of the as one man but one man there was who rose more swiftly than all the others for half an inch of was in the part of his leg you ve got to do it said dan grimly do it decent anyhow and the roar of the rush drowned his words life s for the rear companies thrust forward the first still singing as they swung down the slope from the child at the breast to the hand at the plough shall roll to the ocean like in flood they should have sung it in the face of england not of the whom it impressed as much as did the wild irish yell they came down singing said the report of the enemy borne from village to village the next day they continued to sing and it was written that our men could not abide when they came it is believed that there was magic in the song dan and horse kept themselves in the neighbourhood of twice the man would have bolted back in the confusion twice he was heaved kicked and shouldered back again into the of a hotly charge at the end the panic excess of his fear drove him into madness beyond all human courage his eyes staring at nothing his mouth open and and breathing as one in a cold bath he went forward while dan toiled after him the charge checked at a high mud wall it was who scrambled up tooth and nail and hurled down among the the amazed who barred his way it was keeping to the straight line of the dog who led a collection of ardent souls at a newly battery and himself on the of a gun as his companions danced among the it was who ran wildly on from that battery into the open plain where the enemy were retiring in sullen groups his hands were empty he had lost and belt and he was bleeding from a wound in the of the the neck dan and horse panting and distressed had thrown themselves down on the ground by the captured guns when they noticed s	39
charge mad said horse mad with fear he s going straight to his death an shouting s no use let him go watch now if we fire we ll hit him maybe the last of a crowd of turned at the noise of shod feet behind him and shifted his knife ready to hand this he saw was no time to take prisoners tore on sobbing the straight held blade went home through the breast and the body pitched forward almost before a shot from dan s rifle brought down the and still further hurried the retreat the two went out to bring in their dead he was given the point and that was an easy death said horse the corpse but would you ha shot him if he had lived he didn t live so there s no but i doubt i have of the fun he gave us let alone the beer up his legs horse and we d bring him in perhaps tis better this way they bore the poor limp body to the mass of the regiment open on their and there was a general when one of the younger said that was a good man said horse when a burial party had taken over the burden i m powerful and this reminds me there ll be no more beer at all not said dan with a twinkle in his eye as he stretched himself for rest are we not all we can an while we are we not entitled to free sure his ould mother in new york would not h ufe s let her son s comrades perish of if she can be reached at the end of a letter you re a said horse she will not i wish this war was over an we d get back to faith the commander in chief ought to be hanged in his own little sword belt for us work on the were generally of horse s opinion so they made haste to get their work done as soon as possible and their industry was rewarded by unexpected peace we can fight the sons of adam said the but we cannot fight the sons of and this regiment never stays still in one place let us therefore come in they came in and this regiment withdrew to under the of dan excellent as a subordinate dan failed altogether as a chief in possibly because he was too much swayed by the advice of the only man in the regiment who could manufacture more than one kind of handwriting the same mail that bore to s mother in new york a letter from the colonel telling her how her son had fought for the queen and how assuredly he would have been recommended for the victoria cross had he survived carried a communication signed i grieve to say by that same colonel and all the officers of the regiment explaining their to do anything which is contrary to the and all kinds of if only a little money could be forwarded to cover expenses daniel would receive funds vice who was at this present time of writing both letters were forwarded from new york to street san with comments as brief as they were bitter the third three read and looked the of the at each other then the second he who believed in joining hands with the practical branches began to laugh and on recovering his gravity said gentlemen i consider this will be a lesson to us we re left again those cursed irish have let us down i knew they would but here he laughed afresh i d give considerable to know what was at the back of it all his curiosity would have been satisfied had he seen dan to explain to his thirsty comrades in india the non arrival of funds from new york the mark of the beast your gods and my gods do you or i know which are the stronger native proverb east of some hold the direct control of providence ceases man being there handed over to the power of the gods and devils of asia and the church of england providence only an occasional and modified in the case of englishmen this theory accounts for some of the more unnecessary horrors of life in india it may be stretched to explain my story my friend of the police who knows as much of natives of india as is good for any man can bear witness to the facts of the case our doctor also saw what and i saw the which he drew from the evidence was entirely he is dead now he died in a rather curious manner which has been elsewhere described when came to india he owned a little money and some land in the near a place called both properties had been left him by an uncle and he came out to them he was a big heavy genial and man his knowledge of natives was of course limited and he complained of the difficulties of the language he rode in from his place in the hills to spend new year in the station and he stayed with on new year s eve there was a big dinner at the club and r the mark of the beast the night was wet when men from the ends of the empire they have a right to be the frontier had sent down a o catch em alive s who had not seen twenty white faces for a year and were used to ride miles to dinner at the next fort at the risk of a bullet where their drinks should lie they by their new security for they tried to play with a curled up found in the garden and one of them carried the round the room in his teeth half a dozen had	39
come in from the south and were talking horse to the biggest liar in asia who was trying to cap all their stories at once everybody was there and there was a general closing up of ranks and taking stock of our losses in dead or that had fallen during the past year it was a very wet night and i remember that we sang with our feet in the cup and our heads among the stars and swore that we were all dear friends then some of us went away and and some tried to open up the and were opened up by in tliat cruel outside and some found stars and and some were married which was bad and some did other things which were worse and the others of us stayed in our chains and strove to make money on insufficient experiences began the night with and drank champagne steadily up to then raw with all the strength of took with his coffee four or five and to improve his pool strokes beer and bones at half past two winding up with old brandy consequently when he came out at half past three in the morning into fourteen degrees of frost he was very angry with his horse life s for and tried to into the saddle tlie horse broke away and went to his stables so and i formed a guard of to take home our road lay through the close to a little temple of the monkey god who is a leading divinity worthy of respect all gods have good points just as have all priests personally i attach much importance to and am kind to his the great gray of the hills one never knows when one may want a friend there was a in the temple and as we passed we could hear voices of men hymns in a native temple the priests rise at all hours of the night to do honour to their god before wc could stop him dashed up the steps patted two priests on the back and was gravely grinding the ashes of his cigar butt into the forehead of the red stone image of tried to drag him out but he sat down and said solemnly that mark of the b made it t it fine in half a minute the temple was and noisy and who knew what came of gods said that things might occur he by virtue of his of position long residence in the country and weakness for going among the natives was known to the priests and he felt unhappy sat on the ground and refused to move he said that good old made a very soft pillow then without any warning a silver man came out of a recess behind the image of the god he was perfectly naked in that bitter bitter cold and his body shone like silver for he was what the bible calls a as white as snow also he had no face because he was a j the mark of the beast of some years standing and his disease was heavy upon him we two stooped to haul up and the temple was filling and with folk who seemed to spring from the earth when the silver man ran in under our making a noise exactly like the of an caught the body and dropped his head on s breast before we could him away then he retired to a comer and sat while the crowd blocked all the doors the priests were very angry until the silver man touched that seemed to sober them at the end of a few minutes silence one of the priests came to and said in perfect english take your friend away he has done with but has not done with him the crowd gave room and we carried into the road was very angry he said that we might all three have been and that should thank his stars that he had escaped without injury thanked no one he said that he wanted to go to bed he was drunk we moved on silent and until was taken with violent shivering fits and he said that the smells of the were overpowering and he wondered why slaughter houses were so near english can t you smell the blood said we put him to bed at last just as the dawn was breaking and invited me to have another and while we were drinking he talked of the trouble in the temple and admitted that it him completely hates being by natives because his business in life is to them with their own weapons he has not yet succeeded in life s doing this but in fifteen or twenty years he will have made some small progress they should have us he said instead of at us i wonder what they meant i don t like it one little bit i said that the managing committee of the temple would in all probability bring a criminal action against us for insulting their religion there was a section of the indian code which exactly met s said he only hoped and prayed that they would do this before i left i looked into s room and saw him lying on his right side scratching his left breast then i went to bed cold depressed and at seven o clock in the morning at one o clock i rode over to s house to inquire after s head i imagined that it be a sore one was and seemed his temper was gone for he was the cook for not supplying him with an chop a man who can eat raw meat after a wet night is a curiosity i told this and he laughed you breed queer in these parts he said i ve been bitten to pieces but only in one place let s have a look at the	39
bite said it may have gone down since this morning while the were being cooked opened his shirt and showed us just over his left breast a mark the perfect double of the black the five or six irregular arranged in a circle on a s hide looked and said it was only pink this morning it s grown black now ran to a glass by jove he said this is nasty what is it we could not answer here the came in all the mark of the beast red and and bolted three in a most offensive manner he ate on liis right only and threw his head over his right shoulder as he snapped the meat when he had finished it struck that he had been strangely for he said i don t think i ever felt so hungry in my life i ve bolted like an after breakfast said to me don t go stay here and stay for the night seeing that my house was not three miles from s this request was absurd but insisted and was going to say something when interrupted by declaring in a way that he felt hungry again sent a man to ray house to fetch over my and a horse and we three went down to s stables to pass the hours until it was time to go out for a ride the man who has a weakness for horses never of them and when two men are killing time in this way they gather knowledge and the one from the other there were five horses in the stables and i shall never forget the scene as we tried to look them over they seemed to have gone mad they reared and screamed and nearly tore up their they and shivered and and were with fear s horses used to know him as well as his dogs which made the matter more curious we left the stable for fear of the brutes throwing themselves in their panic then turned back and called me the horses were still frightened but they let us gentle and make much of them and put their heads in our they aren t afraid of us said d you know i d give three months pay if outrage here could talk life s but outrage was dumb and could only up to his master and blow out his nostrils as is the custom of horses when they wish to explain things but can t came up when we were in the and as soon as the horses saw him their fright broke out afresh it was all that we could do to escape from the place said they don t seem to love you nonsense said my mare will follow me a dog he went to her she was in a loose box but as he the bars she knocked him down and broke away into the garden i laughed but was not amused he took his moustache in both fists and at it till it nearly came out instead of going off to chase his property yawned saying that he felt sleepy he went to the house to lie down which was a foolish way of spending new year s day sat with me in the stables and asked if i had noticed anything peculiar in s manner i said that he ate his food like a beast but that this might have been the result of living alone in the hills out of the reach of society as refined and as ours for instance was not amused i do not think that he listened to me for his next sentence referred to the mark on s breast and i said that it might have been caused by flies or that it was possibly a birth mark newly bom and now visible for the first time we both agreed that it was to look at and foimd occasion to say that i was a fool i can t tell you what i think now said he because you would call me a madman but you must stay with me for the next few days if you can i want you to watch but don t tell me what you think till i have made up my mind but i am dining out to night i said the mark of the beast so am i said and so is at least if he doesn t change his mind we walked about the garden smoking but saying nothing because we were friends and talking spoils good tobacco till our pipes were out then we went to wake up he was wide awake and about his room i say i want some more he said can i get them we laughed and said go and change the will be round in a minute all right said i u go when i get the ones mind he seemed to be quite in earnest it was four o clock and we had had breakfast at one still for a long time he demanded those then he changed into riding clothes and went out into the his pony the mare had not been caught would not let him come near all three horses were mad with fear and finally said that he would stay at home and get something to eat and i rode out wondering as we passed the temple of the silver man came out and at us he is not one of the regular priests of the temple said i think i should peculiarly like to lay my hands on him there was no spring in our gallop on the that evening the horses were stale and moved as though they had been ridden out the fright after breakfast has been too much for them said that was the only remark he made through the remainder of the ride once	39
or twice i think he swore to himself but that did not count life s we came back in the dark at seven o clock and saw that there were no lights in the careless my servants arc said my horse reared at something on the carriage drive and stood up under its nose what are you doing about the garden said but both horses bolted and nearly threw us we dismounted by the stables and returned to who was on his hands and knees under the orange bushes what the devil s wrong with you said nothing nothing in the world said speaking very quickly and thickly i ve been you know the smell of the earth is delightful i think i m going for a walk a long walk all night then i saw that there was something excessively out of order somewhere and i said to i am not dining out bless you said here get up you ll catch fever there come in to dinner and let s have the lamps lit we all dine at home stood up unwillingly and said no lamps no lamps it s much here let s dine outside and have some more lots of em and bloody ones with now a december evening in northern india is bitterly cold and s suggestion was that of a come in said sternly come in at once came and when the lamps were brought we saw that he was literally with dirt from head to foot he must have been rolling in the garden he shrank from the light and went to his room his eyes were horrible to look at there was a green light behind the mark of the beast not in them if you understand and the man s lower lip hung down said there is going to be big trouble to night don t you change your riding things we waited and waited for s and ordered dinner in the meantime we could hear moving about his own room but there was no light there presently from the room came the long drawn howl of a wolf people write and talk lightly of blood running cold and hair standing up and things of that kind both sensations are too horrible to be with my heart stopped as though a knife had been driven through it and turned as white as the the howl was repeated and was answered by another howl far across the fields that set the gilded roof on the horror dashed into s room i followed and we saw getting out of the window he made beast noises in the back of his throat he could not answer us when we shouted at him he i don t quite remember what followed but i think that must have stunned him with the long boot jack or else i should never have been able to sit on his chest could not speak he could only his were those of a wolf not of a man the human spirit must have been giving way all day and have died out with the we were dealing with a beast that had once been the affair was beyond any human and rational experience i tried to say but the word wouldn t come because i knew that i was lying we bound this beast with leather of the and tied its and big toes together and ufe s it with a shoe which makes a very efficient if you know how to arrange it then we carried it into the dining room and sent a man to the doctor telling him to come over at once after we had despatched the messenger and were drawing breath said it s no good this isn t any doctor s work i also knew that he spoke the truth the beast s head was free and it threw it about from side to side any one entering the room would have believed that we were a wolf s that was the most of all sat with his chin in the heel of his fist watching the beast as it on the but saying nothing the shirt had been torn open in the and showed the black mark on the left breast it stood out like a in the silence of the watching we heard something without like a she we both rose to our feet and i answer for myself not felt sick actually and physically sick we told each other as did the men in that it was the cat arrived and i never saw a little man so shocked he said that it was a case of and that nothing could be done at least any measures would only the agony the beast was foaming at the mouth as we told had been bitten by dogs once or twice any man who keeps half a dozen must expect a now and again could no help he could only that was dying of the beast was then howling for it had managed to spit out the shoe said that he would be ready to to the of death and that the end was certain he was the mark of the beast i a good little man and he offered to remain with us but refused the kindness he did not wish to poison s new year he would only ask i not to give the real cause of s death to the public so left deeply agitated and as soon as the noise of the cart wheels had died away told me in a whisper his suspicions they were so wildly improbable that he dared not say them out aloud and i who entertained all s was so ashamed of to them that i pretended to even if the silver man had for the image of the punishment could not have fallen so quickly	39
when he was on the frontier in search of a local murderer who came in the gray dawn to send much farther than the islands caught the man as he was crawling into s tent with a dagger between his teeth and after his record of was established in the eyes of the law he was hanged from that date wore a collar of rough silver and employed a on her night blanket and the blanket was of double woven cloth for she was a delicate dog under no circumstances would she be separated from and once when he was ill with fever made great trouble for the doctors because she did not know how to help her master and would not allow another creature to attempt aid of the indian medical service beat her over her head with a gun butt before she could understand that she must give room for those who could give a short time after had taken s my business took me through that station and naturally the club quarters being full i myself upon it was a desirable eight and against any chance of from rain under the pitch of the roof ran a ceiling cloth which looked just as neat as a white washed ceiling the landlord had it when took the unless you knew how indian were built you would never have suspected that life s above the cloth lay the dark three of the roof where the beams and the of the all manner of rats and foul things met me in the with a bay like the boom of the bell of st paul s putting her on my shoulder to show she was glad to see me had contrived to together a sort of meal which he called lunch and immediately after it was finished went out about his business i was left alone with and my own affairs the heat of the summer had broken up and turned to the warm damp of the rains there was no motion in the heated air but the rain fell like on the earth and flung up a blue mist when it back the and the apples the and the trees in the garden stood still while the warm water lashed through them and the began to sing among the hedges a little before the light failed and when the rain was at its worst i sat in the back and heard the water roar from the and scratched myself because i was covered with the thing called heat came out with me and put her head in my lap and was very sorrowful so i gave her when tea was ready and i took tea in the back on account of the little coolness found there the rooms of the house were dark behind me i could smell s and the oil on his guns and i had no desire to sit among these things my own servant came to me in the the muslin of his clothes clinging tightly to his body and told me that a gentleman had called and wished to see some one very much against my will but only because of the darkness of the rooms i went into the naked drawing room telling my man to bring the lights there might or might not have been a waiting it the return of s seemed to me that i saw a figure by one of the windows but when the came there was nothing save the of the rain without and the of the drinking earth in my nostrils i explained to my servant that he was no wiser than he ought to be and went back to the to talk to she had gone out into the wet and i could hardly her back to me even with with sugar tops came home dripping wet just before dinner and the first thing he said was has any one called i explained with apologies that my servant had summoned me into the drawing room on a false alarm or that had tried to call on and thinking better of it had fled after giving his name ordered dinner without comment and since it was a real dinner with a white attached we sat down at nine o clock wanted to go to bed and i was tired too who had been lying underneath the table rose up and into the least exposed as soon as her master moved to his own room which was next to the stately chamber set apart for if a mere wife had wished to sleep out of doors in that rain it would not have mattered but was a dog and therefore the better animal i looked at expecting to see him her with a whip he smiled as a man would smile after telling some unpleasant domestic tragedy she has done this ever since i moved in here said he let her go the dog was s dog so i said nothing but i felt all that felt in being thus made light of outside my bedroom window and storm after storm came up thundered on the life s and died away the lightning the sky as a thrown egg a barn door but the light was pale blue not yellow and looking through ray split blinds i could see the great dog standing not sleeping in the the on her back and her feet as as the drawn wire rope of a bridge in the very short pauses of the thunder i tried to sleep but it seemed that some one wanted me very he whoever he was was trying to call me by name but his voice was no more than a whisper the thunder ceased and went into the garden and howled at the low moon somebody tried to open my door walked about and about through the house and stood breathing heavily in	39
the and just when i was falling asleep i fancied that i heard a wild and above my head or on the door i ran into s room and asked him whether he was ill and had been calling for me he was lying on his bed half dressed a pipe in his mouth i thought you d come he said have i been walking round the house recently i explained that he had been in the and the smoking room and two or three other places and he laughed and told me to go back to bed i went back to bed and slept till the morning but through all ray mixed dreams i was sure i was doing some one an injustice in not attending to his wants what those wants were i could not tell but a fluttering whispering bolt lurking was me for my and half awake i beard the howling of in the garden and the of the rain i lived in that house for two days went the return of to his office daily leaving me alone for eight or ten hours with for my only companion as long as the full light lasted i was comfortable and so was but in the twilight she and i moved into the back and each other for company we were alone in the house but none the less it was much too fully occupied by a tenant with whom i did not wish to interfere i never saw him but i could see the curtains between the rooms quivering where he had just passed through i could hear the chairs creaking as the sprung under a weight that had just quitted them and i could feel when i went to get a book from the that somebody was waiting in the shadows of the front till i should have gone away made the twilight more interesting by glaring into the darkened rooms with every hair erect and following the motions of something that i could not see she never entered the rooms but her eyes moved that was quite sufficient only when my servant came to trim the lamps and make all light and she would come in with me and spend her time sitting on her watching an invisible extra man as he moved about behind my shoulder dogs are cheerful companions i explained to gently as might be that i would go over to the club and find for myself quarters there i admired his was pleased with his guns and rods but i did not much care for his house and its atmosphere he heard me out to the end and then smiled very wearily but without contempt for he is a man who understands things stay on be said and see what this thing means all you have talked about i have known since i took the stay on and wait has left me are you going too i life s i had seen him through one little connected with a heathen idol that had brought me to the doors of a lunatic and i had no desire to help him through further experiences he was a man to whom arrived as do dinners to ordinary people therefore i explained more clearly than ever that i liked him and would be happy to see him in the but that i did not care to sleep under his roof this was after dinner when had gone out to lie in the ton my soul i don t wonder said with his eyes on the ceiling cloth look at the tails of two brown were hanging between the cloth and the of the wall they threw long shadows in the if you are afraid of of course said i hate and fear because if you look into the eyes of any snake you will see that it knows all and more of the mystery of man s fall and that it feels all the contempt that the devil felt when adam was from besides which its bite is generally fatal and it up legs you ought to get your i said give me a rod and we ll em down they ll hide among the roof beams said i can t stand overhead i m going up into the roof if i shake em down stand by with a cleaning rod and break their backs i was not anxious to assist in his work but i took the cleaning rod and waited in the while brought a gardener s ladder from the and set it against the side of the room p the return of the snake tails drew themselves up and disappeared we could hear the dry rushing of long bodies running over the ceiling cloth took a lamp with him while i tried to make clear to him the danger of hunting roof between a ceiling cloth and a apart from the of property caused by out ceiling nonsense said they re sure to hide near the walls by the cloth the bricks are too cold for em and the heat of the room is just what they like he put his hand to the comer of the stuff and it from the it gave with a great sound of tearing and put his head through the opening into the dark of the angle of the roof beams i set my teeth and lifted the rod for i had not the least knowledge of what might descend h m said and his voice rolled and in the roof there s room for another set of rooms up here and by jove some one is occupying i said from below no it s a hand me up the two last joints of a rod and i ll it it s lying on the main roof beam i handed up the rod what a nest for and no wonder the live here said climbing	39
farther into the roof i could see his elbow thrusting with the rod come out of that whoever you are heads below there it s falling i saw the ceiling cloth nearly in the centre of the room bag with a shape that was pressing it downwards and downwards towards the lighted lamp on the table i snatched the lamp out of danger and stood back then the cloth out from the walls tore split swayed life s and shot down upon the table something that i dared not look at till had slid down the ladder and was standing by my side he did not say much being a man of few words but he picked up the loose end of the and threw it over the on the table it strikes me said he putting down the lamp our friend has come back oh you would would you there was a movement imder the cloth and a little snake out to be back broken by the butt of the rod i was sufficiently sick to make no remarks worth meditated and helped himself to drinks the arrangement imder the cloth made no more signs of hfe is it i said turned back the cloth for a moment and looked it is he said and his throat is cut from ear to ear then we spoke both together and to ourselves that s why he whispered about the house in the garden began to bay furiously a little later her great nose heaved open the dining room door she and was still the tattered ceiling cloth hung down almost to the level of the table and there was hardly room to move away from the discovery came in and sat down her teeth under her lip and her planted she looked at it s a bad business old lady said he men don t climb up into the roofs of their to die and the return of they don t fasten up the ceiling cloth behind em let s think it out let s think it out somewhere else i said excellent ideal turn the lamps out we ll get into my room i did not turn the lamps out i went into s room first and allowed him to make the darkness then he followed me and we lit tobacco and thought thought i smoked furiously because i was afraid is back said the question is who killed don t talk i ve a notion of my own when i took this i took over most of s servants was and wasn t he i agreed though the heap under the cloth had looked neither one thing nor the other if i call in all the servants they will stand fast in a crowd and lie like what do you suggest call em in one by one i said they ll run away and give the news to all their fellows said we em do you suppose your servant knows anything about it he may for aught i know but i don t think it s likely he has only been here two or three days i answered what s your notion i can t quite tell how the did the man get the wrong side of the ceiling cloth there was a heavy outside s bedroom door this showed that his body servant had from sleep and wished to put to bed come in said it s a very warm night t it a great green tiu six foot life s said that it was a very night but that there was more rain which by his honour s favour would bring relief to the country it will be so if god pleases said off his boots it is in my mind that i have worked thee for many days ever since that time when thou first earnest into my service what time was that has the heaven bom forgotten it was when went secretly to europe without warning given and i even i came into the honoured service of the protector of the poor and went to europe it is so said among those who were bis servants and thou wilt take service with him when he returns assuredly he was a good master and cherished his that is true i am very tired but i go buck shooting to morrow give me the little sharp rifle that i use for black buck it is in the case yonder the man stooped over the case handed barrels stock and fore end to who fitted all together yawning then he reached down to the gun case took a solid drawn and slipped it into the of the express and has gone to europe secretly that is very strange is it not what do i know of the ways of the white man heaven bom very little truly but thou shalt know more anon it has reached me that has returned from his so long and that even now he lies in the next room waiting his servant the return of the slid along the barrels of the rifle as they themselves at s broad breast go and look said take a lamp thy master is tired and he waits thee go the man picked up a lamp and went into the following and pushing him with the of the rifle he looked for a moment at the black depths behind the ceiling cloth at the snake under foot and last a gray settling on his face at the thing under the hast thou seen said after a pause i have seen i am clay in the white man s hands what does the presence do hang thee within the month what else for killing him nay consider walking among us his servants he cast his eyes upon my child who was four years old him he and in ten days he died of	39
the fever my child what said he said he was a handsome child and patted him on the head wherefore my child died wherefore i killed in the when he had come back from and was sleeping wherefore i dragged him up into the roof beams and made all fast behind him the heaven bom knows all things i am the servant of the heaven bom looked at me above the rifle and said in the thou art witness to this saying he has killed stood gray in the light of the one lamp the need for justification came upon him very swiftly i am he said but the offence was that man s he cast an evil eye upon my child and i life s killed and hid him only such as are served by devils he glared at before him only such could know what i did it was clever but thou have lashed him to the beam with a rope now thou wilt hang by a rope orderly a drowsy policeman answered s call he was followed by another and sat wondrous still take him to the police station said there is a case toward do i hang then said making no attempt to escape and keeping his eyes on the if the sun shines or the water runs yes said stepped back one long pace quivered and stood still the two waited further orders go said nay but i go very swiftly said look i am even now a dead man he lifted his foot and to the little toe there clung the head of the half killed snake firm fixed in the agony of death i come of land holding stock said rocking where he stood it were a disgrace to me to go to the public therefore i take this way be it remembered that the s shirts are correctly and that there is an extra piece of soap in his my child was and i the why should you seek to me with the rope my honour is saved and and i die at the end of an hour he died as they die who are bitten by the little brown and the bore him and the thing under the to their appointed the return of places all were needed to make clear the disappearance of this said very calmly as he climbed into bed is called the nineteenth century did you hear what that man said i heard i answered made a mistake simply and solely through not knowing the nature of the oriental and the coincidence of a little fever had been with him for four years i shuddered my own servant had been with me for exactly that length of time when i went over to my own room i found ray man waiting as the copper head on a penny to pull off my boots what has befallen said i he was bitten by a snake and died the rest the knows was the answer and how much of thi matter hast thou known as much as might be gathered from one coming in in the twilight to seek satisfaction gently let me pull off those boots i had just settled to the sleep of exhaustion when i heard shouting from his side of the house has come back to her place and so she had the great was on her own on her own blanket while in the next room the idle empty ceiling cloth as it on the table there came to the a poor exile of the dew on his robe heavy aod chill ere the steamer that brought had passed out of he was a bill song once upon a time there was a king who lived on the road to very many miles in the his kingdom was eleven thousand feet above the sea and exactly four miles square but most of the miles stood on end owing to the nature of the country his were rather less than four hundred pounds yearly and they were expended in the maintenance of one elephant and a standing army of five men he was to the indian government who allowed him certain sums for keeping a section of the road in repair he further increased his by selling timber to the railway companies for he would cut the great trees in his one forest and they fell thundering into the river and were swept down to the plains three hundred miles away and became railway ties now and again this king whose name does not matter would mount a horse and ride scores of miles to town to confer with the lieutenant governor on matters of state or to assure the that his sword was at the service of the queen then the would cause a of drums to be sounded and the horse and the cavalry of the state two men in and the herald who bore the silver stick is before the king would trot back to their own place which lay between the tail of a heaven climbing and a dark forest now from such a king always remembering that he possessed one veritable elephant and could count his descent for twelve hundred years i expected when it was my fate to wander through his no more than mere license to the night had closed in rain and rolling clouds blotted out the lights of the villages in the valley forty miles away untouched by cloud or storm the white shoulder of pa the mountain of the council of the the evening star the sang sorrowfully to each other as they hunted for dry in the trees and the last puff of the brought from the unseen villages the scent of damp wood smoke hot cakes dripping and pine that is the true smell of the and if once it into the blood of a	39
man that man will at the last forgetting all else return to the hills to die the clouds closed and the smell went away and there remained nothing in au the world except white mist and the boom of the river racing through the valley below a fat sheep who did not want to die at my tent door he was with the prime minister and the general of public education and he was a royal gift to me and my camp servants i expressed my thanks and asked if i might have audience of the king the prime minister his which had fallen off in the struggle and assured me that the king would be very pleased to see me therefore i despatched two bottles as a and when the sheep had entered upon another went to the king s palace life s through the wet he had sent his army to escort me but the army stayed to talk with my cook soldiers are very much alike all the world over the palace was a four and mud and timber house the finest in all the hills for a day s journey the king was dressed in a purple velvet jacket white muslin trousers and a yellow of price he gave me audience in a little room opening off the palace which was occupied by the elephant of state the great beast was and from trunk to tail and the curve of his back stood out against the mist the prime minister and the general of public education were present to introduce me but all the court had been dismissed lest the two bottles should corrupt their morals the king cast a wreath of heavy scented flowers round my neck as i bowed and inquired how my honoured presence had the felicity to be i said that through seeing his countenance the mists of the night had turned into sunshine and that by reason of his beneficent sheep his good deeds would be remembered by the gods he said that since i had set my magnificent foot in his kingdom the crops would probably yield seventy per cent more than the average i said that the fame of the king had reached to the four comers of the earth and that the nations their teeth when they heard daily of the glories of his realm and the wisdom of his moon like prime minister and uke general of public education then we sat down on clean white cushions and i was at the king s right hand three minutes later he was telling me that the state of the crop was something disgraceful and that the railway companies would not i pay him enough for his timber the talk shifted to and fro with the bottles and we discussed very many stately things and the king became confidential on the subject of government generally most of all he dwelt on the of one of his subjects who from all i could gather had been the in the old days said the king i could have ordered the elephant yonder to him to death now i must e en send him seventy miles across the hills to be tried and his keep would be upon the state the elephant eats thing what be the man s crimes said i he is an and no man of mine own people secondly since of my favour i gave him land upon his first coming he refuses to pay am i not the lord of the earth above and below entitled by right and custom to one eighth of the crop yet this devil establishing himself refuses to pay a single tax and he brings a poisonous of cast him into jail i said the king answered shifting a little on the cushions once and only once in these forty years sickness came upon me so that i was not able to go abroad in that hour i made a vow to my god that i would never again cut man or woman from the of the sun and the air of god for i perceived the nature of the punishment how can i break my vow were it only the of a hand or a foot i should not delay but even that is impossible now that the english have rule one or another of my people he looked at the general of public education would at once write a letter to the and perhaps i should be deprived of my of drums he the of his silver water ufe s pipe fitted a plain and passed his pipe to me not content with refusing he continued this refuses also the this was the e or forced labour on the roads and my people up lo the like treason yet he is when he wills an expert log there is none better ot bolder among my people to clear a block of the river when the logs stick fast but he strange gods said the prime minister for that i have no concern said the king who was as as in matters of belief to each man his own god and the fire or mother earth for us all at last it is the rebellion that me the king has an army i suggested has not the king burned the man s house and left him naked to the night nay a hut is a hut and it holds the life of a man but once i sent my army against him when his excuses became wearisome of their heads he three across the top with a stick the other two men ran away also the guns would not shoot i had seen the of the one third of it was an old piece with a ragged hole where the should have been a wire bound with a worm eaten stock and one third a four bore flint duck	39
gun without a flint but it is to be remembered said the king reaching out for the bottle that he is a very expert log and a man of a merry face what shall i do to him this was interesting the timid hill folk would as soon have refused taxes to their king as to their gods if it be the king s i said i will not strike my tents till the third day and i will see this man the mercy of the king is god like and rebellion is like unto the sin of moreover both the bottles and another be empty you have my leave to go said the king next morning a went through the state that there was a log jam on the river and that it all loyal subjects to remove it the people poured down from their villages to the moist warm valley of fields and the king and i went with them hundreds of dressed logs had caught on a of rock and the river was bringing down more logs every minute to complete the the water and and worried at the timber and the population of the state began the nearest logs with a pole in the hope of starting a general movement then there went up a shout of and a large red haired hurried up off his clothes as he ran that is he that is the rebel said the king now will the dam be cleared but why has he red hair i asked since red hair among hill folks is as common as blue or green he is an said the king well done oh well done had scrambled out on the jam and was out the butt of a log with a rude sort of it slid forward slowly as an moves three or four others followed it and the green water through the they had made then the villagers howled and shouted and scrambled across the logs pulling and pushing the obstinate timber and the red head of was chief among them all s the logs swayed and and groaned as fresh from battered the now dam all gave way at last in a of foam racing logs black heads and confusion indescribable the river tossed everything before it i saw the red head go down with the last of the jam and disappear between the great grinding tree trunks it rose close to the bank and blowing like a wrung the water out of his eyes and made to the king i had time to observe closely the of his shock head and beard was most startling and in the thicket of hair wrinkled above high cheek bones shone two merry blue eyes he was indeed an but yet a in language habit and attire he spoke the dialect with an indescribable softening of the it was not so much a as an accent whence thou i asked from he pointed across the hills and grinned that grin went straight to my heart mechanically i held out my hand and shook it no pure would have understood the meaning of the gesture he went away to look for his clothes and as he climbed back to his village i heard a joyous yell that seemed familiar it was the of you see now said the king why i would not kill him he is a bold man among my logs but and he shook his head like a i know that before long there will be complaints of him in the court let us return to the palace and do justice it was that king s custom to judge his subjects every day between eleven and three o clock i saw him decide in matters of and a little wife a stealing then his brow clouded and he summoned die again it is he said not content with refusing on his own part he has bound half his village by an oath to the like treason never before has such a thing befallen me nor are my taxes heavy a rabbit faced with a blush rose stuck behind his ear advanced trembling he had been in the conspiracy but had told everything and hoped for the king s favour king said i if it be the king s will let this matter stand over till the morning only the gods can do right swiftly and it may be that yonder has lied nay for i know the nature of but since a guest asks let the matter remain wilt thou speak harshly to this red headed he may listen to thee i made an attempt that very evening but for the life of me i could not keep my countenance grinned and began to tell me about a big brown bear in a field by the river would i care to shoot it i spoke on the sin of conspiracy the certainty of punishment s face clouded for a moment shortly afterwards he withdrew from my tent and i heard him singing to himself softly among the pines the words were unintelligible to me but the tune like his liquid speech seemed the ghost of something strangely familiar i to sang again and again and i my i brain for that lost tune jt was not till after dinner life s that i discovered some one had cut a square foot of velvet from the centre of my best cloth this made me so angry that i wandered down the valley in the hope of meeting the big brown bear i could hear him like a discontented pig in the field and i waited shoulder deep in the dew dripping com to catch him after his meal the moon was at full and drew out the rich scent of the crop then heard the of a cow one of the little black no bigger than dogs two shadows that looked like a	39
bear and her hurried past me i was in act to fire when i saw that they had each a brilliant red head the lesser animal was trailing some rope behind it that left a dark track on the path they passed within six feet of me and the shadow of the moonlight lay velvet black on their faces velvet black was exactly the word for by all the powers of moonlight they were in the velvet of my cloth i and went to bed next morning the kingdom was in uproar men said had gone forth in the night and with a sharp knife had cut off the tail of a cow belonging to the rabbit faced who had betrayed him it was against the holy cow the state desired his blood but he had retreated into his hut the doors and windows with big stones and defied the world the king and i and the approached the hut cautiously there was no hope of the man without loss of life for from a hole in the wall projected the of an extremely well cared for gun the only gun in the state that could shoot had narrowly missed a just before we came up the standing army stood it could do no more for when it s advanced pieces of sharp flew from the windows to these were added from time to time showers of water we saw red heads up and down in the hut the family of were their and blood of defiance were the only answers to our prayers never said the king has such a thing befallen my state next year i will certainly buy a little cannon he looked at me is there any priest in the kingdom to whom he will listen said i for a light was beginning to break upon me he his own god said the prime minister we can starve him out let the man approach said from within all others i will kill send me the white man the door was thrown open and i entered the smoky interior of a hut crammed with children and every child had flaming red hair a raw cow s tail lay on the floor and by its side two pieces of black my black velvet rudely into the semblance of and what is this shame said i he grinned more than ever there is no shame said he i did but cut off the tail of that man s cow he betrayed me i was minded to shoot him but not to death indeed not to death only h in the legs and why at all since it is the custom to pay to the king why at all by the god of my father i cannot tell said h and who was thy father h the same that had this gun he showed me his weapon a tower bearing date and the stamp of the honourable east india company and thy father s name said i said he at the first i being then a little child it is in my mind that he wore a red coat of that i have no doubt but repeat the name of thy father thrice or four times he obeyed and i understood whence the accent in his speech came said to this hour i worship his god may i see that god in a little while at twilight time thou aught of thy father s speech it is long ago but there is one word which he said often thus then i and ray brethren stood upon our feet our hands to our sides thus even so and what was thy mother a woman of the hills we of but me they call an because my as thou the woman his wife touched him on the arm gently the long outside the fort had lasted far into the day it was now close upon twilight the hour of the very solemnly the red headed rose from the floor and formed a laid his gun against the wall lighted a little oil lamp and set it before a recess in the wall pulling aside a curtain of dirty doth he revealed a worn brass leaning against the of a long forgotten east india regiment thus did my father he said crossing himself the wife and children followed suit then all together they struck up the wailing chant that i heard on the i to a a d i was puzzled no longer again and again they as if their hearts would break their version of the chorus of the wearing of the green they re men and women too i for the wearing of the green a inspiration came to me one of the a boy about eight years old was watching me as he sang i pulled out a held the coin between finger and thumb and only looked at the gun against the wall a grin of brilliant and perfect comprehension the face of the child never for an instant stopping the song he held out his hand for the money and then slid the gun to my hand i might have shot as he but i was satisfied the blood instinct of the race held true drew the curtain across the recess was over thus my father sang there was much more but i have forgotten and i do not know the purport of these words but it may be that the god will understand i am not of this people and i will not pay and why again that soul compelling grin what occupation would be to me between crop and crop it is better than bears but these people do not understand i he picked the from the floor and looked in my face as simply as a child by what road thou attain knowledge to	39
make these i said pointing i cannot tell i am but a of and yet the stuff which thou hast stolen nay surely did i steal i desired it so the life s stuff the stuff what else should i have done with the stuff he twisted the velvet between his fingers but the sin of the cow consider that that is true but oh that man betrayed me and i had no thought but the s tail waved in the moonlight and i had my knife what else should i have done the tail came off ere i was aware thou more than i that is true said i stay within the door i go to speak to the king the population of the state were ranged on the i went forth and spoke to the king o king said i touching this man there be two courses open to thy wisdom thou either hang him from a tree he and his brood till there remains no hair that is red within the land nay said the king why should i hurt the little children they had poured out of the hut door and were making plump to everybody waited with his gun across his arm or thou the of the raise him to honour in thy army he comes of a race that will not pay a red flame is in his blood which comes out at the top of his head in that glowing hair make him chief of the army give hm honour as may befall and full allowance of work but look to it king that neither he nor his hold a foot of earth from thee feed him with words and favour and also liquor from certain bottles that thou of and he will be a of defence but deny him even a of grass for his own this is the nature that god has given him moreover he has brethren the state groaned but if his brethren come they will surely fight with each other till they die or else the one will always give information concerning the other shall he be of thy army king choose the king bowed his head and i said come forth and command the king s army thy name shall no more be in the mouths of men but for as thou hast said i know then new son of which is tim gone very wrong indeed clasped the king s feet the standing army and hurried in an agony of from temple to temple making for the sin of and the king was so pleased with my that he offered to sell me a village for twenty pounds sterling but i buy no villages in the so long as one red head between the tail of the and the dark forest i know that breed and the in the big iron cage lashed to the sheep pen began the discussion the night was hot and as i and the big beamed german passed him dragging our to the fore peak of the steamer he roused himself and he had been caught somewhere in the and was going to england to be exhibited at a shilling a head for four days he had struggled and at the heavy bars of his prison without ceasing and had nearly slain a enough to come reach of the great hairy it would be well for you mine friend if you was a said pausing by the cage you too much in your the s arm slid out from between the bars no one would have believed that it would make a sudden rush at the german s breast the thin silk of the sleeping suit tore out stepped back to pluck a from a bunch hanging close to one of the boats too much said he the fruit and offering it to the devil who was the silk to then we laid out our in the bows among the sleeping to catch any breeze that the pace of the ship might give us the sea was like smoky oil except where it turned to fire imder our and whirled back into the dark in of dull flame there was n and a some miles away we could see the i of the lightning the ship s cow distressed by i the heat and the smell of the beast in the cage unhappily from time to time in exactly the same key as that in which the look out man answered the call from the bridge the tune of the engines was very distinct and the of the ash lift as it was tipped into the sea hurt the procession of hushed noise lay down by my side and lighted a good night cigar this was naturally the beginning of conversation he owned a voice as soothing as the wash of the sea and stores of experiences as vast as the sea itself for his business in life was to wander up and down the world and wild beasts and specimens for german and american i watched glowing end of his cigar wax and in the gloom as the sentences rose and fell til i was nearly asleep the troubled by some dream of the forests of his freedom began to like a soul in and to pluck madly at the bars of the cage if he was out now would not be much of us left said lazily he screams see now how i shall tame him when he stops himself there was a pause in the and from i mouth came an imitation of a snake s hiss so perfect that i almost sprang to my feet the sustained sound ran along the deck and the at the bars ceased the was in an ecstasy of i pure terror dot stopped him said i learned dot trick in when i was collecting for some	39
in one in der world is afraid of der except der snake so i snake against monkey and he keep quite still life s was too much in his dot is der of are you asleep or will you listen and i will tell a dot you shall not there s no tale in the wide world that i can t believe i said if you learned you learned now i shall try your when i was collecting dose it was in or i was in der islands of der over in der dark he pointed southward to new guinea generally i would sooner collect life red devils than when do not bite off your are always dying from for der imperfect soul which is arrested in und too much i was for nearly a year und i found a man dot was called he was a frenchman und he was man to his bone said he was an escaped but he was und dot was enough for me he would call all der life beasts from der forest und would come i said he was st francis of in a new produced he laughed und said he never preach to der fishes he sold for de und dot man who was king of beasts men he had in der house such as dot devil animal in der cage a great dot thought he was a man he foimd him when he was a child der und he was child und brother opera all round to he had his room in dot not a cage but a room a bed sheets und he would go to bed get up in der morning und smoke his cigar u nd eat his dinner und walk him band in hand which was most horrible f l and i hat seen dot beast throw himself back in his chair und laugh when made fun of me he was not a beast he was a man und he talked to und comprehend for i have seen und he was always to me except when i talk too long to und say at all to him den he would pull me dis great dark devil his enormous as if i was a child he was not a beast he was a man dis i saw i know him three months und he saw the same and der understood us both his cigar between his big dog teeth und der blue i was a year und at islands for und for und one time says to me dot he will be married because he found a girl dot was und he if this marrying was right i would not say it was not me dot was going to be married den he go off der girl she was a half caste french very pretty you got a new for my cigar very pretty only i say you thought of if he pull me away when i talk to you what will he do to your wife he will pull her in pieces if i was you i would my wife for wedding present der stuff figure of by dot time i had learned some about der monkey shoot him says he ts your beast i said if he was mine he would be shot now den i felt at der back of my neck der fingers of i tell you dot he talked through dose fingers it was der and dumb all he slide his hairy arm round my neck und he up my chin und looked into my face to see if i his talk so well as he understood mine life s see now sa und you would shoot him he is you dot is der but i knew dot i had made a life s enemy his fingers talk murder through the back of my neck next i see was a pistol in ray bell und he touched it once und i open der to show him it was loaded he seen der killed in der woods he understood so he was married and he forgot clean about dot was alone on der beach der half of a human soul in his belly i was see him und he took a big bough und der sand till he made a great hole like a grave so i says to for any kill he is mad der jealousy said he is not mad at all he obey und my wife und if she speak he will get her slippers und he looked at his wife der room she was a very pretty girl den i said to him dost pretend to know und dis beast dot is himself mad upon der sands you do not talk to him shoot him when he comes to der house for he der light in his eye dot means und killing come to der house but was no light in his eye it was all put away cunning so cunning und he fetch der girl her slippers und turn to me und say dost know him in nine months more dan i known him in twelve years shall a child his i fed him und he was my child do not speak this nonsense to my wife or to me any more dot next day came to my house to help me make some wood cases for der specimens und he tell me dot he left his wife a while in der p and garden den i finish ray cases quick und i say let us go to your houses und get a he laugh and say come along dry his wife was not in der garden und did not come when called und his wife did not come when he called und he knocked at her bedroom door und dot	39
was shut tight locked den he look at me und his face was white i broke down der door my shoulder und der of der roof was torn into a great hole und der sun came in upon der floor you ever seen paper in der waste basket or cards at on der table scattered was no wife dot could be seen i tell you was in dot room dot might be a woman was stuff on der floor und dot was all i looked at things und i was very sick but looked a longer at what was upon the floor und der walls und der hole in der den he to laugh soft und low und i knew und thank dot he was mad he cried he prayed he stood all still in der doorway und laugh to himself den he said she locked herself in dis room and he torn up der fi done dot is so we wiu mend der und wait for he will surely come i tell you we waited ten days in dot house after der room was made into a room again und once or twice we saw a way from der woods he was afraid he done wrong called him when he was come to look on the tenth day und come along der beach und making noises a long piece of black hair in his hands den laugh and say fi done as if it was a glass broken upon der table und come nearer und was honey sweet in his voice und laughed to himself for three days he made love to would not life s let himself be touched den come to at der same table us und the hair on his hands was all black thick what had dried on der hands gave him till was and stupid den paused to puff at his cigar and then said i und den he kill him his hands und i go for a walk upon der beach it was s own when i come back der he was dead und he was dying him but still he laughed low und he was quite content now you know der of der strength of der it is more as seven to one in relation to man but he killed as gk tt him dot was der miracle the infernal in the cage dot friend of ours still too much in his be quiet long and we could hear the great beast in his cage but why in the world didn t you help instead of letting him be killed i asked my friend said stretching himself to slumber it was not nice even to dot i should live after i seen dot room der hole in der und he was her husband night sleep well once upon a time there was a coffee in india who wished to clear some forest land for coffee planting when he had cut down all the trees and burned the under wood the still remained is expensive and slow fire slow the happy medium for stump clearing is the lord of all beats who is the elephant he will either push the stump out of the ground with his if he has any or drag it out with ropes the therefore hired by ones and and and fell to work the very best of all the belonged to the very worst of all the drivers or and the superior beast s name was he was the absolute property of his which would never have been the case under native rule for was a creature to be desired by kings and his name being translated meant the pearl elephant because the british government was in the land the enjoyed his property undisturbed he was dissipated when he had made much money through the strength of his elephant he would get extremely drunk and give a beating with a tent over the tender nails of the never trampled the life out of on these occasions for he knew that after the beating was over would embrace his trunk and weep and call him his love and his life and the liver of his soul and give him some liquor was very fond of liquor for choice though he would drink life s palm tree if nothing better offered then would go to sleep between s and as generally chose the middle of the public road and as mounted guard over him and would not permit horse foot or cart to pass by traffic was till saw fit to wake up there was no sleeping in the on the s clearing the wages were too high to risk sat on s neck and gave him orders while rooted up the for he owned a magnificent pair of or pulled at the end of a for he had a magnificent pair of shoulders while kicked him behind the ears and said he was the king of at evening time would wash down his three hundred pounds weight of green food with a of and would take a share and sing songs between s legs till it was time to go to bed once a week led down to the river and lay on his side in the while went over him with a and a brick never the blow of the latter for the of the former that warned him to get up and turn over on the other side then would look at his feet and examine his eyes and turn up the of his mighty ears in case of or after inspection the two would come up with a song from the sea all black and shining waving a torn tree branch twelve feet long in his trunk and up his own long wet hair it was a peaceful well paid life till felt the return of the desire to drink	39
deep he wished for an the little draughts that led nowhere were taking the manhood out of him he went to the and my mother s dead said he weeping she died on the last plantation two months ago and she died once before that when you were working for me last year said the who knew something of the ways of then it s my aunt and she was just the same as a mother to me said weeping more than ever she has left eighteen small children entirely without bread and it is i who must fill their little said beating his head on the floor who brought you the news said the the post said there hasn t been a post here for the past week get back to your lines a sickness has fallen on my village and all my wives are dying really in tears this time call who comes from s village said the has this man a wife he said no not a woman of our village would look at him they d sooner marry the elephant wept and you will get into a difficulty in a minute said the go back to your work i now i will speak heaven s truth with an inspiration i haven t been drunk for two months i desire to depart in order to get properly drunk afar off and distant from this heavenly plantation thus i shall cause no trouble a flickering smile crossed the s face said he you ve spoken the truth and i d give you leave on the spot if anything could be done with while you re away you know that he will only obey your orders life s may the light of the heavens live forty thousand years i shall be absent but ten little days after that upon my faith and honour and soul i return as to the interval have i the gracious permission of the heaven born to call up permission was granted and in answer to s shrill yell the swung out of the shade of a of trees where he had been dust over himself till his master should return light of my heart protector of the drunken of might give ear said standing in front of him gave ear and saluted with his trunk i am going away said s eyes he liked as well as his master one could snatch all manner of nice things from the roadside then but you you old pig must stay behind and work the twinkle died out as tried to look delighted he hated stump on the plantation it hurt his teeth i shall be gone for ten days o one hold up near and i ll impress the fact upon it of a dried mud took a and ten times on the nails and from foot to foot ten days said you must work and haul and root trees as here shall order you take up and set on your neck curled the tip of his trunk put his foot there and was swung on to the neck handed the heavy the iron elephant s bald head as a a i i be still of the s your for ten days and now bid me good bye beast after mine own heart oh my lord my king jewel of all created lily of the herd preserve your honoured health be virtuous adieu his trunk round and him into the air twice that was his way of bidding tlie man good bye he ll work now said to the have i leave to go the nodded and into the woods went back to haul was very kind to him but he felt unhappy and forlorn notwithstanding gave him balls of and him under the chin and s little baby to him after work was over and s wife called him a darling but was a bachelor by instinct as was he did not understand the domestic emotions he wanted the light of his universe back again the drink and the drunken slumber the savage and the savage caresses none the less he worked well and the wondered had along the roads till he met a marriage procession of his own caste and drinking dancing and had drifted past all knowledge of the lapse of time the morning of the day dawned and there returned no was from his ropes for the daily he swung clear looked round shrugged his shoulders and began to walk away as one having business elsewhere hi ho come back you shouted come back and put me on your neck mountain re life s turn splendour of the of all india heave to or i ll bang every toe off your fat gently but did not obey ran after him with a rope and caught him up put his ears forward and knew what that meant though he tried to carry it off with high words none of your nonsense with me said he to your devil son said and that was all that and the ears put his hands in his pockets a branch for a and strolled about the clearing making jest of the other who had just set to work reported the state of affairs to the who came out with a dog whip and cracked it furiously paid the white man the compliment of charging him nearly a quarter of a mile across the clearing and him into the then he stood outside the house to himself and shaking all over with the of it as an elephant will we ll him said the he shall have the finest that ever elephant received give and twelve foot of chain apiece and tell them to lay on twenty blows which means black snake and were two of the biggest in the lines and one of their duties was to administer the graver since no man	39
s plains for the home coming of their men a hard life is always hardest for the woman had lived with her face to the west and with her eyes fixed upon the wilderness since she could walk she had advanced into the wilderness with the railroad until she had gone away to school she had never lived where the railroad ran both ways she had often stayed long enough at the end of a section with her family to see the first glimmering streaks of the raw dawn of civilization usually helped out by the electric light but in the new and still lands to which her father s civil orders called them from year to year there were not even arc lamps there was a saloon under a tent and there was the section house where they lived and where her mother had sometimes taken to board the men employed by her husband but it was not these influences alone that had produced the young woman of twenty three who sat near and who had just told him gently that she liked him but that she had a duty elsewhere this duty as she conceived it was briefly to spend her life in the east in the effort to better the condition of the women of india it had come to her as an inspiration and a command two j ears before toward the end of her second year at the st a story of west and east louis school where she went to tie up the loose ends of the education she had given herself in lonely s mission had been laid on her one april afternoon warmed and with the first breath of spring the green trees the swelling and the sunlight outside had tempted her from tlie prospect of a lecture on india by a woman and it was finally because it was a school duty not to be escaped that she listened to s account of the sad case of her sisters at home it was a heart breaking story and the girls making the begged of them in strange accents went from it and awed to the measure of their natures and talked it over in the in whispers until a nervous broke the and they began chattering again made her way from the hall with the fixed inward looking eye the flaming cheek and limbs of one on whom the mantle of the spirit has descended she went quickly out into the school garden away from everybody and paced the flower bordered walks exalted rich sure happy she had found herself the flowers knew it the tender trees overhead were aware the shining sky had word her head was high she wanted to dance and much more she wanted to cry a pulse in her forehead went beat beat the warm the blood sang through her veins she stopped every little while to take a deep of the good air in those moments she herself all her life should take breath from this hour she vowed it to the service this day revealed to her as once to the vowed all her strength and mind and heart the angel of the lord had laid a command upon her she obeyed joyfully and now after two years spent in fitting herself for her calling she returned to a capable and instructed nurse on fire for her work in india to find that wished her to stay at and marry him you can call it what you like told her while she gazed at the moon you can call it duty or you can call it woman s sphere or you can call it as that missionary called it at church to night carrying the light to them that sit in darkness i ve no doubt you ve got a to put to it they ve taught you names enough for things in the east but for me what i say is it s a out don t say that nick it s a call you ve got a call to stay at home and if you haven t heard of it i m a committee to you said he a into the ditch and eyed the racing current with lowering brows a of west and east dear nick how can you bear to urge any one who is free to stay at home and after what we ve heard to night well by the holy smoke some one has got to urge girls to stand by the old machine these days you girls are no good at all under the new until you desert it s the road to honor desert gasped she turned her eyes on him well what do you call it that s what the little girl i used to know on section of the n p and y would have called it o dear put yourself back in the old days remember yourself then remember what we used to be to each other and see if you don t see it that way you ve got a father and mother haven t you you can t say it s the square thing to give them up and you ve got a man sitting beside you on this bridge who loves you for all he s worth loves you you dear old thing for keeps you used to like him a little bit too eh he slid his arm about her as he spoke and for a moment she let it rest there does that mean nothing to you either don t you seem to see a call here too he forced her to turn her face to him and gazed wistfully into her eyes for a moment they were brown and the moonlight deepened their sober depths the do you think you have a claim she asked after a moment i ll think almost anything to keep	39
you but no i haven t any claim or none at least that you are not free to jump but we all have a claim hang it the situation has a claim if you don t stay you go back on it that s what i mean you don t take a serious view of things nick she said putting down his arm didn t see the connection but he said good oh yes i do there s no serious view of life i won t take in fun to please you you see you re not in earnest there s one thing i m in earnest about he whispered in her ear is there she turned away her head i can t live without you he leaned toward her and added in a lower voice another thing i won t compressed her lips she had her own will they sat on the bridge beating out their difference until they heard the kitchen clock in a cabin on the other side of the ditch strike eleven the stream came down out of the mountains that loomed above them they were half a mile from the town the stillness and the loneliness closed on with a physical grip as got up and said that she must go home he knew she meant that a story of west and east she must go to india and his own will helplessly for the moment within hers he asked himself whether this was the will by which he earned his living the will which at twenty eight had made him a successful man by standards which was taking him to the state and which would one day take him much further unless what ceased to be what he shook himself scornfully but he had to add to himself that after all she was only a girl if he did love her before he could stride to her side as she turned her back on him and say see here young woman you re away off she did not answer but walked on you re not going to throw your life away on this indian scheme he pursued i won t have it your father won t have it your mother will kick and scream at it and i ll be there to encourage her we have some use for your life if you haven t you don t know the size of your contract the land isn t fit for rats it s the bad lands yes that s just what it is a great big bad lands morally physically and bad lands it s no place for white men let alone white women there s no climate no government no and there s heat and fighting until you can t rest you ll find it all in the sunday papers you want to stay right where you are young lady the she stopped a moment in the road they were following back to and glanced at his in the moonlight he took her hand and for all his awaited her word with parted lips you re a good man nick but she drooped her eyes i m going to sail on the st for a story of west and east chapter ii beware the man who s crossed in love for pent up steam must find its vent step back when he is on the move and lend him all the continent the buck and the saw to sail from new york the st she must leave by the th at latest it was now the th made the most of the intervening time he called on her at her home every evening and argued it out with her listened with the to be convinced but with a dread round the corners of her mouth and with a sad wish to be good to him if she could in her eyes with a helplessness i m called she cried i m called i can t get away from it i can t help listening i can t help going and as she told him how the cry of her sisters out of that dim misery that was yet so distinct at her heart how the useless horror and torture of their lives called on her by night by co the and by day could not refuse to respect the solemnly felt need that drew her from him he could not help begging her in accent he knew not to to it but the painful pull of the cry she heard was not a strange or incredible thing to his own generous heart he only urged hotly that there were other cries and that there were other people to attend to this one he too had a need the need for her and she another if she would stop a moment to listen to it they needed each other that was the supreme need the women in india could wait they would go over and look them up later when the three c s had come to and he had made his pile meanwhile there was happiness meanwhile there was love he was ingenious he was deeply in love he knew what he wanted and he found the most language for making it seem to be what she wanted in disguise had to strengthen her resolution often in the intervals between his visits she could not say much in reply she had no such gift of communicating herself as hers was the still deep nature that can only feel and act she had the kind of pluck and the capacity for silent endurance which goes with such natures or she must often have faltered and turned back from the resolve which had come upon her in the school a story of west and garden that spring day in the two years that followed it her parents were	39
helpless walled up women should have no knowledge and no comfort to lean on but hers she meant that they should lean on the strength of solid intelligence her trials were many but it was her consolation in the midst of them all that her women loved her and lived upon her and her devotion to her purpose carried her forward she was presently in full charge and in that long bare ward where she strengthened so many for the last parting where she lived with death and dealt with it where she went about softly soothing unspeakable pain learning the note of human anguish hearing no sound but the murmur of suffering or relief she sounded one night the depths of her own nature and received from an inward the confirmation of her mission she consecrated herself to it afresh with a joy beyond her first joy of discovery and now eveiy night at half past eight s hat hung on the hat rack in the of her home he removed it gloomily at a little after eleven spending the interval in talking over her mission with her indignantly his indignation was for her plan but it would sometimes thk fer itself to she was capable not only of defending her plan but of defending herself and keeping her temper and as this last was an art beyond nick these often came to an end suddenly and early in the evening but the next night he would come and sit before her in and with his elbows on his knees and his head supported in his hands would entreat her to have some sense this never lasted long and evenings of this kind usually ended in his trying to pound sense into her by his chair arm with a convinced fist no tenderness could leave without the need to try to make others believe as he did but it was a good need and did not dislike it she liked so many things about him that often as they sat thus facing each other she let her fancy wander where it had wandered in her school girl in a possible future spent by his side she brought her fancy back again sharply she had other things to think of now but there must always be something between her and different from her relation to any other man they had lived in the same house on the at the end of the section and had risen to take up the same desolate life together morning after morning the sun brought the morning up over the sad gray plain and at night left them alone a story of west and together in the midst of the terrible spaces of silence they broke the ice together in the muddy river near the section house and carried her back for her a score of other men lived under the same roof but it was who was kind the others ran to do what she asked them to do found things to do and did them while she slept there was plenty to do her mother had a family of twenty live twenty of whom were the men working in one capacity or another directly under the hands engaged in the actual work of building the railroad lived in huge near by or in temporary or tents the had a house that is they lived in a structure with projecting windows that could be raised or lowered and a but this was the sum of their and the mother and daughter did their work alone with the assistance of two whose muscles were firm but whose was vague helped her and she learned to lean on him she let him help her and loved her for it the bond of work shared of a mutual dependence of drew them to each other and when left the section house for school there was a understanding between them the essence of such an understanding of course lies in the woman s recognition of it when she came c back from school for the first holiday s manner did not deny her obligation but did not confirm the understanding and restless and nt as he was about other things did not like to force liis claim upon her it wasn t a claim he could take into court this kind of forbearance was well enough while he expected to have her always within reach while he imagined for her the ordinary future of an unmarried girl but when she said she was going to india she changed the case he was not thinking of courtesy or forbearance or of the propriety of waiting to be formally accepted as he talked to her on the bridge and afterward in the evenings he ached with his need for her and with the desire to keep her but it looked as if she were going going in spite of everything he could say in spite of his love he had made her believe in that if it was any comfort and it was real enough to her to hurt her which was a comfort meanwhile she was him much in one way and another and she liked him well enough to have a conscience about it but when she would tell him that he must not waste so much time and thought on her he would ask her not to bother her little head about him he saw more in her than he did in real estate or politics just then he knew what he was about a story of west and east i know returned but you forget what a delicate position you put me in i don t want to be responsible for your defeat your party will say i planned it made a positive and remark about his party to which replied that if he didn t care she must she couldn t have	39
it said after the election that he had neglected his for her and that her father had won his seat in consequence of course she added frankly i want father to go to the state and i don t want you to go l if you win the election he can t but i don t want to help prevent you from getting in don t worry about your father getting that seat young lady cried if that s all you ve got to lie awake about you can sleep from now until the three c s comes to i m going to myself this fall and you d better make your plans to come along come how would it suit you to be the speaker s wife and live on hill liked him well enough to go half with him in his customary assumption that the difference between his having anything he wanted and his not having it was the difference between his wanting it and his not wanting it the nick she exclaimed but doubtful you won t be speaker i d undertake to be governor if i thought the idea would fetch you give me a word of hope and you ll see what i d do no no she said shaking her head my are all and they live a long way from here but say india s half the size of the united states which state are you going to ward county section what s your post office address in the province of india all that he repeated there was a horrible about it it almost made him believe she was going he saw her drifting hopelessly out of his life into a land on the rim of the world named out of the nights and probably out of them nonsense you re not going to try to live in any such heathen what s it got to do with what s it got to do with home you can t do it i tell you let them nurse themselves leave it to them or leave it to me i ll go over myself turn some of their pagan jewels into money and a nursing corps on a plan that you a story of west and east shall dictate then we ll be married and i ll take you out to look at my work i ll make a go of it don t say they re poor that alone would fetch money enough to an army of nurses if your missionary told the truth in his sermon at church the other night it would pay the national debt diamonds the size of eggs of pearls of the of a man s wrist and until you can t rest and they hang all that around the neck of an idol or k it stored in a temple and call on decent white girls to come out and help nurse them it s what i call cheek as if money could help them it s not that there s no charity or kindness or pity in money nick the only real help is to give yourself all right then give me too i ll go along he said returning to the safer humorous view she laughed but stopped herself suddenly you mustn t come to india nick you won t do that you won t follow me you sha n t well if i get a place as i don t say i wouldn t there might be a dollar in it nick they wouldn t let an american be a it is strange that men to whom life is a joke find comfort in women to whom it is a prayer they might let him run a though said the undisturbed and it might be the softer snap itself is extra i think how by the accident companies double none of my companies would touch the risk they might take a though he added they come from that nights section don t they well you are not to come she said you must keep away remember that got up suddenly oh good night q ood night he cried he shook himself together impatiently and waved her from him with a parting gesture of and she followed him into the passage where he was gloomily taking his hat from its but he would not even let her help him on with his coat no man can successfully conduct a love affair and a political at the same time it was perhaps the perception of this fact that had led to bend an eye on the attentions which his opponent in the coming election had lately been paying his daughter had always been interested in but not so and intensely was the district and was seldom at home but in his irregular appearances a story of west and east at he smiled on his rival s occupation in looking forward to an easy victory over him in the joint debate at city however he had perhaps relied too much on the younger man s s consciousness that he had not been playing his party fair had lately against his pride of success the result was irritation and s and were on an open wound the city meeting was set down for the night following the conversation just recorded and set foot on the dry goods box platform at the that night with a raging young intention to make it understood that he was still here if he was in love had the opening and sat in the background dangling a long restless leg from one knee the of below him looked up at a nervous bony loose hung man with a kind clever eye and a chin his nose was prominent and he had the forehead and the hair about the temples which come to young men in the west the alert acute glance which	39
went about the hall measuring the audience to which he was to speak had the look of to the next need whatever it might be which perhaps more than anything else men to other men the beyond the he was dressed in the short sack coat which is good enough for most public functions but he had left at the flannel of every day wear and was clad in the white linen of civilization he was wondering as he listened to a father could have the heart to get off false views on silver and the to this crowd while his daughter was that ghastly business at home the true views were so much mixed up in his own mind with that when he himself rose at last to answer he found it hard not to ask how the deuce a man expected an intelligent mass meeting to accept the political economy he was trying to apply to the government of a state when he couldn t so much as run his own family why in the world didn t he stop his daughter from making such a of her life that was what he wanted to know what were fathers for he reserved these apt remarks and launched instead upon a flood of figures facts and arguments had precisely the gift by which the stump orator himself into the heart of the stump he he he pleaded insisted he raised his lean long arms and called the gods and the and the republican party to witness and when he could make a point that way he did not scorn to tell a story a of west and east why he would cry in that shout which the political orator uses for his anecdotes that is like a man i used to know back in who it wasn t very much like the man in and had never been in and didn t know the man but it was a good story and when the crowd howled with delight gathered himself together a little and tried to smile and that was what wanted there were voices and the of the debate was sometimes not confined to the platform but the deep groans which would often follow applause or laughter acted as a spur to who had joined the of the that afternoon in mixing the dusky on the table before him and who really did not need a spur under the inspiration of the mixture in the the passionate resolve in his heart and the groans and he melted gradually into an ecstasy of conviction which surprised even himself and he began to feel at last that he had his audience under his hand then he them raised them aloft like a patted and them dropped them to dreadful depths snatched them back to show that he could caught them to his heart and told them a story and with that audience to his breast he marched the i up and down upon the prostrate body of the i party its it was a great time everybody rose at the end and said so loudly they stood on benches and shouted it with i a that shook the building they tossed their caps in the air and danced on one another and wanted to carry around the hall on their shoulders but with a choking at the throat turned his back on it all and fighting his way blindly through the crowd which had gathered on the platform reached the dressing room behind the stage he shut and bolted the door behind him and flung himself into a chair his forehead and the man who can do that he muttered can t make one tiny little bit of a girl marry him a of west and east chapter iii who are the rulers of ind to whom shall we bow the knee make thy peace with the women and men shall make thee l g o it was an opinion not concealed in city the next morning that had wiped up the floor with his adversary and it was at least definitely on record as a result of s speech that when rose half to make the set down for him on the he had been howled back into his seat by a united public opinion but met at the railway station where they were both to take the train for with a fair imitation of a nod and smile and certainly showed no inclination to avoid him on the journey up if had really done s father the attributed to him by the voice of city did not seem to be greatly disturbed by the fact but reflected that had grounds of consolation a reflection which led him to make the further one that he had made a fool of himself he had indeed had the satisfaction of by co the explaining publicly to the rival candidate which was the better man and had enjoyed the pleasure of proving to his that he was still a force to be reckoned with in spite of the mad missionary notion which had built a nest in a certain young woman s head but how did that bring him nearer had it not rather so far as her father could influence the matter put him farther away as far as it had brought his own election near he believed he would be elected now but to what even the he had before her did not seem so remote in the light of last night s but the only that cared to be elected to was the of s heart he feared he shouldn t be chosen to fill that high office immediately and as he glanced at the sturdy form standing next him on the edge of the track he knew whom he had to thank she would never go to india if she had a man	39
for a father like some men he knew but a smooth selfish easy going rich man what could you expect could have forgiven s if it had been backed by force but he had his opinion of a man who had become rich by accident in a town like presented the spectacle intolerable to of a man who had become a story of west and well to do through no fault of his own and who now wandered vaguely about in his good fortune seeking anxiously to avoid giving offence in his he carried this far and he was a treasury of delight just at this time to the of railroad balls knight excursions and twilight and to the of church and who had tickets to sell he went to the and of all in and made and her mother go with him and his collection of and roman catholic and work filled his parlor at home but his universal good nature was not so popular as it deserved to be the twilight took his money but kept their opinion of him and as the opposing candidate had shown what he thought of his rival s system of politics by openly declining to buy a single ticket this feeble foolish wish to please everybody was he understood very well at the root of s attitude toward his daughter s wanted to go so bad he supposed he d better let her was his version of the situation at home he declared that he had opposed the idea strongly when she had first suggested it and did not doubt that who he knew was fond of her had really done what the he could his complaint against him was not on the score of disposition but of capacity he recognized however that this was finally a complaint like all his others against for it was s will which made all vain when the train for arrived at the station and got into the drawing room car together did not to talk to on the way to but neither did he wish to seem to conversation offered him a cigar in the smoking room of the and when the conductor came through hailed him s an old friend and made him come back and join them when he had gone his rounds liked in the way that he liked the thousand other casual acquaintances in the state with whom he was popular and his invitation was not altogether a device for avoiding private talk with the conductor told them that he had the president of the three c s on behind in a special car with his party no exclaimed and begged him to introduce him on the spot he was precisely the man he wanted to see the conductor laughed and said he wasn t a of the road not himself but when he had left them to go about his duties he came back after a time to say that the president had been asking whom he could recommend at a story of west and east as a fair minded and public spirited man able to discuss in a reasonable spirit the question of the three c s coming to the conductor told him that he had two such gentlemen on board his train at that moment and the president sent word to them by him that he would be glad to have a little talk with them if they would come back to his car for a year the of the three c s had been talking of running their line through in the and impartial manner of which await encouragement the board of trade at had promptly met and the encouragement it took the shape of town bonds and gifts of land and finally of an undertaking to purchase shares of stock in the road itself at an price this was handsome even for a board of trade but under the of town ambition and town pride had done better lay fifteen miles from up in the mountains and by that much nearer the mines and recognized it as its rival in other matters than that of the three c s the two towns had enjoyed their boom at about the same time then the boom had left and had itself to this had cost a number of citizens who moved to the more prosperous place some of the citizens took their houses up bodily loaded them on a flat car and sent them the over to as freight to the desolation of the remaining inhabitants of but now began in her turn to feel that she was losing her clutch a house or two had been moved back it was this time which was gaining if the railroad went there was lost if secured the the town was made the two towns hated each other as such towns hate in the west if a of nature had one town the other must have died from sheer lack of interest in life if could have killed or if could have killed by more enterprise push and go or by the of the local press the town would have organized a procession and a dance of victory but the destruction of the other town by any other than the means of schemes rustle and a board of trade would have been a grief to the the most precious possession of a citizen of the west is his town pride it is the flower of that pride to hate the rival town town pride cannot exist without town jealousy and it was therefore fortunate that and lay within convenient distance of each other for this living belief of men in the one spot of all the great western wilderness on which they have chosen to pitch their a story of west and east tents contains within itself the future and the promise of the west cherished this	39
sentiment as a religion it was nearer to him than anything in the world but and sometimes it was even nearer than it did duty with him for all the higher aspirations and which other men he wished to succeed he wished to make a figure but his best wish for himself was one with his best wish for the town he could not succeed if the town failed and if the town he must prosper his ambition for his glory in were a patriotism passionate and personal was his country and because it was near and real because he could put his hand on it and above all because he could buy and sell pieces of it it was much more his country than the united states of america which was his country in time of war he had been present at the birth of he had known it when his arms could almost it he had watched and and it he had down his heart with the first of the survey and now he knew what was good for it it wanted the three c s the conductor presented and to the president when he had led them back to his private car and the president made them both known to his young wife a of twenty five thb pretty and by whose side placed himself with his instant perception there were apartments in the private car before and beyond the drawing room into which they had been shown the whole was a miracle of and convenience the was of a spacious refinement in the drawing room was a of in hues of no kindred a of tortured work and a flash of the studied of the wood work in a more modem taste heightened the high pitch of the rest the president of the and central made room for in one of the chairs by out a heap of illustrated papers and bent two black eyes on him from under a pair of eyebrows his own bulk filled and another of the frail chairs he had the cheeks and the of chin of a man of fifty who has lived too well he listened to the animated representations which at once began making him with an sullen face while engaged mrs in a conversation which did not imply the existence of he knew all about the marriage of the president of the three c s and he found her very willing to let him use his knowledge he made her his compliments he her into telling him about her wedding a story of west and east journey they were just at the end of it they were to settle in she wondered how she should like it told her how she would like it he he gilded and it for her he made it the city of a dream and peopled it out of an eastern fairy tale then he praised the stores and the theatres he said they beat new york but she ought to see their theatre at he hoped they meant to stay over a day or two at would not praise as he praised he contrived to intimate its unique charm and when he had managed to make her see it in fancy as the prettiest and finest and most prosperous town in the west he left the subject but most of their subjects were more personal and while he discussed them with her he pushed out in one direction and another first for a of sympathy then for her weak point he wanted to know how she could be reached that was the way to reach the president he had perceived it as soon as he entered the car he knew her history and had even known her father who had once kept the hotel where he stayed when he went to he asked her about the old house and the changes of since he had been there who had it now he hoped they had kept the head waiter and the cook it made his mouth water to think of that cook she laughed the with instant her childhood had been passed about the hotel she had played in the halls and on the parlor piano and consumed in the office she knew that cook knew him personally he had given her to take to bed with her oh yes he was still there there was an quality in s open and friendly manner in his to be amused and in his lively to contribute to the current stock of amusement and there was something in his hearty manly way his confident joyous air his manner of taking life strongly and richly and happily he had an impartial kindness for the human species he was own cousin to the race and own brother to the members of it he knew when they would let him be he and mrs were shortly on beautiful terms and she made him come back with her to the bow window at the end of the and point out the show sights of the grand of the to her theirs was the and they looked back through the polished sweep of glass in which the president s car terminated at the twisting streak of the receding track and the awful walls of towering rock between which it found its way they stooped to the floor to catch sight of the heights that hung above them a t by of west and east st and peered back at the soaring chaos of rock which having opened to let them through closed again as they left it behind the train went through the tumbled beauty of this world keeping a on the knife edge of space won for it at the bottom of the from the river on one side and from the rock on the other mrs would sometimes lose her balance as	39
the train swept them around the ceaseless curves and only save herself by at it ended in his making her take his arm and then they stood and rocked together with the motion of the train their position with outstretched legs while they gazed up at the monster and sovereign hills of stone wavering and over their heads mrs gave frequent utterance to little exclamations of wonder and applause which began by being the appropriate feminine response to great expressions of nature and ended in an awed murmur her light nature was controlled and subdued by the spectacle as it might have been silenced by the presence of death she used her little arts and on mechanically and until they were finally out of the when she gave a gasp of relief and taking possession of him made him return with her to the the chairs they had left in the drawing room was still pouring the story of the advantages of into the ear of the president whose eyes were on the window pane received her pat on the back and her whispered confidence with the air of an embarrassed she into her former seat and commanded to amuse her and willingly told her of a expedition he had once made into the country above the he hadn t found what he was looking for which was silver but he had found some rather uncommon oh you don t mean it you delightful man real live ones i didn t know they found in a singular light kindled in her eyes a light of passion and longing fastened on the look instantly was that her weak point if it was he was full of learning about precious stones were they not part of the natural resources of the country about he could talk precious stones with her until the cows came home but would that bring the three c s to a wild notion of working resolutions and an for a diamond through the board of trade danced through his head and was dismissed no public of that kind would help this was a case for private a story of west and east for subtle and laborious for quiet and friendly for the tact of finger tips a touch here a touch there and then a grip a case in fine for and for no one else on top of earth he saw himself bringing the three c s splendidly unexpectedly into and fixing it there by that same s strength he saw himself the founder of the future of the town he loved he saw in the dust and the owner of a certain twenty acre plot a his fancy dwelt affectionately for a moment on the twenty acre plot the money with which he had bought it had not come easily and business in the last analysis was always business but the plot and his plan of selling a portion of it to the three c s for a round house when the railway came and of the rest as town lots by the front foot were minor in the larger harmony his dream was of if in accord with the high plan of providence usually came in on the ground floor when their plans went right that was a fact strictly by the way he noticed now as he glanced at mrs s hands that she wore unusual rings they were not numerous but the stones were superb he ventured to admire the huge she wore on her left hand and as they fell into a talk about the jewels she drew it off to let him see it she said the diamond had a history her father had bought it from an actor a who had met bad business at after playing to empty houses at city and st jo the money had paid the of the company home to new york a fact which connected the stone with the only real good it had ever done its various owners the had won it from a who had killed his man in a quarrel over it the man who had died for it had bought it at a low price from the clerk of a diamond merchant it ought to have been out of the mines by the man who found it at or somewhere and sold to an i d b she said to make the story complete don t you think so mr she asked all her questions with an arch of the and an engaging smile which required the affirmative readily furnished by he would have assented to an denying virtue to the discoveries of and if mrs had it just then he sat tense and rigid full of his notion watching waiting like a dog on the scent i look into it sometimes to see if i can t find a picture of the crimes it has seen she said a story of west and east they re so nice and don t you think so mr particularly the murder but what i like best about it is the stone itself it is a beauty isn t it pa used to say it was the he d ever seen and in a hotel you see lots of good diamonds you know she gazed a moment affectionately into the liquid depths of the brilliant oh there s nothing like a beautiful stone nothing she breathed her eyes kindled he heard for the first time in her voice the ring of absolute sincerity and i could look at a perfect jewel forever and i don t much care what it is so it is perfect pa used to know how i loved stones and he was always trading them with the people who came to the house are great fellows for you know but they don t always know a good stone from a bad one pa used to	39
make some good trades she said her pretty lips but he would never take anything but the best and then he would trade that if he could for something better he would always give two or three stones with the least flaw in them for one real good one he knew they were the only ones i cared for oh i do love them they re better than folks they re always there and always just so beautiful i think i know a j ou d like if you care for such things said quietly the do you she beamed oh where a long way from here oh s she exclaimed scornfully i know she added with resumed art of no further where india she stared at him a moment tell me what it s like she said her whole attitude and accent were changed again there was plainly one subject on which she could be serious is it really good it s the best said and stopped well she exclaimed don t me what is it made of oh diamonds pearls a rope of them the are as big as your fist the diamonds are the size of eggs it s worth a king s she caught her breath then after a long moment oh she sighed and then oh she murmured again and where is it she asked briskly of a sudden round the neck of an idol in the province of do you want it he asked grimly she laughed yes she answered a story of west and east i ll get it for you said simply tes you will i she i will repeated she threw back her gay head and laughed to the painted on the ceiling of the car she always threw back her head when she laughed it showed her throat the chapter iv your patience the devil took me up to the burned mountain over fit place for me and there i saw my earth not all earth s splendor beyond my need and that one spot i love all earth to me and her i love my heaven what said i my love was safe from all the powers of hell for you e en you her of my guilt but by our sail sea my city child of mine my heart my home mine and my pride evil might visit there it was for and her naked ports prey to the of the our city that i drove my price for love of and for love of her the twain were woven gold on past any till god shall judge the evil and the good the grand s defence the president engaged rooms at the hotel beside the railroad track at and stayed over the next day and took possession of him and showed him the town and what they called its natural resources caused the president to hold rein when he had ridden with him to a point outside the town and in the midst of the open plain and in the face of by co a story of west and east the snow mountains on the and necessity of making the end of a division for the new railroad and putting the division the and the here in his heart he knew the president to be absolutely opposed to bringing the railroad to at all but he preferred to assume the minor point it was much easier as a matter of fact to show that ought to l e made a and the end of a division than it was to show that it ought to be a station on the three c s if it was anything it would have to be a the difficulty was to prove that it ought to be anything knew the whole situation forward and back as he might have known the table he was not president of the board of trade and the head of a land and improvement company organized with a capital of a million on a cash basis of for nothing s company included all the solid men of the town it owned the open plain from to the and had laid it out in streets avenues and public one could see the whole thing on a map hung in the company s office on avenue which was furnished in oak with with and draped with silk there one could buy town lots at any the point within two miles of the town there in fact had some town lots to sell the habit of them to sell had taught him the worst and the best that could be said about the place and he knew to an all that he could make a given man believe about it he was aware for example that not only had richer mines in its near neighborhood than but that it tapped a country behind it of and wealth and he knew that the president knew it he was equally familiar with other facts as for example that the mines about were fairly good though nothing remarkable in a region of great wealth and that although the town lay in a wide and well valley and in the midst of an excellent cattle country these were limited advantages and easily matched elsewhere in other words the natural resources of constituted no such claim for it as a great railroad centre as he would have liked any one to suppose who heard him talk but he was not talking to himself his private word to himself was that was created to be a railroad town and the way to create it was to make it a railroad town this proposition which could not have been to any system of logic proceeded on the system of reasoning a story of west and east as thus was not an existence at all	39
was a hope very well and when one wished to make such hopes realities in the west what did one do why get some one else to believe in them of course was without the three c s then what was its value to the three c s obviously the value that the three c s would give it s pledge to the president amounted to this that if he would give them a chance they would be worthy of it and he that in essence that was all that any town could say the point for the president to judge was which place would be most likely to be worthy of such an opportunity or and he claimed there could be no question about that when you came to size it up he said it was the character of the inhabitants that counted they were dead at dead and buried everybody knew that there was no trade no industry no life no energy no money there and look at i the president could see the character of her citizens at a glance as he walked the streets they were wide awake down here they meant business they believed in their town and they were ready to put their money on her the president had only to say what he expected of them and then he to him his plan for getting one of the the s to establish a huge branch at he said that he had an agreement with one of them in his j solely on the three c s coming their way the company couldn t make any such arrangement with he knew that hadn t the for one thing tlie people had come up from at the expense of and had proved s that couldn t find a proper for its ore nearer to her own borders than fifteen miles in other words she couldn t find it this side of went on to say that what wanted was an outlet for her to the gulf of and the three c s was the road to furnish it the president had perhaps listened to such statements before for the entire and impudence of this drew no retort from his he seemed to consider it as he considered the other representations made to him without hearing it a railroad president weighing the advantages of rival towns could not find it within his conception of dignity to ask which of the natural of sought relief through the gulf but if could have asked such a question would have answered s he implied this freely in the suggestion which he made immediately in the form of a con a of west and east of course he said if the road wanted to tap the wealth of the country behind it would be a simple matter to run a branch road up there and bring down the ore to be at had a value to the road as a centre he didn t pretend to dispute that but a road would bring down all the ore as well as a main line make the same traffic for the road and satisfy all proper claims of to consideration while leaving the where it belonged by virtue of natural position he boldly asked the president how he expected to get up steam and speed for the climb over the pass if he made the end of the division and changed engines there the place was already in the mountains as a practical railroad man the president must know that his engines could get no start from the heavy grade by which the railroad would have to get out of the place beginning in the town itself the idea of making it the end of a division if his engines by good luck weren t on the grade what did he think of the annual expense involved in driving heavy trains daily at a high mountain from the ground of a steep slope what the three c s wanted for the end of their division and their last stop before the climb over the pass was a place like designed for them by nature the built in the centre of a plain which the railroad could at a level for five miles before attacking the hills this point made with the and relief bom of dealing with one solid and fact it was really his best argument and he saw that it had reached the president as the latter took up his reins silently and led the way back to town but another glance at s face told him that he had failed hopelessly in his main the certainty of this would have been heart breaking if he had not expected to fail success lay elsewhere but before that he had determined to use every other means s eye rested lovingly on his town as they turned their horses again toward the cluster of dwellings scattered in the midst of the wide valley she might be sure that he would see her through of course the of his affections melted in and out of the of fact by and which no could record the relation of the real to s or to the of any good citizen of the place was a matter which no friendly observer could wish to press in s own case it was impossible to say where actual belief stopped and to believe went on what he knew was that he a story op west and east did believe and with him the best possible reason for faith in would have been that it needed to be believed in hard the need would only have been another reason for liking it to the ordered eastern eye the city would have seemed a raw lonely collection of ragged wooden buildings over a level plain but this was only another proof that one can see only what one	39
brings to the seeing it was not so that saw it and he would not have thanked the who should have taken refuge in praise of his snow hills the valley in a monstrous circle the might keep his idea that merely blotted a beautiful picture to the picture was s scenery and the scenery only an incident of it was one of her natural advantages her own like her climate her and her board of trade he named the big mountains to the president as they rode he showed him where their big ditch led the water down out of the heights and where it was brought along under the shadow of the before it started across the plain toward he told him the number of in their hospital decently his sense of their as a testimony to the prosperity of the town and as they rode into the streets he pointed out the opera house the post office the the public school and the court house with the modesty a mother summons who shows her first bom it was at least as much to avoid thinking as to the merits of that he spared the president nothing through all his another voice had made itself heard and now in the sense of failure the bitterness of another failure caught him with a fresh for since his return he had seen and knew that nothing short of a miracle would prevent her from starting for india within three days in contempt of the man who was making this possible and in anger and desperation he had spoken at last directly to appealing to him by all he held most dear to stop this wickedness but there are limp rags which no can and willing as he was to oblige could not take strength into his fibre from the outside though offered him all of his his talk with by this barren interview with her father had given him a sickening sense of from which nothing but a large success in another direction could rescue him he for success and it had done him good to attack the president even with the that he must fail with him he could forget s existence while he fought for but he remembered it with a pang as a story of west and east he parted from he had her promise to make one of the party he was taking to the hot springs that afternoon if it had not been for that he could almost have found it in his heart to let take care of herself for the remainder of the president s stay as it was he looked forward to the visit to the springs as a last opening to hope he meant to make a final appeal he meant to have it out with for he could not believe in defeat and he could not think that she would go the excursion to the hot springs was designed to show the president and mrs what a future must have as a winter resort if all other advantages failed her and they had agreed to go with the party which had hastily got together with a view to a little quiet talk with he had invited three men besides the post master the editor of the both his on the board of trade and a pleasant young englishman named he expected them to do some of the talking to the president and to give him half an hour with without to s impressions of it had occurred to him that the president might be ready by this time for a fresh view of the town and was the man to give it to him had come to two years before the in his capacity of younger son to engage in the cattle business equipped with a riding crop top boots and in money he had lost the money but he knew now that riding crops were not used in cattle and he was at the moment using this knowledge together with other information gathered on the same subject in the calling of on a neighboring range he was getting a month and was accepting his luck with the philosophy which comes to the as well as to the native bom citizens of the west liked him for the pride and pluck which did not allow him the easy remedy of writing home and for other things and for the first half of ride to the hot springs they rode side by side while made mr and mrs look up at the rocky heights between which they began to pass he showed them the mines into the face of the rock far aloft and explained the formation with the purely practical learning of a man who and mines the road which ran alongside the track of the railroad already going through wandered back and forth over it from time to time as said at the exact angle which the three c s would be choosing later once a train labored past them up the heavy grade that led to the town the was the first closing in of a story op west and east the hills which after again gathered in the great of the twenty miles below to face each other across the chasm the sweep of pictured rock above their heads lifted itself into strange or dipped suddenly and swam on high in straining peaks but for the most part it was sheer wall blue and brown and red and the soft hues between dropped back and ranged his horse beside s with whom he was in friendly relation gave place to him instantly and rode forward to join the others in advance she lifted her speaking eyes as he drew rein beside her and begged him silently to save them both the continuance of a hopeless contest but s jaw was set and he would	39
feel it enough to trust yourself to me i ll find a future for you you shall bless everybody with your goodness do you think i should like you without it and you shall begin by blessing me i can t i i can t she cried in distress you can t do anything else you must come to me at last do you think i could live if i didn t think that but i want to save you all that lies between i don t want you to be driven into my arms little girl i want you to come and come now for answer to this she only bowed her head on the sleeve of her riding habit and began to cry softly nick s fingers closed on the hand with which she nervously clutched the of her saddle the you can t dear the brown head was shaken vehemently ground his teeth all right don t mind he took her yielding hand into his speaking gently as he would have spoken to a child in distress in the silent moment that lengthened between them gave it up not not his love not his resolve to have her for his own but just the question of her going to india she could go if she liked there would be two of them when they reached the hot springs he took an immediate opportunity to engage the willing mrs in talk and to lead her aside while showed the president the water steaming out of the ground the and the proposed site of a giant hotel willing to hide her red eyes from mrs s sharp gaze remained with her father when had led the president s wife to the side of the stream that went plunging down past the springs to find a tomb at last in the below he stopped short in the shelter of a of do you really want that he asked her abruptly she laughed again this a story op west and east time with the little air of spectacle which she could not help to all she did want it she repeated of course i want it i want the moon too laid a hand upon her arm you shall have this he said positively she ceased laughing and grew almost pale at his earnestness what do you mean she asked quickly it would please you you would be glad of it he asked what would you do to get it go back to on my hands and knees she answered with equal earnestness crawl to india all right returned vigorously that settles it listen i i want the three c s to come to you want this can we trade but you can never no matter i ll attend to my part can you do yours you mean she began yes nodded her companion i do can you fix it fiercely repressed and controlled stood before her with clenched teeth and hands that drove the nails into his palms her answer she her fair head on one side with and regarded him out of the vanishing angle the of one eye with a lingering look of i guess what i say to jim goes she said at last with a dreamy smile then it s a bargain yes she answered shake hands on it they joined hands for a moment they stood confronted penetrating each other s eyes you ll really get it for me yes you won t go back on me no he pressed her hand so that she gave a little scream you hurt all right he said hoarsely as he dropped her hand it s a trade i start for india to morrow a of west and east chapter v now it is not good for the health to the brown for the christian and the smiles and he the christian down and the end of the fight is a white with the name of the late deceased and the a fool lies here who tried to the east from of stood on the platform of the station at watching the dust cloud that followed the retreating mail when it had disappeared the heated air above the stone began its dance again and he turned to india it was simple to come fourteen thousand miles he had lain still in a ship for a certain time and then had transferred himself to stretch at full length in his shirt sleeves on the of the train which had brought him from to the journey was long only as it kept him from sight of and kept him filled with thought of her but was by co the this what he had come for the yellow desolation of a desert and the pinched perspective of the track was when they had got the church the saloon the school and three houses up the loneliness made him shiver he saw that they did not mean to do any more of it it was a desolation which doubled because it was left for done it was final intended absolute the grim of the cut stone station house the solid of the empty platform the of the station name board looked for no future no new railroad could help it had no ambition it belonged to the government there was no green thing no curved line no promise of life that produces within of the railroad on the station had been allowed to die from lack of attention was saved from the more positive pangs of by a little healthy human rage a single man fat brown clothed in and wearing a black velvet cap on his head stepped out from the building this station master and permanent population of accepted as a feature of the landscape he did not look at him began to with the south in the war of the rebellion a story of	39
st and east when does the next train leave for he asked there is no train returned the man pausing with precise deliberation between the words he sent his speech abroad with an air of like the no train where s your time table where s your railroad guide where s your no train at all of any kind whatever then what the devil are you here for sir i am the station master of this station and it is using profane language to of this company oh are you is it well see here my friend you station master of the steep edge of the jumping off place if you want to save your life you will tell me how i get to quick i the man was silent well what do i do anyway shouted the west what do i know answered the east stared at the brown being in white beginning at his patent leather shoes surmounted by out of which the calf of his leg and ending with the velvet on his head the regard of the oriental borrowed from the purple hills behind his station made him wonder for one profane f the and moment whether and were worth all they were ticket please said the the gloom darkened this thing was here to take tickets and would do it though men loved and fought and and died at his feet see here cried you shiny fraud you eyed pillar of but he did not go on speech failed in a shout of rage and despair the desert swallowed all and the turning with awful quiet drifted through the door of the station house and locked it behind him whistled at the door with uplifted eyebrows an american quarter against a in his pocket the window of the ticket office opened a little way and the showed an inch of face speaking now in capacity your honor can getting to country cart find me the cart said your honor commission on transaction it was the tone that conveyed the idea to the head under the smoking cap the window was dropped afterward but not too immediately afterward a long drawn howl made itself heard the howl of a weary a ghost a story of west and east o hi ah there i murmured as he over the low stone wall in hand and stepped out through the ticket into his habitual gaiety and confidence had returned with the prospect of motion between himself and a purple circle of hills lay fifteen miles of rolling ground jagged with rocks and studded with trees all given up to and dust and all as the sun locks of a child of the very far away to the right the silver gleam of a salt lake showed and a blue haze of heavier forest sombre desolate oppressive withering under a brazen sun it smote him with its likeness to his own and with its apparently out of a crack in the earth in fact as he presently perceived out of a spot where two waves of plain folded in upon each other and contained a village came a pillar of dust the heart of which was a cart the distant of the wheels sharpened as it drew near to the full shriek that knew when they put the suddenly on a freight coming into on the down grade but this was in no sense a freight the wheels were sections of tree square for the most part four the poles bounded the comers of a flat body the sides were made of rope of fibre two a little larger than smaller than drew a vehicle which might have contained the half of a horse s load the cart drew up at the station and the after contemplating for a moment lay down seated himself on his rested his shaggy head in his hands and expended himself in mirth sail in he instructed the make your bargain i m in no then began a scene of and riot to which a quarrel in a gambling saloon was a poor matter the of the station master deserted him like a wind blown garment he and cursed and the driver naked except for a blue cloth was nothing behind him they pointed at they seemed to be arguing over his birth and for all he knew they were his weight when they seemed to be on the brink of an solution the question itself and they went back to the beginning and him and the journey applauded both parties one on the other for the first ten minutes i a story of west and east then he them to stop and when they would not he discovered that it was hot and swore at them the driver had for the moment exhausted himself when the turned suddenly on and clutching him by the arm cried almost shouting all arrange sir i all arrange this man most man sir you giving me the money i arrange everything swift as thought the driver had caught his other arm and was imploring him in a strange tongue not to listen to his opponent as stepped back they followed him with uplifted hands of entreaty and representation the station master forgetting his english and the driver his respect for the white man them both pitched his into the cart bounded in himself and shouted the one indian word he knew it happened fortunately to be the word that moves all india which being interpreted is go on so leaving strife and desolation behind him rode out into the desert of of the chapter vi in the state of where the wild abound and the live in castles on the hills where the and in alternate streaks are found and the cannot his bills where the agent shoots the black buck for his from the which he uses	39
as twas a white man from the west came expressly to investigate the natural wealth of song from of under certain conditions four days can dwarf eternity had found these circumstances in the cart from which he crawled hours after the had got up from the dust at they stretched behind him those hours in a creaking dusty deliberate procession in an hour the cart went two and a half miles fortunes had been made and lost in happy while the cart its way across a red hot river bed shut in between two walls of sand new cities might have risen in the west and fallen to ruins older than while after by co a story of west and east any of their meals by the the driver over a water pipe something less than a gun in these waits and in others it seemed to him that the journey was chiefly made up of waits saw himself in the race of life by every male citizen of the united states and groaned with the consciousness that he could never overtake them or make up this lost time great gray with scarlet heads stalked through the high grass of the in the pockets of the hills the and the hardly troubled themselves to move from beneath the noses of the and once in the dawn lying upon a glistening rock he saw two young playing together like a few miles from his driver had taken from underneath the cart a sword which he hung around his neck and sometimes used on the as a saw that every man went armed in this country as in his own but three feet of clumsy steel struck him as a poor substitute for the delicate and revolver once he stood up in the cart and for he thought he saw the white top of a but it was only a gigantic cotton drawn by sixteen dipping and plunging across the through all the indian sun the blazed down on him making him wonder how he had ever dared praise the perpetual sunshine of at dawn the rocks glittered like diamonds and at the sands of the rivers troubled his eyes with a million flashing sparks at a cold dry wind would spring up and the hills lying along the horizon took a hundred colors under the light of the sunset then realized the meaning of the glorious east for the hills were turned to heaps of and while between them the mists in the valleys were he lay in the cart on his back and stared at the sky dreaming of the and wondering whether it would match the scenery the clouds know what i m up to it s a good omen he said to himself he cherished the definite and simple plan of buying the and paying for it in good money to be raised at by the town not of course for any such purpose was good for it he believed and if the wanted too steep a price when they came to talk business he would form a as the cart swayed from side to side his head he wondered where was she might under favorable conditions be in by this time that much he knew from careful consideration of her route but a girl alone could not pass a story of west and east from to as swiftly as an man by love of herself and of perhaps she was resting for a little time with the mission at he refused absolutely to admit to himself that she had fallen ill by the way she was resting receiving her orders absorbing a few of the wonders of the strange lands he had contemptuously thrust behind him in his eastward flight but in a few days at most she ought to be at whither the cart was taking him he smiled and his lips with pure enjoyment as he thought of their meeting and amused himself with fancies about her fancies touching his present whereabouts he had left for san by the night train over the pass a little more than twenty four hours after his conference with mi s saying good by to no one and telling nobody where he was going perhaps wondered at the of his good evening when he left her at her father s house on their return from their ride to the hot springs but she said nothing and contrived by an effort to take himself off without giving himself away he had made a quiet sale of a block of town lots the next day at a sacrifice to furnish himself with money for the voyage but this was too much in the way of his ordinary business the to excite comment and he was finally able to gaze down at the lights of in the valley from the rear platform of his train as it climbed up over the continental divide with the certainty that the town he was going to india to bless and boom was not on to his beneficent scheme to make sure that the right story went back to the town he told the conductor of the train in strict confidence while he smoked his usual cigar with him about a little scheme in which he was going there to nurse for a while the conductor embarrassed him for a moment by asking what he was going to do about his election meanwhile but was ready for him here too he said that he had that fixed he had to let him into another scheme to show him how it was fixed but as he bound him to secrecy again this didn t matter he wondered now however whether that scheme had worked and whether mi s would keep her promise to cable the result of the election to him at it was amusing to have to trust a	39
woman to let him know whether he was a member of the or not but she was the only living person who knew his address and as the idea had seemed to please her in common with their whole charming conspiracy this was what she called it had been content a story of west and east when he had become convinced that his eyes would never again be blessed with the sight of a white man or his ears with the sound of intelligible speech the cart rolled through a between two hills and stopped before the of the station at it was a double of red but for this could have taken it in his arms it was full of white men they were excessively they were lying in the in long chairs and between each chair was a well worn trunk got himself out of the cart his long legs with difficulty and his muscles one by one he was a mask of dust dust beyond sand storms or it had the of his clothing and turned his black american four button to a white it had done away with the distinction between the hem of his trousers and the top of his shoes it dropped off him and rolled up from him as he moved his fervent thank god i was extinguished in a dusty cough he stepped into the rubbing his eyes good evening gentlemen he said got anything to drink no one rose but somebody shouted for the servant a man dressed in thin silk the yellow and ill fitting as the on a dried and absolutely as to his face nodded to him and asked languidly who are you for no have they got them here too said to himself in that brief question the universal of the commercial traveller he went down the long line and twisted each hand in pure joy and before he began to draw the east and the west and to ask himself if these idle silent could belong to the profession with which he had stories and political opinions this many a year in smoking cars and hotel offices certainly they were and of the joyous brazen animals whom he knew as the of the west but perhaps a in his back reminded him they had all reached this sink of desolation country cart he thrust his nose into twelve inches of and and remained there till there was no more then dropped into a vacant chair and surveyed the group again did some one ask who i was for i m for myself i suppose as much as any one travelling for pleasure a story of west and east he had not time to enjoy the absurdity of this for all five men burst into a shout of laughter like the laughter of men who have long been from mirth pleasure cried one o lord i pleasure you ve come to the wrong place it s just as well you ve come for pleasure you d be dead before you did business said another you might as well try to get blood out of a stone i ve been here over a fortnight great scott what for asked we ve all been here over a week growled a fourth but what s your lay what s your guess you re an american ain t you yes the statement had no effect upon them he might as well have spoken in greek but what s the trouble why the king married two wives yesterday you can hear the going in the city now he s trying to a new regiment of cavalry for the service of the indian government and he s quarrelled with his political resident i ve been living at colonel s door for three days he says he can t do anything without authority from the supreme government i ve tried to catch the king when he goes out pig shooting i write the every day to the prime minister when i m not riding around the city on a and here s a bunch of letters from the firm asking why i don t collect at the end of ten minutes began to understand that these washed out representatives of half a dozen in and were hopelessly this place on their regular spring campaign to collect a little on account from a king who ordered by the ton and paid by the scruple he had purchased guns dressing cases ornaments work the christmas tree glass balls four in hands scent bottles instruments and by the dozen gross or score as his royal fancy prompted when he lost interest in his purchases he lost interest in paying for them and as few things amused his fancy more than twenty minutes it sometimes came to pass that the mere purchase was sufficient and the costly packing cases from were never opened the ordered peace of the indian empire forbade him to take up arms against his fellow sovereigns the only lasting delight that he or his ancestors had known for thousands of years but there remained a certain modified interest of war in with bill on one side stood the political resident of the a story of west and east state planted there to teach him good government and above all economy on the other side that is to say at the palace gates might generally be found a commercial traveller divided between his contempt of an and his english reverence for a king between these two his majesty went forth to take his pleasure in in racing in the of his army in the ordering of more and in the fitful government of his who knew considerably more of each commercial traveller s claims than even the prime minister behind these was the government of india refusing to payment of the king s debts and from time	39
to time sending him on a blue velvet cushion the of an imperial order to the of the political resident well i hope you make the king pay for it said how s that why in my country when a customer about like that promising to meet a man one day at the hotel and not showing up and then promising to meet him the next day at the store and not paying a says to himself oh all right if you want to pay my board and my wine liquor and cigar bill while i wait don t mind me i ll the along somehow and after the second day he charges up his to him ah that s interesting but how does he get those into his account they go into the next bill of goods he him of course he makes the prices right for that oh we can make prices right enough the difficulty is to get your money but i don t see how you fellows have the time to monkey around here at this rate urged where i come from a man makes his trip on time and when he s a day behind he ll wire to his customer in the town ahead to come down to the station and meet him and he ll sell him a bill of goods while the train waits he could sell him the earth while one of your went a mile and as to getting your money why don t you get out an attachment on the old sinner in your places i d attach the whole country on him i d attach the palace i d attach his crown i d get a judgment against him and i d execute it too personally if necessary i d lock the old fellow up and rule for him if i had to but i d have his money a compassionate smile ran around the group that s because you don t know said several at once then they began to explain a story op west and east there was no languor about them now they all spoke together the men in the though they seemed idle were no fools perceived after a time lying still as beggars at the gate of greatness was their method of doing business it wasted time but in the end some sort of payment was sure to be made especially explained the man in the yellow coat if you could interest the prime minister in your needs and through him wake the interests of the king s women a of memory made smile faintly as he thought of mrs the man in the yellow coat went on and learned that the head queen was a convicted of her former husband she had lain crouching in an iron cage awaiting execution when the king first saw her and the king had demanded whether she would poison him if he married her so the tale ran assuredly she replied if he treated her as her late husband had treated her thereupon the king had married her partly to please his fancy mainly through sheer delight in her brutal answer this without held in less than a year king and state under her feet feet which women of the household sang were with travel of shameful roads she g the had borne the king one son in whom all her pride and ambition and after his birth she had applied herself with renewed energy to the maintenance of mastery in the state the supreme government a thousand miles away knew that she was a force to be reckoned with and had no love for her the white haired soft spoken political resident colonel who lived in the pink house a bow shot from the city gates was often by her her latest victory was peculiarly humiliating to him for she had discovered that a rock canal designed to supply the city with water in summer would pass through an orange garden under her window and had used her influence with the against it the had thereupon caused it to be taken around by another way at an expense of a quarter of his year s and in the teeth of the almost tearful remonstrance of the resident the behind her silken curtains had both heard and seen this interview between the and his political and had laughed devoured all this eagerly it fed his purpose it was to his mill even if it tumbled his whole plan of attack it opened up a new world for which he had no measures and standards and in which he must be frankly and constantly dependent on the inspiration of the next moment a story of west and east he couldn t know too much of this world before taking his first step toward the and he was willing to hear all that these lazy fellows would tell him he began to feel as if he should have to go back and learn his a b c s over again what pleased this strange being they called king what appealed to him what him above all what did he fear he was thinking much and rapidly but he said no wonder your king is if he has such a court to look after he s one of the richest princes in india returned the man in the yellow coat he doesn t know himself what he has why doesn t he pay his debts then instead of keeping you about here because he s a native he d spend a hundred thousand pounds on a marriage feast and delay payment of a bill for two hundred four years you ought to cure him of that insisted send a after the crown jewels you don t know indian princes they would pay a bill before they would let the crown jewels go they are sacred they are	39
had inhabited his apartment for a day and a night before he went to bed he called for pen and ink and wrote a letter to mrs on the note paper of his land and improvement company under the map of at the top which confidently showed the railroad system of the state at was the legend n real estate and agent the tone of his letter was even more assured than the map he dreamed that night that the was the with him for town lots his majesty backed out just as they were concluding the deal and demanded that should throw in his own favorite mine the lingering to boot in his dream had kicked at this and the had responded all right j boy no three c s then and had yielded the point had hung the about mrs s neck and in the same breath had heard the speaker of the that since the coming of the three c s he recognized as the metropolis of the west then perceiving that he himself was the speaker began to doubt the of these remarks and awoke with in his mouth to find the dawn spreading over and him out to the of reality a story of west and east he was confronted in the by a bearded native soldier on a who handed down to him a greasy little brown book bearing the legend please write see i looked at this new development from the heated landscape with interest but not with an outward effect of surprise he had already learned one secret of the east never to be surprised at anything he took the book and read on a page the announcement divine services conducted on sundays in the drawing room of the at a m strangers are cordially invited to attend signed l r american mission they don t get up early for nothing in this country mused church at a m when do they have dinner well what do i do about this he asked the man aloud the and looked at him together and as they went away it was no concern of theirs addressed a remark of confused purport to the retreating figures this was plainly not a country in which business could be done at red heat he for the moment when with the in his pocket and by his side he should again set his face westward the shortest way to that was to go over to call on the missionary he was an american and the could tell him about the if anybody could had also a shrewd suspicion that he could tell him something about the missionary s home which was just without the city walls was also of red one story high and as bare of vines or any living thing as the station at but he presently found that there were living beings inside the house with warm hearts and a welcome for him mrs turned out to be that and kindly woman with the instinct for housekeeping who would make a home of a cave she had a round smooth face a soft skin and quiet happy eyes she may have been forty her still un tinged brown hair was brushed smoothly back her effect was and their visitor had learned that they came from had founded a tie of brotherhood on the fact that his father had been bom on a farm down way and had been invited to breakfast before he had been ten minutes in the house s gift of sympathy was irresistible he was the kind of man to whom men confide their heart secrets and the of their inmost lives in hotel smoking rooms he was the of scores of tales of misery and error which he could do nothing to help and of a few which he could help and had helped before breakfast was a story of west and east ready he had from and his wife the whole picture of their situation at they told him of their troubles with the and with the s wives and of the exceeding of their work and then of their children living in the exile of indian children at home they explained that they meant they were there with an aunt receiving their education at the hands of a public school it s five years since we saw them said mrs as they sat down to breakfast was only six when he went and was eight they are eleven and thirteen now only think we hope they haven t forgotten us but how can they remember they are only children and then she told him stories of the renewal of filial ties in india after such that made his blood run cold the breakfast woke a violent in after a month at sea two days of the chance railway meals between and and a night at the rest house he was prepared to value the homely family meal and the abundance of an american breakfast they began with a which did not help him to feel at home because were next to an unknown luxury at and when known did not in windows in the month h the of april but the brought him home again and the and potatoes the coffee and the hot brown pop with their yellow were far too deep for tears mrs enjoying his enjoyment said they must have out the can of which had been sent them all the way from and when the white silent moving servant in the red came in with the she sent him for it they were all very happy together over this and said pleasant things about the american republic while the sang its song over their heads had a map of in his pocket of course and when the talk swinging to one part of the united states and another worked westward he spread it out	39
on the breakfast table between the and the and showed them the position of he explained to how a new railway running north and south would make the town and then he had to say affectionately what a wonderful town it really was and to tell them about the buildings they had put up in the last twelve months and how they had picked themselves up after the fire and gone to building the next morning the fire had brought into the town in he said he exaggerated his in unconscious defiance of the a story of west and east of the empty landscape lying outside the window he did not mean to let the east him or we ve got a young lady coming to us i think from your state interrupted mrs to whom all western towns were alike wasn t it i m almost sure it was she rose and went to her work basket for a letter from which she confirmed her statement yes a miss she comes to us from the mission perhaps you know her s head bent over the map which he was he answered shortly yes i know her when is she likely to be here most any day now said mrs it seems a pity said to bring a young girl out here all alone away from her friends though i m sure you ll be friends to her he added quickly seeking mrs s eyes we shall try to keep her from getting said mrs with the note in her voice there s and home in you know she added after a pause that will be good of you said with more feeling than the interests of the mission demanded may i ask what your business is here inquired the missionary as he passed his cup to his wife to be the he had a rather formal habit of speech and his words came muffled from the depths of a dense of beard iron gray and unusually long he had a grim face a precise but friendly manner and a good way of looking one in the eye which liked he was a man of decided opinions particularly about the native races of india well i m said in a leisurely tone glancing out of the window as if he expected to see start up out of the desert ah for gold w e yes as much that as anything invited him out upon the to smoke a cigar with him his wife brought her sewing and sat with them and as they smoked asked him liis questions about the where was it what was it he inquired boldly but he found that the missionary though an american was no wiser about it than the lazy commercial travellers at the rest house he knew that it existed but knew no man who had seen it save the got at this through much talk about other things which interested him less but he began to see an idea in the gold to which the missionary persistently returned said he meant to engage in of course a of west and east of course assented but you won t find much gold in the river i fancy the natives have washed it for hundreds of years there is nothing to be found but what little down from the rocks of the hills but you will be undertaking work on a large scale i judge said the missionary looking at him curiously oh on a large scale of course added that he supposed he had thought of the political in his way he would have to get the consent of colonel and through him the consent of the british government if he meant to do anything serious in the state in fact he would have to get colonel s consent to stay in at all do you mean that i shall have to make it worth the british government s while to let me alone yes all right i ll do that too mrs looked up quickly at her husband from under her eyebrows woman like she was thinking the chapter viii when a lover abroad looking for his love smiling his sword heaven smiles above earth and sea his servants be and to lesser compass round that his love be sooner found chorus from of learned a number of things within the next week and with what the west calls put on with the complete suit of white linen which he the second day an into the whole new system of manners and traditions they were not all agreeable but they were all in a good cause and he took pains to see that his new knowledge should not go for nothing by securing an immediate to the only man in the state of whom it was definitely that he had seen the object of his hopes willingly presented him to the the missionary and he rode one morning up the steep slopes of the rock on which stood the palace by co a story op west and east itself rock passing through a deep they entered a marble court yard and there found the attended by one ragged and out at elbow discussing the points of a fox which was lying before him on the flags in kings had expected a certain amount of state from one who did not pay his bills and might be reasonably expected to cultivate reserve but he was not prepared for the of a ruler in his garb released from the duty of with restraint in the presence of a nor for the picturesque mixture of dirt and about the court the proved a large and amiable brown and bush bearded arrayed in a green velvet dressing gown who appeared only too delighted to meet a man who had no connection with the government of india and who never mentioned the subject of money	39
the of his hands and feet showed that the ruler of came of the oldest blood in his fathers had fought hard and ridden far with sword and that would hardly serve an english child his face was and and the dull eyes stared wearily above deep rugged to accustomed to read the motives of western the men in their faces there seemed to be neither fear nor desire in those eyes only an everlasting weariness it was like looking at an extinct a that in good english had a natural interest in dogs and the keenest possible desire to himself with the ruler of the state as a king he considered him something of an but as a brother and the lord of the he was to more than a brother that is to say the brother of one s beloved he spoke and to the point come again said the with a light of real interest in his eyes as a little drew off his guest come again this evening after dinner you have come from new countries his majesty later carried away by the evening draught of without which no can talk or think taught this stranger who told him tales of white men beyond the seas the royal game of they played it far into the night in the marble court yard surrounded by green shutters from behind which could hear without turning his head the whisper of watching women and the rustle of silken robes the palace he saw was all eyes next morning at dawn he found the king a story of west and east waiting at the head of the main street of his city for a certain notorious wild to come home the game laws of extended to the streets of walled towns and the wild pig rooted at night in the the pig came and was dropped at a hundred yards by his majesty s new express rifle it was a clean shot and applauded cordially had his majesty the king ever seen a flying coin hit by a the weary eyes brightened with childish delight the king had not seen this feat and had not the coin flung an american quarter and it with his revolver as it fell thereupon the king begged him to do it again which his reputation politely declined to do unless one of the court officials would set the example the king was himself anxious to try and threw the coin for him the bullet close to s ear but the quarter on the grass was when he picked it up the king liked s as well as if it had been his own and was not the man to him the following morning the royal favor was completely withdrawn and it was not until he had conferred with the in the rest house that learned that had the been indulging one of her on this he transferred himself and his abundant capacity for interesting men to colonel and made that weary white haired man laugh as he had not laughed since he had been a over an account of the king s revolver practice shared his luncheon and discovered from him in the course of the afternoon the true policy of the government of india in regard to the state of the government hoped to it but as the would not pay for the means of civilization the progress was slow colonel s account of the internal policy of the palace given with official caution was absolutely different from the missionary s which again differed entirely from the profane account of the men in the rest house at twilight the pursued with a mounted messenger for the favor of the royal countenance was restored and he required the presence of the tall man who in the air told tales and played there was more than upon the board that night and his majesty the king grew pathetic and confided to a long and particular account of his own and the state s which presented everything in a fourth new light he concluded with an appeal to the president of the a story of west and east united states on whose powers and far reaching authority dwelt with a patriotism extended for the moment to embrace the nation to which belonged for many reasons he did not conceive that this was an time to open for the transfer of the the would have given away half his kingdom and appealed to the resident in the morning the next day and many succeeding days brought to the door of the rest house where was still staying a procession of rainbow clad ministers of the court each one who looked with contempt on the waiting commercial travellers and made themselves known to whom they warned in and english against trusting anybody except themselves each confidence wound up with and i am your true friend sir and each man accused his fellows to the stranger of every crime against the state or ill will toward the government of india that it had entered his own brain to conceive could only faintly conjecture what all this meant it seemed to him no extraordinary mark of court favor to play with the king and the of oriental were dark to him the ministers were equally at a loss to the understand him he had walked in upon them from out the sky line utterly self possessed utterly fearless and so far as they could see utterly disinterested the greater reason therefore for suspecting that he was a veiled of the government whose plans they could not that he was ignorant of everything to the government of india only confirmed their belief it was enough for them to know that he went to the king in secret was with him for hours and possessed for the time being the royal ear these smooth stately mysterious strangers filled with weariness	39
and disgust and he took out his revenge upon the commercial travellers to whom he sold stock in his land and improvement company between their visits the yellow man as his first friend and adviser he allowed to purchase a very few shares in the lingering on the dead quiet it was before the days of the gold boom in lower and there was still faith in the land these transactions took him back in fancy to and made him long for some word about the boys at home from whom he had absolutely cut himself off by this secret expedition in which he was playing necessarily alone for the high stake common to them both he would have given a story of west and east all the in his pocket at any moment for a sight of the or even for a look at a daily what was happening to his mines to the k which was being worked on a lease to the which was the subject of a legal dispute to the lingering where they had been on the point of striking it very rich when he left and to his claim which had jumped what had become of the mines of all his friends of their cattle of their what in fine had become of and of the united states of america they might have silver out of existence at washington for all he knew and turned the republic into a at the old stand his single resource from these pangs was his visits to the house of the missionary where they talked in the united states to that house he knew that every day was bringing nearer the little girl he had come half way round the world to keep in sight in the splendor of a yellow and violet morning ten days after his arrival he was roused from his sleep by a small shrill voice in the demanding the immediate attendance of the new englishman the heir apparent to the throne of a wheat colored child the aged nine had ordered his miniature court which was held quite distinct from his father s to his c spring and to take him to the like his father the child required amusement all the women of the palace had told him that the new englishman made the king laugh the could speak english much better than his father french too for the matter of that and he was anxious to show off his accomplishments to a court whose applause he had not yet commanded obeyed the voice because it was a child s and came out to find an apparently empty and an escort of ten gigantic how do you do comment i am the prince of this state i am the some day i shall be king come for a drive with me a tiny hand was extended in greeting the were of the wool with green at the wrist but the child was in stiff gold from head to foot and in his was set an of diamonds six inches high while in a thick cluster fell over his under all this glitter the dark eyes looked out and they were full of pride and of the loneliness of childhood a story of west and east ill took his seat in the he was beginning to wonder whether he should ever wonder at again we will drive beyond the race course on the railway road said the child who are you he asked softly laying his hand on s wrist just a man the face looked very old under the for those born to absolute power or those who have never known a desire and reared under the sun in the world age even more swiftly than the other children of the east who are men when they should be they say you come here to see things that s true said when i m king i shall allow nobody to come here not even the that leaves me out remarked laughing you shall come returned the child if you make me laugh make me laugh now shall i little fellow well there was once i wonder what would make a child laugh in this country i ve never seen one do it yet w h e w i gave a low long drawn whistle what s that over there my boy a little puff of dust rose very far down the road it was made by swiftly moving wheels the it had nothing to do with the regular of the state that is what i came out to see said the she will make me well my father the said so i am not well now he turned to a favorite groom at the back of the carriage he spoke in the what is it when i become without sense i have forgotten the english the groom leaned forward heaven bom i do not remember he said now i remember said the child suddenly mrs says it is fits what are fits put his hand tenderly on the child s shoulder but his eyes were following the let us hope she ll cure them anyway un whatever they are but who is ae i do not know the name but she will make me well see i my father has sent a carriage to meet her an empty was drawn up by the side of the road as the straining drew nearer with frantic upon a battered it s better than a cart anyway said to himself standing up in the carriage for he was beginning to choke a story of west and east young man don t you know who she is he asked again she was sent said the her name s said in his throat and don t you forget it then to himself in a contented whisper the child	39
waved his hand to his escort who dividing lined each side of the road with all the ragged bravery of irregular cavalry the halted and dusty from her long journey and red eyed from lack of sleep drew back the shutters of the like carriage and stepped dazed into the road her limbs would have doubled under her but leaping from the caught her to him regardless of the escort and of the calm eyed child in the golden who was shouting i run along home said well but had only her tears for him and a gasping you you i your the chapter ix we meet in an evil land that is near to the gates of hell i wait for thy command to serve to speed or withstand and thou i do not well oh love the flowers so red be only blossoms of flame the earth is full of the dead the new killed restless dead there is danger beneath and overhead and i guard at thy gates in fear of peril and of words thou not hear of signs thou not see and thou his ill that i came in tears stood again in s eyes as she her hair before the mirror in the room mrs had prepared against her coming tears of vexation it was an old story with her that the world wants nothing done for it and visits with displeasure those who must up its lazy content but in landing at she had supposed herself at the end of outside and obstacles what was by co a story op west and east now to come would belong to the wholesome difficulties of real work and here was nick i she had made the journey from in a long mood of exaltation she was launched it made her giddy and happy like the boy s first taste of the life of men she was free at last no one could stop her nothing could keep her from the life to which she had promised herself a little moment and she might stretch forth her hand and lay it fast upon her work a few days and she should stoop eye to eye above the pain that had called to her across seas in her dreams piteous hands of women were raised in prayer to her and moist sick palms were laid in hers the steady urge of the ship was too slow for her she counted the of the screw standing far in the with wind blown hair straining her eyes toward india her spirit went forth toward those to whom she was going and her life seemed to release itself from her and sped far far over the waves until it reached them and gave itself to them for a moment as she set foot on land she trembled with a of feeling she drew near her work but was it for her this old fear which had gone doubtfully with her purpose from the beginning she put behind her with a stern refusal to question there she was for so much of her work as heaven would let her do and she went the forward with a new strong humble impulse of devotion filling and her it was in this mood that she stepped out of the coach at into s arms she did justice to the kindness that had brought him over all these but she heartily wished that he had not come the existence of a man who loved her and for whom she could do nothing was a sad and troubling fact enough fourteen thousand miles away face to face with it alone in india it enlarged itself and thrust itself between her and all her hopes of bringing serious help to others love literally did not seem to her the most important thing in the world at that moment and something else did but that didn t make nick s trouble unimportant or prevent it while she her hair from getting in the way of her thoughts on the morrow she was to enter upon the life which she meant should be a help to those whom it could reach and here she was thinking of it was because she foresaw that she would keep on thinking of him that she wished him away he was the wandering about behind the in the cathedral at prayers he was the other thought in his person he represented and the life she had left behind much worse he represented a pain she could not heal it was not with the a of west and east haunting figure of love attendant that one carried out large purposes nor was it with a divided mind that men conquered cities the intent with which she was needed all of her she could not divide herself even with nick and yet it was good of him to come and like him she knew that he had not come merely in pursuit of a selfish hope it was as he had said he couldn t sleep nights knowing what might befall her that was really good of him mrs had invited to breakfast the day before when was not expected but was not the man to decline an invitation at the last moment on that account and he faced across the breakfast table next morning with a smile which an unwilling smile from her in spite of a sleepless night she was looking very fresh and pretty in the white muslin frock which had replaced her travelling dress and when he found himself alone with her after breakfast on the mrs having gone to look after the morning affairs of a housekeeper and having himself to his mission school inside the city walls he began to make her his compliments upon the cool white unknown to the west but stopped him nick she said facing him will you do something for	39
me the seeing her much in earnest attempted the humorous but she broke in no it is something i want very much nick will you do it for me is there anything i wouldn t do for you he asked seriously i don t know this perhaps but you must do it what is it go away he shook his head but you must listen said thrusting his hands deep into the big pockets of his white coat i can t you don t know the place you ve come to ask me the same question a week hence i won t agree to go but i ll agree to talk it over with you then i know now everything that counts she answered i want to do what i ve come here for i sha n t be able to do it if you stay you understand don t you nick nothing can change that yes it can i ll behave you needn t tell me you ll be kind i know it but even you can t be kind enough to help me believe that now nick and go it isn t that i want you to go you know a story of west and east oh observed with a smile well you know what i mean returned her face yes i know but if i m good it won t matter i know that too you ll see he said gently awful journey isn t it you promised me not to take it i didn t take it returned smiling and spreading a seat for her in the while he took one of the deep chairs himself he crossed his legs and fixed the white he had lately adopted on his knee i came round the other way on purpose what do you mean asked dropping into the san and of course you told me not to follow you nick she gathered into the single syllable the reproach and reproof the liking and despair with which the least and the greatest of his alike affected her had nothing to say for once and in the pause that fell she had time to herself of her of his presence here and time to still the impulse of pride which told her that it was good to be followed over half the earth s for love and the impulse of admiration for that fine devotion time above all for this was worst and the most shameful to scorn the sense of loneliness and far that came rolling in on her out of the desert like a cloud and made the protecting and presence of the man she had known in the other life seem for a moment sweet and desirable come you didn t expect me to stay at home and let you find your way out here to take the chances of this old sand heap did you it would be a cold day when i let you come to all by your lone little girl cold i ve thought since i ve been here and seen what sort of camp it is why didn t you tell me you were coming you didn t seem particularly interested in what i did when i last saw you nick i didn t want you to come here and i had to come myself well you ve come i hope you ll like it said he grimly is it so bad she asked not that i shall mind bad do you remember was one of those western towns which have their future behind them a city without an abandoned and desolate take for and fill it with ten for wickedness the first year and you ve got a tenth of it a story of west and east he went on to offer her an of the history politics and society of from his own point of view dealing with the dead east from the of the living west and dealing with it vividly it was a burning theme and it was a happiness to him to have a listener who could understand his attitude even if she could not entirely with it his tone her to laugh at it with him a little if only a little and consented to laugh but she said it all seemed to her more mournful than amusing could agree to this readily enough but he told her that he laughed to avoid weeping it made him tired to see the the and of this rich and world which should be up and stirring by rights trading building new towns making the old ones keep up with the procession laying new going in for fresh and keeping things humming they ve got resources enough he said it isn t as if they had the excuse that the country s poor it s a good country move the population of a lively town to set up a good local paper a board of trade and let the world know what there is here and we d have a boom in six that would shake the empire the but what s the use they re dead they re they re wooden images there isn t enough real old fashioned downright rustle and and up and in to run a milk cart yes yes she murmured half to herself with eyes it s for that i ve come how s that because they are not like us she answered turning her face on him if they were clever if they were wise what could we do for them it is because they are lost stumbling foolish creatures that they need us she heaved a deep sigh it is good to be here it s good to have you said she started don t say such things any more please nick she said oh well he groaned but it s	39
this way nick she said earnestly but kindly i don t belong to such things any more not even to the possibility of them think of me as a think of me as having all such happiness and all other kinds of happiness but my work h m may i smoke at her nod he lighted a cigar i m glad i m here for the ceremony what ceremony she asked i a story west and east seeing you take the veil but you won t take it why not he grumbled over his cigar a moment then he looked up because i ve got big wealth that says you won t i know you i know and i know what who myself he said looking up she clasped her hands in her lap nick she said leaning toward him you know i like you i like you too well to let you go on thinking you talk of not being able to sleep how do you suppose i can sleep with the thought always by me that you are laying up a pain and disappointment for yourself one that i can t help unless i can help it by begging you to go away now i do beg it please go pulled at his cigar for some seconds dear girl i m not afraid she sighed and turned her face away toward the desert i wish you were she said hopelessly fear is not for he retorted she turned back to him with a sudden motion o nick are you i m afraid i am by a majority of he handed her the cable despatch the poor father well i don t know oh well i congratulate you of course thanks but i m not sure it will be a good thing for you yes that s the way it had struck me if i spend my whole term out here like as not my won t be in a mood to advance my political career when i get back all the more reason no the more reason for fixing the real thing first i can make myself solid in politics any time but there isn t but one time to make myself solid with you it s here it s now he rose and bent over her do you think i can e that dear i can it from to day and i do cheerfully and you sha n t hear any more of it until you re ready to but you like me i know that and i well i like you there isn t but one end to that sort of thing he took her hand good by i ll come and take you for a look at the city to morrow gazed long after his retreating figure and then took herself into the house where a warm chat with mrs chiefly about the children at helped her to a sane view of the situation she must face with the a story of west and of she saw that he meant to stay and if she didn t mean to go it was for her to find the brave way of the fact to her hopes his complicated an undertaking which she had never expected to find simple in itself and it was finally only because she trusted all that he said that she was able to stay herself upon his promise to behave liberally interpreted this really meant much from perhaps it meant all that she need ask when all was said there remained the impulse to flight but she was ashamed to find when he came in the morning that a formidable pang of drew her toward him and made his definite and cheerful presence a welcome sight mrs had been kind the two women had made friends and found each other s hearts with instant sympathy but a home face was different and perhaps nick s was even more different at all events she willingly let him carry out his plan of showing her the city in their walk about it did not spare her the advantage of his ten days residence in preceding her coming he made himself her guide and stood on rocks overlooking things and his second hand history with an assurance that the oldest political resident might have envied he was interested in the problems of the state if not the responsible for their solution was he not a member of a governing body his ceaseless and fruitful curiosity about all new things had furnished him in ten days with much learning about and him to show to with eyes scarcely less fresh than her own the wonders of the narrow sand choked streets where the of and men alike fell dead they lingered by the royal of starved and the of the two tame hunting like that slept and yawned and scratched on their two by the main gate of the city and he showed her the ponderous door of the great gate itself studded with foot long against the attacks of that living ram the elephant he led her through the long lines of dark shops planted in and among the ruins of palaces whose had been long since forgotten and about the straggling past knots of attired soldiers who hung their day s from the of the brown or flint lock and then he showed her the of the kings of under the shadow of the great temple where the children of the sun and moon went to worship and where the smooth black stone bull glared across the main square at the cheap bronze statue of colonel s an a story of west and east and very plain lastly they found beyond the walls the of by the of the three gods whence the of filed out with their burdens of glistening rock salt for	39
her here alone save for the distant care of mrs i have brought this for said the child descending from his carriage cautiously with a parcel that filled both his arms come with me there nothing came and they drove over to the house of the missionary all the people in my palace said the child as they went say that she s your i m glad they know that much muttered to himself savagely what s this you have got for her he asked the aloud laying his hand on the parcel it is from my mother the queen the real queen you know because i am the prince there is a message too that i must not tell he began to whisper to himself to keep the message in mind was in the when they arrived and her face brightened a little at sight of the child tell my guard to stand back out of the garden go and wait in the road a story of west and east the carriage and withdrew the child still holding s hand held out the parcel to it is from my mother he said you have seen her this man need not go he is he hesitated a little of your heart is he not your speech is his speech flushed but did not attempt to set the child right what could she say and i am to tell this he continued first before everything till you quite understand he spoke hesitatingly out of his own as he went on and drawing himself to his full height as he cleared the cluster of from his brow my mother the queen the real queen says i was three months at this work it is for you because i have seen your face that which has been made may be against our will and a s hands are always picking for the love of the gods look to it that a nothing that i have made for it is my life and soul to me protect this work of mine that comes from me a cloth nine years upon the loom i know more english than my mother said the child dropping into his ordinary speech opened the parcel and a crude yellow and black with a violent crimson the fringe with such labors the queens of were wont to their leisure that is all said the child but he seemed unwilling to go there was a lump in s throat as she handled the pitiful gift without warning the child never for a moment his grip on s hand began to repeat the message word by word his little fingers on s fist as he went on say i am very grateful indeed said a little puzzled and not too sure of her voice that was not the answer said the child and he looked at his tall friend the new englishman the idle talk of the commercial travellers in the of the rest house flashed through s mind he took a quick pace forward and laid his hand on s shoulder whispering can t you see what it means it s the boy the cloth nine years on the loom but what can i do cried bewildered look after him keep on looking after him you are quick enough in most things wants his life see that she doesn t get it began to understand a little everything was possible in that awful palace even she had already guessed the that a story of west and east lives between and mother queens the stood motionless in the twilight twinkling in his robes shall i say it again he asked no no no child i no i she cried flinging herself on her knees before him and his little figure to her breast with a sudden access of tenderness and pity o nick what shall we do in this horrible country she began to cry ah i said the utterly unmoved i was to go when i saw that you cried he lifted up his voice for the carriage and and departed leaving the shabby on the floor was sobbing in the half darkness neither mrs nor her husband was within just then that little we of hers went through with a sweet and ecstasy he stooped and took her in his arms and for that which followed did not rebuke him we ll pull through together little girl he whispered to the shaken head on his shoulder the chapter x ye know the hundred danger time when gay with paint and flowers your household gods are to help the bitter helpless hours ye know the worn and rotten mat whereon your daughter lies ye know the room the cell wherein she dies dies with the in her ear of s muttered charm dies spite young that strains to stay the on her arm dies in the four fold heated room by the birth fire s breath ye say lest lack to haunt her home in death a song of the women dear friend that was very unkind of you and you have made my life harder i know i was weak the child upset me but i must do what i came for and i want you to strengthen me nick not hinder me don t come for a few days please i need all i am or hope to be for the work i see opening here i think can really do some good let me please read fifty different into this letter received the following morning and read them out again at the end of his conjectures by co a of west and he could be sure only of one thing that in spite of that moment s weakness was fixed upon her path he could not yet prevail against her steadfast gentleness and perhaps it would be	39
better not to try talks in the and about her path when she went to the palace were pleasant enough but he had not come to to tell her that he loved her in whose future the other half of his heart was bound up knew that secret long ago and was waiting for the coming of the three c s even as nick was waiting on s and the girl was unhappy and despairing but since he thanked god always he was at hand to guard her from the absolute shock of evil fate she might w u be left for the moment to mrs s comfort and sympathy she had already accomplished something in the guarded courts of the women s quarters for the s mother had her only son s life to her care who could help loving and trusting but for his own part what had he done for beyond he looked toward the city playing with the the low morning sun flung the shadow of the before him the commercial travellers came out one by one gazed at the walled bulk of and cursed it mounted his horse of which the much more hereafter and toward the city to pay his respects to the it was through him if through any one that he must possess himself of the he had been studying him and measuring the situation and he now believed that he had formed a plan through which he might hope to make himself solid with the a plan which whether it brought him the or not would at least allow him the privilege of staying at this privilege certain broad hints of colonel s had seemed to of late plainly to threaten and it had become clear to him that he must at once acquire a practical and object for his visit if he had to up the entire to find it to stay he must do something in particular what he had found to do was particular enough it should be done forthwith and it should bring him first the and then if he was at all the man he took himself for i as he approached the gates he saw in a brown habit riding with mrs out of the missionary s garden you needn t be afraid dear i sha n t bother you he said to himself smiling at the dust cloud rising behind her as he his pace but i wonder what s taking you out so early i a of west and east the misery within the palace walls which had sent her half weeping to mrs represented only a phase of the work for which had come if the wretchedness was so great under the shadow of the throne what must the common folk endure was on her way to the hospital there is only one native doctor at the hospital mrs was saying as they went along and of course he s only a native that is to say he is idle how can any one be idle here her companion cried as the stored heat from under the city gates beat across their temples every one grows idle so soon in returned mrs with a little sigh thinking of s high hopes and long since subdued to a mild sat her horse with the assured seat of a western girl who has learned to ride and to walk at the same time her well borne little figure had advantages on horseback the glow of resolve lighting her simply framed face at the moment lent it a spiritual beauty and she was warmed by the consciousness that she drew near her purpose and the goal of two years working and dreaming as they rounded a curve in the main street of the city a crowd was seen waiting at the foot of a flight of red steps rising to the platform the of a house three stories in height on which appeared the sign state the letters leaned against one another and drooped down over each side of the door a sense of the of it all came over as she surveyed the crowd of women clad in dull red blue pink and garments of raw silk almost every woman held a child on her hip and a low wailing cry rose up as drew rein the women clustered about her caught at her foot and thrust their babies into her arms she took one little one to her breast and hushed it tenderly it was burnt and dry with fever be careful said mrs there is in the hills behind us and these people have no notion of precautions listening to the cry of the women did not answer a white bearded native in a brown s hair dressing gown and patent leather boots came out of the thrusting the women right and left and bowing profoundly you are new lady doctor he said hospital is quite ready for inspection stand back from the miss he shouted in the as slipped to the ground and the crowd closed about her mrs remained in the saddle watching the scene a of west and east a woman of the desert very tall gold colored and scarlet threw back her face cloth caught by the wrist and made as if she would drag her away crying aloud fiercely in the the trouble in her eyes was not to be denied followed and as the crowd parted saw a kneeling in the on its back a gaunt skeleton of a man was muttering and picking at the nail studded saddle the woman drew herself up to full height and without a word flung herself down upon the ground clasping s feet stooped to raise her her under lip quivering and the doctor from the steps shouted cheerfully oh that is all right he is confirmed lunatic her husband she	39
is always bringing him here have you done nothing then cried turning on him angrily what can do she will not leave him here for treatment so i may him him i murmured to herself appalled as she caught the woman s hands and held them firmly tell her that i say he must be left here she said aloud the doctor conveyed the command the woman took a deep breath and stared at under level brows for a full then she carried s hand to the l the man s forehead and sat down in the dust her head dumb under these strange expressions of the workings of the eastern mind stared at her for a moment with an impulse of the compassion which knows no race before she bent and kissed her quietly on the forehead carry this man up she said pointing and he was carried up the steps and into the hospital his wife following like a dog once she turned and spoke to her sisters below and there went up a little chorus of weeping and laughter she says said the doctor j beaming that she will kill any one who is to you also she will be the nurse of your son paused to say a word to mrs who was bound on an errand further into the city then she mounted the steps with the doctor now will you see the hospital he asked but first let me introduce i am medicine from the college i was first native my province that took that degree that was twenty years ago looked at him where have you been since she asked some time i stayed in my father s house then i was clerk in medical stores in british india but his have graciously given me this appointment which i hold now a story of west and east lifted her eyebrows this then was to be her they passed into the hospital together in silence holding the skirt of her riding habit clear of the accumulated of the floor six roughly made with hide and string stood in the filthy central court yard of the house and on each cot a man in a white sheet tossed and moaned and a woman entered with a pot full of native and tried vainly to make one of the men eat of her in the full glare of the sunlight stood a young man almost absolutely his hands clasped behind his head trying to the sun he began a chant broke off and hurried from bed to bed shouting to each words that could not understand then he returned to his place in the centre and took up his interrupted song he is confirmed lunatic also said the doctor i have and him very severely but he will not go away he is quite harmless except when he does not get his surely you don t allow the exclaimed of course i allow otherwise they would die all eat and you asked with horror the once i did not when i first came but now he drew a smooth worn tin tobacco box from his waist and took from it what appeared to a handful of despair was going over her in successive waves show me the women s ward she said wearily oh they are all up stairs and down stairs and round about returned the doctor casually and the cases she asked they are in casual ward who to them they do not like me but there is very clever woman from the outside she comes in has she any training any education she is much esteemed in her own village said the doctor she is here now if you wish to see where demanded somewhat uneasy in his mind made haste to lead the way up a narrow staircase to a closed door from behind which came the wail of a new life flung the door open in that particular ward of the state hospital were the clay and cow images of two gods which the woman in charge was with every window every that might admit a breath of air was closed and the birth fire a op west and blazed fiercely in one comer its nearly as she entered what happened between and the woman will never be known the girl did not for half an hour but the woman came out much sooner and feebly after this was prepared for anything even for the neglected condition of the in the the mortar was never cleaned and every carried to the patient many more than were written for him and for the foul and rooms which she entered one after another hopelessly the were allowed to receive their friends as they would and to take from their hands whatever kindness offered when death came the howled in chorus about the cot and bore the naked body through the court yard amid the of the lunatic to carry to the city what heaven willed there was no of cases during the progress of the disease and children with ed light with the children of the visitors or among beds at one point and one point only the doctor was strong he was highly successful the in dealing with the very common trouble entered on the day book as bite the wood and small who had occasion to travel through the lonely roads of the state were not struck down by and in these cases the doctor the entire english fell back on of proved in the neighboring villages and wrought wonders none the less it was necessary to convey to him that in future there would be only one head of the state hospital that her orders must be obeyed without question and that her name was miss the doctor reflecting that she attended on the women of the court offered no protest he had been	39
through many such periods of reform and and knew that his own and a smooth tongue would carry him through many more he bowed and assented allowing s reproaches to pass over his head and all questions with the statement this hospital only allowed one hundred and fifty per from state how can get all the way from for that jam paying for this order said writing out a list of needed and on the desk in the bath room which was supposed to serve a story of west and as an office and i shall pay for whatever else i think necessary order going through me suggested with his head on one side unwilling to raise unnecessary obstacles assented with those poor creatures lying in the rooms about her at the mercy of this creature it was not a time to argue about yes she said decidedly of course and the doctor when he saw the size and scope of the order felt that he could endure much at her hands at the end of the three hours came away fainting with weariness want of food and bitter the chapter xi who speaks to the king carries his life in his hand native proverb found the who had not yet taken his morning allowance of sunk in the deepest depression the man from gazed at him filled with his purpose the s first words helped him to declare it what have you come here for he asked to inquired with a smile that embraced the whole horizon yes to the the agent says you do not belong to any government and that you have come here only to see things and write lies about them why have you come i have come to turn your river there is gold in it he said steadily the answered him with go and speak to the government he said it s your river i guess returned cheerfully by c co i a of west and mine nothing in the state is mine the people are at my gates day and night the agent won t let me collect taxes as my fathers used to do i have no army that s perfectly true assented under his breath i ll run off with it some morning and if i had continued the i have no one to fight against i am only an old wolf with all my teeth drawn go away i they were talking in the court yard immediately outside that wing of the palace occupied by the was sitting in broken chair while his brought up successive of horses and in the hope that one of the animals might be chosen for his majesty s ride the stale sick air of the palace drifted across the marble flags before the morning wind and it was not a wholesome smell who had drawn rein in the court yard without flung his right leg over the pony s and held his peace he had seen something of the effect of upon the a servant was approaching with a small brass bowl full of and water the swallowed the draught with many faces dashed the last brown drops from his and beard and dropped back into the chair star the ing with vacant eyes in a few minutes he sprang to his feet erect and smiling are you here said he you are here or i should not feel ready to laugh do you go riding this morning i m your man then we will bring out the he will throw you very good said leisurely and i will ride my own mare let us get away before the agent comes said the the blast of a was heard without the court yard and a clatter of wheels as the departed to saddle the horses the ran up the steps and toward the his father who picked him up in his lap and him what brings thee here asked the the beloved was the familiar name by which the prince was known within the palace i came to exercise my guard father they are giving me bad for my from the state s saddle peak is mended with string and is the best of my soldiers moreover he tells me nice tales said the speaking in the with a friendly little nod toward a story of west and hai hail thou art like all the rest said the king always some fresh demand upon the state and what is it now the child joined his little hands together and caught his father fearless by his monstrous beard which in the manner of a was brushed up over his ears only ten little new said the child they are in the big saddle rooms i have seen them but the keeper of the horses said that i was first to ask the king the s face darkened and he swore a great oath by his gods the king is a slave and a servant he growled the servant of the agent and this english but by the king s son is at least a king s son what right had to stay thee from anything that thou prince i told him said the that my father would not be pleased but i said no more because i was not very well and thou the boy s head drooped under the i am only a little child i may have the to whom no word of this conversation was intelligible sat at ease on his pony smiling at his friend the the interview had begun in the dead of the court yard the a silence so intense that he could hear the on a tower a hundred and fifty feet above his head but now all four sides of the court yard were alive awake and intent about him he could hear muffled the rustle of and the faintest possible of	39
shutters cautiously opened from within a heavy smell of and came to his nostrils and filled him with uneasiness for he knew without turning his head or his eyes that and her women were watching all that went on but neither the king nor the prince the was very full of his english lessons learned at mrs s knee and the king was as interested as he lest should fail to understand the prince began to speak in english again but very slowly and distinctly that his father also might comprehend and this is a new verse he said which i learned only yesterday is there any talk of their gods in it asked the suspiciously remember thou art a no oh no said the prince it is only english and i learned it very quickly let me hear little some day thou wilt become a and go to the english and wear a long black gown a story of west and east the child slipped quickly back into the the flag of our state has five colors he said when i have fought for that perhaps i will become an englishman there is no leading of armies any more little one but say thy verses the subdued rustle of unseen hundreds grew more intense leaned forward with his chin in his hand as the prince slid down from his father s lap put his hands behind him and began without pauses or expression tiger tiger burning bright in the forests of the night what immortal hand or eye framed thy fearful when thy heart began to beat what dread hand made thy dread feet there is more that i have forgotten he went on but the last line is did he who made the lamb make thee i learned it all very quickly and he began to himself with both hands while followed suit i do not understand but it is good to know english thy friend here speaks such english as i never knew said the in the the aye rejoined the prince but he speaks with his face and his hands alive so and i laugh before i know why now colonel speaks like a with his mouth shut i cannot tell whether he is angry or pleased but father what does do here we go for a ride together returned the king when we return perhaps i will tell thee what do the men about thee say of him they say he is a man of clean heart and he is always kind to me has he said aught to thee of me never in language that i could understand but i do not doubt that he is a good man see he is laughing now who had pricked up his ears at hearing his own name now himself in the saddle and gathered up his reins as a hint to the king that it was time to be moving the brought up a long english and a lean mouse colored mare the rose to his feet go back to and get the prince said he what are you going to do to day little man asked i shall go and get new answered the child and then i shall come to play with the prime minister s son here a story of west and east again like the hiss of a hidden snake the rustle behind the shutters increased one there understood the child s words shall you see miss to day not to day tis holiday for me i do not go to miss to day the king turned on swiftly and spoke under his breath must he see that doctor lady every day all my people lie to me in the hope of winning my favor even colonel says that the child is very strong speak the truth he is my first son he is not strong answered calmly perhaps it would be better to let him see miss this morning you don t lose anything by keeping your weather eye open you know i do not understand said the king but go to the missionary s house to day my son i am to come here and play answered the prince you don t know what miss s got for you to play with said what is it asked the sharply you ve got a carriage and ten replied you ve only got to go there and find out he drew a letter from his breast pocket the ing with liking at the two cent american stamp and a note to on the envelope which ran thus keep the little fellow with you to day there s a wicked look about things this morning find something for him to do get up games for him do anything but keep him away from the palace i got your note all right i understand he called the to him and handed him the note take this to miss like a little man and say i sent you he said my son is not an orderly said the king your son is not very well and i m the first to speak the truth to you about him it seems to me said gently on that s mouth you the was dancing between his you ll be thrown said the in an ecstasy of delight he throws all his at that moment a in the court yard distinctly three times in the silence one of the passed to the off side of the plunging put his foot into the to spring up when the saddle turned completely round some one let go of the horse s a story op west and east head and had just time to kick his foot free as the animal sprang forward i ve seen ways of killing a man than that he said quietly bring my friend back he added to one of the and when	39
the was under his hands again he him up as the beast had not been since he had first felt the bit now he said and i ed into the saddle as the king out of the court yard the reared on end landed stiffly on his fore feet and lashed out sitting him with the seat said quietly to the child who was still watching his movements run along don t hang around here let me see j ou started for miss the boy obeyed with a glance at the horse then the devoted himself to his rider he refused to quit the court yard though argued with him first behind the saddle and then between the indignant ears accustomed to who slipped off at the first sign of rebellion the was without warning he dashed through the wheeled on his and bolted in pursuit of the s mare once in the open country he felt that he had a field worthy of his powers also saw his m the the known in his youth as a hard rider among a nation of perhaps the hardest on earth turned in his saddle and watched the battle with interest you ride like a he shouted as flew past him breathe him on a straight course in the open not till he s learned who s replied and he the around oh well done well done cried the as the answered the bit i ll make you colonel of my regular cavalry ten million irregular devils i said come back you brute back the horse s head was bowed on his chest under the pressure of the but before obeying he planted his fore feet and as as one of s own both feet down and chest extended he murmured to himself as the creature see up and down he was in his element and dreamed himself back in exclaimed the king hit him hard hit him well oh let him have his little said easily i like it when the was tired he was forced to back a story of west east l for ten yards now we ll go on said and fell into a trot by the side of the that river of yours is full of gold he said after a moment s silence as if continuing an conversation when i was a young man said the king i rode pig here we chased them with the sword in the that was before the english came over there by that pile of rock i broke my collar bone full of gold how do you propose to get it out knew something already of the king s he did not mean to give way to it what do i know answered the king solemnly ask the agent but look here who does run this state you or colonel you know returned the you have seen he pointed north and south there he said is one i line yonder is another i am a goat between two wolves well anyway the country between is your own surely you can do what you like with that they had ridden some two or three miles beyond the city parallel with the course of the the river their horses sinking deep in the soft sand the king looked along the chain of shining pools the white rush tipped of the desert and the far distant line of low hills whence the sprang it was not a prospect to delight the heart of a king yes i am lord of all this country he said but look you one fourth of my is swallowed up by those who collect it one fourth those black faced in the sand there will not pay and i must not march troops against them one fourth i myself perhaps receive but the people who should pay the other fourth do not know to whom it should be sent yes i am a very rich king well any way you look at it the river ought to your income the looked at intently what would the government say he asked i don t quite see where the government comes in you can lay out orange gardens and take around them there was a deep set twinkle of comprehension in his majesty s eye working the river would be much easier you ve tried here haven t you there was some washing in the bed of the river one summer my were too full of and i feared rebellion but there was nothing to a story op west and east see except those black dogs digging in the sand that year i won the cup with a bay pony brought his hand down on his with an what was the use of talking business to this wearied man who would what the had left ta him of soul for something to see he shifted his ground instantly yes that sort of is nothing to look at what you want is a little dam up way near the hills yes no man has ever the said the king it comes out of the ground and sinks back into the ground and when the rain falls it is as big as the we ll have the whole bed of it laid bare before the rains begin bare for twelve miles said watching the effect on his companion no man has the was the stony reply no man has ever tried give me all the labor i want and j will dam the where will the water go inquired the king i ll take it around another way as you took the canal around the orange garden of course ah then colonel talked to me as if i were a child the you know why said placidly the king was frozen for a moment by this audacity he knew that all the secrets of his domestic life were common talk in	39
the mouths of the for no man can bridle three hundred women but he was not prepared to find them so frankly hinted at by this stranger who was and was not an englishman colonel will say nothing this time continued besides it will help your people who are also his said the king the was dying out of his brain and his head fell forward upon his chest then i shall begin to morrow said it will be something to see i must find the best place to dam the river and i dare say you can lend me a few hundred but why have you come here at all asked the king to dam my rivers and turn my state down because it s good for you to laugh you know that as well as i do i will play with you every night until you are tired and i can speak the truth a rare in these parts did you speak truth about the is he indeed not well a of west and east i have told you he isn t quite strong but there s nothing the matter with him that miss can t put right is that the truth demanded the king member he has my throne after me if i know miss he ll have that throne don t you fret you are great friend of hers pursued his companion you both come from one country yes assented and one town tell me about that town said the king curiously nothing told him told him at length in detail and with his own touches of forgetting in the heat of admiration and affection that the king could understand at best not more than one word in ten of his vigorous western half way through his the king interrupted if it was so good why did you not stay there i came to see you said quickly i heard about you there then it is true what my poets sing to me that my fame is known in the four corners of the earth i will fill s mouth with gold if it is so you can bet your life would you like me to go away though say the word made as if to check his horse the the remained sunk in deep thought and when he spoke it was slowly and distinctly that might catch every word i hate all the english he said their ways are not ray ways and they make such trouble over the killing of a man here and there your ways are not my ways but you do not give so much trouble and you are a friend of the doctor lady well i hope i m a friend of the s too said are you a true friend to him asked the king him closely that s all right i d like to see the man who tried to lay a hand on the little one he d vanish king he d disappear he wouldn t be i d up with him i have seen you hit that do it again without thinking for a moment of the drew his revolver tossed a coin into the air and fired the coin fell beside them a fresh one this time marked in the centre the plunged furiously and the mare there was a thunder of hoofs behind them the escort which till now had waited respectfully a quarter of a mile behind were racing up at full speed with the king laughed a little contemptuously they are thinking you have shot me he said a story of west and east so they will kill you unless i stop them shall i stop them thrust out his under jaw with a motion peculiar to himself wheeled the and waited without answering his empty hands folded on the of his saddle the troop swept down in an irregular mob each man crouching lance in rest over his saddle bow and the captain of the troop flourishing a long straight sword felt rather than saw the lean on the breast of the the king drew off a few yards and watched him where he stood alone in the centre of the plain waiting for that single moment in which he faced death thought to himself that he preferred any customer to a suddenly his shouted once the fell as though they had been smitten down and the troop opening out whirled by on each side of each man striving as nearly as might be to brush the white man s boot the white man stared in front of him without turning his head and the king gave a little of approval would you have done that for the he asked his mare in again beside him after a pause no said placidly i should have begun shooting long before the r th kin i in his saddle with laughter ur lis l the of the p l f sin jl he he would have h t th e to smiling is mv the captain grinned from ear to ear and to s surprise answered in perfect english that would do for irregular cavalry to kill the tou understand hut we are on english model and i have my commission from the queen now in the german looked at him in blank amazement but you are not connected with the military said ji politely i have heard how you shot and i saw what you were doing but you must please excuse when a shot is fired near his it is our order always to come up he saluted and withdrew to his troop the sun was growing hot and the king and trotted back toward the city how many can you lend me asked as they went all my full if you want them was the enthusiastic answer by god i never	39
a story of west and east saw anything like that i would give you anything took off his hat and his fore head laughing very good then i ll ask for something that will cost you nothing the doubtfully people generally demanded of him things he was not willing to part with that talk is new to me said he you ll see i m in earnest when i say i only want to look at the i ve seen all your state diamonds and gold carriages but i haven t seen that the trotted fifty yards without replying then do they speak of it where you come from of course all americans know that it s the biggest thing in india it s in all the said do the books say where it is the english people are so wise the stared straight in front of him and almost smiled no but they say you know and i d like to see it you must understand the spoke that this is not the a state jewel but the state jewel the jewel of the state it is a holy thing even i do not keep it and i cannot give you any order to see it s heart sank but the continued if i say where it is you can go at your own risk without government interfering i have seen you are not afraid of risk and i am a very grateful man perhaps the priests will show you perhaps they will not or perhaps you will not find the priests at all oh i forgot it is not in that temple that i was thinking of no it must be in the the cow s mouth but there are no priests there and goes of course it is in the cow s mouth i thought it was in this city resumed the he spoke as if he were talking of a dropped or a oh of course the cow s mouth repeated as if this also were in the guide books with renewed animation the king went on by god only a very brave man would go to the such a brave man as yourself he added giving his companion a shrewd look ho ji would not go no not with all his troops that you conquered to day keep your praise until i ve earned it a story of west and east said wait until i ve that river he was silent for a while as if this piece of information now you have a city like this city i suppose said the pointing to had overcome in a measure his first feeling of contempt for the state of and the city of he had begun to look upon them both as was his nature in the case of people and things with which he dwelt with a certain kindness is going to be bigger he explained and when you are there what is your position asked the without answering drew from his the cable from mrs and handed it in to the king where an election was concerned even the sympathy of an soaked was not indifferent to him what does it mean asked the king and threw up his hands in despair he explained his connection with the government of his state making the appear as one of the of america he owned up to being the hon if the really wanted to give him his full title the such as the members of provincial that come here suggested the remembering the gray headed men who visited him from time to time with authority only little less than that of a but still you will not write letters to that about my government he suspiciously recalling again over curious from the british parliament over seas who sat their horses like and talked of good government when he wished to go to bed and above all he added slowly as they drew near to the palace you are most true friend of the and your friend the lady doctor will make him well that said with a sudden inspiration is what we are both here for a story of west and east chapter xii this i saw when the rites were done and the lamps were dead and the gods alone and the gray snake on the altar stone ere i fled from a fear that i could not see and the gods of the east made mouths at me in when he left the king s side s first impulse was to set the into a gallop and forthwith depart in search of the he mechanically drove his heels home and his rein under the impulse of the thought but the s leap beneath him recalled him to his senses and he restrained himself and his mount with the same motion his familiarity with the people s grotesque left him by the cow s mouth as a name for a spot but he gave some wonder to the question why the thing should be in the cow s mouth this was a matter to be laid before these heathen he said to himself are just the sort to hide it away in a salt or bury it by co the in a hole in the ground yes a hole is about their size they put the state diamonds in tied up with boot the is probably hanging on a tree as he trotted toward the missionary s house he looked at the hopeless landscape with new interest for any spur of the low hills or any roof in the city might contain his treasure who had many and knew as a prisoner knows the bricks of his cell turned on in reply to the latter s direct question a flood of information there were mouths of all kinds in india from the burning mouth in the north where a	39
jet of natural gas was worshipped by millions as the of a divinity to the devil s mouth among some forgotten ruins in the southern corner of there was also a cow s mouth some hundreds of miles away in the court yard of a temple at much frequented by but as far as was concerned there was only one cow s mouth and that was to be found in a dead city the missionary launched into a history of wars and extending over hundreds of years all round one rock walled city in the wilderness which had been the pride and the glory of a story of west and east the kings of listened with patience as infinite as his weariness ancient history had no charm for the man who was making his own town while enlarged upon the past and told stories of voluntary on the in palaces by thousands of women who when the city fell before a and their kin had died in the last charge of defence cheated the of all but the empty glory of conquest had a taste for and it was a pleasure to him to speak of it to a fellow by the ninety six miles to might make connection with a train that would carry him sixty seven miles westward to yet another where he would change and go south by rail for a hundred and seven miles and this would bring him within four miles of this city its marvellous nine tower of glory which he was to note carefully its walls and desolate palaces the journey would occupy at least two days at this point suggested a map and a glance at it showed him that proposed an elaborate round three sides of a square whereas a spider like line ran more or less directly from to this seems shorter he said the it s only a country road and you have had some experience of roads in this state fifty seven miles on a road in this sun would be fatal smiled to himself he had no particular dread of the sun which year by year had stolen from his companion something of his vitality i think i ll ride anyhow it seems a waste to travel half round india to get at a thing across the road though it the custom of the country he asked the missionary what the cow s mouth was like and explained and to such good purpose that understood that it was some sort of a hole in the ground an ancient a remarkably ancient hole of peculiar but nothing more than a hole decided to start without an hour s delay the dam might wait until he returned it was hardly likely that the king s outburst of generosity would lead him to throw open his on the morrow for a while whether he should tell him of the excursion he was proposing to himself and then decided that he would look at the first and open later this seemed to suit the customs of the country he returned to the rest house with s map in his pocket to take stock of his a story of west east stable like other men of the west he reckoned a horse a necessity before all other necessities and had purchased one mechanically immediately after his arrival it had been a comfort to him to note all the tricks of all the men he had ever horses with faithfully in the lean who had led his kicking plunging horse up to the one idle evening and it had been a greater comfort to battle with them as he had in the old days the result of the fought out in broken english and expressive american was an doubtful tempered mouse colored who had been dismissed for vice from the service of his majesty and who weakly believed that having eaten pieces of the of the li irregular horse ease and idleness awaited him had him leisurely in such moments as he most felt the need of doing something and the though never grateful was at least civil he had been in recognition of conduct and a resemblance which fancied he detected between the beast s lean face and that of the man who had jumped his claim threw back the cloth as he came upon in the afternoon sun behind the rest house the we re going for a little walk down town he said the and snapped yes you always were a was by his nervous native attendant while took a blanket from his room and rolled up into it an imaginative of provisions was to find his where heaven pleased then he set out as light as though he were going for a the city it was now about three in tbe afternoon all s boundless of ill temper and stubborn obstinacy resolved should be devoted by the aid of his spurs to covering the fifty seven miles to in the next ten hours if the road were fair if not he should be allowed another two hours the return journey would not require spurs there was a moon that night and knew enough of native roads in and rough elsewhere to be certain that he would not be confused by cross tracks it being borne into s mind that he was required to advance not in three directions at once but in one he his bit comfortably in his mouth dropped his head and began to trot steadily then pulled him up and addressed him tenderly my boy we re not out for exercise you ll a story of west and east learn that before some has been training you to waste your time over the english trot i ll be discussing other points with you in the course of the campaign but we ll settle this now we don t begin with crime drop	39
it and behave like a man horse was obliged to make further remarks on the same subject before returned to the easy native which is also a common western pace neither man nor beast by this he began to understand that a long journey was demanded of him and lowering his tail down to it at first he moved in a cloud of sandy dust with the cotton and the country carts that were creaking out to the far distant railroad at as the sun began to sink his gaunt shadow danced like a across low lying rock with shrubs and here and there an the their cattle on the roadside and prepared to eat their evening meal by the light of dull red fires cocked one ear wistfully toward the flames but held on through the gathering shadows and smelt the of bruised s thorn beneath his horse s hoofs the moon rose in splendor behind him and following his shadow he overtook a naked the man who bore over his shoulder a stick loaded with bells and fled panting and from one who followed him armed with a naked sword this was the mail and his escort running to the died away on the dead air and was between able lines of thorn bushes that threw mad arms to the stars and east shadows as solid as themselves across the road some beast of the night plunged through the thicket alongside and in panic then a crossed under his nose with a rustle of and left an evil to poison the stillness for a moment a point of light gleamed ahead where a cart had broken down and the drivers were sleeping peacefully till daylight should show the injury here stopped and through the magic of a representing fortune to the rudely awakened procured food and a little water for him the and made as much of him as he was disposed to permit on starting again found his second wind and with it there woke the spirit of daring and adventure inherited from his ancestors who were accustomed to take their masters thirty in a day for the of a town to sleep by a lance driven into the earth as a and to return whence they had come before the ashes of the houses had lost heat so a story of west and east lifted his tail and began to move the road descended for miles crossing the dry beds of many water courses and once a broad river where stopped for another drink and would have lain down to roll in a bed but that his rider him on up the slope the country grew more fertile at every mile and rolled in broader waves under the light of the setting moon the fields showed silver white with the or dark with sugar cane and sugar ceased together as a long slow ascent and with nostrils for the wind of the morning he knew that the day would bring him rest peered forward where the white line of the road disappeared in the gloom of he commanded a vast level plain by hills of soft outline a plain that in the dim light seemed as level as the sea like the sea too it bore on its breast a ship like a gigantic with a sharp bow cutting her way from north to south such a ship as man never yet has seen two miles long with three or four hundred feet free board lonely silent without lights a of the earth we are nearly there my boy said drawing rein and the monstrous the thing by the we ll get as close as we can and then wait for the daylight before going aboard they descended the slope which was covered with sharp stones and sleeping then the road turned sharply to the left and began to run parallel to the ship urged into a more direct path and the good horse across the covered ground cut up and by the rains into a of and here he gave out with a despairing took pity on him and him to a tree bade him think of his sins till breakfast time and dropped from his back into a dry and dusty water hole ten steps further and the was all about him him across the brows thorns into his jacket and roots in front of his knees as he pushed on up an incline at last was crawling on his hands and knees from head to foot and hardly to be distinguished from the wild pigs that passed like slate colored shadows through the of the on their way to their rest too absorbed to hear them he pulled and himself up the slope at the roots as though he would the from the of the a story of west and east earth and swearing at every step when he stopped to wipe the sweat from his face he found more by touch than by eye that he knelt at the foot of a wall that ran up into the stars from the below was you re not hurt he gasped out some fragments of dry grass you aren t on in this scene nobody s asking you to fly tonight he said looking hopelessly up at the wall again and whistling softly in response to an owl s overhead he began to pick his way between the foot of the wall and the that grew up to it pressing one hand against the huge cut stones and holding the other before his face a fig seed had found between two of the gigantic and undisturbed through the centuries had grown into an tree that between the and heaved the apart considered for a while whether he could climb into the of the lowest branch then moved on a few steps and found the wall rent from top to bottom through the	39
twenty feet of its thickness allowing passage for the head of an army like them exactly like them i he mused i might have expected it to build a wall sixty feet high and put an eighty foot hole in it the the must be lying out on a bush or a child s playing with it and i can t get it he plunged through the gap and found himself amid scattered pillars of stone broken and tumbled and heard a low thick hiss almost under his riding boots no man bom of woman needs to be instructed in the voice of the serpent jumped and stayed still s came faintly now the dawn wind blew through the gap in the wall and wiped his forehead with a deep sigh of relief he would do no more till the light came this was the hour to eat and drink also to stand very still because of that voice from the ground he pulled food and a from his pocket and staring before him in every direction ate the loom of the night lifted a little and he could see the outline of some great building a few yards away beyond this were other shadows faint as the visions in a dream the shadows of yet more temples and lines of houses the wind blowing among them brought back a rustle of tossing hedges the shadows grew more distinct he could see that he was standing with his face to some decayed tomb then his jaw fell for without warning or the red dawn shot up behind him and a story of west and east there leaped out of the night the city of the dead tall built sharp palaces flushing to the color of blood revealed the horror of their and glared at the day that pierced them through and through the wind passed singing down the empty streets and finding none to answer returned chasing before it a muttering cloud of dust which presently whirled itself into a little and laid down with a sigh a screen of fretted marble lay on the dry grass where it had fallen from some window above and a crawled over it to sun himself already the dawn flush had passed the hot light was everywhere and a had poised himself in the blue sky the day new born might have been as old as the city it seemed to that he and it were standing still to hear the centuries race by on the wings of the dust as he took his first step into the streets a stepped from the threshold of a lofty red house and spread his tail in the splendor of the sun halted and with perfect gravity took off his hat to the royal bird where it blazed against the on the wall the sole living thing in sight the silence of the place and the insolent of the empty ways lay on him like a dead the weight for a long time he did not care to whistle but from one wall to another looking at the gigantic dry and neglected the hollow guard houses that studded the the time arches that the streets and above all the tower with a shattered roof that sprang a hundred and fifty feet into the air for a sign to the country side that the royal city of was not dead but would one day hum with men it was from this tower with figures in high relief of beast and man that after a heavy climb looked out on the vast sleeping land in the midst of which the dead city lay he saw the road by which he had come in the night dipping and again over thirty miles of country saw the white fields the and the plain to the northward cut by the shining line of the rail from his he peered forth as a man from a crow s nest at sea for once down there below in the city all view was cut off by the that rose like on the side nearest to the railroad sloping paved with stone ran down to the plain under many gates as the of a ship when it is let down and through the in the walls time and the trees had torn their way to and fro there was a story of west and east nothing to be seen except the horizon which might have been the deep sea he thought of waiting in the for his breakfast and made haste to descend to the streets again remembering the of his talk with as to the position of the cow s mouth he passed up a side lane disturbing the and that had taken up their quarters in the cool dark of the rows of empty houses the last house ended in a heap of ruins among a of and tall grass through which ran a narrow foot track marked the house as the first actual ruin he had seen his complaint against all the others the temples and the palaces was that they were not ruined but dead empty swept and with the seven devils of loneliness in possession in time in a few thousand years perhaps the city would away he was distinctly glad that one house at least had set the example the path dropped beneath his feet on a shelf of solid rock that curved over like the edge of a took only one step and fell for the rock was worn into deep than ice by the naked feet of millions who had trodden that way for no man knew how many years when he rose he heard a malignant the half suppressed which ended in a choking cough ceased and broke out anew an oath to find that when he had found the and looked to his more carefully at this	39
point it seemed that the cow s mouth must be some sort of fringed to the lips with rank vegetation all sight of what lay below him was blocked by the thick foliage of trees that leaned forward bowing their heads together as night over a corpse once upon a time there had been rude steps leading down the almost sheer descent but the naked feet had worn them to and and blown dust had made a thin soil in their looked long and angrily because the laugh came from the bottom of this track and then digging his heel into the mould began to let himself down step by step himself by the of grass before he had realized it he was out of reach of the sun and neck deep in tall grass still there was a sort of pathway under his feet down the almost perpendicular side he the grass and went on the earth beneath his elbows grew moist and the rock where it out showed rotten with moisture and with moss the air grew cold and damp another plunge downward revealed to him what the trees were guard a of west and east ing as he drew breath on a narrow stone ledge they sprung from the round the sides of a square of water so that it had past corruption and lay dull blue under the blackness of the trees the of summer had shrunk it and a bank of dried mud ran round its sides the head of a sunken stone pillar carved with monstrous and gods reared itself from the water like the head of a swimming to land the birds moved in the branches of the trees far overhead little twigs and dropped into the water and the noise of their fall echoed from side to side of the that received no sunlight the chuckle that had so annoyed broke out again as he listened this time it was behind him and sharply he saw that it came from a thin stream of water that from the rudely carved head of a cow and along a stone into the heavy blue pool behind that the moss grown rock rose sheer this then was the cow s mouth the lay at the bottom of a shaft and the one way down to it was that by which had come a path that led from the sunlight to the chill and mould of a vault well this is kind of the king anyhow he said pacing the ledge cautiously for it was almost the as slippery as the pathway on the rocks now what s the use of this he continued returning the ledge ran only round one side of the and unless he trusted to the mud banks on the other three there was no hope of continuing his further the cow s mouth chuckled again as a fresh jet of water forced its way through the jaws oh dry up he muttered impatiently staring through the half light that veiled all he dropped a piece of rock on the mud under the lip of the ledge then tested it with a cautious foot found that it bore and decided to walk round the as there were more trees to the right of the ledge than to the left he stepped off on the mud from the right holding cautiously to the branches and the of grass in case of any false step when the was first made its rock walls had been perfectly perpendicular but time and weather and the war of the tree roots had broken and the stone in a thousand places giving a scant here and there crept along the right side of the resolved whatever might come to go round it the gloom deepened as he came directly under the largest fig tree throwing a thousand arms across the water and the rock with snake like a story of west and east roots as thick as a man s body here sitting on a he rested and looked at the ledge the sun shooting down the path that he had trampled through the tall grass threw one patch of light on the marble of the ledge and on the blunt of the cow s head but where rested under the fig tree there was darkness and an intolerable scent of the blue water was not inviting to watch he turned his face inward to the rock and the trees and looking up caught the green of a s wing moving among the upper branches never in his life had so desired the blessed sunshine he was cold and damp and conscious that a gentle breeze was blowing in his face from between the tree roots it was the sense of space more than actual sight that told him that there was a passage before him by the roots on which he sat and it was his instinct of curiosity rather than any love of adventure that led him to throw himself at the darkness which parted before and closed behind him he could feel that his feet were treading on cut stone with a thin of dried mud and extending his arms found on each side then he lighted a match and congratulated himself that his ignorance of cows mouths had not led him to bring a lantern with the him the first match in the and went out and before the flame had died he heard a sound in front of him like the shivering backward draw of a wave on a beach the noise was not but pressed on for a few steps looking back to see that the dull glimmer of the outer day was still behind him and lighted another match guarding it with his hands at his next step he shuddered from head to foot his heel had through a skull on the ground the match showed him that he had	39
was not to the that he could afford to say all that he thought fortunately the was too much entertained by the work which immediately on the river to inquire particularly whether his young friend had sought the the at the had sought an ence with tlie king the morning after his return from that black spot and with the face of a man who had never known fear and who the measure of disappointments demanded the fulfilment of the king s promise having failed in one direction on a large scale he laid the first brick on the walls of a new structure without delay as the people of had begun to build their town anew the morning after the fire his experience at the only sharpened his determination adding to it a grim to get even with the man who had sent him there the who felt in especial need of amusement that morning was very ready to make good his promise and ordered that the long man who played should be granted all the men he could use with the energy of disgust and with a hot memory of the least assured and comfortable moments of his life burning in his breast flung himself on the turning of the river and the building of his dam it was necessary it seemed in the land upon which he had fallen to raise a dust to hide one s ends he would raise a dust and it should be on the same scale as the catastrophe which he had just encountered thorough business like he raised it in fact in a cloud a story of west and east since the state was founded no one had seen anything like it the lent him all the labor of his and marched the little host of leg into camp at a point five miles beyond the city walls and solemnly drew up his plans for the futile of the barren his early training as a civil engineer helped him to lay out a reasonable plan of operations and to give a semblance of reality to his work his notion was to back up the river by means of a dam at a point where it swept around a long curve and to send it straight across the plain by a deep bed for it when this was completed the present bed of the river would lie bare for several miles and if there were any gold there as said to himself then would be the time to pick it up meanwhile his operations vastly entertained the king who rode out every morning and watched him directing his small army for an hour or more the and of the mob of with baskets and laden the prodigal of rocks and the general bustle and confusion drew the applause of the king for whom always reserved his best this struck him as only fair as the king was paying for the powder and indeed for the entire entertainment the among the unpleasant necessities of his position was the need of giving daily to colonel to the king and to all the at the whenever they might choose to ask him his reasons for the the great indian government itself also presently demanded his reasons in writing for the colonel s reasons in writing for allowing the to be and the king s reasons for allowing anybody but a duly agent of the government to dam the this was accompanied by a request for further information to these inquiries for his part returned an answer and felt that he was himself for his political career at home colonel explained to his that the were employed in labor and that the had been so good for some time past being kept amused by this american stranger that it would be a thousand to interrupt the operations colonel was impressed by the fact that was the hon and a member of the of one of the united states the government knowing something of the irrepressible race who stride into the of kings and demand for oil from to the said no more but a story of west and east asked to be supplied with information from time to time as to the progress of the stranger s work when heard this he with the indian government he understood this thirst for information he wanted some himself as to the present whereabouts of the also touching the time it would take to find out that she wanted him more than the cure of any misery whatever at least twice a week in fancy he gave up the definitely returned to and resumed the business of a real estate and agent he drew a long breath after each of these with the satisfying recollection that there was still one spot on the earth s surface where a man might come directly at his desires if he possessed the sand and the where he could walk a straight path to his ambition and where he did not by preference turn five corners to reach an object a block away sometimes as he patiently in the under the rays of the indian sun he would the refusing to believe in its existence and persuading himself that it was as grotesque a lie as the king s of a civilized government or as s yet from a hundred sources he heard of the existence of that splendor only never in reply to a direct question the in particular once weak enough to complain of the new lady doctor s excessive zeal and administration had given him an account that made his mouth water but had not seen the since the crowning of the present king fifteen years before the very on the works over the distribution of food spoke of as being as costly as the twice the to his big friend of what he would do when he came	39
exhibition and the missionary pursued it with applause and for a a story op west and east repetition which having been duly given mrs asked if he would not stay to dinner with them since he was there glanced doubtfully at for permission and by a process of reasoning best known to lovers the of her eyes and the turning of her head into assent after dinner as they sat on the in the do you really mind he asked what asked she lifting her sober eyes and letting them fall upon him my seeing you sometimes i know you don t like it but it will help me to look after you you must see by this time that you need looking after oh no thank you said almost humbly i mean i don t need looking after but you don t dislike it it s good of you she said well then it will be bad of you not to like it had to smile i guess i like it she replied and you will let me come once in a while you can t think what the rest house is those will kill me yet and the at the dam are not in my set well since you re here but you ought not the to be here do me a real kindness and go away nick give me an easier one but why are you here you can t show any rational reason yes that s what the british government says but i brought my reason along he confessed his longing for something homely and natural and american after a day s work under a heathen and raging sun and when he put it in this light responded on another side she had been brought up with a sense of responsibility for making young men feel at home and he certainly felt at home when she was able to produce two or three evenings later a paper sent her by her father on it and turned the four pages inside out and then back again he his lips oh good good he murmured don t the look nice what s the matter with cried he holding the sheet from him at arm and gazing up and down its columns oh ae s all right the musical in which he uttered this consecrated phrase was worth going a long way to hear say we re coming on aren t we we re not nor nor our time away if a story of west and east we got the three c s yet we re keeping up with the procession hi look at the just about a i why the poor old worm eaten town is going sound sound asleep in her old age isn t she think of taking a railroad there listen to this c the owner of s last ditch has a car load of good ore on the but like all the rest of us don t find it pays to ship without a railroad line nearer than fifteen miles says won t be good enough for him after he gets his ore away i should think not come to and this when the three c s comes into the city in the fall we sha n t be hearing this talk about hard times meantime it s an injustice to the town which all honest citizens should resent and do their best to put down to speak of as taking a back seat to any town of its age in the state as a matter of fact was never more prosperous with mines which produced last year ore valued at a total of with six churches of different with a young but prosperous and growing academy which is destined to take a front rank among american schools with a record of new buildings erected during the past year equal if not superior to any town in the mountains and with a population of lively and determined business men bids fair in the coming year to be worthy of her name who said afraid we re not hurt hear us whistle but i m sorry let that into his the correspondence he added with a momentary frown some of our citizens might miss the fun of it and go over to to wait for the three c s coming in the fall is it oh dear oh dear dear dear this is the way they amuse themselves while they their legs over big chief mountain and wait for it our merchants have responded to the recent good feeling which has pervaded the town since word came that president on his return to was considering the claims of has his front windows prettily decorated and filled with fancy articles his store seems to be the most popular for the who have a or two to spend i should murmur won t you like to see the three c s come sailing into one of these fine mornings little girl asked suddenly as he seated himself on the sofa beside her and opened out the paper so that she could look over his shoulder would you like it nick would i then of course i should but i think you will be better oflf if it doesn t it will make you too rich see father well i d put on the if i found myself getting real rich i ll stop just after i ve passed the genteel poverty station isn t it good to see a story of west and the old heading again s name as large as life just under oldest paper in divide county and s fist sticking out all over a rousing on the prospects of the town isn t it he s got two columns of new that shows what the town s doing and look at the good old from the eastern how they take	39
you i never expected to thank heaven for a advertisement did you but i swear it makes me feel good all over i ll read the patent inside if you say much smiled the paper gave her a little pang of too she had her own feeling for but what reached her through the s lively pages was the picture of her mother sitting in her kitchen in the long she had sat in the kitchen so long in the poor and wandering days of the family that she did it now by preference gazing sadly out at white big chief and wondering what her daughter was doing at that hour remembered well that afternoon hour in the kitchen when the work was done she recalled from the section house days the once a parlor chair which her mother had hung with skins and told off for kitchen service remembered with starting tears that her mother had always wanted her to sit in it and how good it had been to see the from her own next the oven the little mother swallowed up in its she heard the cat under the stove and the kettle singing the clock in her ear and the cracks between the boards in the floor of the hastily built section house blew the cold air against her heels she gazed over s shoulder at the two cuts of which appeared in every issue of the the one representing the town in its first year the other the town of to day and a lump rose in her throat quite a difference isn t there said following her eye do you remember where your father s tent used to stand and the old just here by the river he pointed and nodded without speaking those were good days weren t they your father wasn t as rich as he is now and neither was but we were all mighty happy together s thought drifted back to that time and called up other visions of her mother her slight frame in many forms of hard work the memory of the little characteristic motion with which she would shield with raised hand the worn young old face when she would be above an open fire or or lifting the stove lid forced her to down the tears the a story of west and east simple picture was too clear even to the light of the fire on the face and the pink light shining through the frail hand said casting his eye up and down the columns they ve had to put another team on to keep the streets clean we had one don t forget the climate either and they are doing well at the house that s a good sign the will all have to stop over at when the new line comes through and we have the right hotel some towns might think we had a little traffic now here s dining fifty at the the other day through express they ve formed a new to work the hot springs do you know i shouldn t wonder if they made a town down there s right it will help we don t mind a town that near it makes a of it he marked his sense of the concession implied in letting him stay that evening by going early but he did not go so early on the following evening and as he showed no inclination to forbidden subjects found herself glad to have him there and it became a habit of his to drop in in the evenings and to join the group that gathered with open doors and windows about the family lamp in the happiness of seeing visible effects from her labors under her eyes the regarded his presence less and less sometimes she would let him draw her out upon the under the indian night nights when the heat lightning played like a drawn sword on the horizon and the heavens hovered near the earth and the earth was very still but commonly they sat within with the missionary and his wife talking of of the hospital of the of the dam and sometimes of the children at for the most part however when the talk was among the group it fell upon the gossip of a life to the irritation and misery of when the conversation in these he would fetch up violently with a challenge to on the subject of the or silver and after that the talk was at least lively was by his training largely a man but he had also been taught at first hand by life itself and by the habit of making his own history and he used the hairy fist of in dealing with the theories of newspaper politics and the systems of the schools argument had no for him however it was with that he talked when he could and of late of the hospital since her progress there had begun to encourage her she yielded at last to his entreaties to be allowed to see this a story op west and east and to look for himself upon the she had wrought matters had greatly improved since the days of the lunatic and the much esteemed woman but only knew how much remained to be done the hospital was at least clean and sweet if she it every day and the people in their fashion were grateful for kinder tending and more skilful treatment than they had hitherto dreamed of upon each cure a went abroad through the country side of a new power in the land and other came or the herself would bring back a sister a child or a mother with faith in the power of the white fairy to make all whole they could not know all the help that brought in the train of her quiet movements but for what they	39
knew they blessed her as they lay her new energy swept even along the path of reform he became curious in the of the of wards the proper of and even the destruction by fire of the once his on which had died native like he worked best for a woman with the knowledge that there was an energetic white man in the background s visit and a few cheery words addressed to him by that capable supplied him with this knowledge the could not understand the uncouth talk of the out and did not visit the women s wards but he saw enough to congratulate she smiled mrs was sympathetic but in no way enthusiastic and it was good to be praised by nick who had found so much to blame in her project it s clean and it s wholesome little girl he said peering and and you ve done miracles with these if you d been on the opposition ticket instead of your father i shouldn t be a member of the never talked to him about that large part of her work which lay among the women of the s palace little by little she learned her way about such portions of the pile as she was permitted to from the first she had understood that the palace was ruled by one queen of whom the women spoke under their breath and whose word conveyed by the mouth of a grinning child set the packed humming once only had she seen this queen glimmering like a tiger among a pile of cushions a black haired young girl it seemed with a voice as soft as running water at night and with eyes that had no shadow of fear in them she turned lazily the jewels on ankle arm and bosom and looked at for a long time without speaking a story of west and east i have sent tliat i may see you she said at last you have come here across the water to help these cattle nodded every instinct in her at the silver splendor at her feet you are not married the queen put her hands behind her head and looked at the painted on the ceiling did not reply but her heart was hot is there any sickness here she asked at last sharply i have much to do there is none unless it may be that you yourself are sick there are those who without knowing it the eyes turned to meet s which were blazing with indignation this woman in idleness had struck at the life of the and the horror of it was that she was younger than herself said the queen still more slowly watching her face if you hate me so why do you not say so you white people love truth turned on her heel to leave the room called her back for an instant and moved by some royal caprice would have her but she fled indignant and was careful never again to venture into that wing of the palace none of the women there called for her services and not the but several times when she passed the mouth of the covered way that led to s apartments she saw a little naked child flourishing a knife and shouting round the of a goat whose blood was the white marble said the women is the s son he to kill daily a snake is a snake and a is a till they are dead there was no slaughter of singing of songs or of musical instruments in the wing of the palace that made itself specially s own here lived forgotten by the and by s maidens the mother of the had taken from her by the dark arts of the so the queen s said by her own beauty and knowledge in love they sang in the other wing of the palace all honor and consideration due to her as the queen mother there were scores of empty rooms where once there had been scores of waiting women and those who remained with the fallen queen were forlorn and ill favored she herself was a middle aged woman by eastern standards that is to say she had passed twenty five and had never been more than ordinarily comely her eyes were dull with much weeping and her mind was full of fears for every hour of the night and the day and vague terrors a story op west and east bred of loneliness that made her tremble at the sound of a in the years of her prosperity she had been accustomed to perfume herself put on her jewels and with hair await the s coming she would still call for her jewels attire herself as of old and wait amid the respectful silence of her attendants till the long night gave way to the dawn and the dawn showed the on her cheeks had seen one such and perhaps showed in her eyes the wonder that she could not repress for the queen mother on her timidly after the jewels had been put away and begged her not to laugh you do not understand miss she pleaded there is one custom in your country and another in ours but still you are a woman and you will know but you know that no one will come said tenderly yes i know but no you are not a woman only a fairy that has come across the water to help me and mine here again was baffled except in the message sent by the the queen mother never referred to the danger that threatened her son s life again and again had tried to lead up to the subject to gain some hint at least of the nature of the plot the i know nothing the queen would reply here behind the curtain no one knows anything	39
of good she gave him a received by the last post and he fell silent as he ran his eye hastily over a copy of the six weeks old but he seemed to find little comfort in it his brows i he exclaimed with irritation this won t do i what is it about the three c s and not doing it well that isn t like jim he talks about it as a sure thing as hard as if he didn t believe in it and had a private tip from somewhere that it wasn t coming after all i ve no doubt he has but he needn t give it away to like that let s look at the real estate ah that tells the story he exclaimed excitedly as his eye rested on the record of the sale of a parcel of lots on g street prices are going down away way down the boys are they re a story of west east giving up the fight he leaped up and marched about the room nervously heavens if i could only get word to them why what nick what word do you want to send them he pulled himself up instantly to let them know that i believe in it he said to get them to hold on but suppose the road doesn t come to after all how can you know away off here in india come to little girl i he shouted come to it s coming if i have to lay the rails but the news about the temper of the town vexed and disconcerted him notwithstanding and after he left that night he sent a cable to through mrs desiring her to forward the despatch from as if that were the office of the message take a for s sake got dead on three trust me and boom like tub chapter xiv because i sought it far from men in deserts and alone i found it burning overhead the jewel of a throne because i sought i sought it so and spent my days to find it blazed one moment ere it left the night behind the a city of tents had grown up in three days without the walls of a city with far brought of turf and stuck about with hastily orange trees wooden painted in gaudy colors and a cast iron fountain of hideous design many guests were expected at to grace the marriage of the princes lords of waste and of hopeless of the north and the south from the fat plains of and brother of the king they came accompanied by their horse and foot by co a story oi west and east in a land where to be respectable must run back without a break for eight hundred years it is a delicate matter not to offend and all were desperately jealous of the place and of their neighbors in the camp lest the task should be too easy the household of the princes came with them and with the court officials of behind the tents stretched long lines of horse where the fat pink and blue spotted and at one another under their heavy velvet all day long and the ragged of twenty tiny native states smoked and among their or quarrelled at the daily distribution of food furnished by the generosity of the from hundreds of miles about and priests of every had into the city and their salmon colored black blankets or ash gave many minutes of entertainment as he watched them from tent to tent their red eyes rolling in their heads alternately threatening or for gifts the rest house as discovered was crammed with fresh of commercial travellers his was not likely to pay at such a season but fresh orders would be plentiful the city itself was brilliant with coats of pink and th white lime wash and the main streets were with the of every house front was swept and newly with clean mud and the were hung with and strings of through the crowds the of in cheap and glass and little english while loaded with wedding gifts of far off kings through the crowd or the of the state cleared a path with their silver for the passage of the s carriages forty were in use and as long as horse flesh held out or harness could be patched with string it did not the dignity of the state to provide less than four horses to each as these horses were and as the little native boys out of sheer lightness of heart touched off and at high noon the streets were animated the hill on which the palace stood seemed to smoke like a for the little came without each expecting the salute of cannon due to his rank between the of the strains of uncouth music would break from the red walls and presently some officer of the court would ride out of one of the gates followed by all his each man gorgeous as a cock in spring his moustache fresh a story of west and east and curled fiercely over his ears or one of the royal in red velvet and from shoulder to ankle would roll out under the weight of his silver and trumpet till the streets were cleared for his passage seventy were fed daily by the king no mean charge since each beast consumed as much green daily as he could carry on his back as well as thirty or forty pounds of flour now and again one of the monsters by the noise and confusion and by the presence of strange rivals would be overtaken with of blind fury then he would be hastily stripped of his bound with ropes and iron chains out of the city between two of his fellows and tied down half a mile away	39
by the banks of the to scream and rage till the horses in the neighboring broke their and wildly among the tents of his s body guard was in his glory every hour of the day gave him excuse for charging with his troop on mysterious but important errands between the palace and the tents of the princes the formal of visits alone occupied two days each prince with his escort would solemnly drive to the palace and half an hour later the silver state and the himself from head to heel would return the visit the a while the guns gave word of the event to the city of houses and to the city of tents when night fell on the camp there was no silence till near the dawn for strolling players singers of songs and of stories dancing girls and camp followers beyond counting wandered from tent to tent making merry when these had departed the temples in the city sent forth the hoarse cries of and listening seemed to hear in every blast the wail of the little who was being prepared for his marriage by interminable prayers and she saw as little of the boy as did of the king in those days every request for an audience was met with he is with his priests cursed all the priests of and condemned to every variety of the that about his path i wish to goodness they d come to a point with this fool business he said to himself i haven t got a century to spend in after nearly a week of blazing sunshine and moving crowds clad in garments the colors of which made s eyes ache there arrived by the same road that had borne to the city two carriages containing five englishmen and three who later walked about the city with lack lustre eyes bored by the a story of west and east official duty which compelled them to witness in the hot weather a crime which it was not only beyond them to hinder but to which they were obliged to lend their official patronage the agent to the governor general that is to say the official representative of the in had some time before represented to the that he might range himself in the way of progress and by ordering that his son should not be given in marriage for another ten years the pleading the custom of his land and the influence of the priests gilded his refusal by a generous to a women s hospital in which was not in want of funds for his own part could not comprehend how any government could lend its countenance to this wicked farce calling itself a marriage which was presently to be played out with the assistance of two children he was presently introduced to the agent of the governor general who was anxious to learn more about the of the to be asked about the of the when he was making no more progress than at present with the seemed to however the last touch of insult and he was not asking the agent instead a number of urgent questions about the approaching at the palace the the agent declaring the marriage to be a political necessity the destination suggested by for political necessities of this sort caused the official to and to look this wild american up and down with startled curiosity they parted on poor terms with the rest of the party was more at ease the agent s wife a tall belonging to one of those families which from the earliest days of the east india company have administered the of india s work at the hospital and being only a woman and not an official was attracted and showed that she was attracted by the sad eyed little woman who did not talk about her work therefore devoted himself to the amusement and entertainment of the agent s wife and she pronounced him an extraordinary person but then all americans are extraordinary you know though they re so clever not forgetting in the midst of this tumultuous that he was a citizen of told her about that blessed city of the plain away off there under the range where half his heart lay he called it the magic city that the of the western continent had agreed to call it so by general consent she was not bored she enjoyed it talk of land and im a story of west and east companies boards of trade town lots and the three c s was fresh to her and it became easy to lead up to what actually had in mind what about the had she ever seen it he asked these questions boldly no knew nothing of the her thoughts were bounded by the thought of going home in the spring home for her meant a little house near close to the crystal palace where her three year old boy was waiting for her and the interests of the other english men and women seemed equally remote from ra not to mention the it was only that could gather that they had spent the greater part of their working lives within the limits of the country they talked as might talk by the roadside a little before the horses are put into the the ways were hot they implied and very dusty and they hoped one day to be able to rest the wedding was only one more weary incident on the line of march and they devoutly wished it over one of them even envied for coming to the state with his fresh eye and his lively belief in the possibility of getting something out of the land beside a harvest of regrets the last day of the marriage ceremonies began and ended with more cannon more more the of hoofs more of and with the of bands trying	39
to himself to fight it out on this line by co a story of west and if it took all summer his pride of success had lain low of late and taken many hurts but now that he had seen his prize he esteemed it already within his grasp as he had argued at that must be his because he loved her next morning he woke with a ed notion that he stood on the threshold of great deeds and then in his bath he wondered whence he had plucked the certainty and exultation of the night before he had indeed seen the but the temple doors had closed on the vision he found himself asking whether either temple or had been real and in the midst of his wonder and excitement was half way to the city before he knew that he had left the rest house when he came to himself however he knew well whither he was going and what he was going for if he had seen the he meant to keep it in sight it had disappeared into the temple to the temple therefore he would go fragments of burnt out lay on the temple steps among trampled flowers and oil and the hung limp and on the fat shoulders of the black stone that guarded the inner court took off his white it was very hot though it was only two hours after dawn pushed back the scanty hair from his high forehead and surveyed the r the of yesterday s feast the city was still asleep after its holiday the doors of the building were wide open and he ascended the steps and walked in with none to hinder the four faced god standing in the centre of the temple was and with of melted butter and the black smoke of exhausted incense looked at the figure curiously half expecting to find the hung about one of its four necks behind him in the deeper gloom of the temple stood other many handed and many headed tossing their arms aloft their tongues and grinning at one another the remains of many sacrifices lay about them and in the half light could see that the knees of one were dark with dried blood overhead the dark roof ran up into a dome and there was a soft rustle and scratching of with his hat on the back of his head and his hands in his pockets gazed at the image looking about him and whistling softly he had been a month in india but he had not yet penetrated to the interior of a temple standing there he recognized with fresh force how entirely the life habits and traditions of this strange people them from all that seemed good and right to him and he was vaguely to know that a story of west and it was the servants of these horrors who possessed a which had power to change the destiny of a christian and civilized town like he knew that he would be without ceremony for if discovered and made haste to finish his with a belief that the of the race might have caused them to leave the about somewhere as a woman might leave her jewels on her dressing table after a late return from a ball the night before he peered about and under the gods one by one while the above him then he returned to the central image of and in his former attitude regarded the idol it occurred to him that though he was on level ground most of his weight was resting on his toes and he stepped back to recover his balance the of he had just quitted rolled over slowly as a rolls in the still sea revealing for an instant a black chasm below then it shouldered up into its place again without a sound and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead if he had found the at that instant he would have smashed it in pure rage he went out into the sunlight once more the country where such things were possible to its own gods he could think of nothing worse the a priest sprung from an eat came out of the temple immediately afterward and smiled u on him willing to renew his hold on the wholesome world in which there were homes and women himself to the missionary s cottage where he invited himself to breakfast mr and mrs had kept strictly aloof from the marriage ceremony but they could enjoy s account of it delivered fi om the point of view was glad to see him she was full of the desertion of and the hospital staff from their posts they had all gone to watch the wedding and for three days had not appeared at the hospital the entire work of the place had on herself and the wild woman of the desert who was watching her husband s cure was very tired and her heart was troubled with for the welfare of the little prince which she communicated to when he drew her out upon the after breakfast i m sure he wants absolute rest now she said almost he came to me at the end of the dinner last night i was then in the women s wing of the palace and cried for half an hour poor little baby it s cruel oh well he ll be resting to day don t worry a story of west and east no to day they take his bride back to her own people again and he has to drive out with the procession or something in this sun too it s very wicked doesn t it ever make your head ache nick i sometimes think of you sitting out on that dam of yours and wonder how you can bear it i can bear a good deal for you little girl	39
returned looking down into her eyes why how is that for me nick you ll see if you live long enough he assured her but he was not anxious to discuss his dam and returned to the safer subject of the next day and the day after he rode about in the neighborhood of the temple not caring to trust himself within its walls again but determined to keep his eye upon the first and last spot where he had seen the there was no chance at present of getting speech with the only living person save the king whom he definitely knew had touched the treasure it was to await the of the in his but he summoned what patience he could he hoped much from him but meanwhile he often looked in at the hospital to see how the traitor and his had returned but the hospital was crowded the with cases from the portions of the state caused by the king s reckless and one or two cases new in s experience of men under the guise of friendship for the sake of the money they carried with them and left helpless in the public ways as he cast his shrewd eye about the perfectly kept men s ward humbly owned to himself that after all she was doing better work in than he she at least did not run a hospital to cover up deeper and darker designs and she had the advantage over him of having her goal in sight it was not snatched from her after one glimpse it was not the charge of a mysterious or of an state it was not hidden in treacherous temples nor hung round the necks of vanishing one morning before the hour at which he usually set out for the dam sent a note over to him at the rest house asking him to call at the hospital as soon as possible for one moment he dreamed of impossible things but smiling bitterly at his readiness to hope he lighted a cigar and obeyed the order met him on the steps and led him into the she laid an eager hand on his arm do you know anything about the symptoms of she asked him a story of west and east he caught her by both hands quickly and stared wildly into her face why why has any one been daring she laughed nervously no no it isn t me it s him who the the child i m certain of it now she went on to tell him how that morning the the escort and a native had up to the missionary s door bearing the almost lifeless form of the how she had at first attributed the attack whatever it might be to exhaustion consequent upon the wedding how the little one had roused from his stupor blue and hollow eyed and had fallen from one into another until she had begun to despair and how at the last he had dropped into a deep sleep of exhaustion when she had left him in the care of mrs she added that mrs had believed that the young prince was suffering from a return of his usual malady she had seen him in of this kind twice before came now look at this said taking down the of her hospital cases on which were recorded the symptoms and progress of two cases of that had come to her within the past week the these men she said had been given by a gang of travelling and all their money was taken from them before they woke up read for yourself read biting his lips at the end lie looked up at her sharply yes he said with an emphatic nod of his head yes who else would dare answered passionately i know i know but how to stop her going on how to bring it home to her tell the responded decidedly took her hand good i ll try it but there s no shadow of proof you know no matter remember the boy try i must go back to him now the two returned to the house of the missionary together saying very little on the way s indignation that should be mixed up in this miserable business almost turned to anger at herself as he rode beside her but his wrath was extinguished at sight of the the child lay on a bed in an inner room at the missionary s almost too weak to turn his head as and entered mrs rose from giving him his medicine said a word to by a story of west and east way of report and returned to her own work the child was clothed only in a soft muslin coat but his sword and belt lay across his feet he murmured i am very sorry that i was ill bent over him tenderly don t try to talk little one nay i am well now was the answer soon we will go riding together were you very sick little man i cannot tell it is all dark to me i was in the palace laughing with some of the dance girls then i fell and after that i remember no more till i came here he down the draught that gave him and himself on the pillows while one wax yellow hand played with the of his sword was kneeling by his side one arm under the pillow supporting his head and it seemed to that he had never before done justice to the beauty latent in her good plain strong features the trim little figure took softer outlines the firm mouth quivered the eyes were filled with a light that had never seen before come to the other side so said the child in the native fashion by folding all his tiny fingers into his palms rapidly and the repeatedly	39
knew well the palace wing had from its afternoon and was looking at him with a hundred eyes he felt the glances that he could not see and they filled him with wrath as he sat immovable while the horse at the flies somebody behind the shutters yawned a polite little chose to regard it as an insult and resolved to stay where he was till he or the horse the i i e l tlie shadow of the afternoon sim crept across tlie court yard inch by inch and wrapped him at last in stifling shade there was a muffled hum quite distinct from the rustle of voices within the palace a little ivory door opened and the rolled into the court yard he was in the muslin and his little colored was set on his head so that the his eyes were red with and he walked as a bear walks when he is overtaken by the dawn in the field where he has his fill through the night watches s face darkened at the sight and the catching the look bade his attendants stand back out of have you been waiting long he asked with an air of great good will you know i see no man at this afternoon hour and and they did not bring me the news i can wait said the king seated himself in the broken chair which was in the heat and eyed suspiciously have they given you enough from the why are you not on the dam then instead of breaking my rest by god is a king to have no peace because of you and such as you a story of west and east let this outburst go by without comment i have come to you about the he said quietly what of him said the quickly i i have not seen him for some days why asked affairs of state and urgent political necessity murmured the king s eyes why should i be troubled by these things when i know that no harm has come to the boy no harm how could harm arrive the voice dropped into an almost you yourself promised to be his true friend that was on the day you rode so well and stood so well against my body guard never have i seen such riding and therefore why should i be troubled let us drink he beckoned to his attendants one of them came forward with a long silver concealed beneath his flowing garments and poured into it an allowance of brandy that made used to potent drinks open his eyes the second man produced a bottle of champagne opened it with a skill born of long practice and filled up the with the wine the drank deep and wiped the foam from his beard saying such things s the are not for political agents to see but you are true friend of the state therefore i let you see shall they mix you one like this thanks i didn t come here to drink i came to tell you that the has been very ill i was told there was a little fever said the king leaning back in his chair but he is with miss and she will make all well just a little fever drink with me a little hell can you understand what i am saying the little chap has been half poisoned then it was the english said the with a bland smile once they made me very sick and i went back to the native you are always making funny talks with a mighty effort choked down his rage and tapped his foot with his riding whip speaking very clearly and distinctly i haven t come here to make funny talk to day the little chap is with miss now he was driven over there and somebody in the palace has been trying to poison him with said the i don t know what you call the mess but he has been poisoned but for miss he would have died your first son would have died he a story ob west and east has been poisoned do you hear and by some one in the palace he has eaten something bad and it has made him sick said the king little boys eat anything by god i no man would dare to lay a finger on my son what would you do to prevent it the half rose to his feet and his red eyes filled with fury i would tie him to the fore foot of my biggest elephant and kill him through an afternoon then he foaming into the and poured out a list of the hideous that were within his will but not in his power to inflict i would do all these things to any man who touched him he concluded smiled i know what you think the king by the liquor and the you think that because there is an english government i can make trials only by law and all that nonsense stuff what do i care for the law that is in books will the walls of my palace tell anything that i do they won t if they did they might let you know that it is a woman inside the palace who is at the bottom of this the s face turned gray under its the brown then he burst forth anew almost am i a king or a that i must have the affairs of my dragged into the sunlight by any white dog that chooses to howl at me lo out or the guard will drive you out like a that s all right said calmly but wliat it to do with the prince come over to mr s and i ll show you you ve had some experience of i suppose you can decide for yourself	39
of an indian night she had scarcely set when he was aware of something than the night between him and the horizon is it you the voice inquired in broken english sprang to his feet before replying he was beginning to be a little suspicious of fresh his hand went to his hip pocket any horror he argued might jump out at him from the darkness in a country managed on the plan of a trick spectacle nay do not be afraid said the voice it is i pulled thoughtfully at his cigar the state is full of he said which i of the household of the h m does the king want to see me the figure advanced a pace nearer no the queen which repeated the figure was in the at his side almost whispering in his ear there is only one who would dare to leave the palace it is the snapped his fingers and in the dark and made a little click of triumph with his tongue pleasant calling hours the lady keeps he said the thi is no place for speaking i was to say come unless you are afraid of the dark h were you well now look here let s talk this thing out i d like to see your friend where are you keeping her where do you want me to go i was to say come with me are you afraid the man spoke this time at his own oh i m afraid fast enough said blowing a cloud of smoke from him it isn t that there are horses very swift horses it is the queen s order come with me smoked on and when he finally picked himself out of the chair it was muscle by muscle he drew his revolver from his pocket turned the chambers slowly one after another to the vague light under s watchful eye and returned it to his pocket again giving his companion a wink as he did so well come on he said and they passed behind the rest house to a spot where two horses their heads enveloped in to prevent them from were waiting at their the man mounted one and took the other silently satisfying himself before getting into the saddle that the were not loose this time they left the city road at a walking pace by a cart track leading to the hills a of west and east now said after they had gone a quarter of a mile in this fashion and were alone under the stars we can ride he bowed forward struck his home and began his animal furiously nothing short of the fear of death would have made the of the palace ride at this pace watched him roll in the saddle chuckled a little and followed you wouldn t make much of a cow would you ride gasped for the between the two hills ride the dry sand flew behind their horses hoofs and the hot winds whistled about their ears as they headed up the easy slope toward the hills three miles from the palace in the old days before the introduction of the of the desert were wont to telegraph the rise and fall in the price of the from little on the hills it was toward one of these stations that was straining the horses fell into a walk as the slope grew and the outline of the tower began to show clear against the sky a few moments later heard the hoofs of their horses ring on solid marble and saw that he was riding near the edge of a great full of water to the lip the eastward a few twinkling lights in the open plain showed the position of and took him l to the night when he had said good by to from the rear platform of a night fowl called to one another from the weeds at the far end of the and a great fish leaped at the reflection of a star the watch tower is at the further end of the dam said the is there will they never have done with that name uttered an sweet voice out of the darkness it is well that i am of a gentle temper or the fish would know more of thee checked his horse with a jerk for almost under his bridle stood a figure enveloped from head to foot in a mist of pale yellow it had started up from behind the red tomb of a once famous who was supposed by the country side to gallop nightly round the dam he had built this was one of the reasons why the was not visited after nightfall come down said the voice in english i at least am not a gray go wait with the horses below the watch tower yes and don t go to sleep we might want you he alighted and stood before the veiled form of a story of west and east she said after a little pause putting out a hand that was smaller even than s ah i knew that you would come i knew that you were not afraid she held his hand as she spoke and pressed it tenderly buried the tiny hand deep in his and pressing it in a grip that made her give an involuntary cry shook it with a hearty motion happy to make your acquaintance he said as she murmured under her breath by he has a hold and i am pleased to see you too she answered aloud noted the music of the voice he wondered what the face behind the veil might look like she sat down on the of the tomb him to a seat beside her all white men like straight talk she said speaking slowly and with uncertain mastery of english tell me how much you know she withdrew her	39
dust and she in her marriage litter to day she is in the dust her voice melted i shall never bear another son but i may at least mould the state from behind the curtain as many queens have done i am not a palace bred woman those she pointed scornfully toward the lights of have never seen the wheat wave or heard the wind blow or sat in a saddle or talked face to face with men in the streets they call me the and they under their robes like fat when i choose to lift my hand to the s beard their sing of their for twelve hundred years they are noble i by and yea and the god of your too their children and the british government shall remember a story of west and me for twice twelve hundred years you do not know how wise my little son is i do not let him go to the missionary s all that he shall need afterward and indeed it is no little thing to govern this state he shall learn from me for i have seen the world and i know and until you came all was going so softly so softly to its end i the little one would have died yes and there would have been no more trouble and never man nor woman in the palace would have breathed to the king one word of what you cried aloud before the sun in the court yard now suspicion will never cease in the king s mind and i do not know i do not know she bent forward earnestly if i have spoken one word of truth this night tell me how much is known to you preserved absolute silence she stole one hand on his knee and none would have suspected when the ladies of the came last year i gave out of my own treasures twenty five thousand to the nursing hospital and the lady kissed me on both cheeks and i talked english and showed them how i spent my time knitting i who knit and the hearts of men this time did not whistle he merely smiled and murmured the large the and range of her wickedness and the c m with which she addressed herself to it j ve her a sort of distinction more than this he re her for the personal achievement which of all most nearly appeals to the of the men of the west she had done him up it was true her plans had failed hut she had played them all on him without his knowledge he almost her for it now you begin to understand said there is something more to think of do you mean to go to colonel with all your story ut me unless you keep your hands off the yes said not allowing his feelings to interfere with business that is very foolish said the queen because colonel will give much trouble to the king and the king will turn the palace into confusion and every one of my except a few will give witness against me and i perhaps shall come to be much suspected then you would think that you had prevented me but you cannot stay here forever you cannot stay here until i die and so soon as you are gone she snapped her fingers you won t get the chance said i ll fix that what do you take me for a story op west and east the queen bit the back of her forefinger there was no saying what this man who strode through her might or might not be able to do had she been dealing with one of her own race she would have played threat against threat but the perfectly composed and loose knit figure by her side watching every movement chin in hand ready alert confident was an unknown quantity that baffled and distressed her there was a sound of a discreet cough and toward them bowing to whisper something to the queen she laughed scornfully and him back to his post he says the night is passing she explained and it is death for him and for me to be without the palace don t let me keep you said rising i think we understand each other he looked into her eyes hands then i may not do what i please she said and you will go to colonel to morrow that depends said shutting his lips he thrust his hand into his pockets as he stood looking down at her seat yourself again a moment said patting the of the tomb thb with her little palm obeyed now if i let no more timber fall and keep the gray tied fast and dry up the in the river pursued i see my dear little you are at liberty to do what you like don t let me interfere with your amusements i was wrong i should have known that nothing would make you afraid said she him thoughtfully out of the comer of her eye and excepting you there is no man that i fear if you were a king as i a queen we would hold between our two hands she clasped his locked fist as she spoke and remembering that sudden motion to her bosom when he had whistled laid his own hand quickly above hers and held them fast is there nothing that would make you leave me in peace what is it you care for you did not come here to keep the alive how do you know i didn t you are very wise she said with a little laugh but it is not good to pretend to be too wise shall i tell you why you came well why did i speak up you came	39
movement and rose to his feet she was very lovely as she stretched her arms out to him in the half light but he was there for other things looked at her between the eyes and her glance fell i ll take what you have around your waist please i might have known that the white man thinks only of money i she cried scornfully she a silver belt from her waist and threw it from her upon the marble did not give it a glance you know me better than that he said quietly come hold up your hands your game is played i do not understand she said shall i give you some she asked scornfully be quick is bringing the horses the h ru be quick enough give me the the the same i m tired of bridges and horses and uneasy arches and dizzy i want the and i may have the boy no neither boy nor and will you go to colonel in the morning the morning is here now you d better be quick will you go to colonel she repeated rising and facing him yes if you don t give me the and if i do no is it a trade it was his question to mrs the queen looked desperately at the day star that was beginning to pale in the east even her power over the king could not save her from death if the day discovered her beyond the palace walls the man spoke as one who held her life in the hollow of his hand and she knew he was right if he had proof he would not scruple to bring it before the and if the believed could feel the sword at her throat she would be no founder of a but a name a story of west and east less disappearance in the palace the king had not been in a state to understand the charges had brought against her in the court yard but she lay open now to anything this reckless and determined stranger might choose to do against her at the least he could bring upon her the suspicion of an indian court worse than death to her plans and the removal of beyond her power through the of colonel and at the worst but she did not pursue this train of thought she cursed the miserable weakness of liking for him which had prevented her from killing him just now as he lay in her arms she had meant to kill him from the first moment of their interview she had let herself toy too long with the fascination of being by a will stronger than her own but there was still time and if i do not give you the she asked i guess you know best about that as her eye wandered out on the plain she saw that the stars no longer had fire in them the black water of the and grew gray and the wild fowl were waking in the the dawn was upon her as merciless as the man was leading up the horses to her in an agony of impatience and terror the the sky was against her and there was no help on earth she put her hands behind her heard the snap of a clasp and the lay about her feet in of flame without looking at him or the she moved toward the horses stooped swiftly and possessed himself of the treasure had released his horse strode forward and caught at the bridle the into his breast pocket he bent to make sure of his the queen standing behind her horse waited an instant to mount good by and remember the she said flinging her arm out over the horse s js a a of light passed his eye the handle of the queen s knife quivered in the half an inch above his right shoulder his horse plunged forward at the queen s with a of pain kill him i gasped the queen pointing to as the scrambled into his saddle kill him i caught her tender wrist in his fast gi ip easy there girl easy i she returned his gaze baffled let me put you up he said a story of west and east he put his arms about her and swung her into the saddle now give us a kiss he said as she looked down at him she stooped no you don t give me your hands he both wrists and kissed her full upon the mouth then he smote the horse upon the flank and the animal down the path and leaped out into the plain he watched the queen and disappear in a cloud of dust and flying stones and turned with a deep sigh of relief to the lake drawing the from its resting place and laying it fondly out upon his hands he fed his eyes upon it the stones kindled with the glow of the dawn and the shifting colors of the hill the shining ropes of gems put to shame the red glare that shot up from behind the as they had the glare of the on the night of the little prince s wedding the tender green of the themselves the intense blue of the lake the of the flashing and the blinding spreading under the first rays of the sun as a of the water from their wings the abashed them all only the black diamond took no joy from the joy of the morning but lay among its glorious fellows as the sombre and red hearted as the night out of which had snatched it ran the stones through his hands one and there were forty five of them each stone i and of its kind lest any of its beauty should be hidden by a tiny gold clasp each stone swinging all but free	39
from the strand of soft gold on which it was strung and each stone worth a king s or a queen s good name it was a good moment for his life gathered into it was safe the wild duck were to and fro across the lake and the called to one another through almost as tall as their scarlet heads from some temple hidden among the hills a lone priest as he made the morning sacrifice to his god and from the city in the plain came the boom of the first ward drums telling that the gates were open and the day was bom lifted his head from the the handled knife was lying at his feet he picked up the delicate weapon and threw it into the lake and now for he said a story of west and east chapter xviii now we are come to our kingdom and the state is thus and thus our wait at the palace gate little it profits us now we are come to our kingdom now we are come to our kingdom the crown is ours to take with a naked sword at the council board and under the throne the snake now we are come to our kingdom now we are come to our kingdom but my love s eyelids fall all that i wrought for all that i fought for delight her nothing at all my crown is withered leaves for she sits in the dust and now we are come to our kingdom king the palace on its red rock seemed to be still asleep as he across the empty plain a man on a rode out of one of the city gates at right angles to his course and noted with interest how swiftly a long legged of the desert can move familiar as he had now become with the beasts he could by co u the not help them with s and boyhood memories the man drew near and crossed in front of him then in the stillness of the morning heard the dry click of a voice he understood it was the sound made by bringing up the of a repeating rifle mechanically he slipped from the saddle and was on the other side of the horse as the rifle spoke and a puff of blue smoke drifted up and hung motionless above the i might have known she d get in her work early he muttered peering over his horse s i can t drop him at this distance with a revolver what s the fool waiting for then he perceived that with characteristic native the man had contrived to jam his and was beating it furiously on the of the saddle hastily and galloped up revolver in hand to cover the of you why old man this isn t kind of you it was an order said quivering with apprehension it was no fault of mine i i do not understand these things i should smile let me show you he took the rifle from the trembling hand the is my friend it don t shoot as well that a story of west and east way it only needs a little so you ought to learn it he jerked the empty shell over his shoulder what will you do to me cried the she would have killed me if i had not come don t you believe it she s a at theory but weak in practice go on ahead please they started back toward the city leading the way on his and looking back every minute smiled at him but on his hip the captured rifle he observed that it was a very good rifle if properly used at the entrance to s wing of the palace dismounted and into the the livid image of fear and shame after him and as the was about to disappear through a door called him back you have forgotten your gun he said don t be afraid of it was putting up a doubtful hand to take it from him it won t hurt anybody this trip take yourself back to the lady and tell her you are returned with thanks no sound came to his ear from behind the green shutters as he rode away leaving staring after him nothing fell upon him from out of thb the arch and the were tied securely s next move was evidently yet to be played his own next move he had already considered it was a case for he rode to the outside the city out his old friend in dove colored satin and made him send this message mrs is get throat ready and lay that track into then he turned his horse s head toward he his coat tightly across his chest and patted the resting place of the fondly as he strode up the path to the missionary s when he had outside his high good humor with himself and the world spoke through his eyes as he greeted mrs at the door you have been hearing something pleasant she said won t you come in well either the or next to the i m not sure which he answered with a smile as he followed her into the familiar sitting room i d like to tell you all about it mrs i feel like telling somebody but it isn t a healthy story for this neighborhood he glanced about him i d hire the town and a few musical instruments and it if a story of west and east i had my way and we d all have a little fourth of july and a and i d read the declaration of independence over the natives with a relish but it won t do there is a story i d like to tell you though he added with a sudden thought you know why i	39
come here so much don t you mrs i mean outside of your kindness to me and my liking you all so much and our always having such good times together you know don t you mrs smiled i suppose i do she said well that s right that s right i thought you did then i hope you re my friend if you mean that i wish you well i do but you can understand that i feel responsible for miss i have sometimes thought i ought to let her mother know oh her mother knows she s full of it you might say she liked it the trouble isn t there you know mrs no she s a singular girl very strong very sweet i ve grown to love her dearly she has wonderful courage but i should like it better for her if she would give it up and all that goes with it she would be better married she said gazed at her how wise you are mrs i how wise you are i he d the murmured if i ve told her that once ive told her a dozen times don t jou think also that it would be better if she were married at once right away without too much loss of time his companion looked at him to see if he was in earnest was sometimes a little to her i think if you are clever you will leave it to the course of events she replied after a moment i have watched her work here hoping that she might succeed where every one else has failed but i know in my heart that she won t there s too much against her she s working against thousands of years of traditions and training and habits of life sooner or later they are certain to defeat her and then whatever her courage she must give in i ve thought sometimes lately that she might have trouble very soon there s a good deal of dissatisfaction at the hospital hears some stories that make me anxious anxious i should say so that s the worst of it it isn t only that she won t come to me mrs that you can understand but she is running her head meanwhile into all sorts of impossible dangers i haven t time to wait until she sees that point i haven t time to wait until she sees any point at all but that this present moment now and here would be a good moment a story of west and east in which to marry i ve got to get out of that s the long and the short of it mrs don t ask me why it s necessary and i must take with me help me if you love her to this appeal mrs made the response in her power by saying that she would go up and tell her that he wished to see her this seemed to take some time and waited patiently with a smile on his lips he did not doubt that would yield in the glow of another success it was not possible to him to suppose that she would not come around now had he not the she went with it she was connected with it yet he was willing to impress into his service all the help he could get and he was glad to believe that mrs was talking to her it was an added prophecy of success when he found from a copy of a recent issue of the which he picked up while he waited that the lingering had justified his expectations the people he had left in charge had struck a true vein and were taking out a week he crushed the paper into his pocket an inclination to dance it was perhaps safest on reflection to that exercise until he had seen the little the whistle that he struck up instead he had to sober a moment later into a smile as opened the door and came in to him there could be no two ways about it with her now his smile do what he would almost said as much a single glance at her face showed him however that the affair struck her less simply he forgave her she could not know the source of his inner he even took time to like the gray house dress trimmed with black velvet that she was wearing in place of the white which had become habitual to her i m glad you ve dropped white for a moment he said as he rose to shake hands with her it s a sign it represents a general and desertion of this blessed country and that s just the mood i want to find you in i want you to drop it it throw it up he held her brown little hand in the fist he pushed out from his own white sleeve and looked down into her eyes attentively what india the whole business i want you to come with me he spoke gently she looked up and he saw in the quivering lines about her mouth signs of the contest on this theme that she had passed through before coming down to him a story of west and east you are going i m so glad she hesitated a moment you know why she added with what he saw was an intention of kindness laughed as he seated himself i like that yes i m going he said but i m not going alone you re in the plan he assured her with a nod she shook her head no don t say that you mustn t it s serious this time hasn t it always been she sank into a chair it s always been serious enough for me that i couldn t do what	39
you wish i mean not doing it that is doing something else the one thing i want to do is the most serious thing in the world to me nothing has happened to change me nick i would tell you in a moment if it had how is it different for either of us lots of ways but that i ve got to leave for a you don t think i d leave you behind i hope she studied the hands she had folded in her lap for a moment then she looked up and faced him with her open gaze nick she said let me try to explain as clearly as i can how all this seems to me you can correct me if i m wrong oh you re sure to be wrong i he cried but he leaned forward the well let me try you ask me to marry you i do answered solemnly give me a chance of saying that before a clergyman and you ll see i am grateful nick it s a gift the highest the best and i m grateful but what is it you really want shall you mind my asking that nick you want me to round out your life you want me to complete your other isn t that so tell me honestly nick isn t that so no roared ah but it is marriage is that way it is right marriage means that to be absorbed into another s life to live your own not as your own but as another s it is a good life it s a woman s life i can like it i can believe in it but i can t see myself in it a woman gives the whole of herself in marriage in all happy marriages i haven t the whole of myself to give it belongs to something else and i couldn t offer you a part it is all the best men give to women but from a woman it would do no man any good you mean that you have the choice between giving up your work and giving up me and that the last is easiest i don t say that but suppose i did would it ik so strange honest nick suppose i asked a story of west and east you to give up the centre and meaning of your life suppose i asked you to give up your work and suppose i offered in exchange marriage no no she shook her head marriage is good but what man would pay that price for it my dearest girl isn t that just the opportunity of women the opportunity of the happy women yes but it isn t given to every one to see marriage like that even for women there is more than one kind of devotion oh look here a man isn t an orphan asylum or a home for the you take him too seriously you talk as if you had to make him your leading charity and give up everything to the business of course you have to pretend something of the kind at the start but in practice you only have to eat a few dinners attend a board meeting and a festival or two to keep the thing going it s just a general agreement to drink your coffee with a man in the morning and be somewhere around not too far from the fire in not too ugly a dress when he comes home in the evening come it s an easy contract try me and you ll see how simple i ll make it for you i know about the other things i understand well enough that you would the never care for a life which didn t allow you to make a lot of people happy besides your husband i recognize that i begin with it and i say that s just what i want you have a talent for making folks happy well i secure you on a si agreement to make me happy and after you ve attended to that i want you to sail in and make the whole world bloom with your kindness and you ll do it too confound it we ll do it i no one knows how good two people could l e if they formed a and made a business of it it hasn t been tried try it with me o i love you i need you and if you ll let me i ll make a life for you i know nick you would be kind you would do all that a man can do but it isn t the man who makes marriages happy or possible it s the woman and it must be i should either do my part and the other and then i should be miserable or i should and be more miserable either way such happiness is not for me s hand found the within his breast and clutched it tightly strength seemed to go out of it into him strength to restrain himself from losing all by a dozen savage words my girl he said quietly we haven t time to dangers we have to face a real a story of west and east one you are not safe here i can t leave you in this place and i ve got to go that is why i ask you to marry me at once but i fear nothing who would harm me he answered grimly but what difference does it make i tell you you are not safe be sure that i know and you oh i don t count the truth nick she demanded well i always said that there was nothing like the climate of you mean you are in danger great danger perhaps isn t going round hunting for ways	39
to save my precious life that s a fact he smiled at her then you must go away at once you must not lose an hour o nick you won t wait i that s what i say i can do without but i can t do without you you must come do you mean that if i don t you will stay she asked desperately no that would be a threat i mean i ll wait for you his eyes laughed at her nick is this because of what i asked you to do she demanded suddenly you didn t ask me he defended the then it is and i am much to blame what because i spoke to the king my dear girl that isn t more than the of this don t run away with any question of responsibility the only thing you are for at this moment is to run with me flee get out your life isn t worth an hour s purchase here i m convinced of that and mine isn t worth a minute s you see what a situation you put me in she said i don t put you in it but i offer you a simple solution yourself well yes i said it was simple i don t claim it s brilliant almost any one could do more for you and there are millions of better men but there isn t one who could love you better o he cried rising trust yourself to my love and i ll back myself against the world to make you happy no no she exclaimed eagerly you must go away he shook his head i can t leave you ask that of some one else do you suppose a man who loves you can abandon you in this desert wilderness to take your chances do you suppose any man could do that my darling come a story op west and east with me you torment me you kill me by forcing me to allow you a single moment out of my sight i tell you you are in imminent deadly peril you won t stay knowing that surely you won t sacrifice your life for these creatures yes she cried rising with the uplifted look on her face yes i if it is good to live for them it is good to die for them i do not believe my life is necessary but if it is necessary that tool gazed at her baffled at a loss and you won t come i can t good by nick it s the end he took her hand good afternoon he responded it s end enough for to day she pursued him anxiously with her eye as he turned away suddenly she started after him but you will go go i no no he shouted i ll stay now if i have to a standing army declare myself king and hold the rest house as the seat of government go she put forth a despairing hand but he was gone returned to the little who had been allowed to his by bringing down from the palace a number of his toys and she sat down by the side of the bed and cried for a long time silently the what is it miss asked the prince after he had watched her for some minutes wondering indeed i am quite well now so there is nothing to cry for when i go back to the palace i will tell my father all that you have done for me and he will give you a village we do not forget it s not that she said stooping over him drying her tear stained eyes then my father will give you two villages no one must cry when i am getting well for i am a king s son where is i want him to sit upon a chair rose and began to call for the s latest pet a little gray monkey with a gold collar who wandered at liberty through the house and garden and at night did his best to win a place for himself by the young prince s side he answered the call from the boughs of a tree in the garden where he was arguing with the wild and entered the room softly in the monkey tongue come here little said the prince raising one hand the monkey bounded to his side i have heard of a king said the prince playing with his golden collar who spent three in marrying two thou like a wife no no a gold collar is enough a story of west and east for thee we will spend our three in marrying miss to when we get well and thou shalt dance at the wedding he was speaking in the but understood too well the of her name with s don t don t why not why even i am married yes yes but it is different would rather you didn t very well answered the with a now i am only a little child when i am well i will be a king again and no one can refuse my gifts listen those are my father s trumpets he is coming to see me a call sounded in the distance there was a of horses feet and a little later the s carriage and escort thundered up to the door of the missionary s house looked anxiously to see if the noise irritated her young charge but his eyes brightened his nostrils quivered and he whispered as his hand on the of the sword always by his side that is very good i my father has brought all his before could rise mr had ushered the into the room which was by his bulk and by the bravery of his presence he had been assisting at a review of his body x	39
the fi ard and came therefore in his full uniform as commander in chief of the army of the state which was no mean affair the ran his eyes up and down the august figure of his father beginning with the polished gold jack boots and ascending to the snow white breeches the blazing with gold and the diamonds of the order of the star of india ending with the and its nodding the king drew off his and shook hands cordially with after an it was noticeable that his became more civilized and is the child well he asked told me that it was a little fever and i too have had some fever the prince s trouble was much worse than that i am afraid said ah little one said the king bending over his son very tenderly and speaking in the this is the fault of eating too much nay father i did not eat and i am quite well stood at the head of the bed the boy s hair how many troops this morning both my general answered the father his eye lighting with pride thou art all a my son a story of west and east and my escort where were they with s troop they led the charge at the end of the fight by the sacred horse said the they shall lead in true fight one day shall they not my father thou on the right flank and i on the left even so but to do these things a prince must not be ill and he must learn many things i know returned the prince my father i have lain here some nights thinking am i a little child he looked at a minute and whispered i would speak to my father let no one come in left the room quickly with a backward smile at the boy and the king seated himself by the bed no i am not a little child said the prince in five years i shall be a man and many men will obey me but how shall i know the right or the wrong in giving an order it is necessary to learn many things repeated the vaguely yes i have thought of that lying here in the dark said the prince and it is in my mind that these things are not all learned within the walls of the palace or from women my father let me go away to learn how to be a prince the but whither thou go surely my kingdom is thy home beloved know i know returned the boy and i will come back again but do not let me be a laughing stock to the other princes at the wedding the of me because my school books were not so many as his and he is only the son of an lord he is without but he has been up and down ra as far as and ay and and he is in the upper class of the princes school at father all the sons of the kings go there they do not play with the women they ride with men and the air and the water are good at and i should like to go the face of the grew troubled for the boy was very dear to him but an evil might befall thee think again i have thought responded the prince what evil can come to me under the charge of the englishman there the of told me that i should have my own rooms my own servants and my own stables like the other princes and that i should be much considered there yes said the king soothingly we be children of the sun thou and i my prince then it concerns me to be as learned and as a story of west and east strong and as as the best of my race father i am sick of running about the rooms of the women of listening to my mother and to the singing of the dance girls and they are always pressing their kisses on me let me go to let me go to the princes school and in a year even in a year so says the of i shall be fit to lead my escort as a king should lead them is it a promise my father when thou art well answered the we will speak of it again not as a father to a child but as a man to a man the s eyes grew bright with pleasure that is good he said as a man to a man the him in his arms for a few minutes and told him the small news of the palace such things as would interest a little boy then he said laughing have i your leave to go o my father the prince buried his head in his father s beard and threw his arms around him the disengaged himself gently and as gently went out into the before returned he had disappeared in a cloud of dust and a flourish of trumpets as he was going a messenger came to the house bearing a basket piled high with the and gold and copper which he laid at s feet saying it is a present from the queen the little prince within heard the voice and cried joyfully my mother has sent you those are they big fruits oh give a l he begged as she came back into his room i have tasted none since last winter set the basket on the table and the prince s mood changed he wanted and must mix the sugar and the milk and the and the plump red seeds left the room for an instant to get a glass and it occurred to who had been in an attempt to appropriate the prince s and	39
had hidden under the bed to steal forth and seize upon a ripe knowing well that the could not move paid no attention to his voice but settled himself deliberately on his chose his stripped off the skin with his little black fingers grinned at the prince and began to eat very well said the in the says you are not a god but only a little gray monkey and i think so too when she comes back you will be beaten had eaten half the when a story of west and returned but he did not try to escape she the lightly and he fell over on his side why what s the matter with she asked regarding the monkey curiously he has been stealing and now i suppose he is playing dead man hit him bent over the limp little body but there was no need to he was dead she turned pale and lifting the basket of fruit quickly to her nostrils delicately at it a faint sweet rose from the brilliant pile it was overpowering she set the basket down putting her hand to her head the her well said the prince who could not see his dead pet i want my the fruit is not quite good i m afraid she said with an effort as she spoke she tossed into the garden through the open window the fragment of the that had clasped so closely to his wicked little breast a pan ot instantly down from the trees on the morsel and took it back to his perch in the branches it was done before still could make a motion to stop it and a moment later a little ball of green feathers fell from the covert of leaves and the also lay dead on the ground the no the fruit is not good she said mechanically her eyes wide with terror and her face her thoughts leaped to ah the and the entreaties that she had put from her he had said that she was not safe was he not right the awful of the danger in which she stood was a thing to shake a stronger woman than she from where would it come next out of what covert might it not leap the very air might be poisoned she scarcely dared to breathe the audacity of the attack her as much as its design if this might be done in open day under cover of friendship immediately after the visit of the king what might not the in the palace dare next she and the were under the same roof if was right in supposing that could wish her harm the fruit was evidently intended for them both she shuddered to think how she herself might have given the fruit to the innocently the prince turned in his bed and regarded you are not well he asked with grave politeness then do not trouble about the give me to play with o lai ji lai ji cried tottering to the bed she dropped beside the boy cast her arms about him and burst into tears a story of west and you have cried twice said the prince watching her heaving shoulders curiously i shall tell the word smote s heart and filled her with a bitter and fruitless longing oh for a moment of the sure and saving strength she had just rejected where was he she asked herself reproachfully what had happened to the man she had sent from her to take the chances of life and death in this awful land at that hour was sitting in his room at the rest house with both doors open to the stifling wind of the desert that he might command all approaches clearly his revolver on the table in front of him and the in his pocket yearning to be gone and this conquest that did not include ths chapter xix we be the gods of the east older than all of and feast how shall we fall will they to the that ye or to your song and we have we nothing to offer who ruled them so long in the fame of the incense the clash of the the of the and the over the strife of the schools low the day back with the from the pools each one returns to the life that he knows where the altar flame and the is trimmed in the song the evening and the long night gave ample time for self examination after she had locked up the treacherous fruit and consoled the through her tears for the mysterious death of one thing only seemed absolutely clear to her when she rose red eyed and the next morning her work was with the women as long as life remained and the sole refuge for by co a story of west and east her present trouble was in the portion of that work which lay nearest to her hand meanwhile the man who loved her remained in in deadly peril of his life that he might be within call of her and she could not call him for to summon him was to yield and she dared not she took her way to the hospital the dread for him that had assailed her yesterday had become a horror that would not let her think the woman of the desert was waiting as usual at the foot of the steps her hands clasped over her knee and her face veiled behind her was who should have been among the wards and she could see that the court yard was filled with people strangers and visitors who by her new were allowed to come only once a week this was not their visiting day and strained and worn by all that she had passed through since the day before felt an angry impulse in her heart go out against them	39
has he sat by your bedside and smoothed your pillow and held your hand in pain has he taken your children from you and put them to sleep when he needed an hour s rest he is a holy man he has worked miracles we dare not face the anger of the gods one woman bolder than the rest shouted look at this and held before s face one of the prepared leaves lately ordered from which bore upon the back in red ink the maker s name and what is this devil s thing demanded the woman fiercely the woman of the desert caught her by the shoulder and forced her to her knees be still woman without a nose she cried her voice with passion she is not of thy clay and thy touch would her remember thine own and speak softly a story op west and east picked up the plaster smiling and who says there is devil s work in this she demanded the holy man the priest surely he should know nay ye should know said patiently she understood now and could pity ye have worn it did it work thee any harm she pointed directly toward her thou hast thanked me not once but many times for giving thee relief through this charm if it was the devil s work why did it not thee indeed it burnt very much indeed responded the woman with a nervous laugh could not help laughing that is true i cannot make my pleasant but ye know that they do good what do these people your friends villagers drivers know of english are they so wise among their hills or is the priest so wise that they can judge for ye here fifty miles away from them do not listen oh do not listen i tell them that ye will stay with me and i will make ye well i can do no more it was for that i came i heard of your misery ten thousand miles away and it burnt into my heart would i have come so far to work you harm go back to your beds my sisters and bid these foolish people depart the there was a murmur among the women as if of assent and doubt for a moment the decision swayed one way and the other then the man whose face had been shouted what is the use of talking let us take our wives and sisters away we do not wish to have sons like devils give us your voice o father i he cried to the priest the holy man drew himself up and swept away s appeal with a torrent of abuse and threats of and the crowd began to slip past by and half carrying and half forcing their with them called on the women by name them to stay reasoning arguing but to no purpose many of them were in tears but the answer from all was the same they were sorry but they were only poor women and they feared the wrath of their husbands minute after minute the wards were of their occupants as the priest resumed his song and began to dance in the court yard the stream of colors broke out down the steps into the street and saw the last of her carefully women borne out into the pitiless only the woman of the desert remaining by her side looked on with stony eyes her hospital was empty a t by op west and east chapter xx our little maid that hath no breasts our sister such and such and we must how to her our sister a field a web a bud withheld from and bee an alien in the courts of love and of his shrine is she we love her but we laugh the while we laugh but sobs are mixed with laughter our sister hath no time to smile she knows not must follow after wind of the south arise and blow from beds of thy locks shake free breathe on her heart that she may know breathe on her eyes that she may see alas we vex her with our mirth and plague her with most tender scorn who stands beside the gates of birth herself a child a child our little maid that hath no breasts our sister such and such and we must bow to her our sister queens song from of by co the has the miss any orders asked with oriental calmness as turned toward the woman of the desert staying herself against her massive shoulder simply shook her head with closed lips it is very sad said thoughtfully as though the matter were one in which he had no interest but it is on account of religious and which is in these parts once twice before i have seen the same thing about sometimes and once they said that the glasses were holy vessels and was cow fat but i have never seen all the hospital simultaneously i do not think they will come back but my appointment is state appointment he said with a bland smile and so i shall draw my income as before stared at him do you mean that they will never come back she asked oh yes in time one or two two or three of the men when they are hurt by or have but the women no their husbands will never allow ask that woman bent a piteous look of inquiry upon the woman of the desert who stooping down took up a little sand let it through her fingers brushed her palms together and shook her head watched these movements a story of west and east s you see it is all up no good said not but unable to conceal a certain expression of satisfaction in a defeat which	39
the wise had already predicted and now what will your honor do shall i lock up or will you accounts now waved him feebly no no not now i must think i must have time i will send you word come dear one she added in the to the woman of the desert and hand in hand they went out from the hospital together the sturdy woman caught her up like a child when they were outside and set her upon her horse and alongside as set off together toward the house of the missionary and whither wilt thou go asked in the woman s own tongue i was the first of them all answered the patient being at her side it is fitting therefore that i should be the last where thou i will go and afterward what will fall will fall leaned down and took the woman s hand in hers with a grateful pressure at the missionary s gate she had to call up her courage not to break down she had told mrs so much of her hopes for the future had dwelt so lovingly on all that she meant to teach these helpless creatures had so constantly conferred the with her about the help she had fancied herself to be daily bringing to them that to own that her work had fallen to this ruin was bitter the thought of she fought back it went too deep but fortunately mrs seemed not to be at home and a messenger from the queen mother awaited to demand her presence at the palace with the woman of the desert laid a hand on her arm but shook it off no no no i must go i must do something she exclaimed almost fiercely since there is still some one who will let me i must have work it is my only refuge kind one go you on to the l the woman yielded silently and on up the dusty road while sped into the house and to the room where the young prince lay she said bending over him do you feel well enough to be lifted into the carriage and taken over to see your mother i would rather see my father responded the boy from the sofa to which he had been transferred as a reward for the improvement he had made since yesterday i wish to speak to my father upon a most important thing but your mother hasn t seen you for so long dear a of west and east very well i will go then i will tell them to get the carriage ready turned to leave the room no please i will have my own who is without there heaven bom it is i answered the deep voice of a ride swiftly and tell them to send down my and escort if it is not here in ten minutes tell that i will cut his pay and his face before all my men this day i go abroad again may the mercy of god be upon the for ten thousand years responded the voice from without as the heaved himself into the saddle and away by the time that the prince was ready a stuffed with many cushions waited at the door and mrs half helped and half carried the child into it though he strove to stand on his feet in the and acknowledge the salute of his escort as a man i am very weak he said with a little laugh as they drove to the palace certainly it seems to myself that i shall never get well in put her arm about him and drew him closer to her the he continued if i ask anything of my father will you say that that thing is good for me whose thoughts w ere still bitter and far away his shoulder vaguely as she lifted her tear stained eyes toward the red height on which the palace stood how can i tell she smiled down into his face but it is a most wise thing is it asked she fondly yes i have thought it out by myself i am myself a and i would go to the college where they train the sons of princes to become kings that is only at but i must go and learn and fight and ride with the other princes of and then i shall be altogether a man i am going to the college at that i may learn about the world but you shall see how it is wise the world looks very big since i have been ill how big is the world which you have seen across the black water where is i have wished to see him too is angry with me or with you he plied her with a hundred questions till they halted before one of the gates in the flank of the palace that led to his mother s wing the woman a story of west and east of the desert rose from the ground beside it and held out her arms i heard the message come she said to and i knew what was required give me the child to carry in nay my prince there is no cause for fear i am of good blood women of good blood walk veiled and do not speak in the streets said the child doubtfully one law for thee and thine and another for me and mine the woman answered with a laugh we who earn our bread by toil cannot go veiled but our fathers lived before us for many hundred years even as did thine heaven born come then the white fairy cannot carry thee so tenderly as i can she put her arms about him and held him to her breast as easily as though he had been a old child he leaned back and waved a wasted hand the grim	39
gate on its hinges as it swung back and they entered together the woman the child and the girl there was no lavish display of ornament in that part of the palace the gaudy tile work on the walls had and away in many places the shutters lacked paint and hung and there was litter and refuse in the court yard behind the gates a queen who has lost the king s favor loses much else as well in material comforts the a door opened and a voice called the three into half darkness and traversed a long sloping passage with shining white as smooth as which communicated with the queen s apartments the s mother lived by preference in one long low m that faced to the that she might press her face against the marble and dream of her home across the sands eight hundred miles away among the hills the hum of the crowded could not be heard there and the footsteps of her few waiting women alone broke the silence the woman of the desert with the prince more closely to her breast moved through the of empty rooms narrow and court yards with the air of a and the prince were familiar with the dark and the the silence and the sullen mystery to the one it was part and parcel of the horrors amid which she had elected to move to the other it was his daily life at last the journey ended lifted a heavy curtain as the prince called for his mother and the queen rising from a pile of white cushions by the window cried passionately is it well with the child the prince struggled to the floor from a story of west and east woman s arms j nd the queen hung sobbing over him calling him a thousand names and him from head to foot the child s reserve melted he had for a moment to himself as a man of the race that is to say as one shocked beyond expression at any public display of emotion and he laughed and wept in his mother s arms the woman of the desert drew her hand across her eyes muttering to herself and turned to look out of the window how shall i give you thanks said the queen at last oh my son my little son child of my heart the gods and she have made thee well again but who is that yonder her eyes fell for the first time on the woman of the desert where the latter stood by the doorway draped in dull red she carried me here from the carriage said the prince saying that she was a of good blood i am of blood a and a mother of said the woman simply still standing the white fairy worked a miracle upon my man he was sick in the head and did not know me it is true that he died but before the passing of the breath he knew me and called me by my name the and ihe carried thee said the queen with a shiver drawing the prince closer to her for like all indian women she counted the touch and glance of a widow things of evil omen the woman fell at the queen s feet forgive me forgive me she cried i had borne three little ones and the gods took them all and my man at the last it was good it was so good to hold a child in my arms again forgive she thou art so rich in thy son and i am only a widow and i a widow in life said the queen under her breath of a truth i should forgive rise thou the woman lay still where she had fallen clutching at the queen s naked feet rise then my sister the queen whispered we of the fields murmured the woman of the desert we do not know how to speak to the great people if my words are rough does the queen forgive me indeed i forgive thy speech is softer than that of the hill women of but some of the words are new i am of the desert a of a of what should i know of the speech of courts let the white fairy speak for me listened with an alien ear now that she had discharged her duty her freed mind went back a story of west and to s danger and the shame and overthrow of an hour ago she saw the women in her hospital slipping away one by one her work and all hope of good brought to wreck and she saw dying deaths and as she felt bj her hand what is it she asked wearily as the woman plucked at her skirt then to the queen this is a woman who alone of all those whom i tried to benefit remained at my side to day queen there has been a talk in the palace said the queen her arm round the prince s neck a talk that trouble had come to your hospital there is no hospital now answered grimly you promised to take me there some day the prince said in english the women were fools said the woman of the desert quietly from her place on the ground a mad priest told them a lie that there was a charm among the deliver us from all evil spirits and the queen murmured a charm among her that she handles with her own hands and so they must run out shrieking that their children will be and their chicken souls given to the devils they will know in a week s the not one or two but many whither their souls go for they will die the com and the com in the ear together	39
shivered she knew too well that the woman spoke the truth but the began the queen who knows what powers there may be in the she laughed nervously glancing at look at her said the woman with quiet scorn she is a girl and naught else what could she do to the gates of life she has made my son whole therefore she is my sister said the queen she caused my man to speak to me before the death hour therefore i am her servant as well as thine said the other the prince looked up in his mother s face curiously she calls thee thou he said as though the woman did not exist that is not between a and a queen thee and thou we be both women little son stay still in my arms oh it is good to feel thee here again worthless one the heaven bom looks as frail as dried said the woman quickly a dried monkey rather returned the queen dropping her lips on the child s head both mothers spoke aloud and with emphasis that the a story of west and east gods jealous of human happiness might hear and take for truth the that deepest love little monkey is dead said the prince moving i need another one let me go into the palace and find another monkey he must not wander into the palace from this chamber said the queen passionately turning to thou art all too weak beloved oh miss he must not go she knew by experience that it was fruitless to cross her son s will it is my order said the prince without turning his head i will go stay with us beloved said she was wondering whether the hospital could be dragged together again after three months and whether it was possible she might have the danger to nick i go said the prince breaking from his mother s arms i am tired of this talk does the queen give leave asked the woman of the desert under her breath the queen nodded and the prince found himself caught between two brown arms against whose strength it was impossible to struggle let me go widow he shouted furiously it is not good for a to make light of a mother of my king was the unmoved the answer if the young steer does not obey the cow he obedience from the yoke the heaven bom is not strong he will fall among those passages and stairs he will stay when the rage has left his body he will be than before even now the large bright eyes themselves on the face of the child even now the calm voice continued the rage is going one moment more heaven bom and wilt be a prince no longer but only a little little child such as i have borne such as i shall never bear again with the last words the prince s head nodded forward on her shoulder the gust of passion had spent itself leaving him as she had foreseen weak to sleep shame oh shame he muttered thickly indeed i do not wish to go let me sleep he is asleep she said at last what was the talk about his monkey miss it died said and herself to the lie i think it had eaten bad fruit in the garden in the garden said the queen quickly yes in the garden the woman of the desert turned her eyes from one woman to the other these were matters too high for her and she began timidly to rub the queen s feet a story of west and often die she observed i have seen as it were a among the monkey folk over there at in what fashion did it die insisted the queen i i do not know stammered and there was another long silence as the hot afternoon wore on miss what do you think about my son whispered the queen is he well or is he not well he is not very well in time he will grow stronger but it would be better if he could go away for a while the queen bowed her head quietly i have thought of that also many times sitting here alone and it was the tearing out of my own heart from my breast yes it would be well if he were to go away but she stretched out her hands toward the sunshine what do i know of the world where he will go and how can i be sure that he will be safe here even here she checked herself suddenly since you have come miss my heart has known a little comfort but i do not know when you will go away again i cannot guard the child against every evil replied covering her face with her hands the but send him away from this place as swiftly as may be in god s name let him go away such hai such hai it is the truth the truth i the queen turned from to the woman at her feet thou hast borne three she said yea three and one other that never drew breath they were all men children said the woman of the desert and the gods took them of one and fever the two others art thou certain that it was the gods i was with them always till the end thy man then was all thine own we were only two he and i among our villages the men are poor and one wife they are rich among the villages listen now if a co wife had sought the lives of those three of thine i would have killed her what else the woman s nostrils dilated and her hand went swiftly to her bosom and if in place of three there had been one only	39

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