The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 24, 1904, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL CHAPTER XXIL THE MASQUE RADERS. When I regained consciousness, the ®un was in the genith. The horse to which I was tied was climbing upward slowly, and behind me rode two men. We weres still rocky ridges toward which I now saw was not far dista Iy taiked excite laughed. My capt much to them, yet they have been thinking of me at rate, all I knew was that Chinese—and perhaps I e known anything worse. knew nothing of their des- ough I recognized at once stony road on which I had come p from 1 Chow to Keinning. I thin one ever cared less about the fu n I did then. I reme: 1 wi to “go to my C d lke & s dier,” as the Englis ldiers sing—not 1o be r d to satiate the hate of a Chinese rin. I w with ropes made of twisted straw; now and then by raising myse my b ds, or by straighten- ing the muscles of my limbs, I was able to lessen the pain, but when eased thus I thought of Dulcine smothering in that marble tomb. Then I relaxed my mus- cles and let my bonds cut and tear me. Yet, as time passed the same thoughts came in spite of the pain. I remen bered the distracted ( woff, and prayed God he would believe we had run away together d I swore, so fat as 1 was cc that he should never know otherwise. But what of Duilcine? Could she llve? Had the concussion of the falling of that' tremendous blet killed her? If not, was she not alive? I remembered the great size of the tomb and knew she could not exhaust the air-in it In an hour or & day—no, not in a week. As for food, she was buried In it—food to last a soul’s lifetime; yet the fragrance of that cak wouid not that suffocate her? And I if it would not be a I wondered g to her to hope that it wou With these thoughts hope quite as agonizing es the despalr in which it was conceiv There was chance etough of the girl's living, I be- lleved, to warrant any empt to es- cape even though I had to thread the finest meedle In the world to do 1t; if alive, Du could not very long, and if T would b tance I m work i mea y. The tae of my life least I could do now w generously in We deep valley, vwhe treated me with bet- rf I had hoped, and at dark i on again. It was midnight up to n the rto the roc where s were unbc pported, » need to be, by a servant, I a lighted room and the end of a upon a stool at ght blinded me, but I knew a s posite. Siowly his features distinct I started, for I it was Oranoff. Th I was facing the from had lured me i the welc false imperial— and ob i he grinned a S s hast. Now I ' . v e for Ora- r view, the d eye- R on Rot The g nt the red sharp- quickly and shall pay hsve devi I blu-ted By God, y¢ » he re A, drawling the th n nd the false beard ‘rom face he rolled a cigareite and lighted king at me out of the corner of re as I was, and exhausted, 4 this as I had never ther. That he was surely f Prince Tuen I knew; beyond at I could mot get; his naticnalit could not h cen guessed, though I felt he was to Calcutta. His short, crisp halr of an In- <ian, and he often stroked it quickly with his hand as if to brush down its kinky ends. But to know he was T e agent was to know a very great deal, for 1 had served the ambitious Tuen & hard turn in carrying through the imperial fun Menin sat drumming the wooden ta- ble and looking at me searchingly now 2d then with his small black eves, and his manner served only to arouse my anger, and aga.n it got the better of me. “And what am I, sir,” I snarled, “the captive of a dandit or a prisoner of war? “That will be for you to determine, my dear Martyn,” he said with a yawn; and he called a boy, who brought a bottle of cognac and a wine glass. At a word my wrists were freed, and a glass was filled and placed before me. The liquor gave me strength to be sen- sible and keep still. It made the exas- perating smile on his face return; at last he (hrew back his head and laughed outright and heartily. I glared across the table, insane to seize that white throat, but I kept still. Finally when he realized I would amuse him no longer, he sobered ard drank again. no bandit, nor are ner of war. In fact, this is quite irregular, tur you will allow me the liberty to sa per that you have a pro- ity for getting In the way;” and he and put his cigarette to his lips, ing his head to avoid the smoke, and lovked at me. “A bad habit of trying to do what I am 4P swered hotly. though I wWas tempting now to meet him on his own ground of supercilious indiffer- ence; “I do not play impostor, the =zh,” added casually; “I know something sides deceit.” “Par Diew,” he growled suddenly, ght that your long suit"— ne meant the travesty of ampleted. I had, at to the quick. I mad with fear for coc last, rrupted the priests at Lynx destroyed the temple, and the Pigcd of a score of better men than you is on your head. You are now murdering = helpless girl ¥y making with me. And by the God in heaven your quarters shall swim in blood for that." The Island; » laughing again, and v that my fear for the live was the cause of his hilarity I certzinly had got my- » a devilish plight, the more so as ptors had much to avenge th seives for. But then, sudden and the mothered k eves narrowed on me, ht of laughter died down, te have you been doing? I wili , 50 you mly knc 1 whom > dealin You Lynx the night to Han Chow. The coward Kepneff failed you, and the wires You went on to Keinning. You Oranoff the Queen’s body was in new sarcophagus. At midnight you met Dulcine Oranoff and induced her to make good your failure. Lieutenant Kim and placed her in the sarcoph- agus at ght that morning.” Aghast as I was at this ma knowl- edge, 1 played my part as best I could and smiled, when he paused, indiffer- ently “And what have you gained” I sneered presently, “for all your spy- ing?” He started up quickly, for this was a tender spot—his failure—and he cr “I have gained all you hz I knew he meant Dulcine, I tfem- bled. Did he mean anything more? “My God!” thought I—and here I sprang to my feet with a gasp—-did he release Dulcine himself and take her tive too?” Promy the villain laid a revolver on the table before him and I sat down, my head in my ha It was bad enough to believe Dulcine to be in that marble tomb, but held a cap- tive in a den of this man's choc —oh! this broke spirt rly, and I groaned aloud “Come, ut come, lad, groans will not save fair lady,” he said presently with mocking hilarity but follow me, and I will tell yoy what will.” We went out. “Sahib,” his servant, and myself, and mounted three Korean po- nies. I was sent on in fronmt, and for half an hour we fol- lowed a little path over a mountain, and up to the summit of a rocky hill beyond. Before we reached its crest I heard the booming of the sea! . “You see that light,” and Menin pointed to & lantern swinging at the mast’of a launch anchored half a mile from shore. “Dulcine Oranoff is there, a prisoner like yourself.” “You are a liar,” I interposed promptly, unwilling to believe this to be the truth. He,had not known the signal of the scabbard! The sarcopba- gus could not be opened—once the King closed it—save from within. Duilcine would have answered no summons but that agreed upon, though she paid the penalty with her life. Yet the man, ignoring my interjection, went on un- disturbed. “Now, sir, the King of Quelparte must hear from your own lips that the funeral was a damned hoéx, and that the Queen’s body was utterly destroyed on Lynx Island. He*will believe you,” he added significantly: “you will go back to Keinning to-morrow, undsr the care cf two of my men. If you make one move to escape you are as good as dead. To-mcrrow night you will go with them and demand an audience and tell the King what I have said. If you €o this, you are a free man, and Duicine Oranoff will be found safe and well with her father, who has gone to Chefu.. Do vou understand?"” It did not take me a moment to de- termine my course, “I will start for Keinning at once,” T answered. “All is well, then,” replied my captor. And at a sign from him the servant discharged a revolver three times in succession. In a moment two lights glimmered from the little vessel. Then Menin dismounted and handed the bri- die of his pony to the servant, where- upon he turned to me. “Duleine Oranoff’s life hangs as truly on your.keeping faith with us as your life depends on the =air you breathe, sir.” With that he went down the mountain-side, and his servant put himself behind me, and we too went homeward alore. z CHAPTE! As we W mountairs my words, * came back to me,.a them again and again, and no words ever fitted my lips go snugly. For I felt in every mnerve t right. Sahib Menin, for =o his servant called him, was throwing boldly now. on the strength of the effect of his knowledge of what I had done, but I believed more and more each moment that his was a stupendous deception. He had not re- leased Dulcine! She would have obeyed none but that p oncerted signal—and that signal he could not have known! In all else I might be wrong, but at such a time as this Dulcine would keep faithfully her word. ‘‘Remember the signal of the scabbard,” she had writ- ten; how then could she forget? Least- wise if she had been false to cur agree- ment she must now pay the penalty— for 1 purposed to act as I would, had I known she was in the marble tomb, where, unless she had broken faith with me, she surely was. So I simply determined to get to Keinning the quickest and.best way I could, then slip my guards, and go about the task of releasing Dulcine. It was graying into day ®s we put back over the briery path. I forecast we could mnot reach Xeinning before mid- night, and I resolved to play every hand slowly in crder to make it later ] J S SN DSTO, than that, too late, in fact, to see the King that night. At the hut one man guarded me while the other prepared some rice for our breakfast, and 1t must have been an hour after sunrise before we were on the road again. I was now so exhausted that the jogging of the pony put me to sleep, and I awakened only when he stumbled on the stones. But I seemed to think and plan even did look ghastly, though I had tried to wash the blood from my face dnd head; such clothes as my captors had left me (they had confiscated my coat and hat) as I slept. My chief anxiety was first ~were bright enough witk gold and sil- to escape my guards, and I soon began to believe this would be no easy trick. They were powerful Chinamen, and their faces sald they were fit tools for such as Menin and Tuen. They would hold no manner of conversation with me; indeed, they talked by signs to each other, though I could see in a mo- ment both understood .what I said. to them. Yet we were late in our start, and for that I was ahead. In coming from Keinning we had traveled one whole night and half a second—at least fifteen hours. At our best we could not reach Keinning before midnight, and I set about the task of seeing that we did not do cur best. When I awoke from each successive nap I asked painfully for water, and ™y guards stopped al- ways at the nearest spring. I groaned | not a little, and once begged to rest on the ground. I found it an easy role to play exhausted, for I was nearer to it than probably 1 realized myself. At this spring they let me sleep an hour at least, fcr which i was proportionately thankful. I am sure they did not penetrate my ruge, and 1 krdew if we did not reach Keinning before three o'clock in the morning, thers was no hope of secing the King before the evening following. In those twelve hours I feit sure I could get free. Menin had so skillfully mingled what I believed to be lies with what I feared was the truth that I was in a maze ¢f perplexities; for instance, he had said incidentally that Oranoff had gone to Chefu. Now this was a mat- ter about which he would not have lied to me lest an unimportant fib should menace the fabric built up on his great- er falsehcod. Oranoff must - have at- tended the imperial funeral and then gone straightway to Tsi and Chefu; how Menin could know this, when he had wreceded me to that hut in the mountairs, was a bafiling mystery—yet was it not welcome news? If out of the country, Oranoff would not know of Dulcine’s disappearance or mine; per- haps he need never know, if Dulcine could be saved within a few days. So 1 worried and planned and argued all day long, fighting my fears awgy like a swarm of stinging gnats; but ever holding with dogged tenacity to the be- lief that Dulcine Oranoff was in that marble tomb, since no cne else had known our signal of the scabbard. I was dozing as the afternoon faded into twilight, when suddenly the ground seemed to give way, and I was drop- ping through air. *When I first be- came conscious I was lying on my horse, and we were both shootnig swiftly down a smooth precipice of sandstone, the rove by which I was tied to my horse being severed as we shot along. My guides had stopped for some reason, and my pony had evidently gone to the de- ceptive edge of the precipice to browse. We brought up with a crash in ta!l bushes, which had taken root in a wide, natural catchwater, through which I was thrown by the force of the impaci, and lay rawling on the rock, quite breathless, as iy guards, wild with excitement, rushed to the point where horse had fallen. They we not more surprised than I; but tn*,wcre a great deal more unlucky. ¥or a moment I lay still to et my breath. Then 1 rose as best 1 could, and ran along, keeping behind the shrubs. A rifle snipped on the edge above me.. Tts companion repeated the command, and blood trickled from my hand, for the ball went between 2, my fingers. 1 ran oOn. bending lower, and soon I was out of sight. Re- sounding hoof- beats along the crest announced that my guards were hur- rying around to head me off. Yy Then I turned about and went leisurely back up the cliffs to the spot where my horse had fallen. I crossed the road and went down on the opposite side of the ridge. T use the word “leisurely” with- out flippancy. I could not have gone otherwise, and I found I could not go far, even leisurely. I had done this much on the strength of desperation, and other strength I had not. Yet I stum- bled on, looking only for a place to hide. My legs were benumbed by the thongs which had bound them; the blood ran easily from my hand. I did not care where I went—and I knew I was caring less each step I took. It was easier going down hill, and I went on somehow to the bottom, to the brook where Kepneff’s servant and I had drunk. I saw an overhanging bank, crept under it, and thrust my hand, wrist-deep, into the cold mud. 1 was awakened by the monotonous thwack thwack of a Quelpartienne’s paddle, for these people wash their clothes on the stones of the brooks, beating them with boards. I was faint for want of food; it was coming on night, and I was worse than lost. I arose and followed the bed of the brook toward the resounding paddle, con- scious that I should be very much safer in a Quelpartien hut that night than lying about the mountain side: ‘When. the woman saw me, she dropped her paddle and ran screaming up the bank out of sight. ' I fancy I ver to attract attention. I had torn the lining from my heavy vest, and had pound up my hand; truly I must have looked like a warrior wakened from his sleep on a forgotten battle-ground. I did not blame her for running. I went on to the path up the bank which the frightened woman had taken, but before I reached the top of it I was on the ground again. If I remember correctly I had not eaten since the noon of the day before, nor slept for a week, save my naps at Han Chow, at the le- gation, and on the horse to which I had been bound. CHAPTER XXIII NSASE THE SWORD-DANCER. I was awakened by some one softly bathing my face with a cioth.. For a moment I lay still, half fearing to open my eyes. When I did so, I looked into the face of a young girl who was wip- ing the blood from my cheeks; she held out the crimson cloth before my face to explain her.action, and smiled as she did so. I saw she was no Quel- partienne; her short skirt of red, and cap of green, and an open, thin, nut- brown face made this plain. And I felt Instantly that she knew I, too was a foreigner. When I raised my hand I found it was neatly ban- daged, though I still lay in the path where I had fallen. I sat up quickly and point- ed to the summit of the mountain. “Chinamen,” I stammered, trying to express my fears by voice and expres- sion; then 1 re- peated it in French. ““Chenois?” ““Chenois? The girl un- derstood. She smiled and shook her head and pointed down the mountain. “Not come chop- chop (quick quick) 2" she said in a soft, low voice. “Chenois go chop-chop whole top side?” T asked. The girl nodded again and laughed in her slesve as if enjoying the despair of — my guards. “By and by, bottom side chop- chop,” sald I, and I looked around me anxiously. The girl saw what T meant and sobered thoughtfully, as she motioned me to let her continue bathing my face. Gladly I sank down again on the cool earth, it seemed so good to lic still. And despite my fears and growing anxleties I went immedi- ately to sleep again. I awoke to loud talking, and in the dim light T saw a stalwart old Quel- partienne, her ar akimbo, arguing with the girl who had befriended me. It was going pocrly with my little champion, for, 2t the moment I opened my eyes, the great woman' in baggy white trous crs swent the mountuin crest with her extended arm and com- pleted her invective with a disturbed, querulous growl. It was plain they feared the return of my guards. So dia 7! I lay still, knowing another language would ¢aly confound their confusion, neither one understanding half the other said as it was. For a moment the girl—whose name, 2s the old woman spoke it, is perhaps best described by the five letters Nsase —remained silent. Then suddenly she drew her two forefingers around her temples and asked a question. After a long pause the old -voman gave a reluctant grunt as her answer, and in a moment Nsase was at my side binding wet cloth, with which she had bathed me, over my eyes. T was ¢ be taken blindfqlded to a hiding-place of her choosing! At times it seems strange to me now that I trusted this girl so implicitly, but it did not seem extraordinary tc do so then, at such a crucial time. There was nothing-I could do that -ight save rest and fit myself for work, for the work I had before me was to require a steadier brain and nerve than I shonld otherwise have. The only question with me at the time was one of expe- dience. At last I went like a lamb, blindfolded, where this strange girl led me. If I thought to question her fidel- ity it was only as the failing swimmer questions the strength of the rope thrown to him: in my condition, I would have died on the mountain in the open air. 1 was taken uphill for a distance, then carefully over a level spot until Nsase stopped and signified for me to lie down; the smell of earth and- the distant drip of water made me believe —ay it turned out — that I was in a cave. My eyes soon be- came accustomed to the darkness (the bandage having oeen removed) and I saw a bowl of rice beside me. From the moment T saw Nsase I believed that it was she who befriended my servant and me as we passed this way before, and «at now she had brought me to her hidden home to save me from my captors. _ Some one lit a candle in the suter /" :oom, and an unsavory supper was ‘aten from wooden bowls. I was just going to sleep again. The soft mat under me, the strange feeling of safety, the nourishing rice, made me content for the moment to stop thinking and to try to recover my strength for the journey to Keinning-- for I was confident that I was in the hands of friends who would see me through. Then a rcugh, harsh volce brought me quickly to my feet, my hand to my beltless wa! The women screamed. I knew that voice. I knew what the screams mean I backed mechanically against the wali of the darkened room, and cursed the scoundrels for having taken my sword. For I was ready to fight—yes, with the dark cave behind me I fairly ached to fight them. I groped along the wall. Tt was covered with matting. Then I cut myself on a sharp edge. T felt, and it was a sword- blade. As I tried to take it down, ap- other beside it cut me again. And be- yond this were more—each sharper than an adder's fang. What did this mean? My question was answered, for Nsase came to me in the darkness. Finding me by the swords, she led me back to my mat, where I lay down again at a whispered word of command in an un- known tongue. Fast quarreling in the outer room had been succeeded by violent rummaging about. The noise came nearer and nearer. By this time another girl had en- tered the cave. She brought some glowing substance like nhosphorus which the twe divided between them; then side side, they took their station just within the mat- tine, a glitterinz sword in each hand. Then I knew T was hidden in a Quel- rartien sword-dancer’s cave. T was where no man had ever been hefore or would ever come -again. The girls waited patiently., supremely confident in their magic power. They expected irtruders. and intruders came. P o Instantly, as by magie, the heavy mat curtains moved aside on the wire from which they hung. The girls, ible te, those without, were more plainly revealed toc me. Their hlack, sequin-studded hair fell loosely down. A young tiger’s skin enveloped each of them. thrown over one shoulder, caught tosether on the opposite loin, and hanging down cn one side a hand’'s breadth below the knees. Their black hair was long and was Wrought into tiny snake-lfke braids which writhed about as the arms were put in motion. or darted off swiftly with the flames of the glistening swords which in an in- stant were whirling in their orbits. Such a dance! My regziment gould not have protected me mcre sefurely. A man’s life was not worth even the dim- mest ray that came from the swords. No battleficld ever was so deadly as the blazing zone 'throush which+ those swords writhed and hissed. Though.I had seen the secret of the illumination employed, nevertheless I utterly forgot my danger as the wild dance went on. It would have made any man forget anything. Fach broadsword was a flame “of light; two thrown together with a prac- ticed hand wrought a sheet of flame; the four, when they cut the semicircle together, sent blinding blasts of fire straight forward and straight back. Now a bolt of chain lightning fell from the right or left, seeming to cleave the ground. Now a flame poised over- head & second, then descended as the glittering blades came down. The fine black braids of hair curled lovingly about the white arms, or, flying in the wake of the sweeping swords, stood ex- tended. Often a descending blade sev- ered them, and numberless braided ends lay on the ground beneath the softly stepping sandals. Now a ball of fire rolled spluttering around each form as the swords were whirled on a finger: then each white face was surrounded by a flame of light, the dusky eyes flashing beneath a thousand wayward wisps of hair. *1 could not see intc the room beyond. But all had become deathly still. The intruders now knew the nature of this hidden hut in the mountains—knew they need not look so much as to ap- proach it. All this T read in the demeanor of the dancing girls. And as my baffled guards turned themselves into sight- seers rather than spies, ' the quick- witted dancers turned their cunning in- to an exhibition rather than a continua- tion of it as a menacing defense. They came back, sweéping the cave with light; they came forward in perfect uni- son and swiftly, throwing the great swords about them to a weird song which now became a feature of the performance. The new development of the flery drama—the melody of the monotone and the more elaborate scenic display, the circles and squares of flame, and other nameless convolu- tions—rendered the close of the exhibi- tion as marvelous as the beginning. Next to the last service at the Temple of Ching-lings I shall ever remember the dance of Nsase, the sword-dancer, which saved my life on the mountains of Quelparte that night. At the end came a tumult of ap- plause from the delighted spectators, now utterly at the merey of my friends. I eaw at once they meant to stay all night; and I also saw, with disquietude, that they were being received with hos- pitality, to say the least. Perhaps any- thing else would have aroused suspl- clon. Food was prepared for the visitors, and the jars of sul, or native beer, clinked as they were raised and low- ered. There was more laughter than talk, and more sul than rice. The girls, still fantastically dressed in the scant raiment in which they had danced, led in the laughter and did most of the talking; and Nsase outtalked and out- laughed her sister. The soldiers an- swered with many a coarse guffaw, which grew louder for a while—and then quite ceased. I had grown despondent. I did mot know what the strange carousal of the dancing girls meant, and I feared what might happen when all became drunk. I took down a forbidden sword and lay. quiet on my bed. I must have dropped asleep, and I knew not when the scene changed In the other room, nor just when Nsase and her sister ceased playing the trag- edy they acted so well. I awoke when Nsase aroused me by unclasping my fingers from the sword. She was dressed decently and heavily, as for traveling. She smiled as I sat up, and instantly helped me to my feet. I saw she intended to start me on my way. In an instant I was ready, but I paused and pointed to the sword. I wanted that. But Nsase took my out- stretched hand and led me into the other room. Her sister and the old woman wers gone. By the light of a paper lantern we picked our way along by the over- turned pots and jugs. Nsase paused as- we neared the door, looked at me, and then glanced behind her. She still held my hand and now she pressed it. I looked over her shoulder. The two Chinamen lay stretched on the flocr. The color of the liquor was on their bloated faces—and another color too! In searching for me they had found the sword-dancers’ hut, which no man may know, much less enter. And yet into it they had broken, rough and furfous. They would trouble them and me no more! Before we went out and mounted their horses, Nsase wrapped me in a long white robe, such as that she wore. She took tie lead, and we pushed the horses on silently from ten o’clock until dawn. As it began to grow light we were getting down deep into the mists of the Phan Valley, and I knew that when they lifted Keinning would be in sight. When it became light emough for us.to see each other, Nsase dropped back, and we rode side by side. Now and again I knew the girl was looking at me from between the folds of her white head dress. We had not spoken —for good reasons. And yet amid ail else T'was thinking, I had not forgotten her; she was not a girl easily forgotten. Tn a hundred ways she had shown that she had seen the world and knew it. Where had she come from, that she should now be found in the mountains of Quelparte, a past-master in the out- lawed profession of sword-dancing? And now, her wild lessons learned from the old woman with whom she lived (for Quelpartiens are known as unri- valed in this soldier's art), what strange land would clatm her, what cities praise her—Singapore or Ran- goon, Lassa or Port Sald? Strong, handsome—oh, well; something set me to humming “Mandalay.” At last the mist did lift. And there was Keinning just at our feet. Nsase had come farther with me than neces- sary, but I think she would have gone farther, much farther. She drew up her tired horse on the last range of foothills, and dismounted. She pointed to the distant city, then, with a sad smile on her face, up the road which she must return. I dis- mounted, too, to rest a moment. It seemed good to feel safe again. We stood still awhile by our horses. I was more grateful to her than I could ever tell, could we have spoken the same language. It was a relief not to be able to fry. After a while Nsase reached under her long robe (she had taken mine off) and drew out a long, beautiful scab- pard containing 2 filner sword than many more exalted officers |than I carry. With an attempt at laughing the girl surrendered it to me, and then girt the belt around my waist. For a second she held the scabard. She was very close to me, and looked away at the distant city. Then she dropped it and went to her horse. 1 was greatly ,moved.by the gift, re- membering that she took a sword away from me as we left the cave’