The evening world. Newspaper, June 21, 1916, Page 15

TALE OF A STRANGE, WONDERFUL WOMAN AND MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURES } By H. RIDER HAGGARD } GRR REALS S DAMREE RDA BIRD RRAR IRI NEAR RADA IRATR SS BYNOVSIS OF PR En vine Rereele toe te in our a teeny deat , be Vin struggle for life; 1 counted thom; ins at Cambridge there were twelve, besides the woman and the corpse of poor Mahomed. To the left, a body of men were engaged in binding the arms of the sucvivors of the cannibals behind them, and then fastening them two and two. The villaing Were submitting with a look of suiky indifference, {1 front an tron bor that ie fifth prthuay, fp 4 tao Satter by vances di he fact’ of these men, directing the operations, oye ile. site te having stood Billali, Faet te ‘tate ie ertieeiben a Presently he turned, and pereetving facrning (roan. ke that I was sitting up, advanced to vey auirvunded me, and with the utmost courtesy sald min wit power ater Su" Ried that he trusted that I felt better. ‘rh ate wove abe then he bent down and examined ainong them the translation of Leo's wound. “It's a nasty cut." he fo ieee tore ‘gut tena oF said, “but the spear has not plorced ‘Three monthe later feo and Moll the entrails. He will recover." “Thanks to your arrival, my ther,” Lanswered, “In another min- ute we should all have been bey: ', the reach of recovery, for those devils | Arabic that Of yours Would ha’ ain us a-\webes 4. would have slain our servant. bro ages of wom MIA, 4 white Fat He" telle them fate will ree! with Si wiug nt a great care, 1 Arriring ah 9 areat, caret “Fear not, my son," he answered. Bare’ wer Ronan ‘Vengeance’ shall be ‘taken on them a Hienes, lh is . such as would make the flesh twist Spee making, : cesta kne upon the bones merely to hear of ft. whe vee hed in ti4 ‘To She they shall go, and her von- Bris oe his nent, Beance shall be worthy of her great- Bofors ti i ness. Saitet pussy thro rio tutor Mig. . The morning came at last, but when Bomed, aud both fail dew it came I found that I was too stiff and sore to rise, ‘Two hours aft sillali (Job called him “Billy-goat, CHAPTER IX. to which, indeed, his white beard penne gave him some resemblance, or, more famillarly, “dilly,") came, bearing a The Feast, and After! lamp in his hand, his towering form) reaching nearly to the roof of the BOR a moment there was & tittle chamber. I pretended to bo silence of astonishment. asleep. They had never heard the — I waited till he had turned, and report of a firearm before, Wah Nearly through | the | entrance, walking softly on tiptoe, and its effects dismayed called after Nim! vA ead Notas | them. But the next moment a man My father,” I said, ‘4s {t thou?” close to us recovered himself and Yes, my son, tt ts 1; but let me 7 not disturb thee. I did but come to seized his spear preparatory to mak- og how thou didst fare and to tell ing a lunge with it at Leo, who was khee that those who would have Nearest to him slain thee, my Baboon, are by now “Run for it!" I halloed, setting the Well on thelr road to She. She sa example by going up the cave as {hat ye were to como al hard as my legs would carry me, Up ‘a I sald, “not till we have the cave I went, and after me came rec vored a Uitte spat have me borne the others, and after them thundered OUt into the daylight, I pray thee, the whole crowd of cannibils, mad ™Y,father, T like not this place: ss ‘Ah, no," he answered; “it hath a with fury at the death of the woman. gad air, 1 remember when I was a At the top of the cave was a little boy I found the body of a fair wo- platform of rock three feet or #0 tat Mare babes tau ey yes, on , thich that ve eneh.” Sle Was 60 beau hinh by about eight deep, on which titui that 1 used to creep in here eitn two large lamps were placed at night, a lump and gaze upon her, Had it Woe all three reached it, and Jumping not been for her cold hands, almost Lubes cies avi e 1 L think that she slept and on it, prepared to ecil our lives as Wi one day awake, so fair aad | at one I fear ye can not yet. dearly as we could. Peaceful was she in her robe of| On they came with a rush, and I waite, White was she, too, and her | fircd as fast as If could, and checked hee Rite hv | ie lay down pan anh Tee ak i almost to the fect. There ure many thom-—between us, Job and T killed oF eee tere tombe ny the any mortally wounded five men with our Where She is, for those who set ra} In before they were emptied, bes them there had a way I know naught sides the woman, But w: had no time of of Keeping their beloved out of IL Gane: he crumbling hand of Decay, even to reloud, and they still came on tn eee eee there 34 aay @ way that was almost splendid in it’ py day I came hither and gazed on recklessness, seeing that they did not her, till at last—laugh not me, but that we could go on firing stranger, for 1 was but @ silly lad— Pepa pene: . © T learned to love that dead form, y that sheil that once had held a life A great fellow bounded up upon the that no more is. I would ercep up to platform, and leo struck hin dead fer and kiss her eld face and wone With one blow of hig powerful arm, (er how many men had lived and sending the knife right through him. qieq gince she was and who had I did the same by another, but Job 1 her and embraced her in the missed his stroke, and I saw @ Gays ¢hat long had passed away, brawny Amahagger grip him by the And, my Baboon, I think T learned middle and whirl him off the rock Wisdom from that dead one, for of The knife, not being red by 4 a truth it taught me of the littleness thong, fell from his hand as he did oF iige and the length of death and eo, and, by a most happy accident for now all things that are under the Job, lighted upon its handle on the gun gy down one path and are for- Fock, just as the body of the Ama- ovar forgotten, And so I mused haggar, being undermost, hit upon ins and it seemed to me that wisdom Frnt eee wes to nJob efter that T flowed into me from that dend one, t happened to Job after that I tiv one day my mother, a watchful @m sure I do not know, but my own Qnan “but hasty minded, seoing Hon ig that he lay still UPOR y was changed, followed me and saw corpas of ia aecensed ase lant the beautifnl white one and feared possum,” as the Americans y ..5 hewltched, as indeed I was, Prurnes . So half in fear and half tn anger ‘nthe Ineenereirurenmedste she tock the lamp and, standing the I could see that Leo was off the ne up against the wall there, now. He was still on his feet, to her hair and ehe burned ¢ in the centre of a surging mass even down to the feet, for of struggling men, who were striv- those who are thus kept burn ex; ‘to pull bim down as wolves pull cellently welt e my son, there mag. He drove his knife on the roof is yet the smoke of her one man—the men fell, and burning, somehow the knife was wrenched =I looked up doubtfully, and there, on his hand, leaving him defense- gure enough, on the roof of the senul ea I thought the end had come. fy oF chre was a peculiarly unctuous and ; With @ desperate effort he sooty mark, three feot or more Hor @ loose from them,*selzed the Doubtless it had in the course of of the man he had just alain, years been rubbed off the sides of the lifting it bigh in the air, hurled ifttig cave, but on the roof ft re- feFigat at the mob of his assailants, mained, and there was no mistaking thet She shock and welxbt of It its appearance, to t some five or six more of them "She burned,” he went on, In a e earth, But in a minute they meditative way, “even to the feet, were all up again. They gripped him put the fect I came back and saved, the arms and legs and then cleared cutting the burned bone from them, J , and hid them under the stone bench ‘A speal voice; “ea apent there, wrapped up in a plece of linen. to cut his throat and @ vessel to guroly, I remember it aa though it eaten Ale bene iene cas a te yesterday, Perchance they r ye fou m, turbance and involuntarily I opened are there, If none pave fulnu ti may eyes and looked toward thed’sud. Tot entered this chamber, from the denly thrown herself on the top of {ime,to this very aay. ties coped Leo's prostrate form, covering | Rat about with his long arm in the recess body with her body and fastening her ander the atone bench, Presently his Arme SOQUL ie BeGke FN face brightened, and with an excla- drag her from him, but she twisted fon brightened, and wih oe eoorth her legs around Hie and BUAE OB Ne Coat waa caked in duet, watch he iv Then they hook onto the floor, It was covered im In the side without With the remains of a rotting raz, bit womehow ahe shicli. Which he undid, and revealed to my ‘ astonished gaze a beautifully shaped ak pa flan, uaa and almost white woman's foot, look+ ) ‘spear throweh the man ing as fresh and as firm as though it and an toge said a had been re yesterday “Thou » Then I saw (he man with the wea- he said, tn a sad voice, “T spake the pon straighten himself for the effort. truth to thee, for here is yet one bag Old ‘steel gleam on high, foot remaining. Take it, my fon, and and nee more I shut my eyes. ® p upon it. mae a nt ~-I heard a voice of a T took this cold fragment of mor- man thunder out in tones that rang ,tality ip my hand, and looked at tt and echord down the rocky ways: — ‘with feelings which I cannot de- “Cease!” seribe Then If fainted I wrapped up this relic of the past ty the remnants of the old linen rag and put it away in my Gladstone bag. On the third morning Job and my- self were practically recovered, Lao 5 Tapell 3 atso Wax Ko Much better that T yiell- HEN T opened my eyes again (arg Billali's often expressed en- I found myself lying on @ treaty, and agreed to start at once skin mat, not far from the upon our journey to Kor, which we fire round which we had been Were told Was the namo of the place gathered for the dreadful feast, Near Where the mysterious She lived. Leo, sttil apparently in a 7 and over him was bending CHAPTER XI. the tali form of the girl Ustane, who Speculations, Was washing a deep epear wound in ITHIN an hour of our finally his side with watey preparatory to bind- deciding to start, five lit- ing it up with linen, Leaning against ters were brought up to the the well of the cave behipd har was door of tha cave, each ac companied by four regular 2 Job, apparently unhurt, but bruised @nd trembling, On the other side of bearers and two epare hands, also a dhe fire were the bodies of those band of about fifty armed Amahag- CHAPTER X. A Little Foot, answe piease. get unbearable, which,” "they do about every second gene est. ° last the sun Just as we reached a spot of ground about two acres In extent—@ Hittle oasis of dry land inthe midst of the miry wilderness—where Billalt announced that we were to camp, just dawning. He was sitting up, holding his hands to his head, and I fiat hia face was. flushed and his eye bright, and yet yellow round the puptt, “Well, Leo,” T said, “how do you feel T looked at Leo, saw tl is Tam as sick as a cat himeelf. ger, who were to form the escort and carry the baggage. Three ‘S, of course, were for us, and on for Billall, who was to be our cot te panion, while the fifth Was for the use of Ustanc. “Does the lady go with us, my father?" I asked of Billali, He shrugged his shoulders as di “If she will country the women do what We worship them, and give because without ot BO On; they them their way, them the world could are the source of life.” “Ah,” I said, the matter never hav- ing struck me in that light before. “We worship them,” he went on, “up to a certain point, til tho: “And then what do you do?” asked with curiosity. Then mile, “we way three years ago. s life has been happier since, for my age ones. i It When I awoke it feel a * lo answered hoar: pitting, my bod Presently, as we forward. About tw wan the edge of on self, le Was nowhere to-be ssen make matters clear, | may explain at once what happened of Ballali’s bearers had trodden on a basking snake, which had bitten him in the leg, whereon he had. t naturally, let go of the then finding he w: the bank, grasped at the litter to save The litter was pulled over the edge of the bank, the bearers let go. and the whole thing, Billali and the man who had been bitten, rolled into the slimy pool When I got to the edge of the wate: her of them was to be neen, er never wi ne indeed, the be again. But be eon, agh Cilla (F You WANT A Good FIGHTER Go IN THERE HE Is DIPPY ON WAR. "he answered with a faint rise and kill the old ones as an exainple to the young ones, and to show them that we are the strong- My poor wife was killed in that It was very |, but to tell thee the truth, my son, rotects me from the young ook us an hour and more to cross e cup of the volcanic plain and an- r half hour or so to cltinb the edge on the further side, Before us was a jong sicep slope of broken here and there by clumps of trees, mostly of the thorn tribe, the bottom of the gentle slope, some nine or ten miles away, make cut a dim sea of marsh, on which the foul vapors hung like smoke about a city. On we went through it all, till at kK in sullen Krassy plain, though I were 1s trembling and blundered and floundered along, there was @ sharp cry, then a etorm of excl and, !ast of all, a most tremendous splash, and the whole caravan halted. I jumped out of my litter and ran enty yards ahead of Those sullen peaty pools of which T have spoken. Looking toward this pool, to my hor- ror 1 saw that Billali's ating on it, and as for Billali him- tumbling down whereabouts enough from the agitation of ting litter, in the bearing cloth and curtains of which he was en- height. Anything more grand and tangled. imposing than the sight presented “He is there! Our father ie there!” by this «reat natural castle, atart- paid one of the men, but he did not !ng In @olitary grandeur from the stir a finger to help him, nor did level of the plain, T never saw, any of the others. They simply atood | sat up dn my hammock and gared and stared at the wa' up across the plain at this thrilling “Out of the way, you brutes! T and majostio sight, and | suppose shouted in English, ‘and throwing off that Billail noticed ft, for he brought my hat, I took a run and eprang well Mis litter alongside. out into the horrid slimy-looking pool. “Behold the hou of She-who- A couple of strokes took me to where Must-be-obeyod!" he sald. “Tad over Billali was struggling beneath tho ® Queen such a throne before?” cloth. “It te wonderful, my fathe Somehow, T don't quite know how, SWere I managed to push tits free of him, _ So plentiful was the game that at and his venerable head, all covered in 1ast I could stand it no longer. I green slime, like that of @ yellowish ad @ single barrel sporting Martini Bacchus with {vy leaves, emerged With me in the Itter, and, espying upon the surface of the water. Tho ® beautiful fat eland’ rubbing him- rest was easy, for Billall was an Self under one of the oak-like eminently practical individual, and tees, I Jumped out of the litter and had the common sense not to grasp prsneeced to creep as near to him as hold of me as drowning people often 1, could. He let me come within do, g0 I got him by the arm, and S!shty yards, and then turned his towed him to the bank, throush the head and stared at me preparatory to mud of which. we were with dif. running away. I lifted thh rifle and ficulty dragged. taking him about midway down the Op ¢ dreasir shoulder, fred. never made a bearers ee oc ei Address (he Cleaner shot or a better kill in all my recovered to speak; “ye left me, your Small experience, Jillalt received me father, to drown. Had it not been With enthustasm. tranger, my #on the Baboon, , “It 18 wonderful, my son, the Ba- assuredly I should have drowned. 00M,” he cried, “wonderful! Thou Well, I will remember 1 and he @t @ very great man, though so fixed thom with bis gleaming though Usly. Had | not seen, surely I would Lan- slightly watery eye in a way I saw Dever have believed. And thou sayest they did not like. “As for thee, iny that thou wilt teach mo to slay in gon," the old man went on, turning thia fashion?” sa toward me and grasping my hand, ‘ertainly, my father,” I said, alr- “rest assured that I am thy friend ‘ly; “it is nothing. through good and evil. Thou hast At last we reached the face of the waved my life; perchance a day may Precipice iiself and found ourselves come when I shall save thin looking into the mouth of a dark tun- nel, At the mouth of the cave the cavalcade was halted, and while the CHAPTER XII. mon employed themselves in lighting some earthenware lainps they had The Plain of Kor. brought with them, Billail, descend- HOUT an hour before mun- jig from his jitter, informed me po- down we at last, to my un- litely but firmly that the orders of “4 She were that we were now to bo bounded gratitude, emerged piingtolded, so that we should not from the great belt of marsh jearn the secret of the paths through on to land that swelled up- the bowels of the mountains. ward in a succession of rolling waves, Another half bour or so passed, and My first act was to examine Leo's then suddenly 1 became aware that . ‘ we were once more in the open aur. Condition, It was, if anything, worse y could weo tho light through my than tn the morning. bandage and feel the freshness of Within half an hour of sunrise we it ou my tace. A few more minutes had reached the top of the rise of 4nd the caravan halted, and I heard 3 , oat Dullalt order Ustane to remove her which T have spoken, and a mort poet orien ane ures without beautiful view broke upon our #42 1g for her attentions I got the ch of Beneath us was @ rich sire ot of mine loose and looked out country, verdant with grass and As L anticipated, we had passed lovely with foliage and flowers, In mgt through the ipice, and were the background, at a distance, so ROW on lls futher side. and nine far as I could judge, of some elgh- frst thing 1 noticed was that tt was teen miles from where we stood, & not nearly so high pare, not go high, huge and extraordinary mountain | should say, by five hundred feet, % in, The Which proved that the bed of the lake, Neon ary aa aie ve “a The cr rather of the vast ancient crater ere ountain ay in which we stood, much higher peared to consist of 4 grassy 4) than the sunding plain. We were Rat tetcine aramianta Teen say, Instantly eurronnd y crowds of : By : mahagger, similar in every partion from subsequent observation, at a j,agaeen’ Mrnilal th every ee of a sudden height of about five hundred feet jeady fainiliar. ‘Then e 1, arranged tn above the level of the plain, was 2 most tremendous and absolutely halled by officers precipitous wall of bare rock, quite nds in. their twelve or fifteen hundred feet in hands, came 8 ftly toward AKE THE EVENING WORLD WITH YOU ON YOUR VACATION So that you will not miss any of the weekly novels and special features, Inclu in your summer readi Order the Evening World Mailed to Your Summer Address ————— Magazine, Wednesday? June’ 21, onn@iths, By Maurice Ketten 1 Have ROMANCE LOVE JEALOUSY HATE ery. Therefore, 1 was by no means sorry When the curtain over the en- 16 tO My cave Was Mung aside and other mute, a young gtrl this time, announced to me by signs that 1 could hot misunderstand—that is, by opens tog her mouth and pointing down t= that there way something ready to eat. Accordingly, 1 followed ber into the next chamber, which we had not yet entered, where I found Job, who had also, to his great embarrassment, beon conducted thither by a fair Heute ‘This fresh room was twice the size of the sleeping caves, and I saw at ones that tt had originally served as @ refectory, and also probably as an embalming room for the priests of the Dead; for 1 may as well say at once these hollowed out caves Were noth- Ing more or less than vast catacombs, Sculptured all round the apartment and jooking nearly as fresh as the day It was done was the pictorial representation of the death, embalm- ing and burial of an old man with @ long beard, probably an ancient king or grandes of this country. When we had eaten we returned to seo how Leo was getting on. He was altogether off his head, babbling about some boat race on the Cam, and waa inclined to be violent. In- deed, when we entered the room, Ustane wag holding him down. T had been altting with him for an hour, perhaps, when Billali arrived with an air of great importance and informed me that She heravit bad deigned to express @ wish to see me, |1 vose to follow him, and ae I did #o 1 caught alght of something bright /iying on the floor, which I picked up. | Perhaps the reader will remember that with the potsherd In the casket | Was @ composition scarabaeus marked with «@ round O, @ large bird, and another curious hieroglyphic, the meaning of which signa is “Suten se Ra,” or “Royal Son of the Sun.” This acarab, which is a very small one, Leo had insisted upon having set in @ massive gold ring, such as is gen- rally used for signet, and it was this very ring that 1 now picked up. He had pulled it off in the paroxyem of his fever, 1 slipped it on my own little finger, and then followed Bil- luli, leaving Job and Ustane with Leo. | We passed down the passage, crossed the great alsio-like cave, and came to the corresponding passage on the other side, at the mouth of which the guards stood ilke two statues. As we came they bowed thelr beads in salutation, and (hen us. Those men formed the body- lifting their long spears place hem guard of She herself. transversely across their foreheads, Thetr loader advanced to Billalt, 48 the leaders of the troop that had saluted him by placing his ivory met us bad done with their tvory wand transversely across hig fore. Wands. We stepped between them, head, and then asked some question and found ourselves in an exactly Whioh 1 could net catch, and Billall similar Sage to that which led to having answered him, the whole regi- our own apartments, only this pas- inent turned and marched along the s1ge was, comparatively speaking, side of the cliff, our cavalcade of lit- brilliantly lighted. A few paces down ters following in their track. After it we were met by four mutes—two xoing thus for about half a inile wo men and two women—who bowed low halted once more in front of tho and then arranged themselves, the mouth of a tremendous cave, meas- women in front of and the men bee uring bout fifty feet in height by hind us, and in this order we con- euphty wide, aud here Billall deacend- tinued our procession past several ed Anwlly, and requested Jub and my- doorways hung with curtaine similar self to do the sane. Leo, of course, to those leading to our own quarters, was far too til to do anything of the and which | afterward found opened sort. I did so, and we entered the out into chambers occupied by the great cave, into which the light of mutes who attended on Sho, A few the setting sun penetrated for some paces more and we came to another distance, while beyond the reach of doorway, facing us, and not to our lo light tt was faintly Jilluminated jeft like the others, which seemed to with lamps, which seeined to me to mark the tormination of the passage stretch @way for an ost ne Here two moro white, or rather yel- urable distance, ike the mua ents of tow, robed guarda Were standing, und thing that 1 noticed wag that the they too bowed, naluted and int us walls wore covered with eculptures in 1284 through heavy curtains into a bas-relief, love. scenes principally; Breat ante-chamber, quite forty feet then hunting pletures, and pictures of 20h bY as many wide tn which some executions, and the torture of erim- elght or nh women, most o! ch Innis by the piacing of a promumably YOURE and handsome, with yellowish red-hot pot upon the head, fair, sat on cushions, working with 2 vi i e ap- Running at right angles to the main ‘YOrY needies at what had ¢ . pearance of belng embroidery frames. cave, at a distance of some twenty My, Miah Asa?’ and feet from the entrance, was @ smaller gumb. At furthor end of thin cave or wide gallery that was pierced great lamp-iit apartment was another into the rock both to the right and doorway, closed in with heavy Orien- to the Jeft of the main cave. At tho tal jooking curtains, quite unlike mouth of this gallery to our left those that hung before the doors of stood two guards, and from this clr- our own apartments, and here stood cumstance I argued that it was the two particularly handsome — girl entrance to the apartments of Sho mutes, ther heads Dowed upon their herself, The entrance to the right bosoms, and thely hands crossed in an gallery was unguarded, and down this attitude of the humblest submission, the mute indicated we were to pro- As we came up they each stretched coed. A few yards down this gallery, out an arm and drew back the ou Which Was lighted with lamps, we tains, Thereupon Billalt did # ou- came to the entrance to & chamber rious thing, Down he went on his with @ curtain made of some grass hands and knees, and began to creep material, not unlike @ Zanzibar mat into the apartment bi in appetrance, hung over the dvor- lowed him, walking in the usual fash- way, This a mute drew back with a ton profound obelsance, and led the way At last we reached the curtains, into a good-sized apartment Ughted and here Hillall collapsed flat on to by means of @ shaft pierced in the his stomach, with his hands strotched face of the precipice. In this room out before bim as though he were Was @ atone bec-tead, pote full of dead, and I, not knowing what to do, water for wash ~ and beautifully began to siare about the place, But tanned leopard «ina to gerve ua presently J distinctly felt that some- blankets, hody was looking at ie from behind Here we left Leo, who wag afill the curtains floaping heavily, and with him — Mt last the curtain t to move. stopped Ustane. I noticed that the \ ho could be behind It? curtain od itself a little, then suddenly 8 KAVe ber a very wharp look, as mich a to say, “Who are you, and en its folds there appeared a by whose orders do you come here? ost beautiful white hand and with Then he conducted ua to another long tapering fing ending tn the similar room, which Job took, and pinkest natla. The hand grasped the then to two more, that ware respec. CUrtain and drew ft aside, and as tt tively oveupied by Biilall and myself. did so [ Meard a voice, I think the softest and yet most slivery vuice 1 ever heard. It reminded me |! tho HAPTE, murmur of a brook: CHAPTER XII, “stranger,” said the voice in Arable, is but much purer and more classical She. Arabic than the Amahagger to Ay are stranger, ® ore art thou Bo mu HE first care of Job ant my> gtiaigs , te after seeing to Leo, Now I flatte an fe) was to wash ourselves and of my lawasd terrors T MB) put on clean clothing. After- Very fair command of my counten F 4 ance, and was therefore a little as ard I discovered that the Amaha tonished at this question, Before I ker, who do not reckon dirt among had made. up my mind how to an tir many disagresable qualities, use awer It, however, the curtain was a kind of burned earth washing Srawn, and « tall figure stood before surpaesa, which, shoush uaplensans ,,) 2ar 8 feure fer 880 only hep 1 by * pody, but al r face, was wrapped touen Ml one gets accustomed up in oft white gauzy material tn to it) forms a very fair substitute for euch @ way a eoay mind me 4 : F ™ in ite grave clothes By the time that T was dressed Toy gore gore frightened than ever at began to feel most uncommonly buD- this ghosilike apparition, first signt to re ribly of a corpse you ever wonderéd how many pa __Stories lie hidden behind hospital walls? “K" By MARY ROBERTS RINEHART ' NEXT WEEK'S COMPLETE NOVEL IN THE EVENING WORLD jt Mystery adds to the absorbing interest of this story of alt Great Doctor and Rival Nurses C sing haman Enter Into frightened, stranger?” asked the sweet vole@ again. “Is there that about me that should affright a man? Then surely, men changed from what they “Why art thou so t is thy beauty that makes me fear, oh, queen,” | answered humbly, scarcely knowing what to say, and & thought that as I did so T heard old i, who was still lying prostrate on the floor, mutter, “Good, my Ba boon, good.” “I see that men still know how to beguile us women With false wi Ah, stranger,” she answered, with @ laugh that sounded like distant @fle ver bells, “thou wast afraid because ming eyes were searching out thine heart. And now tell me how came yo hither on this land of the dwell. ers among caves—-a land of swampe and evil things and dead old shadows of the dea Suddenly her eye fell apon the me of Billall, and ehe pilect herwelf, ! Thou are there, man, Tell mo how it i# that things have fone wrong in thine household." Her voice had risen in Ler anger, and it rang cloar and cold against the rocky walls. Also I thought I could seo her eyes flash through the gause that hid them, I saw poor Billalt, whom I had belloved to be @ very fearless person, positively quiver with terror at her words. “Oh, Hiya, oh, She,” he sald, with. out lifting his white head from the floor ~"oh, She, as thou art great, be merciful, for I am now as ever thy wervant to obey. It waa no plan or fault of mine, oh, She! It was those wicked ones who are called my chil- dren. Led on by a woman whom thy guest the Pig had scorned, they would have followed the ancient custom of the land, and eaten the fat Black stranger who came hither with these thy gussts, the Baboon, and the Lion who ts sick, thinking that no word had come from thee about the Black one. But when the Baboon and the Lion eaw what they would do, they slew the woman, and slow also their wervant to save him from the horror of the pot. ‘Then those evil ones—ay, those children of the Wicked One who lives in the Pit—they went mad with the lust of blood, and flew at the throats of the Lion and the Baboon and the Pig. Hut gallantly they fought, oh, Hiya, they fought like very men, and slew many, and held their own, and then I came and saved them, and the evil-doers have I sent on hither to judged of thy great. neas, ob, She, and bere they are.” “Ay, old man, I know it, and to- morrow will I eit in the great hall and do justice upon them, fear not. And for thee, I forgive thee, though hard- ly. Gee that thou dost keep thine household better. Go.” Billall rose upon hie knees with as- tonishing alacrity, bowed his head thrice, his white beard sweeping the ground and crawled down the apart- the curtains, leaving me, not a litte to my alarm, alone with this terrible but most fascinating person. CHAPTER XIV. Ayesha Unveils. “ gone, the white-bearded ola fool. How do they call thee in thine own country, stranger?” “They call me Holly, oh, Queen,” § “ ‘Holly’ She answered, speaking the word with diMculty, and yet with @ most charming accent, ‘and What ts ‘Holly’? “ ‘Holly’ le @ prickly tree,” T eat, yot a tree-like look. Strong art thou, and ugly, but, if my wisdom be mot at fault, honest at the core, and a staf? to lean on. Also, one who thinks. But stay, Holly, etand not by me,” and She held the curtain aside with ber ivory hand to let me pass tn. T entered, shuddering. This woman was very terrible. Within the cur- by ten, and in the recess was a couch, and a table whereon stood fruit and sparkling water. "sit," id She, potnting to the couch, “At present thou hast no thou shalt not fear for long, for I slay thee. Therefore let thy be light.” Laat down on the end of the coueh near to the f ke bu f water ment till he finally vanished through HERE,” ehe said, “he hes answered. “Bo, Weill, thou hast @ prickly and there; enter with me and be seated tains Was a recess about twelve feet cause to fear If thou hast cause, k down softly on to the end "Now, Holly." she said, “how eom- t thou to speak Arabic? Tt fs mine ar tongue, for Arabian am I th.” “L have studie I answered, “for many years, The langage is spoken in Ley pt and ¢ yet on Bg upon the apawn ¢ vad there is vo Vaity UL one the an Ochus, or are the A menians & Perstins have been g wed wo th n the und many othe {and held sway Nile, and fallen when their t was 1 said, ast Vhat canst hi know of the Persian Artax- exe She laughed and made no answer, nd again a ¢ 1 through me, “And ¢ 3 there still a Greace?” I said, ‘there is a Greeti t now It ts once more a peo So. The Hebrows,, are they yet at Jerusalem? They drove me 10 this Wilderness of & people that was before them," “Pardon me, oh, Queen,” T sald, “put Tam bewildered. Thou art a woman, and no spirit. How a woman tive two thousand years (To Be Continued.) \ ee