Newspaper Page Text
PAGE SIX THE ARIZONA REPUBLICAN, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 15, 1914 THE ADVENTURES OF KATHLYN old mac oath SYNOPSIS OP CHAPTER I. Kathl.vu Hare, derived by a forged message, believes her father. Cat. Hare, who is buullus in Inula, Iihs sutunioued her to blm. Itaru luiuiedlalely fur Allaha, leaving ber younger sister, Wlu IM. at agaaa mi tUelr wild animal tarm In CaUforula. i Kl ball U, a protegfi ot tbe King oC AUabu, hopes, to succeed to Ibe tbroB. Ailaba uelng an independent principality, tbe elithlless niler baa ihe right to appoint bis heir, on a previous visit to Ailaba Col. Hare bad laved the life ot tbe king, and as a reward t aecaratJaa carrying wltii It ro.val honoia aud the rlKbts ot aue rassftiai bad bceu eouferred upuu bltn. i nballa goes to America, aud spying on tbe household of Col. Hare, r-ees Ibe lovelv, luir haired Kalbly.i and falls In love with her. lie drill I aim t;it she shall oMM to Allaha and he au Inuocfflit aid in i.ie plot against bt-r father. Tjc ruse is suceesslul, and on tbe boat akitn carriaa Kalhlyu lo ludla the Hindu Is a passenger. lUopyrlght: 11)14; By Harold Mac Grata.) f CHAPTER II. '( TOE 1. WELCOME TI1BONE. KATHLYN sensed great loneliness when, about a month later, she arrived at the basin in Calcutta. A thousand or uiore natives were bathing ceremo niously in the ghat men, women, and children. Ii was early morn, and they vere mating solemn genu tlexions toward the bright sun. The water front swarmed ivith brown bodies, and great wheeled carts drawn by sad ryed bullocks threaded slowly through the maze. The WO) while rurhans, stirring hither aud thither, reminded her of a field ofNwhito poppies in a breeze. India! There it lay, ready for IWt eager feet. Always hail she dreamed about it, and romsinced over it, and sought it on the nine's of her spirit. Yonder it lay, ancienOas China, en thaiittag as ftoried Persia. If only she were out pleasure bent! If only she knew some oue in this great teeming city! She knew no one: she carried no letters of introduction, no letters of credit, nothing but the gold and notes the paymaster at the farm had hastily turned over to her. Only ty constant apfli cntion to maps and guide books had she managed to mange the short cut to the far kingdom. She had been warned that it was a wild and turbulent place, out of the beaten path, beyond the reach of iron rails. Three long sea voyages: across the Pacific (which wasn't), down the bitter Yellow sea, uf the blue Bay of Bengal, with many a sea change and many a strange picture. What though her heart ached, it was impossible that her young eyes should not absorb all she saw and marvel over it. India! The strange, elusive Hindi had disappeared after Hong kong. That was a weight off her soul. She was now assured that her imagination had beguiled her. How should he know anything about her? What was more natural than that he should wish to hurry back to his native state? She was not the only one in a hurry. And there were Hindus of all castes on ail three ships. By now she had almost forgotten him. There was one bright recollection to break the unending loneliness. Coming down from Hongkong to Singapore she had met at the captain's table a young man by the name of Bruce. He was a quiet, rather untalkative man, lean and sinewy, sun and wind bitten. Kathlyn had as yet had no sentimental affairs. Absorbed in her wcrk, her father, and the care of Winnie, such young men as she had met had scarcely interested her. She bad only tolerant contempt for idlers, and these young men had belonged to that category. Brute caught her interest to the very fact that he had but little to say and said that crisply and well. There was something authoritative in the shape of his mouth and the steadiness of hia eye, though before her he never exercised this power. A 4ozen times she had been on the point of taking him into her confidence, but the irony of fate had always firmly closed her lips. And now, waiting for the ship to warp into its pier, she realized what a fatal mistake her reticence had been. A friend of her father! Bruce had left the Lloyder before dinner (at Singa pore), and as Kathlyn's British-India coaster did not leave till morning she had elected to remain over night on the German boat. As Bruce disappeared among the disembarking passen gers and climbed into a rickshaw she turned to the cap tain, who stood beside her. "Do you know Mr. Bruce?" " Very well," said the German. " Didn't he tell you who he is? No? Ach! Why, Mr. Bruce is a great hunter. He has shot everything, written books, climbed the Himalayas. Only last year he brought me the sack of a musk deer, and that is the most dangerous of all sports. He collects animals." Then Kathlyn knew. The name had been vaguely fa miliar, but the young man's reticence had given her no opportunity to dig into her recollection. Bruce! How many times her father had spoken of him! What a fool she had been ! Bruce knew the country she was going to, perhaps as well as her father, and he could have sim plified her journey to the last word. Well, what was done could not be recalled and done over. " My father is a great hunter, too," she said simply, eyeing wistfully the road taken by Brace into town. " What? Herr Gott! Are you Col. Hare's daughter?" exclaimed the captain. " Yes." He seized her by the shoulders. " Why did you not tell me? Why, Col. Hare and I have smoked many a Burma cheroot together on these waters. Herr Gott ! And you never said anything! What a woman for a man to marry ! " he laughed. " You have sat at my table for five days, and only now I find that you are Hare's daughter! And you have a sister. Ach, yes ! He was always taking out some photographs in the smokeroom and showing them to us old chaps." Tears filled Kathlyn's eyes. In an Indian prison, out of the jurisdiction of the British Kaj, and with her two small hands and woman's mind she must free him! Always the mysterious packet lay close to her heart, never for a moment was it beyond the reach of her hand. Her father's freedom! The rusty metal sides of the ship scraped against the pier and the gangplank was lowered ; and presently the tourists flocked down with variant emotions, to be be sieged by fruit sellers, water carriers, cabmen, blind beg gars, and maimed, naked little children with curious, insolent black eyes, women with infants straddling their hips, stolid Chinamen: a riot of color and a bewildering babel of tongues. Kathlyn found a presentable carriage, and with her luggage pressing about bar feet directed the driver to the Great Eastern hotel. Her white sola-topee (sun helmet) had scarcely disap peared in the crowd when the Hindu of the freight caboose emerged from the steerage, no longer in bedrag gled linen trousers and ragged turban, but dresBed like a native fop. He was in no hurry. Leisurely he followed Kathlyn to the hotel, then proceeded to the railway sta tion. He had need no longer to watch and worry. There was nothing left now but to greet her upon her arrival, this golden hour! from the verses of Sa'adi. The two welu of duranc vile among the low castes in tie steer age should be amply repaid. In six days he would be tieyond the hand of the meddling British Kaj, in hia owns country. Sport ! What was more beautiful to watch than cat play? He was the cat, the tiger cat. Aud what would the Sahib Colonel say when he felt the claws? Beautiful, beautiful, like a pattern woven in an Agra rug. Kathlyn began her journey at once. Now that she was on land, moving toward her father, all her vigor returned. She felt strangely alive, exhilarated. She knew that she was not going to be afraid of anything hereafter. To euter the strange country without having her purpose known would be the main difficulty. Where was Ahmed all this time? Doubtless in a cell like his master. Three days later she stood at the frontier, and her serv ant set about arguing and bargaining with the mahouts to engage elephants for the three days' march through jungles and mountainous divides to the capital. Three elephants were necessary. There were two howdah ele phants aud oue pack elephant, who was always laggiug behind. Through long aisles of magnificent trees they passed, across hot, Mistering deserts, dotted here and there by shrubs and stunted trees, in and out of gloomy defiles of flinty rock, over sluggish and swiftly flowing streams. The days were hot, but the ..ights were bitter cold. Sometimes a blue miasnitc haze settled down, and the dry, raspy hides of the elephants grew- i amp -and they fretted at their chains. Kao, the khitmatgar Kathlyn had hired in Calcutta, proved invaluable. Without him she would never have succeeded in entering the strange country: for these wild eyed Mohammedan mahouts (and it is pertinent, to note that only Mohammedans are ever made mahouts, it being against the tenets of Hinduism to kill or rideat anything Kathlyn Is forced to Enter the King's Palace by Umballa. that kills) scowled at her evilly. They would have mad away with her for an anna-piece. Bao was a Mohamme dan himself, so they listened and obeyed. All this the first day and night out. On the following morning a leopard crossed the trail. Kathlyn seized her rifle and broke its spine. The jahberinj of the mahouts would have amused her at any other time. "Good, Memsahib," whispered Kao. "You have put fear into their devils' hearts. Good ! Chup " he called, " stop your noise." After that they gave Kathlyn's dog tent plenty of room. One day, in the heart of a natural clearing, she saw a tree. Its blossoms and leaves were as scarlet as the seeds of a pomegranate. "O, how beautiful! What Is it, Rao?" "The flame of the jungle, Memsafcib. It is good luck to see it on a journey." About the tree darted gay parrakeets aud fat green parrots. The green plumage of the birds against the brilliant scarlet of the tree was ind-scribably beautiful. Everywhere was life, everywhere was color. Once, as the natives seated themselves in the evening round their dung fire while Kathlyn busied with the tea over x wood fire, a tiger roared nearby. The elephants trumpeted and the mahouts rose in terror. Kathlyn ran for her rifle, but the trumpeting of the elephants was sufficient to send the striped cat to other hunting grounds. Wild apes and pigs abounded, and occasionally a caha wriggled out of the sun into the brittle grasses. Very few beasts or reptiles era aggressive ; it is only when they feel cornered that they turn. Even the black panther, the most savage of all cats, will rarely offer battle, except when attacked. Meantime the man who had followed Kathlyn arrived at the city. Five hours later Kathlyn stepped out of her howrjub, gave Kao the money for the mahout.-:, .-nd looked about This was the gate to the capital. Kow many times had her father passed through it? Her jaw set and her eyes flashed. Whatever dangers beset her she was determined to meet them with courage and patience. " Rao, you had better return to Calcutta. What I have to do must be done alone." " Very good. But I shall remain here till the Memsahib returns." Rao salaamed. " And if I should not return? " affected by this strange loyalty. " Then I shall seek Bruce Sahib, who has a camp twenty miles east." "Bruce? But he is in Singapore!" a quickening of ber pulses. " Who can say where Bruce Sahib !s? He is like a shadow there today, here tomorrow. I have been his servant, Memsahib, and. that is how I an today yours. I received a tele?ram to call at your hotel and apply to you for service. Very good. 1 shall wait. he mahout here will take you directly to Hare Sahib's bungalow. You will find your father's servants there, aud all will be well. A week, then. M joh do not send for me I seek Bruce Sahib, and we v.hell return with many. Some will speak English at the bungalow." "Thank you. Ilao. 1 shall not forget" " Neither w ill Bruce Sahib," mysteriously. Rao salaamed. Kothl; i got 'ate the bowdail and passed through the gets. Sraca Sail's, trie quiet man whose hand had recchi'd-.v.t t. er Ssa thus strangely to reassure her! A hardness c:-.ms iuio her throat and she swallowed des perate'.v. She r?.n only twenty-four. Except for herself, tiicic ntlght Dot be a whits person it all this sprawling, rugsed priucitmlity From tiro t than the iw uiaho"' turned and smiled at her curiously, but slu was too absorbed to note his attentions. Durga Ram, called lightly Umbalki, went directly to the palace, where he knew the Council of Three solemnly awaited his arrival. He dashed up the imposing flight of marble stairs, exultant. He had fulfilled his promise ; the golden daughter of Hare Sahib was but a few miles away. The soldiers guarding the entrance presented their arms respectfully ; but instantly after Umballa disap peared the expression on their faces was not pleasing. Uinbella hurried along through the deep corridor, sup ported by exquisitely carved marble columns. Beauty in stone was in evidence everywhere and maguificent brass iauips hung from the ceiling. There was a shrine topped by an idol in black marble, incrusted with sapphires and turquoises. Durga Ham, who shall be called I'mballa, nodded slightly as he passed it Force of habit, since Ll his heart there was only one religion self. He stopped at a door guarded by single soldier, who sulnted but spat as soon as I'mballa had passed into the throneroom. The throne itself was vacant. The Council of Three rose at the approach of I'mballa. " She is here," he said haughtily. The council salaamed. I'mballa stroked his chin : s he gazed at the huge candles flickering at each side of the throne, lie sniffed the Tibetan incense, and shrugged. It was written. ' Go," he said, " to Hare Sahib's bungalow and aw-.iit me. I shall be there presently. There is plen'y of time. And remember our four heads depend upon ti e next few hours. The soldiers are on the verge of mutiny, aud only success can pacify them." lie turned without ceremony and left them. With ' " You black scoundrel." oriental philosophy they accepted the situation. They had sought to overturn him, and he held them in the hollow of his band. During the weeks of his absence in America his spies had hung about them like bees about honey. They were the fowlers snared. I'mballa proceeded along the corridor to a flight of stairs leading beneath the palace floor. Here the soldiers were agreeable enough ; they had reason to be. Umballa gave them new minted rupees for their work, many rupees. For they knew secrets. Before the door of dungeon I'mballa paused and listened. There was no sound. He returned upstairs aud sought a chamber near the barem. This he entered, and stood with folded arms near the door. ' Ah, Colonel Sahib ! " "Umballa?" Col. Hare, bearded, unkempt, tried to stand erect and face hia enemy. " You black scoundrel ! " " Durga Ram, Sahib. Words, words ; the patter of rain on stone roofs. Our king lives no more, alas ! " "You lie!" " He is dead. Dying, he left you this throne you, a white man knowing it was a legacy of terror and con fusion. Yon knew. Why did you return? Ah, pearls and sapphires and emeralds! AVhat? I offer you this throne upon conditions." " And those conditions I have refused." " You have, yes ; but now " I'mballa smiled. Then he suddenly blazed forth : " Think you a white tnan shall sit upon this throne while I live? It is mine. I was bis heir." "Then why didn't you save him from the leopard? I'll tell you why. You expected to inherit on the spot, and I spoiled the game. Is that not true?" " And what if I admit it? " truculently. " Umballa, or Durga Ram, if you wish, listen. Take the throne. What's to hinder you? You want it. Take it and let me be gone." "Yes, I want it; and by all the gods of Hind I'll have It -but safely. Ah! It would be fine to proclaim myself when mutiny and refiellion stalk about. Am I a pig, to play a game Mke that? Teh! Teh!" He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in derision. " No : I need a buckler till all this roily water subsides end clears." "And then, some firui night Hare Sahib's throat? I am not afraid of death, Umballa. 1 have faced it too many times. Make au end ot me at once or leave me to rot here, my answer will always be the same. 1 will not become a dishonorable tool. You have offered me freedom and jewels. No; I repeat, I will free all slaves, abolish all harems, the buying aud selliug of flesh; I will make u niau of every poor devil of a coolie who carries stones from your quarries." Umballa laughed. " Then remain here like a dog while 1 put your golden daughter on the throne and become what the British Raj calls prince consort She'll rebel, 1 kuow; but I have a way." He stepped outside and closed the door. " I'mballa ': " "Well?" "Kit, my daughter? Good God, what is she doing here when I warned her? " Hare tugged furiously at his chains. " Durga Ram, you have beaten me. State your terms and I will accept them to the letter. . . . Kit, my beautiful Kit, in this hell hole!" " Ah, but 1 don't want you to accept now. I was merely amusing myself." The door shut and the bolt shot home. 1 lure fell upon his knees. " My head, my head! Dear God, save me my reason!" The moment Kathlyn arrived at the animal cages of her father she called for Ahmed. " M j father? " "Ah, Memsahib, they say he is dead. I know not One night the second after we arrived he was sum moned to the palace. He never came back." " Thev have killed him! " Kathlyn in the Royal Crypt. "Perhaps. They watch me, too; but I act simple. We wait and see." Katlilyn rushed across the ground intervening between tbe aaima cages and the bungalow. There was no one i i sight. She ran up the steps ... to be greeted inside by the suave Umballa. "You':" her hand flying to her bosom. "I. Mis'- Hare." He salaamed, with a sweeping gesture of his hands. Sadly the wrct h told her tbe tale; the will of the king, his death, and the subsequent death of her father in his '!urga Ram's) arms. Yonder urn contained his ashes. I'or the first time in her young life Kathlyn fainted. She had been living on her nerves for weeks, and at the sight of that urn something snapped. Daintily Umballa : lucked forth the packet and waited. At length she opened her eyes. " Von are a queen. Miss Hare." " Fou are mad! " "Nay. it was the madness of the king. But mad Kings often make laws which must lie obeyed. You will accuse me of perfidy when 1 tell you all. The note which brought you here was written by me and substi tuted for tli's." Dully Kathlyn read: "Kathlyn: If not heard from, I'm held captive in Allaha. The royal title given to me by the king made me and my descendants direct heirs to the throne. Do not come to Allaha yourself. Destroy sealed document herewith. Father." The Council of Three entered noiselessly front tho adjoining room. At the four dark, inscrutable faces the bewildered girl stared, ber limbs numb with terror. Gravely the council told her she must come with them to the palace. " It is impossible! " she murmured. " Yon are all mad. I am a white woman. I cannot rule over an alien race whose tongue I cannot speak, whose habits I know nothing of. It is impossible. Since my father is dead, I must return to my home." " Xo," said Umballa. " I refuse to stir! " She was all afire of a sudden: the base trickery which had brought her here! Sfie was very lovely to the picturesque savage who stood at her elbow. As he looked down at her, in his troubled soul Umballa knew that it was not the throne so much as it was this beautiful bird of paradise whi h he wished to cage. " Be brave," he said, " like your father. I do not wish to use force, but you must go. It is useless to struggle. Come." She huug back for a moment: then, realizing her utter helplessness, she signified that she was ready to go. She needed time to collect her stunned and disordered thoughts. Before going to the palace they conducted her to the royal crypt. The urn containing her father's ashes was deposited in a niche. Many other niches contained urns, and Umballa explained to her that these held the ashes of many rulers. Tears welled into Kathlyn's eyes, but they wore of a hysterical character. ' A good sign," mused Umballa, who thought he knew something of women, like all men beset with vanity. Oddly enough, he had forgotten all about the incident of the lion in the freight caboose. All women are felines to a certain extent. This golden haired woman had claws, and the day was coming when he would feel them drag over his heart. From the crypt they proceeded to the palace zenana (barem), which surrounded a court of exceeding beauty. Three ladies of the harem were sitting in the portico, attended by slaves. All were curiously interested at the sight of h woman with white skin, tinted like the lotus. Umballa came to a halt before a latticed door. "Here your majesty must remain till the day of your coronation." "How did my father die?" " He was assassinated on the palace steps by a Ma bammedan fanatic. As I told you, he died in ni, arm.'' " His note signified that he feared imprisonment. How came he on the palace steps?" " He was not a prisoner. He came and went as he pleased in the city." He bowed and left her. Alone in her chamber, the dullness of her mind dimin ished and finally cleared away like a fog in a wind, llet dear, kind, blue eyed father was dead, and she was virtu ally a prisoner, and Wiunie was all alone. A queen! They were mad, or she was in the midst of some hideous nightmare. Mad, mad, mad! She began to laugh, and ;i was not a pleasant sound. A queen, she, Kathlyn Bare! Her father was dead, she was a queen, and Winnie w.h all alone. A gale of laughter brought to the marble latin many wondering eyes. The white cockatoo shrilled hi displeasure. Those outside the lattice saw this marvelous white skinned woman, with hair like the gold threads in Chinese brocades, suddenly throw herself upon a pile of cushions, and they saw her shoulders rock and heave, but heard no sound of wailing. After a while she fell asleep, a kind of dreamless stupor. When she awoke it was twilight in the court. The doves were cooing r.nd fluttering in the cornices 1 the cockatoo was preening his lemon colored topknot At first KatMyn had not the least idea where she was, but the light beyond the lattice, the flitting shadows, and the tinkle of a stringed instrument assured her that she was awake, terribly awake. She sat perfectly still, slowly gathering her strength, mental and physical. She was not her father's daughter for nothing. She was to fight in some strange warfare, instinctively she felt this ; but from what direction, in what shape, only Gcd knety. Yet she must prepare for it; that was the vital thing; she must marshal her forces, feminine and only defensive, and watch. Rao! Her hands clutched the pillows. In five days' time he would be off to seek John Bruce; and there would be white men there, and they would come to her though a thousand legions of these brown men stood between. She must play for time ; she must pretend docility and humility, meet guile with guile. She could get no word to ber faithful khitmatgar; none here, even if open to bribery, could be made to understand. Only Umballa and the council spoke English or understood it. She had ten dflys' grace ; within that time she hoped to find some loop Native girls entered noiselessly. The hanging lamps were lit. A tabaret was set before her. There were junil aud roast kid, fruits and fragrant tea. She was not hungry, but she ate. Within a dozen yards of her sat her father, stolidly munching his ciuipattis, because he knew that now h must live. i One of the chief characteristics of the East Indian is extravagance. To outvie each other o aelebrations of births, weddings, deaths, and coronations they beggar themselves. In this the oriental and the occidental have one thing in common. This principality was small, but there was a deal of wealth in It because of its emerald mines and turquoise pits. The Durbar brought out princes and princelings from east, south, and west, and even three or four wild-eyed amirs from the north. The British government at Calcutta heard vaguely about this fete, but gave it scant attention for the simple fact that it had not been invited to attend. Still, it watched the performance covertly. Usually Durbars took months of preparation ; this one had been called into existence with in ten days. Elephants and camels and bullocks; palanquins, gharris, tongas; cloth of gold and cloth of jewels; color, confusion, maddening noises, and more color. There was very littlf semblance of order ; a rajah preceded a princeling, and so on down. The wailing of reeds and the muttering o' kettle drums; music, languorous, haunting, elusive, low minor chords seemingly struck at random, intermingling a droning chant; a thousand streams of incense, crossing and recrossing : and fireworks at night, fireworks which had come all the way across China by caravan these things Kathlyn saw an'd heard from her lattice. The populace viewed all these manifestations quietly. They were perfectly willing to wait. If this white qu,,0n proved kind they would go about their affairs, tearing her in peace; but they were determined that she should be no puppet In the hands of Umballa, whom they hated for his cruelty aud money leeching ways. O, everything was ripe in the state for murder and loot and the reaching, holding hand of the British Raj. As Katlilyn advanced to the caponied dais upon which she was to be crowned, a hand filled with flowers reached out. She turned to see Ahmed. a " Bruce Sahib," she whispered. Ahmed salaamed deeply as she passed on. The impres sion that she was dreaming again seized her. This could not possibly be real. Her feet did not seem to touch the carpets; she did not seem to breathe; she floated. It was only when the crown was placed upon her head that she realized the reality and the finality of the proceedings. " Be wise," whispered Umballa, coldly. " If you take off that crown now, neither your gods nor mine could save you from that mob down yonder. Be advised. Rise ! " She obeyed. She wanted to cry out to that sea nl bronze faces: "People, I do not want to bt your queen. Let me go!" They would not understand. Where wn Rao? Where was Bruce? What of the hope that now flickered and died in her heart, like a guttering candle light? There was a small dagger hidden in the folds of her white robe: she could always use that. She henrd Umballa speaking in the native tongue. A great shouting followed. The populace surged. "What have you said to them?" she demanded. " That her majesty bad chosen Durga Ram to be her consort and to him now forthwith she will be wed." He salaamed. So the mask was off! "Marry you? O, no! Mate with you, a black? "Black?" he cried, as if a whiplash had struck him across the face. " Yes, black of skin and black of heart I have sub mitted to the farce of this Durbar, but that is as far as my patience will go. God will guard me." " God?" mockingly. '1 " Yes, my God, and the God of my fathers!" To the mutable faces below she looked the queer at that instaut They saw the attitude, but could not in terpret it. , " So be it. There are other things besides marriage." "Yes," she replied promptly; "there is death." TO BE CONTIM'B). I