SIROCCO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13495, 23 May 1907, Page 3

SIROCCO.

, . ' .' BY KENNETH ,BROWN. .' | - » ——— > » [ ULL RIGHTS . RESERVED.] ; - !'/'; ■ [COPYRIGHT.] , ■ '■' CHAPTER XI. / \ ' ' ! ."-"; OKLY A WOMAN'. .;■- \ During the j journey back amicable, relations '■were: quickly re-established between guard arid prisoner. Duncan was not one to harbour ill feelings. He had met a better man than himself, at the game as they had played it. If he was to win out in the end it must be by the wile of Br'er Rabbit. Nothing was gained by sulking. . , "He looked at his captor admiringly, as they rode along side by side, the leg-irons having being removed by Techryk, "You're a goo- man," he said. "I doa't see "how you can be so spry in those boots." ■ Techryk for all his swarthy, skin, flushed ' with pleasure. :It is not always the weakling who - is most susceptible, to flattery or honest admiration. He glanced down at the huge yellow boots, reaching way above his knees, which were the most striking part of the uniform of the Royal Guard. ?. '.-

Wo always wear them," he said ; " yet ye do deeds. After a pause he added: " iou are weaker than I—all men are >ut you are very strong. Had it been any )ther than 1,, you would have escaped," \fter a further pause, moved evidently by :lie discomfort with .which Duncan rode, shackled, Techryk asked.: "If I take off pour'*handcuffs, will you not try to ,esjape ..v.., .: .:■>■') •■ Duncan shrugged his shoulders. ' " What is the use of'talk? If I could escape, I ft-ouid. I have no wish. to meet the Sultan ; my tastes don run towards his society. But your camel is swifter than mine, as you are stronger than I." • The frankness and the compliment put Techryk in still better humour, although they puzzled him.' In Sirocco truth-telling-is enough to puzzle anyone. He -\ leaned forward , and' . unfastened the * handcuffs. "You will not have many days to move your hands," he said, with an approach to kindness in his tone—a kindness not reassuring,- however. " But what madness'' — he looked curiously at Duncan what '• madness made you try to steal one of the Sultan's wives?'A man might better be flayed alive." ; ,' '.-■'■ .■:.■■ "'■'•.'■-. t ; "There doesn't seem to be much choice between the two," Duncan assented. "But she—l heard that she was English, and wanted to* escape.": .'' ; * " Yes," Techryk nodded, " she is always trying to get out. The Sultan saw her a. year ago, and desired her greatly. , So I stole her. It was great honour tor her; but they » say she is 1 foolish -and would rather go back to her native country." ;; i "Ah! you stole her," Duncan.said. His tone -was low; but one who knew him [would have felt safer out of his reach. ;_-;

"Yes, I. It was a great feat. She had: to be lured from,her party, and then she fought even as you fought. And afterwards Ave had trouble. We had to find a woman small and well-formed as she was, and put her in Englishwoman's clothes, and have her torn by a tiger in the Sultan's, menagerie till her face was gone. .We' put the body by the "edge of the desert,* near where I captured the Englishwoman,-and took her friends to it. It was well > done, and they suspected, nothing.' That is, how' I obtained favour with the Sultan. And now I shall obtain more by bringing you back, that he may find pleasure in punishing you. I Was obscure ' before that, and if I had not done everything well,. they would have given me over to the, English to be killed." ■ Techryk told 1 his story with a simplicity that "was: - almost engaging., ; . He added : "'liiis'thing is not. known, nor would I tell you, except that you-are about to die, and I would like you „to know what . manner of man I am." Duncan-, listened to him, took, a long biiettth; - -and-« sti-aightenedi*his He looked" around at the .massive' frame" of Techryk, then shook his head to himself; but he had a new interest in living. For, some time they I did not speak, each busy with .his thoughts. Duncan knew now what > Cunningham had * meant by his cry of." The lions! the lions!" and Techryk was trying to fathom the motives that had moved his prisoner. A Finally he harhed back to his first question, frankly puzzled : | ".But why did you.try to steal her? Did you desire her so very muchV" .... "No, I wasn't in love with 5 her," Duncan answeredjsliortly. ' ; - " ' '; "Then, in the name of Allah, what made you' do so foolish a thing? «She was only a woman."';' .. . - _. " Yes, she was only a woman!" And the West-clashed with the East in his words.

CHAPTER XII. ■ THE SANDSTORM.

■At night Techryk put the irons on the American again. They were of rude pattern, but very, effective, being designed less with a view ,to the prisoner's comfort than to his security. ■ Duncan thought with bitter regret of- his poison ring."..; It had been on the other camel, lost in the darkness under the walls of the Sultan's palace. With it on his finger- he would need no strength to overcome Techryk. He held out .his hands for the handcuffs, and .Techryk examined them closely . before fettering them'; for some hands are soft and can be squeezed through a small space. Duncan's hands were hard and -bony, and his wrists were not so large as to give him' any chance of working off the handcuffs during the night. In the morning Techryk took them off again, and Duncan rode along with aching wrists beside his captor. It surprised him that Techryk kept to the desert instead of making lor the fertile country along the coast. :; He asked him the reason for it. "When a white man is to be punished, it is best for none to know about it," Techryk replied. "I shall take you into the palace secretly, at night, and no one will ever knowexcept you. . (The Siroccan had a rudimentary sense of humour.) " You travelled fast when you came away from Kub'-hub-nol," 'he added presently. "We will go back more r slowly. The camels are tired, and you have not many days left free from pain. Also the longer the Sultanwaits, the more pleased he will be." Towards the middle of the forenoon the bright, desert sunlight began to take on a tawny.tinge, and to become more opaque. Without any explanation, Techryk urged the camels to a faster pace, and at the same time kept looking down at his shadow. Gradually it grew fainter, and the atmosphere more lurid. At last, while the world seemed filled with light, there was no trace of shadow at their side. " There is a sandstorm coming," Techryk said, hoarsely. "We must make th Sehgiz Cleft, or neither you nor I shall ever see the Sultan again." ;l , : - - Techryk's voice was vibrant with mortal dread; and in Duncan the fear of proximate asphyxiation was beginning to deaden the fear of ultimate torture. The two men kicked their camels with their heels, and urged them on with, their voices.-'."The Siroccan could have distanced Duncan, and the latter first hoped, then feared he would. The bare instinct of self-preservation arose amid this storm which robbed the very air of its vitality, and made every breath a breath of suffocation. ' Techryk stuck grimly by his captive. He prodded DunoarTs slower camel from behind with his knife, till the Mulaid bellowed from pain as it raced at the top of its speed. ' Luckily the Sehgiz.Cleft lay straight before the storm, and they were therefore not so blinded and chocked by the dust and sand as they would have been had they had to face the wind. . -It is not far from here now '."Techryk cried, thickly. * . >'' < ' ' ' - ' • The fine sand blew into the ears and nostrils of the men and of the camels. It sifted into their clothes; and when Duncan shook his thin garments from time to time pounds of it fell from 'the creases. Techryk's uniform was of closer texture and pattern, and . in spite of being buttoned tight aoout : him, seemed to bag with the dust. -Looking' at him sideways, • once. Duncan saw, that his hall, flaring boots were filled, to .the brim; and the Bisharin, to his fancy, seeaiea to stagger under the extra load.

Neither man tried to guide his camel; I but they, with their marvellous instinct, ] must hare been able to scent the*' water of \ the ; Sehgiz .Cleft,, and j kept their course without X though faltering be-1 neath the cruelty of the storm. Duncan could not tell how long. this race for life lasted. IV was a yellow nightmare, and he did not even know what time of day it was, when the camels suddenly halted at the edge of a precipitous descent, and then walked stumblingly down a narrow, winding path. At the bottom they lay down, their muzzles <in the clear waters of the Sehgiz River. Duncan and Techryk fell from their saddles and lay gasping on the ground, too exhausted at first even to crawl to the water. , r ; For minutes the men lay utterly relaxed on the edge of the Sehgiz. Overhead the sand-clouds rolled, making the world black with the blackness of destruction. Duncan first lifted up his head, and looked about him like a drunken man. In front of _ him. was the Sehgiz; twenty feet away the inert body of Techryk by his camel. An idea of escape came to him, and he dropped his head between his hands, trying to pull himself together.- He tried to reason out whether this thought that had come to him was practicable. He spat the caked dust from his mouth, leaned down to the water and drank. The water and the flush of hope revived him, and • his thoughts grew clearer. He looked down the rocky sides of the river, seeking to recall how deep the water was. Then furtively he glanced again at Techryk. The Siroccan had got up on his hands and knees and was dragging himself to the water's edge. Duncan crouched down and nerved himself. He was still so shaken that he was afraid to rely, on his own faculties. Was he mistaken in thinking the river deep as it seemed? He could not remember. - He dropped .a pebble into it, and saw it zigzag its way down for a long time before it reached the bottom. , , -, - i Techryk was drinking as if he could not have enough.. At; last, waterlogged from his undisciplined thirst, he lifted his head and began to unbutton the jacket of his uniform.» A trickle of sand , came at the first button.; more at the second. <. Before his fingers came to the third, Duncan, swiftly grasping the significance of. this trickle of sand and the chance it offered? him in his light clothes, sprang far out into the Sehgiz and began swimming to the other side. A second later he heard a splash, and knew, that Techryk had accepted ,his chal-

lenge. ■ '"• ■ t - -'- • ■ . . ■'■ A few strokes carried the American' to the other bank, arid with desperate quickness he clutched the rocky sides -and scrambled out. He. picked up as large: a stone as he could lift, poised it above 'bis head, and looked eagerly for his enemy. In the smooth current of the Sehgiz there were' bubbles arising, and a slight commotion. ; In its yellow waters, more .clearly than if the sun had been shining, Duncan saw Techryk", T . The bubbles were rising from his mouth: iHis eyes started Upward, and he impbtently beat the water with his hands. He, too, was a swimmer, but he had not reckoned on his uniform, •• heavy with sand, on his huge boots, filled 1 to the brim. He leaped forwards, and the top of his head nearly reached the surface of the water, his ' hands 'grasped; the life-giving air. . ••*''••'■< ....'..-_. !', Duncan watched him, intently. ; Dance away!" he said.' He had travelled far back into the dark ages. The man's struggles became more frantic. Had he retained presence of mind enough to walk on the bottom to either bank he might have got out,* but he was dying for air, and air was above him, not two feet away. At last Techryk tore off his jacket, and tried to take* off uis boots; but his strength had failed him before he thought of this. r '' -Duncan lowered his rock, then placed it on the ground and sat upon it as he watched ;Techrvk i feebly beating with ; his hands, huddled in the bottom of the. stream. Duncan had gone through much the ; last tWo days, and he felt no more emotion, than if he* were watching a rat drown, and he kept his 'eye's fixed on the Siroccan until he was quite dead. J( •■:" She's square with you ,' anyway, he said, -as lie turned away, satisfied., :.-, A-weariness that felt as if it would dis-: member him sank upon', him. ; He lay down I and pillowed his ' head upon the rock. Vague : plans for the English girl's rescue floated mistily through his head, each more; feaiible-appeawag<as hewneared-jnnconsciiCHiS*■' ness. -c. ■■'■■■,',' ' $: | -'-;'- ' 'He heard, the camels shuffling about; on, the : : other side : of the -, stream.- - "One for; her, and one for.me," 'he thought. "All; I've got to do is to go fetch her." It appeared the simplest thing "in the world, as the world sunk farther and farther away from him—just -as : steeps and precipices fade out as We rise above them in a balloon. ■ > ~ ■. - , j-, .: . , j The, storm . swept on overhead. The camels munched the . bunches of grass in the Sehgiz Cleft. And -Duncan lay dream-; ing of tne rescue. ■■ . j ; ' !(To be continued 'daily.),-? • '-.-■