Part 9 (1/2)

CHAPTER XI

THE HUNT AND THE KILL

We reached our rooes, and there ed our festal robes for those wararments in which we had travelled to the city of Kaloon Then we ate and drank e could of the victuals which stood in the antecha e should findabout their shoulders, with the remains of the meat and liquor and a few necessaries Also we strapped our big hunting knives about our middles and armed ourselves with short spears that were ame

”Perhaps he has laid a plot to murder us, and we ested Leo

I nodded, for the echoes of the Khan's last laugh still rang in h,” I said ”I do not trust that insane brute Still, he wishes to be rid of us”

”Yes, but as he said, live men may return, whereas the dead do not”

”Atene thinks otherwise,” I commented

”And yet she threatened us with death,” answered Leo

”Because her shame and passion make her mad,” I replied, after which ere silent

Presently the door opened, and through it cauise himself

”Coht of the spears we held, he added: ”You will not need those things You do not go a-hunting”

”No,” I answered, ”but who can say-we ht be hunted”

”If you believe that perhaps you had best stay where you are till the Khania wearies of Yellow-beard and opens the gates for you,” he replied, eyeing lance

”I think not,” I said, and we started, the Khan leading the way and h the empty rooms on to the verandah, and from the verandah down into the courtyard, where he whispered to us to keep in the shadow For the ht, so clearly, I rereeen the joints of the pavement, and the little shadows thrown by each separate blade upon the worn surface of its stones Noondered hoe should pass the gate, for there a guard was stationed, which had of late been doubled by order of the Khania But this gate we left upon our right, taking a path that led into the great walled garden, where Rassen brought us to a door hidden behind a clump of shrubs, which he unlocked with a key he carried

Noere outside the palace wall, and our road ran past the kennels As ent by these, the great, sleepless death-hounds, that wandered to and fro like prowling lions, caught our wind and burst into a sudden chorus of terrific bays I shi+vered at the sound, for it was fearful in that silence, also I thought that it would arouse the keepers But the Khan went to the bars and showed himself, whereon the brutes, which knew him, ceased their noise

”Fear not,” he said as he returned, ”the huntsht, for to-morrow certain criminals will be thrown to theates Here the Khan bade us hide in an archway and departed We looked at each other, for the saone to fetch the murderers ere to , for presently we heard the sound of horses' hoofs upon the stones, and he returned leading the thite steeds that Atene had given us

”I saddled them with my own hands,” he whispered ”Who can do uest? Now mount, hide your faces in your cloaks as I do, and follow me”

So wefootreat lords of Kaloon employed when they went about their business or their pleasure Leaving the h a quarter of the town that had an evil reputation, and down its tortuous by-ways Here we ht-birds flitted fro aside their veils, looked at us, but as wethat we passed to sonation We reached the deserted docks upon the river's edge and caside of which a broad ferryboat was fastened

”You must put your horses into it and row across,” Rassen said, ”for the bridges are guarded, and without discovering myself I cannot bid the soldiers to let you pass”

So with soed the horses into the boat, where I held theo your ways, accursed wanderers,” cried the Khan as he thrust us from the quay, ”and pray the Spirit of the Mountain that the old Rat and his pupil-your love, Yellow-beard, your love-are not watching you in their ain”

Then as the strea the boat out towards the centre of the river, he began to laugh that horrible laugh of his, calling after us-”Ride fast, ride fast for safety, strangers; there is death behind”

Leo put out his strength and backed water, so that the punt hung upon the edge of the streaain and kill that lish, but Rassenwith the cunning of the mad At least he shouted-”Too late, fools,” and with a last laugh turned, ran so swiftly up the quay that his cloak flew out upon the air behind him, and vanished into the shadows at its head

”Row on,” I said, and Leo bent himself to the oars

But the ferry-boat was cumberso way before we could cross it At length we reached still water near the further shore, and seeing a landing-place,our horses to the bank Then leaving the craft to drift, for we had no tiirths and bridles, andsmoke which showed like a beacon above the suress was very slow, for here there seeed to pick our way across the fields, and to search for bridges that spanned such of the water-ditches as were too wide for us to jump More than an hour was spent in this work, till we ca, and here struck a road which seeh, as we learned afterwards, it took us very many miles out of our true path Now for the first tih not too fast, for ished to spare our horses and feared lest they ht

A while before dawn the rew so dense that ere forced to stop, which we did, holding the horses by their bridles and allowing therey, the light faded frouide, the dawn ca red upon the vast snows of the distant peak, and shooting its arrows through the loop above the pillar We let the horses drink fro theht a weight of fear seerew hopeful, aye, almost joyous That hated city was behind us Behind us were the Khania with her surging, doom-driven passions and her stormy loveliness, the wizardries of her horny-eyed mentor, so old in years and secret sin, and the , half-devil, half-martyr, at once cruel and a coward-the Khan, her husband, and his polluted court In front lay the fire, the snow and the ht for so many empty years Noould solve it or ould die So we pressed forward joyfully to ht be

For h cultivated land, where the peasants at their labour laid down their tools and gathered into knots to watch us pass, and quaint, flat-roofed villages, whence the woht of us They believed us to be lords from the court who came to work them some harm in person or in property, and their terror told us how the country sh the peak seemed to be but little nearer, the character of the land had changed Now it sloped gently upwards, and therefore could not be irrigated

Evidently all this great district was dependent on the fall of tih the population was still dense and every rod of the land was under the plough or spade, the crops were failing It was pitiful to see the green, uneared corn already turning yellow because of the lack ofthe starved pastures for food and the poor husband to hoe the iron soil

Here the people see had been noised abroad, and, the fear of fa ive them back the rain which we had stolen, or so we understood their words Even the woes prostrated the first to the Mountain and then to the hard, blue sky, and crying to us to send them rain Once, indeed, ere threatened by a -hooks, who seeed to put our horses to a gallop and pass through therew ever more arid and its inhabitantsherds who drove their cattle frouessed that we had reached that border tract which was harried by the Mountain tribes, for here strong towers built of stone were dotted about the heaths, doubtless to serve as watch-houses or places of refuge Whether they were garrisoned by soldiers I do not know, but I doubt it, fornone It seems probable indeed that these forts were relics of days when the land of Kaloon was guarded from attack by rulers of a very different character to that of the present Khan and his ith even the watch-toere left behind, and by sundoe found ourselves upon a vast uninhabited plain, where we could see no living thing Noeto push forward again with thethe wrath of the Khania behind us we did not dare to linger By this evening doubtless she would have discovered our escape, since before sundown, as she had decreed, Leo ive his answer Then, as ere sure, she would strike swiftly Perhaps herthe country to capture us, and her soldiers following on our path

We unsaddled the horses and let theraze after a fashi+on upon the coarse tufts of withering herbage which grew around There was no water here; but this did not so much matter, for both they and we had drunk at a little muddy pool we found notour ht with us, which, indeed, we needed sorely after our sleepless night and long day's journey, when my horse, which was knee-haltered close at hand, lay down to roll again This it could not do with ease because of the rope about its fore-leg, and I watched its efforts idly, till at length, at the fourth attes sticking straight into the air, it fell over slowly towards me as horses do

”Why are its hoofs so red? Has it cut itself?” asked Leo in an indifferent voice

As it chanced I also had just noticed this red tinge, and for the first tis, which until it rolled thus I had not seen So I rose to look at theht had deceived us, or that we h soh a dye had soaked into the horn and the substance of the frogs What was ent, aroht arise froe,” I said ”Let us look at your beast, Leo”

So we did, and found that its hoofs had been similarly-treated

”Perhaps it is a native ht awhile, then a terrible idea struck hten you,” I said, ”but I think that we had better saddle up and get on”

”Why?” he asked

”Because I believe that villain of a Khan has doctored our horses”