Part 29 (1/2)
The least of all the wonders was that the secret of the place should have been kept all down the centuries; for it was the hollow middle of a limestone mountain, that could neither be looked down into frouessed at from the conformation of the country The river, that flowed out of rock and went plunging down into the chasm, must be snow from the Himalayan peaks, on its way to swell the sea There was no other way to account for that; but that explanation did explain why at least one Indian river is no greater than it is
The road they folloas a fold in the natural rock, rising and falling and curving like a ribbon, but tending on the average doard It looked to be about two miles to the point where it curved at the chasm's end and swept round and doard, to be lost in a fissure in the cliff
They soon began to pass the mouths of caves Sohts above it, reached by artificial steps hewn out of the stone Others were below, reached from the road bywaterfall Most of the caves were inhabited, for armed men and sullen worow accusto It was not long before King's ears could catch the patter of his , and the shod clink of the mule He could hear when Ismail whispered:
”Be brave, little hakim! She loves fearless men”
As the track descended caves became more numerous In one there were horses, for as they passed there came a whiff of unclean stables, and the litter of fodder and dung was all about the entrance The reat wax disks, strangely stamped, affixed to stout wooden doors One cave s wondered whence the oil was brought-for the sirkar knows to a pint and an ounce what products travel up and down the Khyber
At last the guide halted, in the middle of a short steep slope where the path was less than six feet wide and a narrow cave ave directly on to it
”Be content to rest here!” he said, pointing
”Thy cave?” asked King
”Nay God's! I am the caretaker!”
(The ”Hills” are very pious and polite, between the acts of robbing and shedding blood)
”Allah, then, reward thee, brother!” answered King ”Allah give sight to thy blind eye! Allah give thee children! Allah give thee peace, and to all thy house!”
The guide salaa in the passage to point into the side-caves that debouched to either hand There was a niche of a place, where a uard near the entrance; another cave in which horses could be stabled, with plenty of fodder piled up ready; another beyond that for servants and baggage, with a fireplace and cooking pots; and at the last at the rear of all a great cavern full of eerie glooe like a bottle at the end of a long neck
Peering about hi became aware of frame beds, placed at intervals in a row, each with a mat beside it And there were several brass basins and ewers for water Also there were so took up one to examine it As he did so, involuntarily his hand ale knife still reposed that he had taken from the would-be old on the lamp; but the handle by which he lifted it had been cast, the devils of the Hio, in the for; her size, and her shape, and the art hich she had been fashi+oned, were the sa hiue
”How many such hast thou ever seen?” he asked
”None!” answered King, and the guide cackled at hi
”There be ers!” he reh for any man to say on any occasion, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the cavern It was the last King ever saw of hie to the entrance and watched him until his back disappeared round the first bend, but the man never turned his head once He did not even look over the edge of the road, down into the a turned back and looked into the other caves-saw the weary horse andwater that rushed out of a rock fissure and gurgled out of sight down another one-examined the servants' cave and saw that they had been a that thetraveler could have demanded at such a distance fro would have dared expect
”Why isn't it da to his own cave And then he noticed long fissures in the cavern walls, and that the suess what made it do that, unless it were the suction of the enorround; and then he remembered that at the entrance air had rushed doard into the hole dohich the horse had disappeared, which partly confiruess
”Ismail!” he shouted, and jumped at the revolver-crack-like echo of his voice
Is
”Make the men carry the mule's packs into this cave You and Darya Khan stay here and help me open them Remember, ye are both assistants of Kurrah at us! They will laugh at us!” clucked Is wondered ould laugh