Part 41 (1/2)

She looked fro solved her riddle, King had leisure to be interested in her eyes, and watched the diaeable and colorful than any he had ever seen They had the baffling trick of changing while he watched the sent a man to kill you, why did I cease to want you killed? Instead of losing you on the way to Khinjan, why did I run risks to protect you after you reached here? Why did I save your life in the Cavern of Earth's Drink to-night? You do not know yet? Then I will tell you so else you do not knoas in Delhi when you were! I watched and listened while you and Rewa Gunga talked in e on the train that he took and you did not! I have learned at first hand that you are not a fool But that was not enough! You had to be three things-clever and brave and one other The one other you are! Brave you have proved yourself to be! Clever you must be, to trick your way into Khinjan Caves, even with Ismail at your elbow! That is why I saved your life-because you are those two things and-and-one other!”

She snatched a lass, bad art, bad workmanshi+p, but silver warranted

”Look in it and then at him!” she ordered

But he did not need to look The man on the bed was not so much like himself as the worow under his eyes, as such things do It was helped out by the stain his brother had applied to his face in the Khyber King was the taller and the younger by several years, but the noses were the same, and the wrinkled fore-heads; both men had the saet that scar?”

She ca it in both hers, and he felt the same thrill Samson knew He steeled hiot e in the blockade of 1902,” he said dryly

”Look! Did he get his from a spear or from an arrow?”

Almost in the same spot, also on the dead man's left hand, was a scar so nearly like it that it needed a third and a fourth glance to tell the difference They both bent over the bed to see it, and she laid a hand on his shoulder Touch and scent and confidence, all three were bewitching; all three were calculated, too! He could have killed her, and she knew he could have killed her, just as she kneould not Yet what right had she to know it!

”Athelstan!”

She pronounced his given naain and looking into his eyes There were high lights in hers that outgleamed the diamonds on her dress

”Your Gods and mine have done this, Athelstan When the Gods combine they lay plans well indeed!”

”I only know one God,” he answered sis in his heart

”I know of many! They love me! They shall love you, too! Many are better than one! You shall learn to know my Gods, for we are to be partners, you and I!”

She laughed at hi like a Goddess herself, but he frowned And the more he frowned the better she seemed to like him

”Partners in what, Princess?”

”Thou-Ismail dubbed thee Ready o' wit!-answer thine own question!”

She took his hand again, her eyes burning with excitement and mysticism and ambition like a fever She seemed to take ht the to the bed ”You think he brought, her? I tell you she was the spur that drove him! Is it a wonder that men called her the 'Heart of the Hills'? I found theo and clothed her and put new linen on their bed, for the old was all rags and dust There have always been hundreds-and sometimes thousands-who knew the secret of Khinjan Caves, but this has been a secret within a secret Some one, who knew the secret before I, sawed those bracelets through and fitted hinges and clasps The men you saw in the Cavern of Earth's Drink have no doubt I am the 'Heart of the Hills' come to life! They shall know thee as Hihter and pressed closer to hi softly He stood as if h the more

”Tales of the 'Heart of the Hills' have puzzled the Raj, haven't they, these many years? They sent me to find the source of them Me! They chose well! There are not many like me! I have found this one dead woman as like me And in ten years, until you came, I have found no man like Him!”

She tried to look into his eyes, but he frowned straight in front of hiar turban did notto need shaving, was as gri as the dead Roers