Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 249, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1920 — Yellow Men Sleep [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Yellow Men Sleep

By JEREMY LANE

Cavyritht by Tbe CenOuy Co.

- CHAPTER XlV.—Continued. —-17— Later March said, out of his somber thinking: “I cannot believe that my Eithna is gone.” Levington could make np reply. It seemed that March remembered his bride as she was eighteen years ago. Time had not, until now, touched th'at sacred portion of his life. “And they have taken my little child, touched her eyes with the drug, until she is no longer mine but theirs. She refuses to go to America, my own daughter. She has been made to forget her mother.” Con was overwhelmed. He stretched out his hand and found March’s arm. It war trembling. “We’re not done for,” said Levington. March seemed not to hear. “Helen does not love me, scarcely cares to make my acquaintance, never wished to see me. Perhaps that is my punishment for thinking of her always as an Infant, with a glorious mother. And Eithna has been dead for years.” Levington was alarmed concerning hie friend, who was slipping deeper into despondency. He forgot his work for the United States government, his long labors in the name of humanity, and all his thought centered upon his personal disaster. He was close to a tragic unbalance. Levington said quickly:

“But Helen says her mother is not really dead. You have yourself told me that this life is but the camp Of one night In a long, journey, that the better air of the hills is just beyond.” Slowly March smiled, and sadly. “The camp of one night. Yes, a long, dark night.” “We have work to do, now,” urged the younger man. “Work that may bring our dawn.” It was useless to try to cheer the bereaved man, who merely replied: “They are causing little Helen to forget all her mother gave to her ; they are giving her to that yellow man doll.” “No!” cried Levington. “Not yet” Andrew March laughed at him, terly. In some subtle, potent manner, the Gobi was too much for white men. They could not remain the same. March was slipping down hill. Levington was not his former self, easygoing and slow to kindle, a dreamer. He had grown tense of nerve, keyed up strangely high, with a whole new set of passions in his breast. He was expanded, set free, despite the pitchy caverns. He arose now and moved away from his comrade, elbowed through the shifting crowds, a Goliath by conThey made way for him. The

Arab called something he did not catch. He had a desire for a breath of upper air, and was going toward the base of the shaft. It was dark at the top, still night, the blot of a sentinel, there. Con went np by the aid of the long vine, which had been worn smooth by the pulling of many hands, day after day. The hunched one who- watched at the top made way for him, but did not offer • hand. The stars were fading by the nearness of new day. Leaving behind him all the smoldering life below—the warped, sapped, wasted hundreds, with the mentalities of sad children—Levington left the mouth of the shaft and strode np the rise. He drank the cool air of the open. - . To the east a low band of dusty yellow, above and around the pale smooth smoke of waning night Only the larger stars remained aloft and friendly points, familiar, seeming

closer than America. Westward the city, its palace like something built in a mighty yesterday by giants, And left behind for men—dark now, but plainly outlined. From the crest Levington viewed the shadowy secrets of the Sha Mo, and presently his eyes stopped on a point in the road, at the head of the ravine. He stared through the twligbt, and saw a motionless horseman there. ■ ‘He must know. Taking his former path, down the further side of the ridge and around to the cut, he hastened in the loneliness of that gray dawn. Creeping near he could not mistake the large, limp hat, the distinctive fling of the cloak, the pony. He stood up and ran toward Helen. “What is itF he asked. “They are coming for you at sunrise,” she said. “They will kill you.” “We are ready to receive them.” he said. “The miners are not at work, and are not sleeping. They are waiting, armed. The plan is to fall upon the soldiers if they come into the mines.” “You have caused this?” “Yes,” he answered. t “For what reason?” $ “Freedom, for your father and myself; for the four workers who were taken yesterday; for the whole underground city of miners; and for you.” "For me? Ido not ask it.” “You want to be queen?” “Yes.” And she Implied that nothing could be so natural. She was surprised at the question. “You cap be a queen in America,” he said, with his soul Limping. “And who will remain here for your rule, when we have, done with your army?” She did not know whether to smjle, or be terribly displeased. He dared not be serious, lest his heart break. In the gray of the morning she was as lovely as a great moth in an enchanted garden.

“You would not be interested in ruling here,” said her lover, “if you really belonged here. It Is your white blood that gives you this strength. All Asia Is only a stage-setting for you. Let me fight today for you, let me lead in your name. Is it so much to be queen of a solitary city where strangers never come?” “Never?” she repeated. After a pause, he asked: “What brought you out so early this morning?" "Yesterday you were displeased because I rode in the full sunlight,” she parried him. He saw at once that he could not expect to be given any true reason for her presence here now, unless—“l am thankful I did not miss you,” he said. “The dawn colors are full of wonder,” she replied,-evading again. “That Is true.” “Are you afraid to die?” she asked point-blank. “Yes, Pm not going to. I want to live. Yesterday I told you why, but you were asleep.” “I could not respond,” said the princess, glaring away at the dark horizon, “but I heard distinctly—your words.” = Bevington’s cheeks burned suddenly at the revelation. She continued to look away from him.

“I meant my words, all at them,” he said steadily. Still she did not turn back to him, and he asked, “Why do you allow them to give you the drug?" “I am not so lonely when I dream.” “It places you more securely In the hands of Chee Ming, and he Is no man’s friend.” “He has been my father, always,” she said. 7 “This sleep of yellow men Is not life—not rulership—for you." “Would you give me unhappiness again?" Again he felt the tremendous doubt that she might be laughing at him from behind her earnest lovely eyes. She looked full in bls face for her answer. “I will not go away without you," said Levington. “You may not go at all," said Helen. “That is why I came here. It was troublesome to arrange. But I wanted —to tell you.” “What?” “If my soldiers kill you, it Is —not because I hate you.” ' * “Thanfe,” murmured Levington. “I could have died for less." “Come with my father, the way you came yesterday, and I will do what I •can." “You. humble me with so much honor," said the one who stood below her, “but I expect to be very busy with the miners.” The copper light touched her face. The pony blinked at the east, and far away Con saw the purple mantle slip from the city, a line of faint gold upon the loftiest tiles of the palace. Sweetly across the empty world came the voice of the hour-gong from the city. The last stars were melting into a pallid sky that was shot across with crimson, violet, and russet gold. Levington's heart was fun, but all be longed to say he bed told her yesterday. That intimacy was renewed by the thought that she had beard and

He blushed. Something came to him, of her struggle—a fantastic kingdom almost within her gradp, a throne from which every whim was law, a city of weird power and much gold, her own for the taking; and only one young white man, almost a stranger, to draw her away from It all. She had been born to love, yet all her training was toward power and queencraft And there was koresh. “ "Helen!” he said softly. “Speak.” He could not The wave on which he had ridden had passed. The old silence was upon him, the wordless intensity in the presence of beauty, timidity before the woman who could set him free If she would. A quick sparkle crossed the dead wilderness to the east Twilight fled away, and the world whitened. Still the princess did not move. She too was silent. Then from the' distant gate a horseman stood forth. Levington waited. “Go,” she said. ' “There is only one coming.” “It is the prince, Yekutoi.” “Will he lead your soldiers?” “He will never lead anything.” Helen’s voice had become suddenly filled with weariness. Levington roused again to the Joy of making her unhappy. “I shall ride away,” she threatened. ' * “Please wait. Let him come.” “For what reason?” “I won’t hurt him;” said Con. “You have no weapon,” said the princess. “He may have enough for both of ns.” U'FW-7 C.r \ a

“I see no others upon the road. They are very sure. They do not baste. It is early.” Yekutoi came'on, doubtless having learned of the absence from the city of his bride-elect Levington waited beside the large stone, hidden from the prince. A world of meaning came to him from the fact that, Helen remained. She was not unwilling to decoy her prince. Levington himself was acting more upon Intuition than by any reason or plan. "What would you?” she inquired. ' “I won’t hurt him,” he repeated. “I don’t know.” In her calm way, she was looking straight at Levington, and he had regained enough of yesterday to return her gaze. His eyes were robbers, now boldly taking the slender curves that lay beneath the gray cloak. Another wave was coming, that would carry him—

The prince, as he rode along to the head of the ravine, was a mere pale shoot of royalty with the sun dazzling his eyes. He was long-pened, languid, his slanty eyes peering from beneath a white satin turban, ringed with pearls. The pennon hung limp from his lance. He was brave with knives. His loose-sleeved arms were lax, evidently weary with holding ont the lance. He made no bow of greeting to his intended lady, giving her but a word of Oriental speech. Helen scarcely noticed him, but continued to study the sunrise. Levington arose from concealment and took the Jeweled bridle. The fright of Prince Yekutoi was painful. He poured a rapid series of syllables upon the. white man, who grinned at him and took down the lance. Then the waxen face, shining in the new sun. was obscured by a pair of upraised hands. Yekutoi dared not face what had befallen him. He forgot the princess. Soft moans came from behind the flowered sleeve. Levington lifted him down from the saddle, a relaxed form. The prince had fainted. Con led the diademed mount down the ravine to the valley floor beyond and started the animal away to the south. He shouted and hurled a stone. In a panic, Yekutol’s horse ran, with one sparkling bit of color In one stirrup, dangling. Still Helen had not changed her position. The prince lay upon the sand.

Levington said to her: “This Is the story to tell them, when you gallop back. Your father and I secured horses from a large party at white men who came in from the south. You saw them, a great number, all mounted. The wind is coming up, so it can cover the tracks they made. But they seized Yekutoi and bore him away. Each moment the prince is being carried further and further away, to the south." j “You wish me to speak falsely?" “Yes,” replied Levington. “It is no devising of my own." “It is for your choice,” he said simply. Quietly Helen said, glancing down at the fallen one, “I will go and tell them.” CHAFTKR XV. . The Tawny Rose Droops. She touched silver spurs to her mount, and galloped to the city, bearing the false alarm. Levington regarded his perfumed prisoner. Yekutoi had revived, but was playing dead, no doubt Ceding each instant a hundred biting -edges of steel upon his person, an agony of Imagination Con

picked him up and bore him along, the slant of hill toward the deep, abaft Figured silks fluttered about bia chin. One of the royal sandals was missing. The other, sparkling brightly, flapped on a long foot Lovington was keenly alive to the press of time. He realized that the swift, delicate affairs of the moment, and all brutal consequences, were now in the lap of the gods. Before Helen had reached the city gate, he had shoved the helpless Yekutoi over the ridge and down to the "big hole. The Mongolian’s slim hands were convulsed with horror, and he shrilled like a mouse when he felt the emptiness below his legs. Con let go, and the shaft swallowed up the prince. He went down after him through the flying dirt. Torches again in the heavy gloom of the pit-bottoms. His eyes grew accustomed to the depths. From all directions the strange little men came ■ running. The babble of excitement fell into sudden hush when they saw the prisoner more.closely. They pressed backward, murmuring. Levlngton felt a great need for March. He found the Arab and still did not see his comrade. - * “Where is my friend?” The ex-seaman made inquiry round about. Then one timid hunchback with knotted queue came forward. He pinched Levlngton’s sleeve and showed willingness to lead on. Out of the confusion, high upon one of the ledges in the adjoining rock room, lay Andrew March. They had cushioned him upon a pallet of grass, and his sleep was deep. Con had difficulty in getting him to open his eyea There was a lightning thread of suspi-

don,'and he held a torch down close to March’s face. The story was plainly written. His eyelids were grayed over with koresh, and its deadly spies was tn the air, cinnamon and lees. Con knelt closer, Quite sure that his friend could hear and understand through the veil, if not reply. It was a black moment, a cold rising wave of failure. "We have the prince down here, captive, alone. Helen Is sending the warriors on a goose-chase. We must move upon the city while they are away.’’ March’s mouth twitched, and with a great effort he mumbled, “Do not wait.” “But I need you. They. trust you because you speak their language. Try to rouse yourself.” “Don’t —wait.” “We may not have time to come back this way.” “Go,” gashed the sleeper. *T’m not Worth It” Levington left him there, sought out the Arab, and gave orders for a hammock to be borne by four men, to carry March along in the rear of the charge. “We go into palace?" asked the Arab. “Yes, as soon as the riders go forth to find their prince.” . / The sailor comprehended and rather brightened at the plan. It was better than falling .upon the soldiers in the dark of the mines. He called to his men. The swinging palantjuin was taken in for March. In that final minute in the caverns. Con had a word with him.

“Iffs all right,” said the younger man. March’s eyelids remained calmly closed, but his voice came in a dry rustle, z “Some men grow brave in their sorrow, but I was not one of them. J waited so long—yon understand, boy. If yon get away, make the report. Show them how to find Tan Euan, to scotch thia curse of the world, # possible.” Levington gave assurance, than ran after the Arabian, who had taken a position near the base of tire shaft Here Yekutoi still lay upon his back, although no bond held him. Ifo «M dared go near him. The twisted men retained their superstitions concerning royalty. Now in great numbers they hobbled about gesturing, lifting odd weapons, like a nestful of maim* spiders. CTO Ba COMTLNUJU’

“They Are Coming for You at Sunrise," She Said. “They Will Kill You."

Yekutol Had Revived, but Was Playing Dead.