Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 31, Number 110, 10 May 1906 — Page 5

The Richmond Palladium, Thursday, May 10, 103,

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T7 Brethren By RIDER. HAGGARD, Juthtr $f'4She," "King Sihmtn's Mints," Ett. COPYRIGHT, 1903190, "B T RIDE'R. HAGGARD

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' Wan Quo Back, laying hear. Ily: "I forgot the thing- Who Tronli not at auch a time? Where Is It? X left It on the cushion." "Try the hand of Mesrour," aaid Macouda, whereat with a very crooked cmlle the eunuch produced it and Bald: "I wished to show you. Sir Knight, that you must be careful with such

Thft eunuch produced the gem. gemi as these, especially in a camp where there are many dishonest persons." 'I thank you," answered Wulf as he took it. "You have shown me." Then, followed by the sound of Masouda'a mocking laughter, they left the tent. Of all the strange feasts that they ever ate the brethren found this the strangest and the most sad. Baladln was seated at the head of the table with guards and officers standing behind him. Not far from him sat the king of Jerusalem and his brother and ell down the board great captive nobles, to the number of fifty or more. gorry spectacles were these -gallant knights in their hewn and blood stained armor, pale faced, too, with eyes set wide 1n horror at the dread deeds they had Just seen done. Yet they ate, and ate ravenously, for now that their thirst was satisfied they were mad with hunger. Thirty thousand Christians lay dead on the horn and plain of Hat-

tin; the kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed and its king a prisoner. The baly rood was taken as a trophy. De-

eTlnticir will ttt Off wlIcBTTeiroiBr

And I will And means to put him to

leep. Abdullah will bring the princess

to this garden disguised 'as his young son, and there you two and I shall meet

them." "What then?" asked Godwin.

"Do you remember the old Arab who brought you the horses Flame and

Smoke and took no payment for them, he who was named Son of the Sand? Well, as you know, he Is my uncle, and

he has more horses of that breed. At the foot of this garden is a cave, which

was once a sepulcher. Tbere we shall i find the horses four of them and with J them my uncle, Son of the Sand, and j by the morning light we will be a hun- i dred miles away and lie hid with his j tribe until we can slip to the coast and j

board a Chrletlan ship. Does It please you?" "Very well, but what is Abdullah's price?" "One only the enchanted star, the luck of the house of Hassan; for nothing else will he take such risks. Will Sir Wulf give it?" "Surely," answered Godwin, with a laugh. "Good. Than it must be done tonight When I return I will send Abdullah to your tent. Tear not; if he takes the jewel he will give the price, since otherwise he thinks it will bring him ill fortune." "Does the lady Rosamund know?" asked Godwin again. She shook her bead. "Nay; tbe fewer in such a plot the better, and if anything goes wrong it la well she should be innocent, for then" "Then death and farewell to all things," said Godwin; "nor Indeed should I grieve to say tbem goodby. But, Masouda, you'run great peril. Tell me now honestly, why do you do this?" As he spoke the lightning flashed and

showed her face as she stood there j against a background of green leaves and red Illy flowers, '.there was a

strange look upon it a look that made Godwin feel afraid, he knew not of what. "Masouda," he said In a whisper, "oh, think me no vain fool, but since it Is best perhaps that both should know full surely, tell me is it as I Lave sometimes" "Feared?" broke in Masouda, with tier little mocking laugh. "Sir Godwin, it Is so. What does your faith teach the faith In which I was bred and lost, but that now 14 mine again because It

lEere was fad ligK In (he tent - Stm men were tbere who talked la the darkness. "Good," said a voice it was that of one of the brethren, but which he could not tell, for even to those who knew them best they seemed to be the same. "Good. Then it is settled. Tomorrow at the hour arranged you bring the princess to the place agreed upon, disguised as you have said. In .payment for this service I hand you tbe luck of Hassan, which you covet. Take it, here It is, and swear to do. your part, since otherwise it will bring no luck to you, for I will kill you the first time we meet yes, and the other also." "I swear it by Allah and hla prophet" It Is enough. See mat you keep the oath. And now away. It Is not safe that you should tarry here." ' Then came the sound of a man leaving the tent Passing round it cautiously, he ' halted and, opening hla

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hand innVrl at It. contents to make I T

sure that no trick had been played !

upon him In the darkness. Mesrour screwed his head round to look also.

In so doing his foot struck a stone and -J

inatantiir Ahdnllnh planced down to see : M

a dead or drunken man lying almost at his feet With a swift movement he hid the Jewel and started to walk away. Then, bethinking that it would be well to make sure that this fellow was dead or sleeping, he turned and thrice kicked the prostrate Mesrour upon tbe back, and with all his strength. "I thought I saw him move," Abdullah muttered after the third kick. "It Is best to make sure," and he drew his knife. Now, had not terror paralyzed him Mesrour would have cried out, but fortunately for himself before he found his voice Abdullah bad bnried the knife three Inches deep In his fat thigh.

Willi an cnon, aiesrour uore mis aiso, j knowing that if he showed signs of . j'A life the next stroke would be in hla , -Sj heart. Then, satisfied that this fellow, j 3 whoever he might be, was either a j corpse or insensible, Abdullah drew out j ja the knife, wiped It on his victim's robe ; r'A

and departed. ggg

Kot long arterwara Mesrour aepaited also toward the sultan's house, belm i 1 1 .t t .

lowing l lu rage uuu uum uuu vuwuik , r,

vengeance. j That very night Abdullah was selzed and put to the question. In his suf- j '-j fering he confessed that he had been j i,i to the tent of the brethren and received j : from one of them the Jewel which was j X

found upon hltn as a bribe to bring the princess to a certain garden outside the camp. But he named the wrong garden. Further, when they

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feited, shamed, bereaved yet thepate, 'is yours? That men and women are Gpil', being human, could take comfort free, or so some read it. Well, it or from the thought that having eaten, by they are wrong. We are not free. Was tJirriw of the Arabs, at least their ; I free when first I saw your eyes in were safe. Beirut, the eyes for which I had been r Saladln called Godwin and Wulf to j watching all my life, and something aim that they might interpret for him, i came from you to me, and I, the cast-

and gave them food, and they also ate 0ff plaything of Sloan, loved you, loved who were compelled to It by hunger. 1 tou, loved you, to my own doom? Yes,

and rejoiced that it was so, and still rejoice- that It is so, and would choose no other fate, because In that love I learned that there is a meaning in this life and that there is an answer to It

In lives to be, otherwhere if not here. Nay, speak not. I know your oath, nor would I tempt you to its breaking. But, Sir Godwin, a woman such as the lady Rosamund cannot love two men." And as she spoke Masouda strove to search his face while the shaft went home. But Godwin showed neither surprise nor pain. "So you know what I have known for long," he said, "so long that my sorrow Is lost in the hope of my brother's Joy. Moreover, it is well that she should have chosen the better knight." "Sometimes.", said Masouda reflectively, "sometimes I have watched the lady Rosamund and said to myself: What do you lack? You are beautiful, you are highborn, you fire learned, you arc brave and you ate good. Then I have answered, 'Yon lack wisdom and true slgbt, else you would not have chosen Wulf when you might have taken Godwin.' " "Masouda," went on Godwin, taking no note of her words, "although we may guess her mind, our lady has said nothing yet. Also Wulf may fall, and then 1 fill his place as bo3t I can. I am no free man. Masouda." "She has not declared that she loves your brother; we may guess wrongly in this matter." "And wemay guess rightly. What then?" "Then," answered Masouda, "there are many knigL'Jy orders or monasteries for those who desire such places as you do in your heart Back to your tent Sir Godwin, where I will send Abdullah to you to receive the Jewel. So, farewell, farewell."

"Have you seen your cousin, the prin

cess?' he said. "And how found you her?" he asked presently. "Sire," said Godwin, "ere found hef s!cU with the sights aM pounds of wa and murder; shamed know also tbsi her uncle, tbe conque ring sovereign of the east, had slaughtered 200 unarmed

men." "Wulf trembled a' al words, but Sal-; adln listened and iW wed no anger. "Doubtless," h answered, "she thinks mo cruel, e0 you also think me cruel a dcspcl. vho delights In the death of his enemle i. Yet it is not so, for I desire pence and to save life, not td destroy it. It Is you Christians who for hard upon a hundred years have drenched these sands with blood berar.so you say. that you wish to possess t!le land where your prophet lived and cljcd more than eleven centuries ago. How many Sarncens have you slain? Hundreds of thousands 6t them. Moreover, with you peace is no peace. Those orders that I destroyed tonight have broken it a score of times. Well, I will bear, no more. Allah has given mo and my army the victory, and I will take your cities and drive the Franks back into the sea. Let them peck their own lands and worship God there after their own fashion and leave tho cast In quiet. "Now, Sir Godwin, tell these captives for me that tomorrow I send those of them who arc unwonnded to Damascus, thero to await ransom while I besiege Jerusalem and the other Christian cities." So Godwin rose and told them; afterward he asked whether he and his brother were also to bo sent to Damascus. .Saladln replied that he would keep them for awhile to Inus.ftS; they might go their ways without ransom. On the r-rrow, accordingly, the captives were sent to Damascus, and that day Saladln took the castle of Tiberias. Then be moved on to Acre, which he took, relieving 4.000 Moslem captives, ntil so on to other towns, all of which fell before him, till at length he came to Ascalon, which he besieged. The night was dark outside of Ascalon save when the flashes of lightning in the storm that rolled down from the mountains to the sea lit it up. In a little open upace of the garden of an empty bouse that stood without the walls a man and a woman were talking, both of them wrapped in dark cloaks. They were Godwin and Masouda. "Well." said Godwin eagerly, "Is all ready?" She nodded and answered: '"At length, all. Tomorrow afternoon as assault will be made upon Ascalon, but even if it is taken the camp will npt be moved that night There will be threat confusion, and Abdullah, who '.somewhat sick, will be the captain 5' the guard over tbe princess' tent, lie will allow the soldiers to slip away lJ assl$t in the sack of the city, uor will they bejrajr him. AJLfiunseJ but one

CHAPTER XX.

N hour later the captain Abdul

lah might have been seen walking carelessly toward the tent where the brethren slept.

Also had there been any who cared to watch something else might have been seen in that low moonlight for now the storm and the heavy rain which followed it had passed namely, the fat shape of the eunuch Mesrour, slipping after him wrapped in a dark camel hair Cloak. Hidden among some picketed dromedaries, he saw Abdullah enter the tent of the brethren, then, waiting till a cloud crossed tbe moon, Mesrour ran to It unseen and, throwing himself down on its shadowed side, lay there like a drunken man and listened with all his ears. But those within spoke 10w, and he could only bear single words, such as "garden," "the star," "princess." So Important did these seem to him, however, that at length Mesrour crept forward and with the sharp point of his knife cut a little slit In tbe taut canvas. To this be set his eye, only to ilnd that it scrifid him nothing, for

&ked which of the brethren it was who bribed him he said he did not know, as their voices were alike and their lent was in darkness. Moreover, that he believed there was only one man In It at least he heard or saw no other. He added that he was summoned to the tent by an Arab man whom he had never seen before, but

who told him that if he wished for what ho most desired and good fortune ne was to be there at a certain hour Xfter sunset. Then he fainted and was put back In prison till the morning by the command of Saladln. When the morning came Abdullah was dead, who desired no more torments with doom at the end of them, having made 6hlft to strangle himself with his robe. Thus died Abdullah, as faithful as he could be in such sore straits, since he had .betrayed neither Masouda nor his son, both of whom were in the plot, and said that only one of the brethren was present In the tent, whereas he knew well' that the two of them were. there and which of these spoke and gave bim the Jewel. Very early that. morning the breth-; ren, who were lying .wakeful, heard sounds without their. tent and, looking ! out, saw that it was surrounded by j mamelukcs. ' "The plot is discovered," said Godwin to Wulf quietly, but with despair ; in his face. . i "Shall we fight?" asked Wulf as they threw on their mall. But Godwin answered : "Nay; it would serve us nothing to kill a few brave men." J Then an officer entered the tent and ; commanded them to give up their . swords and to follow him to Saladln ! to answer a charge that had been laid j against them both; nor would he say j

any more. So they went as prisoners and after waiting awhile were ushered into a large room of the house where Saladin lodged, which was arranged as, a court, with a dais at one end. Before this they were stood, till presently the sultan entered through the farther door and with him certain of his emirs and secretaries. Also Rosa

mund, who looked very pale, was brought there, and in attendance on her Masouda, calm faced as ever. The brethren bowed to them, but Saladin, whose eyes were full Of rage, took no notice of their salutation. For a moment there was silence, then Saladln bade a secretary read the charge, which was brief. It was that they had conspired to steal away the Princess of Baalbec. "Where is the evidence against us?" asked Godwin boldly. "The sultan is Just and convicts no man save on testimony." Again Saladin motioned to the secretary, who read the words that had been taken down from the lips of the captain Abdullah. They demanded to be allowed to examine the captain Abdullah and learned that he was already dead. Then the eunuch Mesrour was carried forward, for walk he could not. owing to the wound that Abdullah had given him. and told all his tale, how he had suspected Abdullah and, following him, had heard him and one of the brethren speaking in the tent and the words that passed and afterward seen Abdullah with the Jewel in his hand. When he had finished, Godwin asked which of them he had heard speaking with Abdullah, and be answered that he could not say, as their voices were so alike, but one voice only had spoken. Then Rosamund was ordered to give her testimony and said, truly enough, that she knew nothing of the plot and had not thought of this flight Masouda also swore that she now heard of It for the first time. After this the secretary announced that there was no more evidence and prayed of the sultan to give Judgment in hematter. fTo b Contlhued.1

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IN THE-

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ankrupt Stoek . . -

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Ladies' Shirt Waists in Mercerized and black and

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Danish Cloth, black and colors, ix .14

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08 13

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This is a chance that don't come to you every day, when you can buy good merchandise at bankrupt prices but itwas our good luck to secure this stock, and we are willing to share it with our patrons.

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