Adventure Magazine, April 10, 1924 — page 53: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Making of the Morning Star Response came back promptly that Jahan Khan declared the . handling of stone-casters was not in the order given him. “Then say to the khan that he is to come to my tent for a new order.” The knight was finishing the last of his rice and fruit and washing his hands when Jahan Khan approached and made as if to sit beside him. “Stand,” said Robert quietly, and while 2 hundred pairs of eyes watched intently he commanded two bowmen who came with the chief to chain Jahan Khan’s arms and lead him away to his tent, there to guard bim until relieved. “What shame is this?” yelled the startled khan. “Am I dirt—I, Jahan Khan, the bahator?”’ He gripped his simitar hilt convulsively, and a great sigh went up from the crowd that had gathered about them. It was the first real test Robert had made of the power given him, and he sat on his carpet without stirring or looking up at the raging chief. If he had started to explain his action Jahan Khan might have pushed the quarrel to blows; if the crusader put hand to weapon the man would strike first and claim afterward that he had done so in defense of his life. In the shadows at his back he heard Will Bunsley slip an arrow irom quiver. After a while be motioned toward one of the younger begs, the tallest of the officers present, This sign among Moslems was as if Robert had beckoned, and after a second’s hesitation the warrior strode forward, the crusader waiting until he saw fit to make a salaam. “Ho, Moslems,” snarled Jahan RE, “this Nazarene takes upon his shoulders the mantle of the Shah, and that is a shame upon us all.” It was just too late to appeal to the reli- gious zeal of the Kankalis, because now they had grown curious as to what Robert wanted of the younger beg. They pressed closer to stare, and after a little reflection Jahan Khan took his hand from his weapon, choosing to make the conflict one of words. “Do you,” Robert remarked to the atten- tive younger warrior, “‘take the leadership of the Kankalis, and fight as a man should. And you—” he turned to the joubtful bowmen—“‘confine this atabeg until he has slept off the opium in his tent. You have leave.to go!” 5I With that he turned his back and no more words were spoken. Jahan Khan was too surprized to argue, and one or two laughed as he went off. Robert had made good his authority against the most trouble- some adherent of the wazir, and he knew that the account of the quarrel would be in every quarter of the city by dawn. It was well worth the risk he had taken. To help the new leader, he sent Will Bunsley to the wall to show the Moslem archers how to loose their arrows in a high arc, to fall behind the protecting shield. The tumult above grew louder, and the grind and thud of catapult and mangonel sounded above the whistling of the arrows as the sun rose. Although the Mongols suffered from the fire, they pressed the work. ‘The remnants of the captives were sent to the rear, and lines of armed men bore sacks of earth and stones up the cause- way. The shields were wrecked, and for a time the bodies of men fell over the head of the causeway as thickly as the sacks. Then arrows began to fly from the Mongol kines and sweep the battlement. “Ha, lord,’ muttered Will, “mark how yonder shafts cleave the paynim shields! They be stoutly sped, with a true eye. Would I had fourscore Lincolnshire lads here upon the rampart!’ He sighed and presently uttered an exclamation of astonishment. Under cover of the arrow-flights the Mongols began a new building-up of the causeway, which had ceased to move forward. The ox-carts were driven out of the camp by hundreds and steered up the incline. Men with torches herded the bellowing animals up the causeway, and once the mass started forward, the oxen kept on, goaded by spears and the smoking torches. The first carts reached the brink of the embank- ment and rolled over and the rest came aiter in a steady stream of frantic beasts and splintering wagons. The arrows of the Mos- lems fell fruitlessly among them, and Rob- ert saw that the carts were loaded with sand and stone. Men, caught in the rush of surging animals, stood up and shouted de- fiance at the wall. One powerful warrior m a tigerskin hurled his torch at the Kan- kalis and leaped out from the cart, to fall into the ditch and be crushed by the carts that came after him. When the causeway stood upon the edge COmiclbooks Cc (© S|