Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 2 — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

‘272 fully. “ It excites the men and makes.-a lot of smoke. I’ve seen it before this.” She pressed trembling hands to her ears, wondering whether his words were not in- tended merely to hearten her. “What is—happening?” she ‘“ And Mahmoud?” ‘ ‘“Some mummery of the Aakim—always means something. Wait.” His disjointed sentences barely reached her. Then he gripped her arm and bent forwaid. New sounds were adrift in the court- yard. Horses neighed — hoofs beat upon stone. Men shouted and cursed. To Edith, struggling with wavering senses, the kurgan and the plain alike were an ocean in which shapes darted, and a flood of | plunging forms swept under the tower. She heard Donovan cry: ‘The horses are loosed.” In the smoky murk she could see noth- ing clearly. A horrid sound rose from the farther end of the kurgan—a man’s scream. It seemed to her that new forms, white and gray, pressed past the base of the tower, on the broken roof of the hold, and swept over the distant wall to the north. Surely she caught the gleam of bare steel against the flash of a rifle. The shooting dwindled, but voices growled and roared. “ Sayak!” And again: “ Sayak!”’ Then came the words clearly to the girl: “Tahir of kadr.”’ And again: ‘“ Dono- van Khan—ho! Dono-van Khan!” Donovan’s lips almost touched her ear. “By Jove! That was clever, what? The Sayaks have crept through the breaches to the north and south and cut loose the horses. With the Sor he left her. The girl saw him dive down the stairs. A fresh uproar had arisen in the interior of the tower. There was a crashing of wood and the im- pact of running feet, followed by the swift, regular crack of a rifle. Stunned, she sought for Donovan. Peer- ing over the parapet, she saw a lantern flicker into light in the mid-courtyard. Monsey and some of his Tartars were visi- ble beside it, the Russian hatless, his face wet with perspiration, a smoking revolver in his hand. cried. THE ARGOSY. On a pile of stones, Edith made out a Sayak boy, sighting a musket that was longer than his own body; behind the boy cloaked forms waved bare knives. Surely these were women. Edith even fancied that she saw the majestic form of the hadji of Yahka Arik moving on the rampart. Monsey was shouting to his men. She caught the flash of his revolver, before a mass of rushing Sayaks swept toward him and the light went out suddenly, leaving the kurgan in its murk. Cries of pain and anger resounded. Edith recollected that Donovan must have disappeared down the stairs, and turned after him, her one thought to find him and keep close to his side. At the last landing where Aravang had been left a struggle was progressing in the dark, revealed vaguely by a lantern placed on the heap of logs, broken beams, and firewood that had risen close te the open- ing in the floor. Bodies threshed about the stones, dark faces alight with panic peered up into the opening from below, while men fought to push themselves up through the aperture. On the lowest step of the stairs, just in front of her, the girl recognized Donovan instinctively. He was swinging a clubbed rifle at the tide of enemies. Several bodies at his feet half choked the opening. Then Edith realized that the men of the kurgan had not waited to light the pile under the tower, but were using it to storm their sanctuary. ‘Two forms, locked in conflict, rolled downward through the opening. A body was pulled from the aperture which glowed redly like the entrance to some purgatory. She saw the evil face of Abbas peering up, as Donovan was pressed back and grappled by a squat Tatar. It seemed to the girl that the Alaman had come to seek her, despite the fury that was raging without. His purpose was rein- forced by the terror of his men, to whom the tower loomed as a refuge from the deadlier hatred without. Her heart turned to water at the glimpse of Donovan struggling silently with the na- tive on the steps below her. Abbas also had seen the Englishman, and his arm drew 8 ARGOSY COMICLOOO S C©