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DOUGLAS COUNTY SENTINEL, DOUGLASVILLE GEORGIA. FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1920.
Swami
Ram’s
Reincarnation
By FRANK BLIGHTON
SYNOPSIS.
CHAPTER 1.—While his train is hold
on n siding Tom Davenport, ongincn- of
the Pacific Limited, becomes ir.tore.-i.ed in
the furtive moveim mu 'of a smaii brown
mun, evidently a lmoigner, and investi
gates. What he discovers sends him
back to his cab in a hurry. Buchanan
Williams, mining man. boards the train
and makes the acquaintance of the
stranger, Jaiisingrao Jitendra, who
proves jo be an East Indian. The limited
CHAPTER II.—Williams, though pain
fully burned, sr v\--• Jitendra, who hud
been pinm-il under the wreck. The Hindu
vows eternal gratitude. William- re
telling him Mexican
revolutionists lv.
known as "El Tlgn
oil the Americans.
’ and killed or driven
(Continued from last week)
MICKIE SAYS
0itendra nodded. f
“Yes, Sahib Buck. Yon were inquir
ing of me concerning certain powers
of my people. But Vishnu willed that
I should not reply. So my lips were
sealed, ns you saw. It may be that
I shall never reveal to you, sahib, the
things of which I was about to speak.”
“Why not?” demanded Williams
curiously. The finality in the voice of
the Hindu interested and, oddly
enough, disquieted him.
“Sahib Buck,' patiently began Ji-
tendra, “it is not easy for mo to ex
plain the powers which rule us in spite
of our complacent self-confidence. But
I saw you running for this train'—
which was late. Tell me if you can,
did you make it late?”
“No.”
“Nor did I affirmed the Oriental.
“Nor did either you or 1 check it>.
mad rush toward the places whither
we are traveling. Therefore, how
shall l make clear to you that whet
1 may call x fate hears rule over ail?
It is not Well .that men should know
too much of such things, sahib, else
they would lay the blame for their
evil deeds on destiny or fate. ’So is
it not wiser to deal warily with such
matters, that, being in ignorance, men
shall have the more fear of that which
is hidden and kept secret?”
“Perhaps,” laconically admitted
Williams.
“This morning,” imperturbably went
on .litendra, “I did not know that such
a man as yon lived, nor did you know
me. Fate wills that we meet and jour
ney i a together.”
“To l 1 Paso?” interloped the other.
“To whither the same fate shall de
cide lhai bade you drag me from the
burning car. 1 did not ask it, for
V slum‘had sealed not only my lips,
but siiwihered my thoughts. Fate
spoke, sc:,i!> and you obeyed. And
!" v the same late whispers to me,
biddinv mo turn aside from my jour
ney and go on with you im^il it per
mits me to preserve you io you have
The brown man salaamed low. M i can’t guarantee vou nnv nrotec-
“What says the Ancient Wisdom. tloDi nm1 f won . t hn * e vou ‘ d * lng for S° tten fatigue or hunger at. the
Snhtb Buck? The longest way round nlonR Thai! Ze one <Mse att.u me ? j h '" T '“ ”*
is oft the shortest way home. nppreelnte haw you feel, und I admire
Williams threw hack his head and vml flir | t- ’h ut tllis lsn . t j n(1 | a _|,. s j
laughed long and loud. ^ Mexico—a synonym for hell. I don’t /
fecotty, look at this I want to he rude to you, but 1 simply ,
1-Ie Jerked a derisive thumb toward cnn - t ,yy ul won . t Bhm(] for miy non .
the chocolate lined, undersized atom of sense—because T refuse to take any
humanity standing humbly hut flnniy blame if anything happens to you.” I
at his side. “Will Sahib Buck grant me leave !
“I pulled him out from under a k , speak?”
wrecked diner tills afternoon. Now “ It won ' t nny R00ll <> ohduratelv :
lie insists on wailing me until he has nverrc( , WilTiams simking his henil i
paid the score by doing as much for angrily. “If you hadn’t been padding
me. Do you think lie’d make one bite „i 0 „g behind me all night I’d have been I
country devoid ,. cnl Sl , n . k .,. n
ragged, semi- kl | n ( Rr nun(t
for Manuel Pacheco and his regiment
uX thieves?”
CHAPTER HI.
Jitar.dra Returns.
Pour hundred and fifty miles on
horseback, through
of law, bristling \
civilized peons lusting fog loot—ignor
ant, ungovernable, and virulently
despising “gringoos”—Is a journey
some men would hesitate before taking
even to battle for a live-million-dollar
gold mine.
Buck Williams thought it all over
as ho puffed meditatively at an after-
supper cigar in the Sheldon, while
Billy Scott fidgeted on the seat beside
him or nervously paced -the lobby.
But the calm-eyed Hindu, squatting
tailor-fashion on the farther end of ih
a mile farther up in those hills already..!
As it is, 1 suppose my coffee is spoiled. I
Now, see here, Jitendra—if you’ve got
anything up your sleeve worth while
just you sit down here on the ground
und fade away.
“That's the way you can be of some ,
—just vanish—down :
• up into the air—
any way that suits you. Come out at
El Tigre mine if you want to—I won’t
kick if l laid you there—hut if I catch
siuht of you a vain in the lneahtimc i
I’ll shoot you myself, so help me Bob!” ;
Jitendra r< vnU'd him solemnly.
“As Sahib Buck wills, so be it,” he !
quietly replied.
W about another word Williams 1
whirled on he lu-ci and hurried back '
to ids coffee pot. An hour afterward j
o'.Mied his horse at the fringe of j
timber-line of the Chim’chuna
the same (llvnn, wns as motionless ns ; nln g ( , nm) swl , |lt , ll0 m . k , kil | s ku . !
nil idol in the great temple at Benares, with his binoculars.
Hi:
Mi. I
M
Jitendra. I can't let
mi' trip to holht 1 about:
proti st'-d Wiliiams.
*ry thoughtful of you,
oily
saryy
igious gratitude
['rail figure before
“Noblesse obiic
htened iiis strong, youm.
itiicd bn< k in the Pulhm.a
1 orient a! nu thod of in-
ini' touch of nature make
i-oiid akin, and Ruck Wil-
'y grasped the spirit of re-
t burned in the
Only his adoring eyes, like those of a
dog whose master refuses him a ca
ress, betrayed the ferment beneath the
folds of, tiie soft snow-white turban,
which he donned shortly after his ar
rival.
“Scotty,” blurted Williams, tossing
away a half-consumed cigar; “did
Friday Thornton and the rest of the
boys down in Culiucan elect to vamoose
or stick around a while?”
“They stuck—at least most of them
did the !nst N ] heard of them,” replied
the superintendent. “Hank Gregory,
To,onty Wick ware, and a dozen more
you know are still in town. They ex
pect intervention by the United
States.”
“The only intervention so far seems
to be on this side of the line.” grimly
retorted the magnate. “What I’m
figuring on is this: We can get across
ah : ''ii—a hundred thousand soldiers
td It 1 gu '.! ” tin' boundary between
There was no sign of the Hindu nor
of any other living human being. With
a grunt of relief he spurred up the
trail.
Nine days later, unutterably weary,
astride a horse whose painful amble ! vo j,
and emaciated ribs signified an exhaus- |
lion proportionate to that of his rider, \
Buchanan Wiiihtnis drew rein In the j
thick group (11 pines overlooking El j
Tigre gamp, where it dung to the side j
of a precipitous ravine in the majes- J
tic mountains of the coast range.
The pad: burro lu d long since been
an abandoned luxury.
A few hundred feet below wns the j
treasure which bad been bidden in j
nature’s safe-deposit vault since the J
dawn of creation—undreamed of, until 1
his supreme engineering knowledge j
and superb energy had reached down
to drag it to the light of day.
“ll’m!” muttered Williams, :is he
carefully scanned (lv camp through
h • gla ■ for igit f hi ideit
other bus! El rigre
mere sight of him. Jitendra was naked
to bis loins, which were girded with a
cloth almost the same hue as bis body.
His legs and feet wore bare, and
save for a thick something swathed
about his neck and his snow-white tur
ban, he was otherwise nude. It was
inexplicable—and the incongruity of
the poetry whtrh the Hindu had quot
ed, together with his devotion, added
to the American’s perplexity.
Then his eyes fell upon the feet of
the little brown man.
He was conscious of a swiff, re
morseful throb. The feet were bare—
bruised, cut, swollen, bleeding—the
feet of a man who has plodded across
the flinty surface of the open country,
who lias unhesitatingly kept on through
chaparral, woods, streamy—the feet of
a man unused to unremitting pursuit.
Buck Williams gulped—there was a
lump in his throat.
“You have followed me all of these
nine days—afoot?” he sternly de
manded.
“Yes, Fulfill Buck,” implied the Ori
ental. “1 pray the sahib not to turn
away Ills face from that of his serv
ant.”
1 “But I did not see you once.”
“1 remembered the sahib’s threat of
punishment,” meekly returned Jiten
dra.
“But why—of course it’s absurd
even to think of it—but why in the
devil didn’t you work the occult suin'.
Jitendra—that: is, if you could? I'm
sorry to have caused you ail this trou
ble and worry. If you could send
your astral body on ahead and then
follow it—well, I wouldn’t have cared.
Why didn’t you do that?”
Sahib, If is not permitted to in
to the powers of the gods when our
own efforts will avail. Only when no
other means are at hand for deliver
ance may I call upon Vishnu and
Siva.”
There was nothing to bo gained by
discussion, Williams decided. Yet lie
could not imagine in what manner the
Oriental had anticipated his own ar
rival.
“You were ahead of 1110?” he asked.
Jitendra bowed.
"Ilow did you know this was El
Tigre? There are many other mines
around these hills.”
The Hindu silently stretched lik-
hand,'painting to the huge sign on tin*
company store above them. The mine
jhotl.
“It was a foolish question, wasn’t it?
I guess I’m almost too tie d to think
Straight. Well, we'd better be getting
up to camp,” continued Williams.
and 1 he other dropped lightly to the
road, meekly following in the roar
Jitendra; ami
exorable thongs, but cursed bis for
mer mine foreman with expletives of
a high dynamic quality. ,
Pacheco merely adjusted his heavy,
gold-fringed epaulets and complacent
ly patted away an imaginary wrinkle
in the neat blue coat: he wore as ho
signaled to the other mozos, standing
respectfully but curiously beyond the
door.
“Assist Senor Williams and lfis
servant: to horses,” in* curtly directed.
It was already sunrise. Outside the
house tin 1 two were securely bound to
the animals, and the party started
down the trail toward the coast. At
the fork of the highway leading on the
left to Culiucan, they debouched to tho
right. '
“Where are you taking us?” im
periously 'demanded El Tigre’s owner.
“The «oinmandanie at Znpntillo de
sires your presence, senor,” leered
Pacheco.
“Fll get you for this, you greaser
dog !” exclaimed the American.
For answer Pacheco drove Ills horse
la tween the animal Williams was r*. }-
in;: and Jitondra’s mount, leaned over
and st ruck I lie American a heavy blow
across his unprotected face.
Although half-blinded with rage at:
the blow, Williams an Instant later felt
a strange thrill of some event out of
the ordinary. Pacheco drew back, lfis
brutish face wreathed in a grin of fe
rocious triumph; but the smile sud
denly stiffened.
lli' reeled in his saddle; a second
later lU-s eyes almost started from their
sockets with agony. His cigar-colored
features grew purplish and u "fleck of
foam rose to his gasping lips.
His bridle-hand relaxed; convulsive
ly his legs drove the spurs on the high-
topped hoots into the sides of the horse
he was riding. The animal reared,
pawing the air with a peculiar and un
accountable terror, and would have
bolted had not one of the command
grasped it by the reins.
Buck Williams gazed mutely at the
retribution which had struck down the
bandit. Tho outcry of the privates be
scarcely heard. He did not need their
chorus of alarm to know that Pacheco
was dying—was dead.
Yet there had been nothing—ribso-
lul-'iy nothing—save only the quick
bending of Jilendra’s lean body Iti the
captain’s direct ion—a swift inclination
of the turlmned iyaid at the instant
following the cowardly blow.
Tiie sergeant, Jesus Corabado, vol
leyed a command and the column
'••:!.vd. while the corpse of Manuel
P.e iicco was stripped of unil’o
equipment. Following the unique but
simple Mexi'-an insurrooto method of
promotion t.’orabndo donned the neat
blue jacket, with its heavily fringed
epaulets, and : uckied the sword .11 omul
is A ' tj WJs 1
The Wom2ffi s 8 Isaac
She writes further: “I
an in splendid hsillb.. . .
can do my work. 1 feel I
owe it to Cardui, for i was
in dreadful condition.”
If you are nervous, run
down and weak, or suffer
from headache, backache,
etc., ever/ month, try
Cardui. Thousands of
women praise this medi
cine for the E i:,ctl *i has
done them, and many
physicians who have used
Cardui successfully with
their wtfnen patients, for
jrteri, endorse this medi-
cfie. Think whs! it means
ta b* fa splendid health,
!Bto Mrs. Spell. Give
Caxdtd a trial.
All Druggists
'Oil of
top of the
g’ ••:. Fro in tho looks of things,
tlicy ro planning to cop the ill Tigre
itself.”
“.So?” drawled Buck, stiffening a
little, the light of battle flaming in his
blue eyes, suddenly grown cold. “C
picked up a rumor of this at Clifton
yesterday. Ore of tho mine bosses
overheard some Mexicans discussing
El Tigre. He told the superintendent,
who repeated it to mo. I had just
time to pan: my bag, and by sheer luck
I caught No. 0 east-bound at Lords-
burg.”
“We can’t do much without an
army.” gloomed Scott, kicking in a
dubious fashion at the tiled floor.
lures---," rf ecstatic
<; h as h follower of Moharo*
i'.fii* wear when he at last be-
tho shimne-ring minarets of
shining brightly across, the hot
urids, .signifying the end of bis pll-
:ri range.
Me
in a shallow arroyo he gathered a
few dry twigs and lighted a smokeless
fire to boil his coffee. Ills horse and
one burro, carrying the meager sup
plies necessary lor the hazardous jour
ney. were picketed behind u knot of
waterworn boulders, while he crept
warily down the defile to reconnoiter
the valley below.
A solitary horseman, whose seat be
trayed his unfamiliarity with that
mode of travel, popped around a bend
in the gully. With® incredible swift-
had a mighty hard two days getting ! ness^ Williams whipped his ready rifle
through—came by way of Chihuahua ! to His shoulder, then lowered it with
after striking overland from the coast j ari amazed exclamation.
—and got the lasr train out. Ameri- "You—you persistent little choeo-
crds are thick enough along this side late-drop.” he gasped, as tho expres-
of the border; but a mosquito with a > sionless face of Jitendra looked down
gun that would fit him couldn’t pack ! into his own. “What in hades are
it across into Juarez—no, sir! The ; you following me for? Didn’t I tell j bis own people?
commander at Fort Bliss says we you that you were under no obliga-;
ought to stay at home.” tiou to me?” | “Far or forgot to me is near;
“You did, Sahib Buck.”
“Well—oh, for the love of Mike—
heat it back to El Paso, will you?
You’ll look like a sieve if Kosterllzt-
ky’s rurales ever see that snow-white,
cinnamon-bun headpiece of yours. See
here, you loyal little devil—you don’t
owe me a thing—do you get me?—not
B thing! You’ll .only bother me.
“He hadn’t a five-million-dollar mine
to lose,' sententiously observed Wil
liams, turning to the register. He stum
bled against a diminutive figure, whose
head just topped the ouyx-fraraed desk.
“What—tyou here?” he cried. “I
told you that I didn’t want you to
reciprocate my small assistance this
afternoon, Mr. Jitendra.”
CHAPTER I V.
Pacheco's Death.
“How did you get here?” demanded
the magnate.
“The ways of my people are not the
ways of yours, sahib. Did you not
give me permission to come? And who
am I that I should presume to disobey
you—or the pods?”
“The gods?”
“Vishnu and Siva,” salaamed the
Hindu. “They, too, are here. Has the
sahib never read the lines of one of
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gode to rue appear,
And one to me are shame and fame.’
“But it’s incredible,” returned the
mine owner. “I rode ray horse almost
to death—and there were times when
I had all I could do to get through.”
He gazed, more and more mystified,
At the gaunt figure who seemed to have
pressiori. in.’ :
their descent
blessings of liberty.
lli* saw vividly an army of soldiers,
in buff and blue, with cocked h its,
marching across the muddy Rio
Grande, and before the stern and in-,
domitable man who led tliein Mamml
Pacheco and his ragged bandits lied
precipitately.
But the dream passed; at least the •
phantasmagoria of the Continental
: army, with Washington at its head, I
i faded, while oddly enough, the fea
tures of Pacheco persisted. Something :
wns gripping ills arms cruelly. Buck !
Williams tried to rise.
He half leaped from the comfort-1
able chair in which ho had been sit-!
ting. His heavy eyes widened.
Opposite him sat Manuel Pacheco
himself, on his face an evil leer; und
trussed like a chicken in the corner
was the Hindu, gazing mutely at him
with a curiously intour expression.
“Welcome to El Tigre, Senor Wil
liams,” sneered the ex-foreman. “I
have been expecting you for some
days.”
Buck Williams struggled futllely.
A rawhide riata I ad been looped
around tds elbows behind his back,
throwing his shoulders so far out of
place that the pain was frightful. An
other twist of the same lariut had
pinioned his wrists, his knees and
ankles being left free.
Naturally a man of strong impulses,
Williams ceased to wrench at the In-
di.-’iiiliiii'fi ir.ii.p-; in-tend :l mere
company of ragged peons whcscVoun-
terfeit military air only heightened
ridiculous appearance and mng-
: !'“d their ignorant swagger.
They were banditti, not patriots;
and their movements now were (hose
of a tody of half-terrified, yet revenge
ful men actuated by some intelligence
iiperi« c to their own. The hideously
sudden and unexplained death of their
previous commander had dazed them.
The more he thought, the more in
comprehensible the whole affair ap
peared to Buck Williams, He know
Mexico. IBs acquisition of the min
eral land on which El Tigre was lo
cated had been achieved during the
last years of the Diaz regime.
The very name of the mine itself had
been derived from him. El Tigre sig
nified “The Tiger,” and that name hacl
fallen once from the lips of a thieving
peon, who was overtaken and effectu
ally chastised by Buck himself for
stealing camp supplies in the early
days of his operations.
For Buck was named “The Tiger”
because of his implacable fury when
any attempt to victimize him was made
by the subtle methods which Mexicans
usually employ with a “gringo” un
accustomed to their ways.
Now “The Tiger” was bound fast to
the back of a horse, en route to some
tribunal of whose authority he was ig
norant but of whose judgments ho
could guess.
Pacheo, of himself, would not have
dared to presume to lay hands upon
him, nor did the indolent Mexican
foreman possess sufficient initiative to
seize on a mining property of the mag
nitude of El Tigre unless with inspira
tion from bigger minds than bis. But
Pacheco was dead—a bloated purple
corpse—struck down almost at the in
stant of his atrocious blow and hurled
into the great unknown.
Pacheco’s death was, and forever
would be, utterly baffling, Bock Wii-
(Continued next week)