Adventure Magazine, April 10, 1924 — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

66 Adventure “And if treachery had not put these chains upon me I would have kept the wall.” - Chepe Noyon interpreted, and the old conqueror glanced at the iron weight that hung from Robert’s wrists. He spoke slowly in his deep gutturals and raised his hand. “He says—” the Tiger Lord drew Robert aside—‘‘that no man has stood so long be- fore the rush of the Horde. The chains are to be taken off, and you are to eat and sleep. On the morrow you will be matched against a man as great in strength as you. The Khan will watch. If you slay the other, you are free to go where you will.” &. AS ROBERT turned to go back to ess his guards Chepe Noyon signed for him to remain. The white horse of Genghis Khan had grown restive and was pawing the marble flooring. As if the mood of the horse had aroused the chieftain, Genghis turned in the saddle and pointed at the Moslem grandees, his dark eyes snap- ping with anger. “OQ ye imams and khadis,” cried Chepe Noyon, translating the words, “the Khan bids you to reveal the riches that are hid- den in the ground. What is above-ground ~ his men will care for, Who among you knows the hiding-place of the treasure of Khar?” The nobles answered with many voices that they knew nothing of the hiding-place. Some cast themselves on their knees, and the echoes of their cries were flung back by the dome in the roof. “We have fire and steel that will wring the truth from you,” pointed out Chepe Noyon dispassionately. Several began to relate how their per- sonal hoards might be discovered, but all insisted that Nur-Anim alone could lead the Mongols to the treasure of Muhammad. Chepe Noyon turned to Robert. “The throne of gold and the jewels must be near to a mosque,” he observed. ‘‘Have you come upon the way to Nur-Anim’s secret?” “Y think it lies beneath the grounds of this mosque. Osman disclosed as much.” Robert, in fact, cared little what became of the hoard. It had passed out of his reach, and his only wish was that Muham- mad and the Moslems would not regain it, possibly to use it against the crusaders in later years. ) Chepe Noyon spoke briefly with Genghis Khan. “The floor at this place rings strangely when the horse stamps. Is there a space beneath?” : Echoes sprang to life as some of the priests of the mosque made answer that there was no chamber beneath. “TI would believe them more readily if some had said they did not know,” mut- tered the Tiger Lord, frowning. ‘‘Why do you think it is near to us, O little son?” “Because Nur-Anim must have kept it where he could watch, and his own dwelling is small and scanty. The garden of the mosque would not be safe. Besides, Mu- hammad came hither when he entered Bokhara.” He paused to watch Genghis Khan who, without touching the reins, was kneeing his pony back and forth over the square of black marble. And it did seem to Robert that the tread of the horse echoed differ- ently when it passed under the reader’s stand. Genghis Khan dismounted and moved to the tower, as clumsy on foot as he was graceful in the saddle. He climbed the tiled steps to the cupola, while Chepe Noyon issued a command to the Mongol warriors about the door. A score of them went out, to return quickly with heavy blacksmith sledges. Meanwhile Genghis Khan had caught up the great Koran, which must have weighed as much as Robert’s shackles and ball, and poised it over his head. Then he flung it out, over the edge of the stand, and it crashed down on the marble beneath. ‘He said,’’ muttered Chepe Noyon to the knight, “that if the Kharesmians had spent their gold for walls along the river and if they had fed the army of the beggars and the sick in the city they would not be captives now.” Once more the echoes of the vast interior started up as the Mongols began to smash at the marble—some kneeling updn the flooring, from which the white horse drew back at once, others standing about the walls, pounding down the gold plaques with the Arabic inscriptions. The Moslems, who had quivered and crouched as the great Koran was flung down, fell on their faces beating with their fists against the tiles. The women huddled together in a corner, and the night wind whisking in through the wide-flung portals COMIGDOOKSEEO