Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 7, 1922 — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

IMMORTAL FRAUDS. 199 and not knowing that his brother Smerdis was dead and buried they resolved to make him king. The artful Patizeithes pretended to fall in reluctantly with this plan. They all burst together into the apartments reserved for the false Smerdis and proclaimed him sovereign of Persia then and there. The impostor accepted the crown, and as he took good care to hide his ears under his long hair, his personal mutilation was not noticed in the excitement. The deception was facilitated by the unexpected death of Cambyses, who heard of the imposture while he was in Syria and, mounting his horse to march against the false Smerdis, died of a mysterious wound, received nobody quite knew how. In his last agony Cambyses assembled his courtiers, told them that he had ordered his brother Smerdis slain and that the person claiming to be his successor at Susa was obviously a deceiver. Nevertheless, all went well for the time being, especially as the man sent to slay the king’s brother denied having ever committed any such crime. The impostor Smerdis was left in peaceful possession of the throne of Persia, which he held with the aid of his artful brother, Patizeithes, for seven happy months. Yet everybody about the court of Susa noticed that the new king did not show himself in public. Neither did he invite any of the nobles to the palace except on imperative occasions of ceremony. It was further observed that he wore his hair in a peculiar style. Could Foretell Coming Events With Accuracy. All this seemed very queer, especially to the ladies of the late king’s harem, most of whom had been transferred to the new king as his wives. Among these was Phaedima, a beautiful ’ blonde, who was said to possess, in addition to an exquisite figure and a perfect face, gifts of divination so extraordinary that she could foretell commg events with absolute accuracy. She was the daughter of a noble then powerful at court, and -her education was finished for the period in which she lived. She told her father of her suspicions. She did not trust Patizeithes. She remembered the other Smerdis and she had heard that his ears were cut off for lying. The father and his daughter agreed that the ears of the king must be tested in some way without delay. This was difficult because the false Smerdis was so careful about his hair. At last the beautiful Phaedima took it into her head to beat her beautiful breasts, to fling her long tresses wildly and to dance the dance of death. This implied that something terrible was about to happen. Her powers of divination were well known to the ladies of the harem and they at once joined im her manifestations of- woe. For a week the entire harem was in pandemonium and it became necessary for the cunning Patizeithes to find out what was the matter. The frantic Phaedima caused the eunuchs to be informed that she knew from a dream of a grave peril about to befall Smerdis—a peril she could communicate to his majesty only in the silence of the night and then in whispers. | For some little time the false Smerdis, cautioned by his brother, kept away from Phaedima. She had foreseen something of the kind and, in accordance with her plan, the father of this wonderful woman revealed to the other nobles of the court the nature of his suspicions. ‘These were made known to both the false Smerdis and the artful Patizeithes. They agreed that: it would: be fatal to keep Phaedima away from her impostor husband any longer, but the certainty that she would seek access to his ears to whisper ber mysterious secret made it necessary to play some trick. A pair of artificial ears could be contrived out of the fine clay in a neighboring field. They were molded and baked with infinite cunning and inserted in the empty orifices at each side of the impostor’s head. He was provided with some extra ears of clay in case he met with any accident. A King Who Was Utterly Without Feeling. Thus protected against discovery, the agitated Smerdis permitted the still more agitated Phaedima to come to his apartment in the darkness of the night. She lost little time in placing her arms about his meck and im pressing her Eps to the side of his head. She was amazed to find an ear there, snugly hidden behind the hair. She moved her lips to the other side of his head and discovered the other ear of clay, but her movement had disarranged the king’s hair. Im accordance with the custom of the harem, she took the royal ear between her teeth to bite it playfully, whereupon a piece of the lobe came away in her mouth. It had broken. Saying nothing of her discovery, she put her lips to the other ear and bit away portions of that too. The king did not seem to know that part of his ear had been bitten off. She bad plied him with wine. In the morning, when Phaedima left the couch of the false Smerdis and had a talk with her father, she showed him the clay ear from the left side of the king’s head. She had bitten it off piecemeal! It was easily put together and the nature of the imposture became evident. The father of the beautiful Phaedima and some other Persian nobles burst into the palace the next night and slew both the false Smerdis and his wily brother—B.C. 521—nor did the enraged courtiers go home until they had killed all the Magians in Susa. U U Uw HOOKED. #&Y JOHNSTON McCCULLEY is a corking Complete Novelette, to appear m next week’s issue. comicboooks