THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 102 ee ------ a ---- "THE THIEF OF BAGDAD" BY ACAMED ABDULLAH Based on Douglas Fairbanks' of Aral REET 1 the Avbden Mp "Help yourself to it. I am not keep- ing you from getting it, am 1?" "Well--but where is it?" > The Old Man of the Midnight Sea pointed at the black, coiling, swirling waters. "Down there!" he said. Ahmed leaned over the side of the boat and looked. "I cannot see a thing," he replied. --= "Naturally not--The box;is--a hun-{ dred fathoms .deep--at the very bot- tom of the lake." "Then--how can I get it?" "You will have to dive Jor it. You will have to jump into the Sea of Re- signation to Fate." Ahmed gave a little igvoluntary shudder; and the Old Man of the Midnight Sea took compassion on him "Thief of Bagdad," he said, "be not afraid. Everything, soonor or later, must go down into the waters of this lake. All men and women and child- ren--even the unborn children. The moon goes down there every morning when it is waning, and the sun every night when it has set on earth. At the bottom of the lake you will find a cave--a cave made of the shimmer- ing, opal tears of man's grief, with "windows made of the milk-white cry- stals and brightgreen emeralds of man's laughter, and a gleaming red door, like an immense ruby, made of the heart's blood of all those who have | loved and who have suffered and sac- rificed greatly for the sake .of their love. If your own love for Zobeid be ghen: enough, your resignation to od's will sincere enough, you will find this door. You will open it. And, beyond the threshold, you will see the magic silver box." "What does the box contain?" de- manded Ahmed. "A very precious treasure. The most precious treasure in the world, Some men call it happiness. But emperors, fools, and wise men call it honor. It is the same thing. By the way," he added as Ahmed stood up, about to dive into the lake--'"the magic box is wrapped in the Cloak of Invisibility. 1f I were you I would bring the cloak along too. It will come in handy in your future adventures." "How do you know?" asked Ah- med. ' "Naturally I know, O fool!" chuck- led the old man. "Did I not tell you that I am Kismet itself?" "1 beg your pardon," Ahmed mur- mured, crestfallen but polite; and, the next second, he curved into the water in an audacious leap. A splash--circles widening, breaking dissolving--smoothness and indiffer- ence again where the waters closed 'over him--and down there, as he bored ; way head foremost through the Bundred fathoms, a myriad flecks of glittering gold. He found the cave without much 'trouble. It shone like an immense jew- el, opal and milkwhite and emerald- green and ruby-red. He walked up to the door that was made of the heart's blood of lovers who had suffered and sacrificed greatly because of their love; and his own love was like a sharp sci- mitar to the clutch of his hand, his re- signation to the sendings of Fate growing, steadily growing, was like a stout buffalo-hide shield to his elbow, AS MARY He laughed fearlessly, carelessly, when from rocks and clumps of coral at the bottom of the lake rose slimy, huge octopi that writhed about him with countless, sucking, pulpy tentacles The sword of his love cut their bloated bodies to pieces. The shield of his re- signation guarded him against their at- tack. The strength of his love opened for hin the blood-red door: The vision of his resignation pierced for him the cloak of invisibility in which the silver box was wrapped. He stuffed the cloak--it was as light as thistledown--into his waist shawl-- and picked up the magic box. It was small and square. It did not look much like anything precious; just a plain silver box, oxidized by the water, and neither carved nor ornamented. He rose again through the hundred fathoms, swimming upward steadily, with a full, keen stroke of his powerful shoulders, until he reached the surface of the lake. He looked about him. The Old Man of the Midnight Sea had disappeared. So had the boat. It was day. The sun shimmered down with a thousand splintering, golden lances; and, as he swam ashore, he saw there a splendid, snow-white horse a horse with two immense silver wings, that pawed the ground impatiently with dainty feet and neighed when it saw Ahmed. Ahmed thought and acted at the same fraction of a second. He jumped on the horse's back. "Off with you!" he cried. "Carry me West--across the Enchanted Gar- { den, the Valley of the Monsters, the Hill of Eternal Fire, and the Valley of the Seven Temptations!" And the horse spread its silver wings and rose through the air--and we may mention here that the Arab chronicle from which this tale is taken refers to this horse as "the Winged Horse of Imagination." . "For," says this chronicle, "what is love if not imagination? Do we not al. ways imagine the loved one's body and soul to be the most beautiful on earth? Such, doubtless, were Ahmed's thoughts about Zobeid. Nor was he the only one. By the teeth of the Pro- phet--on Him the salute |--I myself, the scribe of this tale, met in Samark- and a woman, seventy years old, stu- pid, and who looked exactly like a well- fed pig. Yet I met a man in Samiark- and who swore upon the Koran that this woman was 80 beautiful that she caused the moon to blush with envy and jealousy. Love is indeed as blind mm as a puppy-dog! But, if love is as blind as a puppy- dog, how blind then is conceit? Con- ceit of three Princes of Asia, meeting at the little oasis of Terek el-Bey, not far from Bagdad! . Of the three, the Persian's conceit was the most childish. He waddled about the oasis--as the Mongol Prince whispered to a confidential Manchu clerk 'of his retinue--'"looking for all the world exactly like a cross-breed between a hog and a peahen, having inherited the former's bloated, exag- gerated, excessive, indecent paunch and the latter's superb®if quaint; vanity." (To Be Continued ) SAW HIM A CHRISTMAS FANCY The optional International Sunday 8chool Lesson for December 21st is a Christmas Lesson, "God's Gift to the World.""--John 1:14-18; 3-16-21. By WILLIAM T. ELLIS (What Mary May Have Said to Johdi, at Twilight Shortly After the Ascension.) When I go forth from your home «our home--the women who have heard the Story look pityingly at me; and even of our own Company some seem sorry for me; while others, seelng Him in me, treat me &8 if I were other than themselves. Yes, 1 have heard them whispering about the sword that should pierce my heart. 1 want to tell them---perhaps you oan find the right words, for you were ever able to understand the deep things that my sorrow is not 80 great as my joy. Is it wrong, my oN 3 | hAL8] son--would He care, think you ?--- that I in turn look in pity upon the women who have never kmown the pain of bearing or the anguish of burying a son ? All--all--that I have suffered is small price for the joy I have known. There is not a childless queen on any throne who is not 'to be pitied ,by even the low- Hest mother, In these days of memory I live over those first months at Nazareth, and the journey to Bethlehem, and the wonder-night at the khan; and the swift escape to Bgypt. The women of Nazareth had been cruel to me, and their whispers and looks, whenever I went to the fountain with my water jar, cut deeper than Roman lashes. $ The Mystery seemed too great for me to bear or believe. Eliza- beth comforted me beyond words: and God gave her, too, a Great One for a son. Then Joseph was so kind, in his strong quiet way, sheltering me-more like a father than a lover. He, too, had had a Message; and nigh crushing. As we went south to family Dome for The. Med-hamded. his gheffafis-5y iin ist The Finest Gift of All! But remember Ever talking machine is not aVICTROLA Why buy asub- stitute you hope will doas well. Genuine VICTROLAS cost no more Look: for the trade mark "HIS MASTER'S VOI "His Master's Vo ictrola "His Master's Voice" Victrola "theatre of the home" gives you the utmost in goaluy ad in ala. Every pode cai ve a Victrola for prices $37.50 to $615.00. nage igi Every model, of y vides samatched om 8 Bie. | n> Model illustrated--INo. 80, price $135.00, Canada Lissited He called Himself the "Son of man." You have heard from the very lips of those old shepherds whom we met at the Feast, concerning the glory. light that streamed upon them and their sheep and the hillside. Fear greater, though, was the radiance that filled my own heart when the inkeeper's wife laid the Babe on my breast. To the shepherds He was the Com- ine One, the Child of prophecy and sign--and no sign so great as that which had been given to me alone---- but to me, He was my Son. In those baby days He was mine--all mine; and His world was my arms. Perhaps it was ungpiritual pride, but even when we had to make swift flight from Herod's sword -- and what a mean Joseph was in that hour!--I thrilled with the thought that this my Son was such a one as made even kings on their thrones tremble in fear and jealousy. Then, at His first Passover, when we found Him the centre of the Never was there such a son or brother. How blessed was I above women! That gentle heart which loved the whole world, loved me most of all. He thought of me in that last hour, when He gave me into your keéping; /that was because He had been thoughtful of me ever since, as a little toddler about my feet in Nazareth, He had done the first considerate offices of love. A won- drous gentleman was my Son. Now 1 must tell you a thing that I have never sald before, but you will understand. In that awful hour on the Cross, when His brok- en heart cried aloud with a cry that seemed to break my heart, too: when the sympathetic darknees wrapped us in; and the very rocks themselves on which we stood swayed In agony, I seemed to hear Him erying as my Baby cried, 'long, long ago. Even in that hour of an- guish,--I hope it is not impious-- He who hung there before us in learned rabbis, who thought Him and |/ His questions wonderful, the refrain that sang itself In my heart was, "This is my Son." True, I rebuked the Boy, as was fitting (Joseph nev- er laid word of admonition on Him, spoke and He answered, I glorified, that He who so early was about the things of the Father, was my Son. When the crowds followed through Galilee, and when the ple acclaimed Him as He entered rusalem, my spirit kept in me, "To them He is iield hh in i io my arms; and my heart ached to comfort Him with temder, soothing, crooning words, o While I was bowed in tears be- my mind all His beautiful baby- hood. I looked upon those bleeding ii of 2 21g g oH | When your dealer recommends "Dominion" Rubbers-- He wants your future trade. You get style and fit for any shoe and, above all, the longer wear that come back again and say, "I want another pair of Dom- inion Rubbers." will make you ominion Rubb Wear Longer =X iy