Whose brawny shoulders, and whose swelling chest,
And lofty stature, far exceed the rest.”
The king of Rajpootana, was a tall, broad shouldered, ugly Indian. He was black as night, and had heavy, short, straight, black hair; his eyes were black and piercing. Any one would fear him as soon as they looked into those wicked, fiery eyes. He had eyes of a demon, his face was large, broad and brutal. He seemed to be a great, strong, powerful animal without a soul. This wicked king owned a great palace in the northern part of the Araville mountains. He ruled over a large tribe of fighting Indians, who did just as their king commanded. One of his favorite spies told him of a rich prince who owned a large gold mine, the richest he ever saw. The king was wild with delight and gave his spy a new sword, and many lovely jewels. King Pootana soon armed his tribe, then moved south to capture this rich mine. The king accumulated all his wealth by stealing from other kings. The drums were beating weirdly, as the dusky tribe moved stealthily down the mountain side, hiding safely now and then in the deep, thick, dark, dense forest which was the home of many kinds of poisonous reptiles. The wicked spy led his king’s tribe safely up the hillside until they came in sight of the old dome on the temple, then they crawled on their hands and knees for miles for fear of being detected. They crawled safely among the trees up to Lytton Springs. Here they rested awhile in the forest.
Higher up in the mountains a Hindoo ceremony was being performed by Terah, the high priest. Two young priests who graduated at Delhi the same time the Doctor did, assisted in the ceremony. One had a temple at Ellora, the other at Loodiana, two large cities in India. The old temple was decorated with gorgeous tropical flowers. The altar was one massive bank of red and white roses. The bride and her maids carried large bouquets of lillies of the valley. Kezia wore long white silk robes, the sash embroidered with lillies of the valley. She wore Princess Mara’s wedding veil, also a long string of large pink pearls that Prince Cresto gave her at the ceremony. A slave carried a large casket of precious jewels for the bride. The guests were all of high caste. All were merry, congratulating the bride and kissing her. The gentlemen were throwing lovely buds and flowers at the happy couple. The high priest, Terah, is telling of his secret marriage when he was a young priest in Nizagapatum, a lovely city on the Bay of Bengal:
“My dear old high priest saw in a vision that Sizuna was my soul mate, that God had made us for each other. This ancient seer told me I would find her in the province of Bengal, a mile south of the capital of Calcutta. He described her, told me her name, age and all about her people. I went to the place and found it just as he foretold. All was just as he prophesied. Our King opposed the wedding, so we were married secretly. We went to a small isle at the mouth of the Ganges. There were four lovely little islands here. I took charge of a temple on the one called Sundeep; the names of the other three were Hattiah, Dakhin, and Shaboz. I was the happiest priest in the world. We loved and served the people day and night, never growing tired in doing good. We gave all our wealth to the poor in Calcutta and to our temple. She named our dear old temple, ‘The Temple of the Soul.’ And it was in every sense of the word. You, my dear children, could not believe the wonderful things that happened there in our circle. In that lovely temple we had three large golden symbols inlaid in our marble altar—the cross, triangle and circle; the circle representing God, the Universal Soul. India is the birthplace of all religions—the Eden—the conjugal circle of soul. The soul is everything to a true Hindoo. Some priests in India almost starve in order to develope the soul.
“One dark night Sizuna and I were praying in our lovely little home near the temple, which was surrounded on all sides with grapes, fruit, lovely birds and flowers, and was near the temple, when at midnight we heard an awful cry in the darkness, ‘The waters! The waters!’ A great cyclone arose and rolled the sea over those four lovely isles, and a population of 340,000 to 350,000 people were drowned, only those being saved who had climbed to the tops of the highest trees. Did you ever hear of such an awful cyclone? I pray God you may never see what we saw that awful black night of sorrow. For hours I held Sizuna on the housetop. I kissed her cold, pale lips and soon saw she was dead. Cold and fear had killed her while she lay in my arms. I gave up, broken hearted, and sank in the waters. When I came to the top again, two tall, lovely angels with light around their beautiful heads held me firmly out of the waters. They floated me gently and lovingly to a tall tree. There I clung until the waters receded into the sea. Every day since that sad night my twin soul, Sizuna has been with me. I see her and hear her talk the same as she did before the flood. I have always been true to this one sweet soul—my only love—I never can love another.”
After the sad story Prince Cresto and Princess Mara moved slowly up the isle and shook hands and shed tears of sympathy over his sad fate. Terah asked them to dry their eyes and be happy, for he could see his bride with them now just as lovely, young and happy as our beautiful Kezia was this moment. The Prince and stately Mara moved down to the door, and all the guests started for home, where a great feast was all ready for them. Prince Cresto saw a tribe of enemies below. He closed the massive doors and kept the great crowd inside.
“My poor brothers and sisters, keep close to me as you can, for a wicked tribe is here to kill us. I have a secret gold mine near here that in some unknown way they have discovered. That casket of jewels with the others we all have in our possession, will hire us a ship at Mandavee. Rich Jews own many big ships there and will do anything for money. I will direct you to a secret door in the rear where we all can escape.”
They all followed the prince to the door. The Doctor dashed away from his folks to save the poor patients. Kezia ran after him, crying, saying, “I will die with you! I would rather die than ever be parted from you.”
Pootana’s spy saw him and drew his bright new sword on the Doctor. The Doctor quickly caught his wrist and broke his arm in the struggle. Then ran the blade through the wicked black heart of the Indian.