Adventure Magazine Cover — page 148: what you’re looking at

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

138 well as the transcription, shows its real meaning.” . Kilgore winked slyly at Sir Fandi. It was evident that Severn was. himself again. ‘The water’s hot,” he announced. ‘Tea, Day! Can’t give you much to eat, Severn; ‘we're on emergency rations. Make the best of things as they are. By the way, what do you know about the Darkan tem- ple?”’ “Rumor only. Nothing definite.” “We'll sketch things for you, and then be on our way, eh?” “Good. Call these emergency rations, do your If you’d been eating what I have for the past few months, you’d say this was a Lucullan feast! Now I know how that old Roman ambassador from Antoni- nus Pius must have felt, when he had wan- dered over Tibet and Tartary and finally came to the outposts of Chinese civilization. Let’s have your tale.” While eating, Severn listened to the facts related by Kilgore. be gore and Fandi Singh had been there. They were now returning— partly with governmental authority, partly for loot, and partly for humanitarian rea- sons. Twenty-odd Sikhs had been re- cruited from discharged Indian army men. Also, Kilgore had with him a machine gun of his own invention. ; “Poor Mac was half-inventor, also,” he said, “but we left Mac in Kalgan—bad case of septic poisoning from an infected razor. He’s safe enough, but in no shape for hard work. And I can tell you we’ve had hard work getting. here! Now for the Darkan material. : | *The temple has ten priests, who in turn have ten novitiates. They absolutely rule the tribe who supports ’em, but they’re located at some distance from the tribe. The Mongols have a tremendous respect for the temple and won’t come near it ex- cept on order, and once a year for worship. - The novitiates are what might be called outside priests. Ten times a year they send in ten girls to the temple; a nasty business all around, Severn.” Severn nodded. “T can imagine so. A brutal crowd, heritors of some ancient glory.” _ “Quite so. But behind the temple and the priests is some unknown person who FIRST, Darkan existed; both Kil- . Adventure rules the lot. They call him Esrun. He is. highly mysterious, lives apart from the temple at the sacred lake, issues all orders by telepathy, and so forth. Telepathy plays a large part in the whole affair. When the priests need money, they send a telepathic message to this Esrun, who re- ‘turns orders when and where to go. They go, and find money and jewels waiting for them. Mysterious, what?” “TI don’t believe half of that, in spite of you all,” said Day cheerfully. “It’s a fairy-tale! But I know the priests exist. Money and jewels—bosh! Jewels, par- ticularly Central Asian jewels, aren’t worth half what romancers claim. I know!’ Severn’s blue eyes were sparkling. “I suppose. you know about this Esrun?”’ he asked. . Kilgore shook his head. “No. What do you mean?” “Esrun is the Mongol designation of Brahma, derived from Uigur Zarua, in turn taken from the Sogdian form ’zrwa, the equivalent of the Avestan ’srvan. Re- markable!”’ | Fandi Singh chuckled in his beard. “You are thinking fifteen centuries away; we are thinking in the present,” he said calmly. “These priests of Darkan are degenerate brutes, and very dangerous. If we surprize the temple, we can hold it against all assaults until Sheng Wu comes up with our baggage, camels and assistance. Then we mean to locate this Esrun and clean him out. I think,” he added re- flectively, ‘that he is some old Mongol shaman who has found the tomb of Genghis Khan—perhaps the hereditary guardian of the tomb. Who knows? ‘There are some who say that Genghis Khan was no other than Yoshitsune, prince of the Gengi, a Japanese genera zs Day came to his feet. “With all due respect,” he said dryly, ‘‘we can sit here and drivel all night about myths and legends. Me, I’m for action! It’s getting dark, two of our scouts are al- ready in and waiting to report, and we’d better can the talk. I don’t care who these fellows with Bible names are descended from, so long as I get the drop on ’em. Let’s go.” There was a general laugh and immediate assent. Day shrilled on his whistle, and two stalwart Sikhs came up and saluted. Severn took the reins of the little Mongol JOOKS (EOLAMUCE (E)