Adventure Magazine Cover — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

56 Scandinavian and United States newspapers had it in headlines that— British in India Start New Terror. Confiscate Goods. Uprising Brewing. A bishop in South Africa preached a sermon on the subject; thirty-seven mem- bers of the I. W. W., who were serving a term in San Quentin, went on a sympathetic hunger strike and were locked up in the dungeon; and a Congressman from some- where in the Middle West wrote a speech that filled five pages of the Record. Stocks fell several points. Jenkins stepped into Willoughby’s official shoes. However, clocks continued _ ticking. Roosters crowed. The sun appeared on schedule time. And Willoughby’s funeral was marked by dignified simplicity. <4 EXCEPT that he hugely regretted his friend Willoughby, Cottswold Ommony cared for none of these things. He sat near the electric fan in a corner of the club smoking room, aware that he was being discussed, but also quite sure that he did not mind it. He had been dis- cussed, on and off, ever since he came to India. He looked quite unlike Hypatia, whatever Willoughby may have thought of his character. “Willoughby overrated him,” said some- body. “You can’t tell me Ommony or any other man is such a mixture of marvels as Willoughby made out. Besides, he’s a bachelor. Socrates wasn’t.” “Oh, Ommony’s human. But—well— you know what he’s done in that forest. It was raw, red wilderness when he was sent there. Now you can stand on a rock and see ninety miles of trees whichever way you care to look. Besides, dogs love him. Did you see that great dog of his outside? You can’t fool that kind of dog, you know. They say he knows the tigers personally and can talk the jungle bat; there was only one other man who ever learned that lan- guage, and he committed suicide!” ‘‘All the same he’s not the only man who’s done good work—and I’ve heard stories. Do any of you remember Terry —{Jack Terry, the M.D. who married Ommony’s young sister? One of those delightful mad- men who are really so sane that the rest Adventure of us can’t understand ’em. Had weird theories about obstetrics. Nearly got foul of his profession by preaching that music was an absolute necessity at child-birth. Wanted the Government to train symphony orchestras to play the Overture to Leonori while the birth takes place. Perfectly mad; but a corking good surgeon. Always dead broke from handing out his pay to beggars— broke, that is, until he met Marmaduke. Remember Marmaduke?” ‘““Dead too, isn’t he? Wasn’t he the American who endowed a mission some- where in the Hills?”’ “Yes, at Tilgaun. Marmaduke was an- other madman—ab-so-lutely mad—and as gentle as sunrise. Quiet man, who swore like a trooper at the mention of religion. Made his money in Chicago, slaughtering hogs—or so I heard. Wrote a book on astrology that only ran to one edition—l sold my copy for ten times what I paid for it. I tell you, Marmaduke was madder than Gandhi. ; “They say he left America to keep the elders of the church he belonged to from having him locked up in an asylum. The mission he founded at Tilgaun caused no end of astirat the time. Surely. you remem- ber that? There were letters to the Times, and an archbishop raised a shindy in the House of Lords. “Marmaduke’s theory was that, as he couldn’t understand Christianity, it was safe to premise that people whose religion was a mixture of degraded Buddhism and devil worship couldn’t understand it either. So he founded a Buddhist mission to teach "em their own religion. No, he wasn’t a Buddhist. I don’t know what his religion was. I only know he was a decent fellow, fabulously rich, and ab-so-lutely mad. “He persuaded Jack Terry to chuck the service and become the mission medico— teach hygiene to men from Spiti and Bhutan—like teaching drought to the Atlan- tic! Jack Terry married Ommony’s sister about a week before Jeaving for Tilgaun, and none of us ever saw them alive again.”’ ‘“‘Now I remember. There was a nine days’ scandal, or a mystery, or something.” ‘““You bet there was! Terry and his wife vanished. Marmaduke was carpeted, but couldn’t or wouldn’t explain; and he died before they could make things hot for him. Then they gave Ommony long leave and sent him up to Tilgaun to investigate. MICLOOOK CO© inn