Adventure Magazine Cover — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

84. “There was much talk about the stone, for the most part nonsense; some said this and some that, but it was clear enough that whoever really owned the stone had set in- quiries going, and a rumor had been spread that there was danger in possessing it. “IT had made up my mind to steal the stone from Miuissish-Anbun and discover how much it might be worth to a man of some skill in bargaining; for it seemed to me there could not be much danger to me as long as I had my knife— Where is my knife, Ommonee? Presently? Well, don’t forget to return it to me. That knife and my future are one. ‘“‘As I was saying, I was about to steal the stone. . But a girl in the mission— one whose virtue I had satisfactory reason to suspec#—forestalled me. She _ took the stone and ran with it toward the house of Sirdar Sirohe Singh, who is a prince of devils and a father of lice and no good. He had warned me to leave Tilgaun, and I had told him who his father was. “And there had come a rat of a man named Tin Lal to Tilgaun, too much given to asking questions. Him I was minded to slay, because that girl, whose virtue I say was not such as others seemed to think, no longer smiled at me when [I sat in the sun near the mission gate, but took more notice of Tin Lal than was seemly. Night after night I had waited for her, and it came to my ears too late that there was a reason, that concerned me, for the smile in Tin Lal’s impudent eye. I whetted the edge of my knife on the image of the Lord Buddha | that is set into a niche in the mission wall. ‘But the girl stole the stone and ran off with it, and Tin Lal waited for her at a narrow place where the path to the sirdar’s house runs between a cliff on the one hand and a deep ravine on the other—a place where the eagles nest and there is mist as- cending from the waterfall below. He pushed her into the ravine and climbed down after her, taking the stone. And then he disappeared. And Sirdar Sirohe Singh, who is a dog—whose liver is crawling lice —whose heart is a dead fish—accused me of the deed. There was talk of bringing me before the raja, and there was other talk of driving me away. ‘‘Nevertheless, I had promised the lama I would wait for him in Tilgaufi. I was not minded that my time had come. Moreover, I am one who keeps promises. Adventure So I slew the loudest talkers—very secretly, by night; and after that there was not so much insolence toward me when I passed up and down the village.. “Ohé—but I was weary of Tilgaun! And when the lama came he at first believed I had slain the girl and stolen the stone. But he is not entirely a fool in all respects, and the chela, Samding, has more brains than a grown man with a beard down to his belly. It was the chela who said that if I had in truth stolen the stone I would certainly have run away with it and not have stayed in Tilgaun like an eagle hatching eggs. “And the lama, having listened to a mil- lion lies and discovered the truth like a bird in the mist among them, told me I might earn much merit by following the trail of Tin Lal to the southward and recovering the stone. The Lama Tsiang Samdup said to me, ‘Slay not, but steal the stone back from Tin Lal and I will pay thee more for it than any other dozen men would pay.’ And he named a price—a very great price, which set me to dreaming of the girls in Spiti and of a valley where I am minded some day to build a house. “So I, having furthermore a grudge of my own against Tin Lal, agreed, and I followed the rat Tin Lal to Delhi, where, as I have told you, I saw him through the shop- window where the snake is, sell the stone to Chutter Chand the jeweler. “But the lama and Samding had come to Delhi likewise, and to them I told what I had seen, having lost sight of Tin Lal in the crowd. And now give me back the knife, Ommonee, that I may hunt for Tin Lal. I have an extra grudge against him. Has he not robbed me of the price the lama would have paid me for the stone? Ohé—my honor and my anger and his end are one! Give me the knife, Ommonee.”’ The Hillman smiled winningly, as one who has talked his way into a hard man’s heart. He held his hand out, leaning forward as he squatted on the mat. ‘Tin Lal is in the jail,” said Ommony. “Oh, is that so? That makes it easy. I will wait outside the jail. They will not keep him in there forever.”’ ‘“‘What is that house where you tried to kill me this afternoon?”? Ommony asked. “Oh, a place kept by Tibetans, where the lama stays when he is in Delhi. That is where the actor people come to see him.”’ DOOLK nn ©