Adventure Magazine Cover, October 30, 1924 — page 119: what you’re looking at

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

Om to Miss Sanburn at Tilgaun and entrusted it to McGregor’s most trusted operative, the Eurasian, Aaron Macaulay, for delivery. When Dawa Tsering showed up for his knife he told them that the jade had been found on a man from Abor, who had come to the Tilgaun mission for medical treatment and had died there. The stone was stolen from Miss Sanburn by a mission girl, whom the Secret Service operative Tin Lal had subsequently murdered. Tsiang Samdup had promised Dawa Tsering a great reward for recover- ing it. During their stay in Delhi Dawa Tsering noticed that the lama was visited a good deal by ‘actor people.” Just then a letter was shoved under the door, and the messenger disappeared before any one could see who he was. HE letter, which was signed by Tsiang Samdup, referred vaguely to the ‘Middle Way” and asked Ommony to take the jade to Tilgaun, “‘which is one stage of the Journey to the place whence it came.” Ommony, provoked at Tsiang Samdup because the lama would not take Ommony into his con- fidence, determined not to play into the other’s hands by preceding him to Tilgaun, but to trail him there, thus finding out what the other was up to on the road. Also Ommony made up his mind to find that “Middle Way,” and find it without the aid of the Secret Service. If the latter took a hand, Ommony well knew the Way would be closed to him. He knew of course that the phrase as the lama used it might refer to its religious significance but most likely—indeed almost surely—meant an actual secret trail through India. He bullied Dawa Tsering into leaving the lama’s service and entering his own; then, accompanied by the Hillman and Diana, he departed to visit Benjamin the Jew, a merchant and money lender to whom he had once done a very great favor. Moved by gratitude, the merchant told him much. He learned first, that the lama “for certain reasons” was planning to take a troupe of actors north. Then too he wormed it out of Benjamin that for the past fifteen years or more the merchant had been Tsiang Samdup’s Delhi agent. The lama, it seems, always paid his bills in small bars of solid gold. Finally after an enormous emotional struggle CHAPTER XII ‘CALL THINGS END—EVEN CARRIAGE RIDES” The man who knows he is ignorant is at no disad- vantage if he permits a wise man to do the thinking; because the wise man knows that neither advantage to one nor disadvantage to another comes at all within the scope of wisdom, and he will govern himself accord- ingly. But he who seeks to outwit wisdom adds to ignorance presumption; and that ts a complication that the gods do not love-—From the Book of the Sayings of Tsiang Samdup. 3 I through the slats that formed the sides, but they had the ad- vantage that one could see out, and suffi- cient light streamed through to show the HE heat inside the carriage was stifling. No breeze came 109 Benjamin confessed under seal of utter confidence that Tsiang Samdup’s traffic with him was largely concerned with smuggling friendless little European girls—seven had been smuggled already—up into the lamaist country and with buying supplies for shee From Delhi they went up by the ‘Middle ay.” Ommony was shocked — disgusted —and_ even more determined to see this thing through. Seeing the contempt in Ommony’s manner, Benjamin offered to help him into the Abor country, where Ommony could see for himself that neither Benja- min nor the lama had done anything but good for the little girls. This could easily be accomplished, because Maitraya, the leader of the lama’s troupe of actors, was in Benjamin’s debt. guised himself as a Bhat-Brahman—a caste of Brahman so high that it was beyond the reach of caste—and as such was introduced to Maitraya, under the name of Gupta Rao. Under protest Maitraya took “Gupta Rao” into his troupe as leading actor. This business being arranged, the two actors drove off to meet the lama and his chela, who were attending the birthday party of Vasantasena, a courtezan who wielded more power secretly than a dozen maharajas did openly. There Ommony was surprized to learn that indirectly the piece of jade had passed from Aaron Macaulay’s hands into those of Vasantasena. What a marvelous spy system the lama controlled! he reflected. Vasantasena held out the jade temptingly. “Give me your chela in exchange,” she coaxed. “No,” replied the chela in a voice like a golden gong. Vasantasena’s eyes flashed, and her mood changed into savagery like a stirred snake’s. She flung the stone at the lama straight and hard. He secreted it in his bosom imperturbably. “Go,” she ordered hoarsely. ‘‘You—and you— and you, dogs of actors!” Unhurriedly the four left and entered a strange carriage at the gate, with the servants of Vasantasena pursuing them. But the pursuit was not in order to do them harm, but to beseech forgiveness and to beg them to accept gifts from their mistress, that her sacrilegious action might not prove ill-omened. However, their gifts and cries were ignored, and in silence the four drove off. lama’s face distinctly at close quarters. The lama sat perched on the rear seat with Samding beside him, both of them cross- legged like Buddhas; but the front seat was as narrow as a knifeboard, and in the space between there was hardly room for Om- mony’s and Maitraya’s legs. Faces were so close that the utmost exercise of polite manners could hardly have prevented staring, and Ommony took full advantage of the circumstance. But the lama seemed unconscious of being looked at, making no effort to avoid Om- mony’s eyes, although Samding kept his face averted and stared between the slats at the crowd on the sidewalks. The lama’s eyes were motionless, fixed on vacancy So Ommony dis-- Conn) () 1OOOLKS 3.6