Adventure Magazine Cover, October 30, 1924 — page 145: what you’re looking at

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

Om 135 “‘T was locked in here,”’ he said. ‘‘I have a right to know why.” “To keep out those whose ignorance might cause them to intrude,” the lama answered, exactly as if he were in the path — of the inquisitive.”’ Feeling as if stilts had been kicked from under him, Ommony tried again, more bluntly: “You know who I am,” he began, speak- ing in English; but the lama interrupted in Urdu: “My son, if I knew that I should be wiser than all Those whose duty is to rule the stars! You have answered to the name of Gupta Rao.”’ “For ’s sake,” said Ommony, again in English, ‘‘why not tell me outright what your business is? Ill begin by being frank. I’m spying on you! I would like to know you are above suspicion, but at present I’m in doubt.” ‘““My son,” said the lama, answering in Urdu, “no man is above suspicion. The sun and the moon cast their shadows, and therein the destroyers lurk. Doubt is the forerunner of decision. Shadows move. All revelation comes to him who waits.” That sounded like a promise. Ommony jumped at it. ‘‘We have one interest in common— Tilgaun. Why treat me as an enemy? Why not clear the air now by felling me the truth about what all this mystery means?” “My son,” said the Jama in Urdu again, ‘no man can ever be told the truth, which either is in him, or it is not in him. If it is, he will see the truth. If it is not, he will see delusion and will confuse himself with sur- inise. He who looks for negation beholds it. He who looks for truth beholds nega- tion also, but perceives the truth beyond. Wherein have I shown you enmity?” For a moment there was silence. Ommony tried to think of another way of getting past the lama’s guard, but the old man’s impersonal dignity was like armor. Short of sheer impudence there seemed no way of penetrating it; and it is not easy to be impudent toward commanding old-age when you have schooled yourself in courte- ous respect for others’ feelings all your life. Ommony’s own character was in the scale against him; at the moment he almost wished himself a cad. “There are things you may see, but you must put your own interpretation on them,”’ said the Jama. “One by one we attain to understanding. The wise ponder in silence, but the fools are noisy, and the noise precedes them to their doom.” That sounded like a threat; but the lama’s face was as kindly as ever, rippled . again with quivering wrinkles as a smile broke and vanished into the recesses of brown-ivory skin. “Come!” he said; but instead of opening the door behind him he strode first to the window, threw the shutters back, glanced out and made a clucking noise. Diana jumped in, and Ommony won- dered; she was trained to be wary of strangers, and was not given to obeying even her master’s friends unless carefully charged with that duty by Ommony him- self. She thrust her,nose into the lama’s hand before she came and fussed over Ommony. The lama led the way into a narrow pas- sage on to which many doors opened right and left; it extended from end to end of the long building, its walls forming a double support for the heavy beams of the floor above. ‘Two-thirds of the way along it he opened a door on the right, and a chorus of women’s voices burst through the opening. But there were no women to be seen yet, because the door opened on to a gallery; there was an extra, lower floor on that side of the building, and the gallery ran around two sides of a large room, screened from it by a breast-high balustrade. ‘The lama led the way to the farther end, where the gallery was twenty feet wide and Samding waited, standing beside a spread Tibetan prayer mat, marvelously dressed in ivory white and looking like a young god. However, god or no god, he had to alter the position of the mat by an inch or two before the lama would sit down, after which he motioned to Ommony to be seated on the floor in the farther corner, where he could see through a slit in the wooden panel and look down on the floor below. TO BE CONTINUED comicbooks.cO in