Adventure Magazine Cover, November 10, 1924 — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

Om dream. Dawa Tsering was already snoring on his mattress under the fly. Yet the chela had seemed alert and in full com- mand of all his faculties. Ommony turned Diana loose to roam wherever she pleased; no inhibition had been laid on her. He hoped natural canine curiosity might lead her to make new ac- quaintances who in some way would help to throw light on the mystery; for as he threw himself on the bed to sleep the whole thing seemed a deeper mystery than ever. Was it propagana intended to foist Samding on the country as a new mahatma? A polit- ical mahatma, who should bring on revolu- tion? Ifso, why the sudden flight? What could be the advantage of creating in- tense enthusiasm and then ruhning away from it? He was awakened late in the morning by a man who removed the dishes and spread a fresh meal on the linen-covered table. The man was some one he had not seen before, as silent as an oiled automaton. Diana was coiled up asleep on her sacking. Dawa Tsering, smelling hot food, awoke with a start to devour it, and it was he who first noticed the silence. “Gupta Rao, we are ——”’ HE LEFT his bow! of food and ran of the enclosure, peered between them, and came hurrying back with a grin on his féce. “Ttis true. They have gone and left us!”’ Ommony’s obstinate jaw came forward with a jerk. An insult from the lama’s lips could not have produced a tenth of the effect on him. ‘“‘__ him after all!’ he muttered “TI ad- mitted I was spying. If he’d simply asked me to clear out I’d have gone and waited for him at Tilgaun. I’ll be blowed, though, if Ill let up now. I'll trace him if I have to 9) He set his jaw obstinately and sat down on the bed, glancing in the dog’s direction, wondering how much she had seen in the night and wishing she could really talk. She was curled up, fast asleep, but his eye detected something on her collar. He called her, and removed a piece of paper that had been wired to the brass ring; it was twisted and soiled, but the writing on the inside was perfectly legible, English, and done in heavy quill pen strokes that he to the trees that screened the end. 115 believed were the lama’s, although there was no signature. There is a time for silence and a time for speech; a time for seeing and a time for covering the eyes. This is the time for silence and not seeing. Obey him who will attend you. But the man in attendance had vanished. The only living creatures in sight outside the tent were crows on the top of the nearby wall and kites wheeling lazily overhead. There was almost perfect silence—no roofs —no smoke—nothing to suggest that there were human beings within ten miles. “T will explore,” said Dawa Tsering. “That old lama is a great one at writing letters that mean nothing. Maybe I shall find that fellow who brought the breakfast. If I beat him he may favor me with some news.” Ommony sat still and read the note again. The lama might be simply inducing him to waste time instead of starting in pursuit; but there were several other possibilities, not least that the lama’s route might be leading somewhere where it would be dan- gerous for a foreigner to go disguised. There are individuals, in India as elsewhere, who would dare to ask Satan or even a Bhat-Brahman for his identification papers. Another, not unreasonable theory was that the lama might be willing to be spied on at just such times as his actions were not mischievous, but would prefer to keep the spy at a distance when events of true im- portance were under way. At any rate, the wording of the note might be held to imply a diplomatic threat that disobedience would terminate all com- munication. And on the other hand, he supposed the lama—a remarkably good judge of human nature—knew that he, Ommony, would not permit himself to be dropped into the discard quite so easily as that. If it was a trick, there would be more to it than merely leaving him behind; the best course was to sit still and await de- velopments. 7 He awaited them for fifteen minutes, and then Dawa Tsering came, but not as a free agent. He was being led by the ear, al- though his huge ‘‘knife” was in his right hand and there seemed to be nothing to prevent plunging it into his custodian’s stomach, Diana growled a challenge and ran for- ward to sniff quarrelsomely at the legs of the Comicboooks © 5}