Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

“ JEHANNUM” SMITH. egent. The glassy eyes had closed in the extremity of boredom; and with the shut- ting out of that codfish stare the hard- chiseled face suddenly stood out in all its rugged strength. “ Five ’undred rupees,”’ came the monoto- mous murmur. re “Aw, say, now. Five hundred rupees is pretty steep for just expense money. But see here, [’ll make a deal with you. All these poor pikers around here say they’re scared to tackle the proposition, and they tell me that you know these Hindu ducks like a book, and if there’s anybody who'll take on the job, you’re the— Say, mister, are you—what th’—well, whadda ya know about that!” - The agent’s voice trailed away in dis- gusted astonishment; for Smith had incon- tinently gone to sleep. Nor would all the agent’s shouting wake him; and to lay hands on that massive figure struck the other as a gamble which was a little too precarious even for his irrepressible spirit. For half an hour Smith remained like a dead thing, while the vaudeville man raved. Of all the queer characters he had met none had been as impossible as this. Then suddenly Smith’s eyes opened wide. Without a blink, without a suspicion of the daze which marks one who has just slept, without a word, he stood bolt upright on. his feet and walked solemnly from the room. _ As he reached his own quarters Poonoo- sawmi appeared from the veranda side of the curtain and busied himself about trivial nothings while his master gazed vacantly from the window. Presently the boy coughed gently in preparation, and his ques- tion showed that he had been listening. Without shame he spoke; for why should there be any; was not his master’s business also his? “Marshter, you going ketchum this nautchm woman?” His master’s answer made up for its trifling inaccuracy by its staggering matter of factness. ““Yuss, me son. _Five ’undred rupees we gets for the job. Three times the blighter tries to cut me down; but five ’undred I says resolute, an’ I'll go yer, he says.” Poonoosawmi knew better than to argue 409 this statement; but he pleaded earnestly against his master’s resolve. “Qah, marshter, please. This bloody awiul madness. Temple female is holy thing. All the time this man making steal away talk my liver is turning all into water. I am expert in all kinds of priests, marshter, and I telling you this Hindus is damn bad fellows. Vengeance in his catechism is not for the Lord’s; it is for the priest craftiness; and their forgetfulness is not.” “ Poonoosawmi,” said Smith. “ You shut up an’ go to ’ell. Now’ it’s this ere Malka Devi who does the hootch in this bloomin’ old temple o’ Mahadeo out-on the Goobari Road that the gent wants, ain’t it?” “Yes, marshter, she is of most expensive beautifulness. But please, marshter, Ma- hadeo is verree powerful god; if he is angry he can turn all fellow into monkey.” ‘All right, me boy, I’ll remember that,” said Smith. ‘So now you run an’ tell the bloke we'll bag the loot an’ deliver to- morrow morning; an’ he’s to ’ave the paisha ready. Five ’undred, he said, an’ not a pais less.” The boy knew that argument was futile. He bemoaned his master’s madness, in which he had been so cheerfully included; but-he sped to the room of the zealous vaudeville agent. To him he paraphrased his master’s message. “Sar, my marshter telling you damn fool for hell. Therefore to-morrow morning time he is putting girl in the bag and deliver loot for five-yhundred rupees f. 0. b. This much my marshter telling. But I telling you for safetyness: you take this female in the arm and run golly for hell in the ship. For priests is verree blood-curdling man; he is stabbing the belly, cutting the throat, he is putting arsenic in the rice; you one time malakathwabi dead.” Having delivered his message and his warning, Poonoosawmi salaamed deeply, and turned to dart from the door. “Hey, wait a minute there,” the aston- ished manager called. “ Let me get this straight. You say your boss is going to grab off this queen? How’s he propose to pull the stunt?” : “That knowledge, sar, is for my myste- rious wondering. My marshter say conmicooolks.conn