Argosy, Vol. 120, No. 1 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

2 . | THE ARGOSY. The man lay under a giant, half-starved teak tree, so motionless that he might have passed for one of the sturdy roots himself. His khaki skirt and breeches merged into the general coloration of the earth, and his hard, sun-tanned face and thick arms might well have been knotty limbs fallen from the tree. The shifting sun encroached upon his pigskin leggings and grilled the limbs within till the man, unable to mantain his lazy position any longer, snatched them up and rolled over onto his stomach. | Caution born of much wandering in the waste places of the earth caused him to shoot an instinctive glance from under his brows, bushy and straw-bleached, round the immediate landscape. He heaved him- self onto his elbows and craned his neck to see that all was right in the little hollow behind him. A tiny brown tent and‘a pair of pack saddles made tranquil evidence of humanity in the midst of vast loneliness. Not a very comfortable way of traveling along the borderland of the Lushai Hills. But when it is stated that the man was Smith, ‘ Go-to-hell Smith,” or “ Jehan- num,” as everybody knew him, all the Far East knows that Smith’s ideas about com- fort and safety are not conventional. After a moment of frowning contemplation Smith called: “ Poonoosawmi! ”’ ‘His wiry little Madrassi servant stuck a very black and inhumanly crafty face out of the tent with the instant response of a jack-in-the-box. Then, seeing his master’s beckoning expression, he emerged and trotted up the slope. He, too, contrary to convention, and in profanation of his own inborn sense .of decency, was dressed in a low-visibility khaki. Smith rolled over onto his back again, fished a pipe from his pocket, and filled it with slow deliberation. Sheltering a match between his wide brown hands, he glanced between puffs from under his pale brows at the man. He smiled slowly to see that the other’s quick eye had noticed the kites also. He addressed him with affectionate ap- proval. “Well, child of many devils, what does the wisdom of your fathers make of them?” Poonoosawmi showed no hesitation. “‘ That,” he said with conviction, “is dam Kuki fellow snooping. Dead animal is not, for then kite would descend with voracious ,unanimity. Just now the bird is observing fearfully from on high.” . _ Smith grunted. ‘‘ Poonoosawmi, you’re a fool,”’ he said judicially. ‘I’ve told you a million timés that you’d be a bloomin’ wiz- ard if you weren’t so blinkin’ cock-sure. Consider, monkey without a head: A Jungle man wouldn’t attract kites any more ’n any other animal would. If it was a village there’d be smoke—or we’d smell it, more probable, with this wind. ‘Sides, there’s no stinkin’ village within miles of here. “No, me son; they’re waiting for what’s going to be grub; an’ there’s nothing going to be grub around here except what men leave. More’n one man, or two. Must be a party. Maybe a raiding party making dog feast. Poonoosawmi, me boy, I guess we go look see.” ‘Yes, marshter,” said Poonoosawmi. ‘“‘ Marshter’s induction is devilish correct. But look see is unnecessary inquisitiveness. These Lushai savage doing dog feast cere- mony is most ferociously—” ° Smith shot out a vast h&and for the bare’ black leg nearest to him, but Poonoosawmi leaped into the air with the alertness of an ape and made for the tent, muttering with mournful resignation that his master was ‘surely mad and that they were both dead men already; and that -never again would he listen to the voice of a missionary evan- gelist. For their present plight was the direct result of an earnest attenfpt on the part of such an enthusiast to reform Smith. It was that great soul’s habit from time to time, when the confinement of the cities op- pressed his spirit beyond endurance, to feel the urge of the open places as an elephant does at the time of his musth. When these primal impulses came upon him he would heave himself out of the enervating slough of civilization and order Poonoosawmi to prepare the luggage for an exploration. Poonoosawmi knew just what was proper. He would take the slenderest possible camp equipment that an expert could devise, no food, and much drink. CO@ 1NOO S CO@