Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

JUNGLE TEST. per chair and was now snoring loudly. A touch on the shoulder failed to awaken him, but stopped the snoring. Dunboyne re- solved to leave him alone. The heat of the day had been a grueling experience evi- denced by the major’s white drawn face. Meanwhile the publican, having heard Dunboyne’s little scuffle with the new chu- prasst, entered the room, timid, wide-eyed, and nervously rubbing his hands. “Who is this beggar?” Dunboyne asked, lifting the bundle of rags up as a man will hold a huge cat by the scruff of the neck. A smile came over the publican’s face. “ He is the new chuprassi, sir,” he explained. ‘““ The surgeon-major objected to the way I am running the establishment and hired this pariah early in the evening as a body-serv- ant. He is a reprehensible man, there is little doubt.” “So! He came this evening?” boyne exclaimed. ‘“T would advise his immediate discharge, sir. If you think best I will dismiss him from my house.” “You'll do nothing of the kind. This man’s a thag—if I know anything. Like as not he’s crawled out of the jungle and is plotting. We'll lock him up—that’s what we'll do, and in the morning turn him over to the jail-khanna,” ‘““ A very good idea, sir,” chuckling. “Don’t lock me up, Heaven-born,” the chuprassi said calmly. ‘ You will need my services—perhaps this very night. Who knows? Fate is spinning a web about the lovely one who is your betrothed. Let me watch over her as a dog watches over the bedside of a child.” The publican and Dunboyne, without listening to his cool calm pleading, took him out into the compound grounds and to the go-down—a small hut with thick walls and a padlocked door in which the stores and canned English goods were kept. “The girl is in danger, Heaven-born,” the chuprassi said, raising his voice at the last moment. ‘“ The jungle is near us—it beleaguers us round about like an enemy encamped in the night! The Lovely One—”’ His words ‘were cut off by the snapping Dun- the publican said 489 of the lock. Dunboyne himself SppropEr ated the key. “It is a good go-down, sir,” the oiaiens said. ‘I have used it in other days as a storeroom for valuables. And it is in full view of the bungalow. For to-night at least, this chuprassi will bother us no longer.” The relief which came to Dunboyne as he turned from the go-down was accompanied by an oppressive drowsiness. Stumbling into the dining room he helped himself to prodigal swigs from the major’s whisky bot- tle. The furnace-like room and the drink failed to bring a sweat; Dunboyne gasped and had the curious impression that the thick hot night was pressing upon his fore- head and eyes. He stumbled out to the veranda and sank into one of the veranda chairs, resting his legs on the long extended arms. @ ‘““ Diane is all right,” he said to himself, “if [ can only keep awake on this veranda and watch those stairs. A dangerous prac- tice this—sitting in the draught of those wet tattis. Doctor told me never to do it. Better than dying of suffocation though.” As - the din of mosquitoes, the tomtoms of the distant town and the wail of the jackals whirled about faster and faster like the noise of a merry-go-round in his brain, Dunboyne fell asleep. Hours later he awoke with a start. He blinked at the rattan chiks where he could see the low red sunlight slanting inward in myriads of fine dusty rays. He jumped from his chair and stood aghast, realizing the length of time he had slept. His head whirled in dizziness, and a dull ache thudded in his brain like the tom- toms in the distant city. Added to this, the draught of the tatti-curtain, which had enabled him to sleep, had also given him the ague. He reeled into the gaping black door which led to the dining room of the bunga- low and his eyes dilated to the dim scene— the same scene that had met his gaze hours earlier in the middle of the night. The punkah was hanging listless, forgot- ten, and the thick hot air seemed as obvious to the eyes as the tobacco smoke that lay in a gray strata across the middle of the room. The major was asleep—his face ashen gray, his mouth open, breathing heavily—but COPNICLOOKS (E@)