Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

498 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Most of the bungalow rooms he had to himself.. He proceeded to the major’s room—the one next to the dining room by crawling on his belly close to the dark-wall. This method of locomotion he preferred to swinging among the rafters—a much noisier process because of the bats he would scare out from the eaves. His first duty in the major’s room was to extract a whisky bot- tle from the satchel, empty it of half its contents and pour into it a vial full of opium-poppy juice. When the major and the caretaker of the bungalow went out to the veranda to receive Dunboyne, the thag slipped into the dining room and exchanged the poisoned bottle for the half empty one on the table. The major was the first to succumb to its effects. Dunboyne fought off the drug until he went to the roof to find his fiancée, awaken the punkah-boy, and kick the chuprassi down the stairs. Dun- boyne’s last swig of whisky, which he took upon returning to the dining room after locking the chuprassi in the go-down, over- powered him. He fell asleep in one of the grasshopper chairs on the veranda. The thag having shadowed the chuprassi most of the evening was puzzled by his ac- tions. All chuprassis are inquisitive but this one was more inquisitive than a hungry and ubiquitous cat. He must be watched. The thag went to the go-down after this suspicious pariah was locked up. As was expected, the man was trying to break out of his prison. The thag having swung him- self to the tiled roof of the go-down, found a hole from which he scared a flock of bats. ‘Through this aperture he observed a dim light caused by the chuprassi holding a match in an examination of the door of his prison. From a pouch at his waist the thag ex- tracted a long dry reed and a thorn tipped with some arrow-poison of the nature of dajaksh or derrid. Putting the reed to his lips he aimed through the aperture at the back of the chuprassi’s head. This was the sting which the victim upon awakening the next morning had attributed to the tail of a scorpion. - There followed then a frantic shouting and kicking at the door from the inside of the go-down. The noise was loud enough to call out the publican, but it failed to awaken the girl on the roof or her punkah- wallah, who had fallen asleep at his post. The fat publican waddled out into the moonlit compound, puffing and swearing at the imprisoned chuprassi. He approached the door of the go-down threatening the prisoner with further punishment, even torture, if he kept the guests of the house awake with any more of his caterwauling. He had scarcely turned on his heels to go back to his bungalow when a black form hurtled off the tiles of the go-down and landed on him. - The publican fell to the hot soft dust of the compound. For a moment he struggled frantically against the python-like arms that were gripped about his neck. His scream broke to a choking cough. His cough broke to a last frantic gasp for life. A convulsive twist for air like a fish that is landed, availed him nothing. For a mo- ment the two forms lay in the dust, one sitting like a goblin on the chest of the other. One was breathing heavily, chuck- ling. The other was still. There yet remained the most difficult task of all, the abduction of the white woman. He must have time for this. A chance passerby might see the body of the publican lying out in the open compound and noise the tragedy abroad. If a few hours elapsed before the discovery it would stand the dwarf thag in good:stead. Accordingly he took the body of the publican into the rear wing of the bungalow and laid it upon a bed where he would appear to be sleeping. This would delay, as well as confuse, the investi- gators of the morning. All of the dwarf thag’s adversaries were now disposed of except the punkah-wallah, who had been awakened from the noise of the fight in front of the go-down. It was apparent, however, that he had not awak- ened in time to understand the dreadful sig- nificance of the noise, for the thag upon creeping up to the room, found him drowsi- ly pulling at his punkah-rope. The thag crawled inch by inch along the narrow strip of shadow which the mortar wall cast on the roof.. When he came with- in four feet of the coolie, he reached up to an earthen coojah of water. This water COMmmicoooks (E@)