Adventure Magazine Cover — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

Rie Face Still, one thing I did see. The demon of unrest kept me awake that night and I walked the edge of the yarden, past the stables and the door of Shirzad Mir. It was a still night and the splendor of the stars beat down on Khan- jut. I harkened to the challenges of the sentries and the stamp of a hoof among the horses. Then I heard voices among the bare trees of the garden. For the space milk takes to boil I waited, holding my breath. Then I stepped softly nearer the voices. The ferang and Krishna Taya were talk- ing together. By staring for a long time I made out their forms against the gray stretch of a wall. They stood close and whispered. I heard Krishna Taya laugh and it sound- ed like the low murmur of a rivulet. Sir _ Weyand’s voice came to me, harsh and - che time is near, urgent. “You must not do this thing, Rose Face,” he said. Again I held my breath, but her whis- pered words were not clear. His reply was spoken in the swift, broken phrases of a man who is troubled by a great trouble. I caught the name of Shirzad Mir and bristled. Then— “You will come and be at my side when ” she whispered wistfully after the fashion of a woman who has bound a man by the silken cord of love. “Aye, Rose Face.” Sir Weyand had made a decision and it had cost him much. For a space the two forms by the gray wall merged together, and the thought came to me that he had kissed her before she sped away through the garden. Thereupon he turned and went to his own quarters. B’illah! If I had had her slim throat between my hands, I should have strangled | her by the rope of pearls, for there had been pain and unwillingness in the voice of ee rene, and this betokened“ill to my or This thing I told to Shirzad Mir after the dawn ‘prayer, and he laughed in his beard. “Of the servant who brings me food and of my foster brother, I might believe evil, Abdul Dost,” he responded, “‘but not of Sir Weyand.” Yet I marked a flush in the cheeks of the Rajput maiden that morning and heard her sing in the apartment of Said Afzel for the first time since she had come to Khanjut. What was I to do? ride to meet Jani Beg. Bihor Jan “es*"s told me with a grin that Said Afzel was wrapped in opium: dreams an@ lay like a stricken pig. So, as this was my task, I had a litter brought, and the Afghan and I placed Said Afzel upon it. Then Krishna Taya, who watched, came and said that she also was to ride on the litter, as she would go with the Uzbek. I would not consent. I smelled evil in this, as a hound smells the trace of a hare. Striding to Shirzad Mir, I demanded an- grily that Krishna Taya should not go. Sir Weyand, who was listening, spoke curt- ly. , “Tt shall be as she wishes, Abdul Dost. Did not your master promise that any at- tendant of the prince might accompany him?” Shirzad Mir made me a careless sign to be about my business. He was not one to suspect treachery, yet the ferang’s eye had not met mine as he spoke. As I had been ordered, I did. I placed a Kashmir shawl over the frame of the litter where Krishna Taya sat by Said Afzel’s head. This was to guard the two from the sun and from curious eyes. When it was time, I summoned Bihor Jan with seven others and accompanied them as they bore the litter from the castle across the courtyard and down the wind- ing road to the plain. Out over the drawbridge the litter passed. When we reached the spot of the meeting, I bade the eight set down their burden. When Shirzad Mir and Sir Weyand rode from the castle gate, I ordered the bearers to retire to Khanjut. I sat moodily on the horse, watching the languid movement of Said Afzel’s slippered feet—all that I could see of the poet— and thought blackly upon the danger to Shirzad Mir. When he and the ferang gained my side, Shirzad Mir bade me withdraw ten spear- lengths toward Khanjut. This I did and, _ when I turned at my new station, the Uz- bek party came in view. Raja Man Singh, in all his finery, was ~- NOON came, the hour we were to Warde << < Ae cP MALY ‘ PRESS |, SYRY Mats Wt EE a