Adventure Magazine Cover — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

dene _absurd length to which he carried it. 10 He could not imagine why, but he had no- ticed that insolence to Blaine himselt was fairly safe, Blaine being superhumanly in- different as long as Mrs. Blaine was shown respect, even exceeding the English in the It _was a mad world in Chamu’s opinion. He went and fetched the kamal, who slunk through his task with the air of a condemned felon. Tess smiled at the man for encour- agement, but Chamu’s instant jealousy was so obvieus that she regretted the mistake. “Now call up the beggars and feed them,” she ordered. “Feed them? They will not eat. It is contrary to caste.” “Nensense. They ve no caste. Bring bread and feed them.” “There is no bread of the sort they will. eat.” “T know exactly what you r mean. If I give them bread there’s no profit for you— they'll eat it all; but if I give them money you ll exact a cemmission from them of one pesa in five. Isn’t that so? Go and bring the bread.” He decided to turn the set-back into at any rate a miner victory and went in person to the kitchen for chupatties such as the ser- vants ate. Then, returning to the top of the steps, he intimated that the earth-defilers might draw near and receive largess, con- triving the impression that it was by his sole favor the concession was obtained. Two of them came promptly and waited at the foot of the steps, smirking and changing attitudes to draw attention to their rags. Chamu tossed the bread to them with expressions of disgust. If they had cared to pretend they were holy men he would have been respectful, in degree at least, but these were professionals so hardened that they dared ignore the religious apology, which implies throughout the length and breadth of India the right to beg from place to place. Thése were not even true vagabonds, but rogues contented with one victim in one place as long as benevolence should last. “Where is the third one?” Tess de- manded. “Where is Pinga?” . They professed not to know, but she had seen all three squatting together close to the little gate five minutes before. She or- dered Chamu to go and find the missing man and he waddled off, grumbling. At e end.of five minutes he returned without Adventure “One comes on horseback,” he announced, “who gave the third beggar money, so that he now waits outside.” - “What for?” “Who knows? Perhaps to keep watch.” “To watch for what?” “Who knows?” “Who is it on horseback? A caller? Some one coming for breakfast? You’d bet- ter hurry.” » The call at the breakfast-time is one of the pleasantest informalities ef life in India. It might even be the commissioner, Tess ran io make one of these swift changes of costume with which seme wo- men have the gift of gracing every opper- tunity. Chamu waddled down the steps to await with due formality the individual, in no way resembling a British commis- sioner, who. was leisurely dismounting at the wide gate fifty yards to the southward of that little one the beggars used. He was a Rajput of Rajputs, thin- wristed, thin-ankled, lean, handsome in a high-bred ‘Nerthern way, and possessed of that air of utter self- assuredness devoid of arrogance which peo- ple seem able to learn only by being born to it. His fine features were set off by a turban of rose-pink silk, and the only fault discoverable as he strode up the path be- tween the shrubs was that his riding-boots seemed too tight across the instep. There was not a vestige of hair on his face. He was certainly less than twenty— perhaps seventeen years old, or even younger. Ages are hard to guess in that land. . Tess was back on the veranda in time to receive him, with different shoes and stock- ings and another ribbon in her hair; few men would have noticed the change at all, although agreeably conscious of the dainti- ness. The Rajput seemed unable to look away from her but, ignoring Chamu, as he came up the steps, appraised her inch by inch from the white shoes upward until as he reached the top their eyes met. Chamu followed him fussily. Tess could not remember ever having seen such eyes. They were baffling by their quality of brilliance, unlike the usual slum- ‘brous Eastern orbs that puzzle chiefly by refusal: to express emotion. The Rajput bowed and said nothing, so Tess offered him a chair, which Chamu drew up more fussily than ever. (€(0) IOOK astenishingly _ (E@)