Adventure Magazine Cover — page 161: what you’re looking at

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

: * ey RO 0 CFE ttf teeta Rew. err ety iar gl ie eacr ir deen ie Wk OS Nae < ” . ~ 2 te ’ . 2 we s re G cree 1 I per, Author of ‘Law of Fire,’ “The Curved Sword,” etc. S y ES, sahib, it is undoubtedly true. There is a devil in the castle, and that is why no one else will sleep there.” Jaswat Das, khttmatgar—butler—inclined his head gravely and Sir A. Cunningham did not smile. Years of service in the Honor- able East India Company and as Resident of the Jumna district of upper India had made Cunningham very well acquainted with the-demonology of India. Moreover he knew that Jaswat Das, his butler, was relating the common talk of the countryside. It was the year of Our Lord 1802 and the two white men sat under the chenars by the Jumna River bank just outside the walls of Agra. Squatting on the ground in front of them, the butler looked from his master to the stranger. “How do you know, Jaswat Das, that there is a demon in the castle if you have not seen him?” inquired Cunningham. The other white man asked no questions, contenting himself with listening closely to what the native said. ‘““Because, sahib, the men of the village have seen him. Sometimes the demon takes the form of a snake and sometimes that of a deadly sickness. When he is in his own body he looks like an old man with long hair and a face the color of old ivory; he wears a black khilat that covers his human body down to the ankles so that no one can tell what his I51 form is really like. He has lived in the castle for a hundred years and it is said he once inhabited the form of the daughter of the potail (proprietor) of the village.”’ “Then why,” pursued the Resident, “did the demon slay the two sahibs who went to Bhir when:he has never molested the villagers?” “The two feringhi died because they slept in the castle of Bhir that was the demon’s home.” “Aye, Jaswat Das, that is true. But na- tives—even the potail—have slept in the castle at various times and have come to no harm.”’ The khitmatgay nodded understandingly. ‘True, sahib. Yet you do not remember that the folk of the village when they wanted to sleep in the castle always made holes in the walls first. Then they lghted fires within and rushed about, firing their weap- ons and making great outcry. In this way they made a spell and the demon-did not ~ hurt them.”’ “Yet if the people of Bhir did not make offerings to the ghost, it would attack them?” ‘Assuredly, sa#ib—either in the form of a snake or a sickness. Their women folk would be childless and their cattle would die.” “Very well, Jaswat Das. Still, in spite of their fear of the ghost of Bhir castle, the CO MICLOOKS CO =