Adventure Magazine Cover — page 177: what you’re looking at

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

The Village of the Ghost reached us from Bhir of the approach of the big buffalo with the message. So we went out from Agra to meet him and persuaded him to read the Koran to us. That was be- cause I played the part of a dead man, and © ‘Enough of yourself.”” The man on the rug had a very shrill voice. ‘‘What are they doing in Agra?” “They are talking together and holding council kke a lot of old wives at a dewan, jemadar. ‘They have sent couriers to Bhir— the thugs in the village cared for them, of course—and they are worried at the sahib’s silence. Cunningham sahib is getting to- gether a detachment of red-coated fer- ight : “When will he come?” Hossein smiled. “In a week. Master, your servant took care to learn al] that before we left Agra to intercept the messcnger from Bhir. Aye, we of the Bhundulkhand band accompanied the khitmaigar of Cunningham sahib into the native bazaar by the Jumna bank. We buried him in the mud. But first we put a ~ sack of hot ashes over his head and beat it until his throat was seared and his lungs were half-full “Enough of vour deviltries! to hear of them.”’ “Cunningham sahib comes in a week—as soon as the passage of the rains and the decline of the river make the road fit for his feringht devils. We promised the kAitmatgar that we would leave him in peace if he told -us. And so we did leave him—under the mud of the river.”’ “How many soldiers will come?” ‘“‘Tenscore of sepovs—may their beards be defiled—and twoscore feringhz troopers. Is it true, emadar, that they breathe fire when they are angry and put a charm on their bullets?”’ “Peace, parakeet!” The yellow man rose and Hossein saw that his dingy black cloak hung down to his ankles. The man was very lean, and his bones were small as a child’s. Yet the wrinkles in his brown skin proclaimed him old. “You are very shrewd, Hossein, but vou have not vet killed a dozen men .and you know naught of the English. When they come they must find the castle of Bhir empty, without a trace of the sahib and his Rajput.” “Is the sahib-magistrate still alive?” Hossein was surprized. I care not 9) 167 “Ah.” The man in the cloak smiled wryly. “It is strange that he is. He sur- vived his first encounter with the idiot of a Rajput who was meant to slay him, and he was warned of the poison in the air of the castle.” “So, the sakib who took your place was not to be frightened away?” The yellow man frowned, as if he could not understand that fact, and in his frown was something wild and vacant. A gleam of supreme cunning flashed into his dark eyes. “It is better so. The higher powers, the wisdom of Kali Bhwani, has ordained that the feringht usurper will not die until the revenues he has collected from the district and the countryside beyond Bhir—until all that store of silver and gold is at the castle. Thus will we be rewarded for slaying the man.” Hossein bowed. He was thinking that it would be good booty. “Within four days will Malcolm sahib have completed the toll and gathered the revenues together,” he assented. Then, in an altered voice, ‘‘But what of Tala?” “She will have her’ part to play when we strike against the sahib.” The man had answered with complete in- difference, and Hossein’s eyes widened. “Tala, the Rajput flower, must not be placed in peril! Dom Gion, I will give——” The breath of the yellow man hissed in the face of the boy. His thin hands clutched at the other’s throat and fear leaped into the eves of Hossein. “That name!” Dom Gion’s voice trem- bled with rage. ‘‘You dare to speak it? Have I not said to you that I am jemadar of the Jumna thugs, and master of Bhir— no more?” The boy’s sturdy strength easily pried loose the lean fingers of his assailant, and at this evidence of his own power Hossein’s fear was displaced by a veiled cunning. He watched the old man as a dog will eye a Snake about to strike. ‘‘To no one else have I said your name,” he responded smoothly. . ‘Am I not your servant?” Pm UNDER the mask of complaisance zy, he was measuring the old man’s in- e==S telligence and craft as a strong voung wolf of the pack will study the strength of the old leader. Dom Gion was CO MICLOOKS C©