Adventure Magazine Cover — page 183: what you’re looking at

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

The Village of the Ghost wound, but—deprived of the protection of the Rajput, other poison would be injected into him secretly—and a hundred persons would swear it was the snake that had caused his death. He heard his daughter’s cry, and his sharpened senses caught the slight sound of silk slippers on grass. Then there was a flash of steel in the shadow behind the snake. The cobra darted its head at Malcolm, but the head writhed on the ground and there were two coils instead of one. Tala stared down at the stain on her simitar, her eyes dark with the fear that comes to one who is wakened from sleep by an evil Rawul Singh jerked Malcolm away from the threshing coils and the spectacled head that was still menacing. He snatched Tala back and peered into her face. “Dost know me—thy father?” he said harshly. “The snake frightened me. It was near thee.”” Her voice was dull and low but the glaze had passed from her eyes. . “Well for our honor that it was so and thou didst slay it.” A slight movement near them caused Rawul Singh to wheel and Malcolm to look around. His head bent in salutation, Hos- sein emerged from the shadow of the brush- pile where he had been standing. “Mashallah, sahib,” he smiled. ‘‘God be praised that you escaped the snake. Now that it is slain you should be safe.” His words were low-pitched and held a double significance. “It is a pity that this fine tamasha be interrupted. Sahib, favor your servant by commanding that it proceed.” Politely he saluted Rawul Singh and as he did so, the torch-light flashed on rich pearls in his turban. Hossein was quite composed, for he saw his chance to play a part and to strike where he knew Dom Gion had failed. “Tala, thy daughter,” he added to the Rajput, “has long been under my humble protection. Misfortune, perhaps the fate of her brother, had unsettled her mind and she could not recall the name of her father. Inshallah—what is fated, will come to pass. I did not know that she would appear this night as a dancer.” Familiarly he stepped to the girl’s side and looked into her face. As he did so his dark cheeks flushed for Tala was very fair 173 to look upon. A new excitement had added- its luster to her eyes. ‘Ts it not true,” he asked her softly, “that I, unworthy Hossein, have spoken of love to you? Have I not been gentle to you?” Malcolm, who had been staring up at the sky whence the stick had fallen near the snake, turned and looked quizzically at the girl. She half put out her hand to the thug, then frowned as if uncertain of her feelings. Rawul Singh surveyed the placid Mos- lem youth fiercely, and glanced jealously at his daughter. “IT have been sick,” she repeated slowly in Turki as if seeking for words. ‘‘Some- times I liked you, Hossein. But you prom- ised—you would take me away where I would find my father. Now Dom Gion has done that, although I do not quite know how 2 “She knows not what she is saying,” broke in Hossein. ‘‘Too much opium has been given her, Rawul Singh, yet not by me.” Assuring himself that Malcolm was giv- ing orders to the perturbed potail for the actors to proceed, Hossein bent close to the Rajput and whispered— “Rajput, would you look upon the man who slew vour son?” “Point him out, and name your reward.” “Come, then, but quietly. He hides within the castle, waiting td set hands on the revenue of the ferzight. Say naught to the sakib, for you know that he would but arrest the man and place him in a feringhi prison.” “Tt must wait.” There was perhaps no other inducement that would have appealed to Rawul Singh so strongly. But he would not Rave his master. As for Hossein, he shrugged, then cast a significant look at the thugs in the circle of spectators and loosened the long sash that was bound tightly around his waist. In the shadow of the castle wall he might have a chance to set upon the Rajput. The Moslem youth was a skilled strang- ler, yet he desired the sound of music to stifle any possible outcry, for Rawul Singh was a big man and would not die quickly even if set upon from behind in the dark- ness. It would be a notable achievement, thought Hossein, and would bring him fame among the thugs—fame and possession of Comicbhook ©