Adventure Magazine Cover — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

The Land of Ophir awed to do much beyond stare and gasp oaths upon Allah to the accompaniemnt of subdued squeaks and cries from the roofs. The Gandhi, shrieking with rage, turned upon his nobles, who, clustering around him, fell to shouting and protesting; and above the din the wail of Sabah’s pipe played on and on, and the pythons swayed their chromatic bodies as if they were being driven crazy with excitement by the cobra conductor on Sabah’s head. Evidently, thought I, there was no prec- edent for such a happening, so that none of them knew what ought to be done. As I was wondering whether Sabah intended to ‘try to wear out the dancing snakes until they were harmless from fatigue or whether he was waiting for some expected reenforce- ments to arrive, there came a gasp from the crowd, bringing my eyes back in time to see him take the pipe from his mouth and stick it within his jelab, where, with his fingers still operating the holes, it continued to play as loudly as ever. He had me puzzled, and for a moment I almost thought—noticing a gentle undula- tion going on beneath his robe—what the natives had evidently thought; that a snake was actually blowing into the instru- ment. Then of course I tumbled. He'd got a bagpipe arrangement concealed be- neath his je/ab. Then in a high, piercing voice that was audible all over the place he began to talk, a long-winded affair, claiming that he was a kind of messiah and the next incarnation of the Druse prophet, Darazi, mixed up with a lot of muddled Mohammedan law, and the crazy yarn of his descent from Abgar Ukkama and all the rest of it. No sooner had he paused for a moment than a band near to him, who were evidently his pals, began to shriek— ‘Messiah!’ With the pipe still wailing, but more softly, and the pythons working like a Broadway ballet, he began again making some sort of challenge to the group of holy men, or wllema as he called them, in the green turbans, finishing up with a regu- lar Tammany attack upon the Gandhi, calling him names that an Egyptian donkey boy would surely admire. He had some powers of oratory, had Sabah, when he fairly got going; for he held that bunch against what the Gandhi and ae was left of his partisans could do to 129 drown him, and finished by having the whole crowd on its feet yelling for the Gandhi’s gore. Then, evidently reckoning that he was safe from the mob, he ceased playing. As soon as the pythons began to glide back to the water the row subsided a bit, and all eyes watched them as if expect- ing them to make some signal or to read the supposed meaning of their movements. Even the cobra snuggled into his clothes, as much at home as with its late master. Anyway it seemed all right for him, for he rose and walked sedately in their wake. The Gandhi, who appeared to have lost his head entirely or had realized that the game was up, stood silent with one hand on the throne. Then, halting abruptly, Sabah raised one hand up, called out some phrase in a chant- ing voice which I didn’t catch, probably in Aramaic, which seemed to be his trump card, for instantly came a roar of assent. Then, pointing to the Gandhi, he com- manded the gang of nobles, who were standing in a bunch like a flock of scared sheep, to throw their sultan to the lords of the forest. Immediately three of them walked out gravely and took hold of the Gandhi, who, to my astonishment, didn’t appear to at- tempt to struggle, nor did he cry out as, picking him up, they walked deliberately to the water edge and threw him in. The splash sounded in dead silence. He disappeared, came up, and began to swim. Then suddenly a hand shot up, and his screech echoed against the palace walls. There was a glint of colors amid the swash of a chromatic body in a swirl, and he had disappeared. For all that his fate was our salvation, I couldn’t help but shudder. =a AS SOON as the ripples had sub- g sided Sabah turned, walking very ’ slowly, watched by all, and took his seat on the empty throne. “By he’s got away with it,” I muttered to Billy; fortunately I wasn’t remarked by my absorbed neighbors. “Now,” thought I with a mighty feeling of relief, “I guess he’ll get busy and cut down Fieldmorre and the rest.” As soon as he was seated he drew out the pipe again and began to play as before. Out came the cobra and climbed around his head, and from the water returned the pythons. COMic soo S C@ iin