Adventure Magazine Cover, December 10, 1922 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

Benefit of Doubt and for that matter King had friends every- where. Nevertheless, the day was changed. News did not improve it. fea THEY were met about a half-mile ¥aj from the house by two of Ommony’s servants, who came running to re- port that Mahommed Babar had packed his bedding roll and ridden away at a gallop on his own gray pony. Furthermore, that certain chiefs of the Moplahs had come for a conference and were awaiting Ommony on his front veranda. “‘Any men with them?” he asked. “Nay, sakib. Three chiefs without fol- lowers. But they act boldly, as if their followers are not far off. Moreover, since when did a Moplah chief go unattended? Therefore, being afraid, we sent the hamal and two gardeners to discover where their followers are hiding. They have not come back, and we are more afraid.” “Fear and the heart of a fool are one,” said Ommony, quickening his pace. As they neared the house the third gardener met them with a message from the butler. “The three men from Malapuram en- tered the house to help themselves to guns and ammunition, sakib. The butler for- bade, but they threatened him. They were prevented by the dogs.” The dogs were still on duty when King and Ommony came in view of the veran- da, the terrier standing gamely between the legs of the other two and making most of the noise. The Moplah chiefs, with the fanatical Moslem’s loathing for dogs, showed their teeth almost as prominently as the beasts did and were standing herded together at one end of the veranda with hands on the hilts of most un-Indian look- ing swords. Their sword-belts, rather like Sam Browns, were surely never made in India. Ommony called the dogs off, rewarded them with curt approval, and sat down on a sort of garden seat between the sitting- room window and the front door. King took a seat beside him,» crossed his long legs, lighted a cigar and proceeded to look indifferent. The Moplahs approached, slow- ly recovering their poise. They looked nearly as un-Indian as the swords they wore. They had the long, Semitic Arab nose and the ineradicable Arab stealthiness added to truculence, in- 15 herited from Aram ancestors. One of them had red dye in his beard, which increased the Semitic suggestion. Nobody knows what Moplah really means, or exactly whence the turbulent fanatics came, but they invaded India three centuries after the prophet Mahom- med’s flight from Mecca and ever since have been Moslems in the middle of a Hindu land. Moreover in that impenetrable mountain jungle they have increased to a million strong—a million thorns in the side of Brahma and the Indian government—te- bels to a man in every generation. Their approach to Ommony was after the manner of their kind—not deferent. On the other hand, it was not insolent, although there are men in the East who call everything insolence that does not in- clude obsequiousness. Theirs was rather the approach of peacemakers, who come to reason with a weaker adversary to save him from his own mistakes, and Ommony, who knows men as understandingly as he knows animals, chuckled as he signed to them to sit down. They squatted before him with their backs against the veranda rail—proud, fierce-looking fellows. Change their Arab- looking garments, give them a hair-cut, and you could imagine them driving cattle in Mullingar (forgetting, of course, the tell- tale noses). They waited for Ommony to speak, for manners is the breath of all the Fast. “Have you come to serve notice on me to quit?” he asked them in their own tongue. The man in the midst with the red beard took up the tale at once. “Father of Forests—that was what the one word meant—it is better that you ge. Your house and your goods shall be spared. Go, and come back afterwards. Only leave the guns. We came for the guns and car- tridges.” They knew their man—not quite so well as he knew them, but broadly nevertheless. Otherwise they would have beaten about the bush for an hour first. Ommony answered without a suggestion of superi- ority—which is the secretrof real rule. “The dogs would not let you take the guns.” “True. But now you are here and have understanding.” ‘“‘Am I less than a dog?” wondered Om- mony. : comichbooks (ef 0)