Adventure Magazine Cover, December 10, 1922 — page 46: what you’re looking at

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

40 Why—how was it brilliant? Hah! Any man with half an eye could understand that. Let there be a sign from heaven. Was not that the authorized, established, ancestral way of deciding knotty issues? If Mahom- med Babar should up and drive those head- men forth, thus proving himself greater and braver and wiser than the headmen, then let him be accepted as their leader! If not, then no. Let Allah, Lord of life, decide the issue. Then, if Mahommed Babar drove the head- men forth it would be the verdict of Allah and The speaker was interrupted by the ar- rival of the headmen in more or less of a cluster, each doing his best to seem the most important without offering the others too much inducement to challenge him. For a while they all whispered and talked at once, unable to elect a spokesman, until at last the youngest of them seized the ad- vantage, speaking very rapidly and loud to avoid interruption. “We advise that you engage this man Mahommed Babar to be leader for the present,’’ he announced. “We recommend it.” “We have considered the proposal in council and we strongly advise it!” “We will continue to be a council. He may do nothing without our approval. Subject to that we advise you to appoint him leader for the present.” “We are unanimous.” “‘We urge you to agree to this at once.” The headmen were undoubtedly unani- mous, but in nothing so much as preventing any one of their number from rising a little higher than the rest. There came another man into the mosque. He was laughing and full of communicative malice. “He drove them forth! I saw! I heard! From the street I saw and heard! He called them bellies .ull of wind and said he will appeal to less opinionative folk! He said he will offer himself as leader before us all, and we may leave or take him. If we take him he will lead. By Allah he will lead, said he. If we reject him he will go away and we may stew in our own juice! So he said, standing in the door with legs apart, and they went away and held a council after- wards.” “Good! Let him be leader!” said some one, and they shouted agreement. Adventure “But he must change that part about doing no violence to civilians! We must be allowed to loot or kill unhindered!” They agreed to that, too, unanimously. “Let some one bring him and we will tell him so to his 2 The speaker’s jaw dropped. There was silence. In the door Mahommed Babar . stood, with head bent a little forward and hands behind him. He appeared to meet the eyes of every man in the mosque before he spoke. Then— “T told these headmen that I will be your leader,” he said quietly. ‘Does any one object?” None did. At least none cared to voice his disapproval. : “Very well then,” he said after a full minute. “I willlead. Henceforth there will be no killing of unarmed civilians. But there will be a plan and a purpose, and no back talk. Iwill give my orders to the headmen, who will enforce them. By Allah, since you have named me leader, I will lead!’ CHAPTER X “Hostages.” DSCELE live on the slopes of Vesuvius. They speak of the volcano’s cruelty, its sudden anger, its destructive outbursts— of the names of its slain, of the square leagues of vanished orchards, and of the cities buried under lava. They continue to lives on the slopes of Vesuvius. The pro- fits while peace lasts are greater than on the crowded plains, and the human gambling instinct draws them to settle again among the smoking lava beds between eruptions. Hindus live in Moplah country. They speak of the Moplahs’ cruelty, their sudden anger, their destructive outbursts—of the names of the slain, of the square leagues of vanished cultivation, and of the cities buried ‘in jungle that once hummed with Hindu life. Hindus continue, nevertheless, to live in Moplah country. The profits while peace lasts are greater than on the crowded plains, The gambling instinct draws them to re- settle the smoking villages between out- bursts of fanaticism. The Hindus were there first, just as people were there before Vesuvius. Once in every fifty years or so since the Moplahs’ first invasion, which is oftener than Vesuvius breaks loose, the Moplahs have readjusted Gomichooks (E(0)