Adventure Magazine Cover, December 10, 1922 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

~~ = had been upset. 46 love? How do I know that the gods love the trees? People of no discernment! If the gods did not love the trees, why should they live among them?” The logic of that was so much easier to grasp than the Moslem theory of one re- vengeful, flattery-loving Allah; and more- over it was so much more like. what they were used to than the ordinary admonitions of the white man preaching allegiance to an incomprehensible Government, that they felt comforted and listened on, instead of shrug- ging their shoulders at the great gulf fixed between them and whatever gods there be. “Tf you care for the trees, the trees wil hide you,” said.Ommony. “That is the way of the gods, who reward for service rendered. If you let the trees burn the gods will forget you. Pray, and the gods will laugh like the money lender. Keep the fire-lanes clear; find the Moplahs’ deserted -watch-fires and slake the ashes; search for the heat where smoke is—and the gods will protect you, even as they do me. More- over the Dee-part-tament, whose servant Tam, will pay wages by the month.” So they left their miserable villages, cached their scant belongings, drove their cattle and goats into forest clearings under Ommony’s direction, and submitted to be formed into gangs. The junglis, who are so wise that they have no homes and will not work unless the work amuses them, were set to guarding the cattle, driving them from clearing to clearing out of the way of the raiding Moplahs and not losing more than a fair percentage to the lords of the jungle. Leopards must eat, and the terri- fied buck were much harder to kill since the fighting started. Other junglis, scouting to discover which way the Moplahs might come next—in order to give notice to the herdsmen—were told to keep a bright eye lifted for Mahom- med Babar, and to discover what had been done with the body of Sirdar Mahommed Akbar Khan—for none of the junglis un- derstood that King was an Englishman. Some of them had seen him in English clothes when he first came, and with a rifle when he helped to execute Shere Ali, but that only ted to the logical inference that he was an Indian who could play a white man’s part. And meanwhile, the British authorities were not idle, although every precedent Precedents are British Adventure gods, and it is distressing to see all your little deities broken on the earth, faces downward. Nevertheless, you can distress the British without immobilizing them, and they have this characteristic: That when the old gods are quite worn out and in dis- repute they adopt nice new ones promptly. The railways were out of commission, along with nearly all the bridges and a good proportion of the rolling stock. The roads, too, were blocked with felled trees and great rocks loosened from the hills, for brother Moplah who had seen the white man prac- tising his creed in France had learned at last how to do a job thoroughly. Wherever a barricade of rocks and trees could be arranged to check the advance of troops, there it was. There, too, were trenches very skilfully designed and placed. - The torn-up railway track was about the only practicable line of advance; and as there were hardly any troops available, and such as there were were mostly needed to garrison fixed posts and protect defense- less small towns, the only possible course was to send junior officers in charge of small parties of men to patrol the line and keep the Moplahs worried. LEFT to himself without a nurse in red tabs and brass hat a British subaltern can lead men. Whether wisely or not is not the question. He can be depended on to go three times as far as suggested and to have much less trouble with his men than if there were a canteen and a court martial within reach. So Lieutenant John Linkinyear, marching jauntily at the head of eleven men—having lost three en route and buried them—ar- rived at Ommony’s one early morning just as Ommony was coming down the steps with a gun under his arm. ‘Bacon and eggs!”? demanded Linkinyear, whose last meal was a supper of dry biscuit. “For twelve of us! Section—halt! Stand easy! Let your mouths run!” Ommony shouted to his cook to continue bringing hot food until further notice, and demanded news. “I’m three days out, thank God, and out of touch,” said Linkinyear. “The last I heard was that Sutherland of the Rut- landshires and twenty men got theirs— and a rumor about old Kadi Wilmshurst and his missus. It’s true about Charley and his Ruts. Gomichooks We found their bones in (EC)