Adventure Magazine Cover — page 65: what you’re looking at

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

Om been co-trustee ever since Marmaduke died, and I don’t believe Hannah Sanburn has kept a single secret from me. “In fact, it has been the other way; she has passed most of her difficult personal problems along to me for solution. I’ve a dozen files full of her letters, of which I dare say five per cent. are purely personal. I think I know all her private business. As recently as last year, when we met here in Delhi—well—never mind; but if she had an adopted daughter or an entanglement of any kind, I think I’d know it.” ‘“Women are deep,” McGregor an- swered. ‘‘Well— We’ve not much to go on. I'll entrust that stone to you; if you’re still willing to try to get into the Abor country, I’ll do everything I can to assist. You've a fair excuse for trying; and you’re a bachelor. it, if I were, I’d go with you! Of course, you understand, if the State Department learns of it, you’ll be rounded up and brought back. “Do you realize the other difficulties? Sven Hedin is said to have made the last attempt to get through, from the north. He failed. In the last hundred years about a dozen Europeans have had a crack at it. Several died, and none got through—unless Terry and your sister did; and if so, they almost certainly died. When Younghus- band went to Lhassa he considered sending one regiment back by way of the Abor Valley but countermanded the order when he realized that a force of fifty thousand men wouldn’t stand a chance of getting through. From time to time the Govern- ment has sent six Gurkha spies into the country. None ever came back. “It’s almost a certainty that the River Tsangpo of Tibet flows through the valley and becomes the Brahmaputra lower down, but nobody has proved it; nor has any one explained why the Tsangpo contains more water than the Brahmaputra. Old Kinthup, the pundit on the Indian Survey Staff, traced the Tsangpo down as far as the waterfall where it plunges into the Abor Valley, and he threw a hundred marked logs into the river, which were watched for lower down; but none of the logs appeared at the lower end and not even Kinthup managed to get into the valley. “The strangest part about it is, that the northern Abors come down frequently to the southern Abor country to trade, and they even intermarry with the southern 63 Abors. But they never say a word about their valley. The Raja of Tilgaun—the uncle of the present man—caught two and put them to torture, but they died silent. ‘“‘And another strange thing is, that no- body knows how the northern Abors get into and out of their country. The river is a lot too swift for boats. The forest seems impenetrable. The cliffs are un- climbable. There was an attempt made last year to explore by airplane, but the at- tempt failed; there’s a ninety-mile wind half the time, and some of the passes to the south are sixteen or seventeen thousand feet in the air to begin with. I’m told carbureters won’t work, and they can’t carry enough fuel. ‘So if you’re determined to make the | attempt, old top, you must slip away secret- ly, and don’t leave your courage behind! If it weren’t that you’ve a right to visit Tilgaun I should say you’d have no chance; but you might make it if you’re awfully discreet and start from the Tilgaun Mission. If it’s ever found out that I encouraged you 9 ‘“‘You’ve been reeling off d¢scouragement for fifteen minutes!” “Yes, but if it’s known I knew oe “You needn’t worry. What made you say you think this stone will help me to trace the Terrys?”’ “Nothing definite except that it gives me. an excuse for sending you to Tilgaun more or less officially. I employ you to investi- gate the mystery connected with that stone. As far as Tilgaun you’re responsible to me. If you decide to go on from there, you'll have to throw me over—disobey orders. “You understand, I order you to come straight back here from Tilgaun. If you disobey, you do it off your own bat without my official knowledge. And I’m afraid, old top, you'll have to pay your own expenses.” Ommony nodded. Times out of number he had run risks on his own responsibility, not caring whether or not Government should disown him afterward; that is part of the experience of every valuable public servant. Every advance the world has made has been attained by disobedience in some degree to some authority or other, but always at the personal risk of him who dis- obeys; and the graveyard of reputations is more full than the hall of fame. For one Nelson of the Nile, one Napier, there are a thousand disgraced and forgotten men. Co NOOK (© inn