Adventure Magazine Cover — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

82 There were reasons, connected with possi- ble eavesdroppers, why the deep veranda was unsuitable. “And the knife, Ommonee?’’ he asked, squatting crosslegged, admiring the room. “Is this thy house? Thou art a rich man! I think I will be thy servant for a while. Is the woman thy wife? It is not good to be a woman’s servant. Besides, I am a poor hand at obedience. Nay, return me my knife and I will go.” “Not yet,” said Ommony, studying by which roundabout route it might be easiest to elicit information. He decided on the sympathetic-personal. The man’s neck had plainly received attention, but the sub- ject served. “Shall I get a doctor for your neck?” “Nay; Tsiang Samdup made magic and put leeches on it and some stuff that burned. Lo, I recover.” “You mean the holy Lama Tsiang Sam- dup? The Ringding Gelong Lama? He who was at Chutter Chand’s this afternoon?”’ Ommony knew quite well whom he meant, but he wanted to convey the in- formation to the others without putting the Hillman on guard. By the look in the Hillman’s eye his mood was talkative— boastful—a reaction from the failure of the afternoon. “Aye, the same.” - “T should have thought his chela would have attended to that.” - “Samding? Nay, they say that fellow is too sacred altogether. Not that I be- lieve it; I could cut his throat and show them he dies gurgling and whistling like any other man! But the lama looks after him like an old wife with a young husband, and the boy mayn’t soil his fingers. “Rebuke thy dog, Ommonee—she eyes me like a demon in the dark. So; that is better. Oh—I wish I had never come southward! Yet I have seen this house of thine. It is a wonder. It will serve to speak of when I go back to Spiti and tell tales around the fire.”’ Ommony translated for the others’ bene- fit and went on questioning. “T suppose you will return to Tilgaun with the lama and his chela?”’ “May the stars and my karma forbid! I go under the belly of a te-rain, as I came. To Kalka I go; and thence by foot on the old road to Simla, where I know a man who will pay me to carry goods to the Raja of Adventure Spiti. That is a long journey and a diffi- cult. I shall be well paid.” Again Ommony translated. “‘Ask him how and where he learned that trick of riding under trains,” said McGregor. “Oh, as to that,” said Dawa Tsering, “there are few things simpler. In my youth—” he spoke as if he were already ancient, instead of perhaps two- or three- and-twenty—“I desired a woman of Spiti whose husband was unwise. He should have gone on a journey oftener. And he should not have returned in such haste. I wearied of his homecomings, so I lay in wait and slewhim. And the Raja of Spiti, who is a jealous man—liking to attend to all the slaying in that country, which is nevertheless too much for one individual, even if he does have an army of fifty men— fined me three hundred rupees. * ‘“‘Where should I get such a fortune? Yet unless I paid it I should have to join his army and gather fuel, which is as scarce in Spiti as an honest woman. So I ran away. “And after wandering about the Hills a month or two, enjoying this and that ad- venture, I reached Simla, where I met a man with whom I gambled, he offering to teach me a new game, not knowing we use dice in Spiti. And his dice were loaded. So I substituted mine. And when I had won from him more than he could pay he offered to teach me his profession.’’ “Gambling?” asked Ommony. “Nay. I never gamble. I take no chances. I do the gods a favor now and then, since it seems from all accounts they need it, but I never trust them. That fel- low told me of the te-rains that run from Kalka southward, to and fro, and of the many rupees that the passengers leave in their pockets while they sleep. He sup- © posed I would undertake the dangerous part and thereafter share the loot with him, and he showed me how to hide under a te- rain until nightfall and then—but it was easy. ‘“‘And I found out after a while where he hid the half of our profits, which he claimed as his share after J had done all the climbing in and out of windows in the dark. So I took what he had hidden, and what with my own Savings the total amounted to more than a thousand rupees. “Then I returned to Spiti, and buried * About one hundred dollars. MICLOOOK C@ inn