Adventure Magazine Cover — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

Om the money in a certain place and went to the raja and lied to him, saying I had earned the amount of the fine as a wood cutter but that a certain one—who was always my enemy—had stolen the money from me on the very first night that I returned. So the raja transferred my fine to that other man, who had to pay it, and then, of course, I had to leave Spiti again— swiftly. That other man has many friends. But I will find a way to deal with him.”’ “When did you first meet the holy Lama Tsiang Samdup?” Ommony asked. “Hah! I returned to the te-rains, being minded to make a fortune, but the gods played a scurvy trick on me. I was doing nicely; but on a certain night a fool of a policeman pounced on me at an ¢tstashun* just as I was crawling in under the wheels. - He dragged me out by the leg, and it was not a proper time to kill him, since there were many witnesses. So I raised a lamen- tation, saying I would ride to Delhi to the bedside of a friend, and that I had no fare. “And lo! The Lama Tsiang Samdup stepped out of the te-rain and paid my fare, praying that I would permit him thus to acquire merit. So-I rode with him to Delhi, he questioning me all the night long and I at my wits’ end to invent sufficient ‘lies wherewith to answer him. And in Delhi, I being a stranger in the city, he set out with me to help me find my friend; and there being no friend, we naturally did not find him, whereat the lama wept. So it seemed to me he was a man who needed some one to look after him; moreover, he was certainly a very rich man. And I had not yet thought of a way of defeating my enemy in Spiti. Restrain thy she-dog, Ommonee; I like not the look in her eye.”’ Ommony put Diana outside with orders to guard the front door, duty being the simplest way to keep her out of mischief. “How long ago did this happen?’ he asked, forcing himself to look only vaguely interested as he resumed his seat. “Oh, may be a year ago—or longer. The time passes. I agreed to serve the lama for a while, although he wearied me with his everlasting lectures about merit, and the Wheel, and the gods know what else. Also he keeps low company—actors and singers and such folk. When he left me at Tilgaun on his way northward I was well content to rest from him a while. He gave * Station. 83 me money, of which he has plenty although he is much too careful with it; and there were good-looking girls at the mission, which is a marvel of a place with a high wall. But I saw how to climb the wall. So it came about that there was trouble between me and Missish-Anbun—she who is abbess of the place—a bold woman, who was not afraid to stand up to me and speak her mind. Lo, I showed her my knife and she laughed at it! I speak truth. ‘‘So by the time the lama came back from the North I was a by-word and a mockery among the people of Tilgaun, who are a despicable lot but prosperous, and full of a notion that Missish-Anbun is the cause of all good fortune. And she, of course, being a woman and unmarried—which is witch- craft—told tales to the lama about me when he returned; whereat he—the old fool!— was distressed, saving he was answerable, in that he had left me there during his absence. “He spoke much about the Wheel and merit and responsibility. And I, who can not help liking the old fool, although I laugh at him—and at myself for eating rebuke from him—was ashamed. Aye, I was ashamed. He made me promise to perform acts of repentance—as he said, to offset my own sins, but as J think, because he had a use for me. ‘“‘And now he had Samding with him, the chela, whom all men in that part regard as a reincarnation of some ancient prodigy who has been dead so long that his bones must have dissolved into powder. But the priests tell just such tales, and who can say they are not true? “‘And there was much excitement over a piece of green stone. It had disappeared from somewhere up north, although none mentioned the name of the place ‘whence it had come; but I had heard something, and the rest I saw. There had come a man from Abor to the mission, dying of a belly wound, and if my advice had been asked he would have been left to die outside the wall, because those Abors are devils. I have heard they eat corpses, which is a dog’s business, and I know none dares to enter their country. But Missish-Anbun is mad, and she took him into the mission, where they stitched up the belly wound and tried to make him live. But he died, and they found the stone in his clothing, and Missish-Anbun kept it. - DOOK C©@ inn