Adventure Magazine Cover, November 10, 1924 — page 106: what you’re looking at

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

104 Eack gain for self denies the Self that knows the self és vain; Who crowns accomplishment with pride must build the whole again! 3 But if, at each ascending step, more clearly ye perceive That sf must kill the lower will who would the world relieve And they are last who would be first, their effort thrown away; Be Nlica then, and persevere. Ye tread the Middle Way! — HE moment the last woman had vanished from the room the lama let Samding help him to his feet and clucked, snapping his fingers to Diana. She glanced at Ommony; he nodded, immensely curi- ous, and she trotted to the lama’s side as matter-of-factly as if she had known him all her life. Dogs, according to Ommony, identify themselves with their master, and then, in- stead of forming their own opinions, either of people or events, detect the subconscious knowledge of their master sooner than his own conscious mind is able to interpret it; which, if true, would account for more than meets the eye. True or not, Ommony had not known this to fail in Diana’s case; he had observed that when she liked a man at once, even- tually he had always liked him; friends of his whom she mistrusted turned out in the end to be false ones. Subsequent search- ing of memory seemed to establish that in every instance his own first impressions of those individuals, although subsequently smothered by a host of considerations, had been correct and had been correctly divined by the dog. It was nothing that one could prove, any more than a man can prove that he is awake and not dreaming, but a course of exactly repeated coincidences becomes convincing, and Ommony, setting down Diana’s behaviour on the credit side of the lama’s balance, watched. The lama and the chela went down to the room below, taking Diana with them. The chela spread out the mat, rearranged it in accordance with the lama’s instructions, and the two sat down on it facing the balcony, conversing in low tones, evidently waiting for something preordained to hap- pen. Diana sniffed around the room, in- ‘specting cushions curiously, but they took no apparent notice of her. After a minute or two she sat down and looked bored. Instantly the lama called to Ommony— “Can you cause the dog to open her - &@ toy. Adventure mouth, from where you are, without speak- ing?” Ommony stood up, his head and shoul- ders visible above the rail, and seeing him Diana pricked an ear. The trick was simple enough; ever since she was a puppy she had always dropped her jaw when he held up a finger at her; by education, for his own amusement, he had simply en- couraged and fixed a habit. Her mouth opened, closed, and opened wide again. Samding laughed delightedly, but the lama very seriously beckoned to Diana to come nearer and she obeyed at a nod from Ommony. She wanted to sit on the mat, but the lama would not allow that; he pushed her away and she squatted down facing the balcony, watching Ommony, awaiting orders. | “Now again!’ said the lama. Ommony raised his finger. The ear went up, the mouth opened and stayed open until the finger was lowered. The lama was as pleased as a child with He called to Ommony to repeat the trick a dozen times, and Ommony added to it by making Diana sit up on her haunches; she would have been satisfied to go through all her tricks, but a Tibetan entered through the door the woman had used, midway of the long wall, facing, but on a lower level, the upper door through which the lama had led Ommony to the gallery. The lama froze into immobility and Samding followed suit. There entered a man whom Ommony knew from his photographs—Prabhu Singh, the almost middle-aged but younger son of a reigning raja. He knew him well by reputation—had admired him in the ab- stract because he was notorious for inde- pendence and for fair, intelligent, outspoken and constructive criticism of foreign rule. He was said to be an intimate of Ghandi and was, in consequence, about as much appreciated by the ruling powers as a hornet at a tea party. He was tall, lean, lithe, big-eyed under a plain silk turban and extremely simply dressed in tussore stuff that showed every line of his athletic figure—not very dark- skinned—clean-shaven except for a black mustache. He wore no jewelry, strode bare-footed with manly dignity to a point midway between the lama and the door, bowed low, and stood still. Diana went up and sniffed him. He showed surprize, CoOMmiclhoo (© 5}