Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 146 No. 4 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

posed to oh command, the leader, but th ‘led. I will not withdraw, and the place of the chief to handle the roomal. We will eat our food, and the evening prayers will sit about the and amuse this merchant with stories as honest men and holy ones con- verse in, that he may be at peace in his mind. As Sookdee says, the women will be sent to the grove of trees we came through on the road.” “We will gather about the fire of the merchant,” Sookdee declared, “for it is in the mango grove and hidden from the sight of the villagers. Also, a guard will be placed between here and the village, and one upon the roadway.” “And while we hold the merchant in amusement,” Hunsa®added, “‘ men will dig the pits here, two of them, each within a tent, so that they will not be seen at work.” “Yes, Ajeet,” Sookdee said with a sus- picion of a sneer, “ we will give the mer- chant the consideration of a decent burial, and not leave him to be eaten by jackals and hyenas as were the two soldiers you finished with your sword when we robbed the camel transport that carried the British gold in Oudh.” “If it is to be, cease to chatter like jays,” Ajeet answered crossly. In keeping with their assumed characters, the evening meal was ushered in with a peace-shattering clamor from the drums and a raucous blare from conch-shell horns. Then the devout murderers offered up prayers of fervency to the great god, be- seeching their more immediate branch of the deity, Bhowanee, to protect them. And at the same time, just within the mud walls of Sarorra, its people were plac- ing flowers and coconuts and sweetmeats upon the shrine of the god of their village. Just without the village gate the ele- phant-nosed Ganesh sat looking in whim- | pode nature across his huge paunch toward the place of crime, the deep shadow tha lay beneath the green-leafed mango oa . th hearts of the Bagrees there was unholy jo owe anticipation, a glad- Bhowanee who had certainly guided this rapacious merchant with his iron box full of jewels to their camp. Indeed they would sacrifice a buf- falo at her temple of Kajuria, for that was the habit of their clan when the booty was great. The taking of life was but an inci- dent. In Hindustan humans came up like flies, returning over and over to again en- cumber the crowded earth. In the vicissi- tudes of life before long the merchant would pass for a reincarnation of his soul, and probably, because of his sins as an op- pressor of the poor, come back as a turtle or a jackass; certainly not as a revered cow—he was too unholy. In the gradation of humans he was but a merchant of the caste of the third dimension in the great quartet of castes. It would not be like killing a Brahmin, a sin in the sight of the great god. This philosophy was as subtle as the per- fume of a rose, unspoken, even at the mo- ment a floaty thought. Like their small hands and their erect air of free men—the Rajput atmosphere—it had grown into their created being, like the hunting in- stinct of a Rampore hound. The merchant, smoking his hookah, hay- ing eaten, observed with keen: satisfaction the evening devotions of the supposed mendicants. As it grew dark their guru was Offering up a prayer to the holy cow, for she was to be worshiped at night. The merchant’s appreciation was largely a worldly one, a business sense of insurance —safety for his jewels and nothing to pay for security—men so devout would have the gods in their mind and not robbery. When the jamadars and some of the Bagrees who were good story tellers, and one a singer, did him the honor of coming to sit at his camp fire he was pleased. “Sit you here at my right,” he said to Hunsa, for he conceived him to be captain of the rajah’s guard. Sookdee and the others, without appar- ent motive, contrived it so that a Bagree or two sat between each of the merchant’s men, engaging them in pleasant speech, tendering tobacco. And, as if in modesty, some of the Bagrees sat behind the retain- ers. “This is indeed (eitulasyol) <atear a . r ]