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Show ji a-f"L- EziLl t RY TALBOT MUNDY " ' 9 O TALBOT MUNDY WNU SERVICE t . THE STOBT THUS FA It Carl Norwood has been sent from his native England to the ira,. tftt to lndia. along w th hi, Indispensable manservant! Moses OXeary 'fortune. Norwood's Job is to survey the district to determine whether ',?, wcret diamond mine belongs to the temple priests o to the ruler h ' Kadur- Norwood calls on the British Residency to pay his oects. On his way he catches a cllmpse of two women in ia Da, of hom is young and beautiful. The other woman he knows to ' u.h aranee of Kadur. OXeary later tells him that the young woman U S girl meli h"n Hard'"s' " with her aunt, Mrs Deborah Hard S at the palace. On a sightseeing tour Mrs. Harding sprains an ankte ' K the palace for aid. Prince Rundhia. handsome, spoUed 'nephew "i?. comes to her rescue, and takes her back to the paUce where T he At a banquet that night in the palace, attended by Captain Nor! Harding takes one of the native doctor's pills, and becomes v lolentlv $ placed in bed and arrangements are made for Lynn to move out of ' with her aunt and stay with the Maharanee. That evening Prinni tempts to make love to Lynn. She is unwilling to listln to him and f ol moment Norwood appears on the scene, much to Rundhia's dTsgSst 1 oirs. Page one, I'll tell 'em the Intelligence is run by cheap 'uns. They'd make a Scotchman feel like multiplying loaves and fishes, free for nothing!" Norwood rode alone along the river riv-er bank until the path grew narrow near the waterfall pnd he could no longer see the huge bulk of the tern-pie, tern-pie, nor even the city wall that followed fol-lowed the curve of the river beyond the dam. He dismounted and hitched his horse to a shrub. The water tumbled tum-bled innocently, lazily over the dam; there was hardly a hint behind be-hind that beautiful curved translucent trans-lucent screen there might be the mouth of a tunnel The river water was vaguely blue. There were four men seated near the ledge on which Norwood had nearly lost his life the night before. They stood up, greeting him respectfully. respect-fully. They were Brahmins but not beneath the waterfall, but O'Leary crashed him, shoved, almost fell in, too, but scrambled-regained his footing-attacked the cobra-beat it with the long stick, slew it "Now are you satisfied! Lied to you, did I? Going on in through the hole, or acting sensible? Want to know how it feels to be pitched in the dark down a diamond mine?" "Back to camp," said Norwood. "Thank you, I'll take whiskey! Watch your step, and watch your Uncle Moses. If I signal, don't. call me a liar, duck quick!" As foster-mother. Aunty Deborah Harding had neglected no detail of Lynn's social education. Whatever Lynn did, she did well. She had been taught to ride perfectly. On one of the Maharajah's thoroughbreds, thorough-breds, in the early morning cool, she looked worthy of the splendid animal that she controlled with no visible effort Lynn, the mystic In- ; . i "How about a stroll as far as the guesthouse to find out how your aunt is?" Rundhia suggested. "Thanks, no. There's a phone In my bedroom. I will use that. Good night. Good night Captain Norwood." Nor-wood." CIUPTER VI ilPTEB V Continued ' -ad laughed. "Not about, it's late. However, let's Mdhia." .please sing." Lynn knew iin't even scratched the sur-j sur-j Norwood's humor. So she jtperated. ia imiled and plucked a wo: "Ever hear this one?" priests; they looked like responsible responsi-ble men of affairs who might, perhaps, per-haps, be trusted with the financial details of some of the temple business. busi-ness. He plunged straight to his subject: sub-ject: "One of our Air Force pilots has reported having glimpsed an open pit surrounded by those outlying buildings near the temple area. It's an open secret that the priests have been working a diamond mine for centuries. We have heard the mine is dangerous. I want a secret look at it. Perhaps I can advise you how to make it safe. One other thing: stop dumping clay in the river. riv-er. Perhaps I can advise what to do about that. As for the dispute about ownership, my party is run- dian daybreak and the vigor of her motion through the long mauve shadows, were all one merriment to make a man's eyes widen and his heart leap. One could recognize Rundhia from a mile off by the way he swung his right arm at the trot an unconscious uncon-scious habit that it had been nobody's no-body's business to tell him about. But Rundhia could ride, too. They were a pair to stop and gaze at Lynn seemed to have forgotten the previous night's disagreement. She appeared glad to see Norwood: "What are you doing up so early?" ear-ly?" "The sight of you on horseback is better than sleep," he answered. "I had dreams about you." Norwood changed into khaki and followed O'Leary's lantern. O'Leary was nervous, talkative, deliberately disrespectful. Being only one-third Irish, two-thirds of his truculence was assumed, not genuine. However, How-ever, Norwood understood that. "Someone," said O'Leary, "must have overheard us talking near the palace gate. I was followed to camp. Heard him. Couldn't see him. We're followed now. They'll take your number down unless you watch out. All you officers believe, because your uniform was made in London, that you've only got to call the police po-lice and " "Shut up." "All right, strafe me! That's the Army for you. I'm not Army. I'm an underpaid civilian supernumerary. supernumer-ary. Sack me if you want Wo. O'Leary resumed his discourse: "Then believe this: while you was "Bad ones?" "I can't remember. You know how dreams escape you when you wake up." "Come along for a gallop." "Can't. Sorry." Looking at Lynn's Jot beautifully. His voice good tenor, and he handled ar with care. He avoided $i eyes. He sang to Lynn, sii meant nothing to her, but jln't fail to perceive the pas- jested by the B-flat minor I ,. At the end of a stanza, I 'interrupted: t a that stuff, Rundhia! Sing I I decent." ia passed him the guitar. -$t he had him at a dis- l ling," he answered. "Per-mknow "Per-mknow something for good ;:ys and girls. Do you know mA surprised both of them. . the guitar and changed the .struck some chords at ran-dthen ran-dthen played the thing bet-: bet-: Rundhia could. He felt his Tjgh one air to another, un-adone un-adone that suited his mood, a trolled out Kipling's "On .dtoMandalay." A a fine voice, baritone, and i whistle the chorus instead ating familiar words. It ireat art, but it was manly. I :ecent. Where there "weren't Commandments," Norwood rd inviolable standards of iiial, the Army roars its slo-i slo-i the sky," said Rundhia. "I S e you in love with a Bur-i Bur-i 'Mian, Norwood. Why not :ra Rangoon billet?" miss this?" Norwood an- He was looking at Lynn, s your guitar. Are we go-feed go-feed Lynn his arm and she ' astonished to refuse. He w rightful escort. She hard-' him, and what she did annoyed her. However, Jd herself walking beside J her arm in his, and there Mg for Rundhia to do but ' them down the ancient "al the garden path was wide for three abreast. Norwood (ton's arm to make her lis-"poke lis-"poke so low that she could Whim: Ml K ning a survey line to establish facts. I have seen nothing yet to suggest that the priests are not the rightful right-ful owners. If you've any documents, docu-ments, I'd be glad to see them. My report isn't the last word, but it's likely to carry weight." If Norwood hadn't been thinking about Lynn and Rundhia, he might have noticed that the Brahmins looked a lot too pleased. One of them, pushing past him, slipped a tiny black paper envelope into Norwood's Nor-wood's left-hand tunic pocket. He apologized for having brushed against him. Norwood had hardly noticed that he did. ... The four held a whispered consultation. consul-tation. Then their spokesman said, in excellent English, but with a trace too much silk in his voice: "We appreciate your honor's courtesy. cour-tesy. But we are intermediaries, on whom it is incumbent to convey the message to the proper quarter. It shall doubtless have immediate consideration." con-sideration." He paused, then added, as if choosing an innocuous polite phrase: "We know well that your honor's report will have great weight. We hope that your honor's judgment may not be influenced by worthless arguments." Back in camp, Norwood sat under the tent awning to have his boots polished by his servant, while he gave orders for the day. "Sergeant Stoddart," he said suddenly. sud-denly. "There's a middle-aged lady in the Maharajah's guesthouse who had a rather bad spill yesterday. Bruises. Perhaps abrasions. Might be complications if she isn't careful. care-ful. A Bengali doctor is attending her, and you can't always depend on those fellows to use fresh antiseptic." anti-septic." "I'd be awful sick, before I'd let one of 'em dose me, sir." "Well, before you go down to the river, take a look in my medicine chest. You'll find a new two-ounce bottle of iodine. I think I'll take it to her. Wrap it up so that it won't break. I'm going to see the Resident." Resi-dent." (TO BE COMLM'ED) , eyes, thinking about Rundhia, Norwood Nor-wood spoke unguardedly: "My man is signalling some people waiting for me near the waterfalL I must go. I will call as soon as I can." He looked straight at Rundhia. It was then that Lynn noticed that Rundhia and Norwood hadn't spoken. spo-ken. "Should I introduce you?" she suggested, laughing. Norwood saluted her, wheeled his horse, and rode away, not looking backward. He heard Rundhia laughing. laugh-ing. O'Leary met him by the river, full of self-importance: "You should send me to Geneva! I'm a diplomat. They're waiting. If you're nice, and no one's looking they may let you see the mine. I convinced 'em that all you're here for is to blow the government's nose. It needs blowing, I told 'em, on account ac-count of some sneak squealing on 'em that their mine isn't safe for laborers, and you're here to muzzle the talk." "I would like to muzzle you," said Norwood. "Same as it says in the Bible about muzzling the ox that grinds your corn," O'Leary answered. Norwood studied him a moment. There was only one way to get the value out of O'Leary. No use making mak-ing him sulky. Keep him busy. "Go to the bazaar," he ordered. "Here's some money. Pick up all the palace gossip that's going the rounds." "I get you! Smell a rat just smell him and I'll catch him. This isn't much money." "It's all you're going to get." "One o' these days," said O'Leary, O'Lea-ry, "I'm going to hire a secretary and take a chance with the Official Secrets Act and dictate my mem- "My report is likely to carry weight." performing an officer's job wi' a banjo and a beauty, I sat thirsty by the camp-fire, so the smoke 'ud keep the skeeters off me, hoping for one o' my spies to show up. But came along a man I don't know. Crep' up surreptitious. Spoke Punjabi, Pun-jabi, mispronouncing it. It weren't his right language. Says he: 'How much?' " "Gave you money?" "Not one anna! He wanted to know your price to side with the priests against the Maharajah." "What did you tell him?" "Nothing." "What did you do?" "He was gone too quick. I missed him with the new iron skillet what the cook had stuck to clean itself Maharanee is a dotard on 1 You can't depend on her Reason. Leave Kadur the ;rour aunt is fit to travel." in can't guess" Itaow. I was an orphan. on stupid discipline sed injustice Oh, hello, lyou there? Thought you'd Wfod to pray or some- as grinding his teeth. ' answer. Pity on him: "When - show me the treasure :e're alone," Rundhia an-.en, an-.en, spitefully: "Ours is !'ew treasures that haven't '"way to London." an the others were plun-Lynn plun-Lynn asked. - said Norwood. rl y walked in silence ,ac front door, 'ht," said Rundhia point- mileti. -Til ask you to "gh t0 sce me to the gate, '"e guard let me out once s(y might think I'm my 11 1 turn up alone. Miss know why the beauti-S'ns beauti-S'ns are locked up in .'ont you?" "'conundrum? No, why?" ;e 8Md-looking Indian men yarned of 'emselves if make Casanova look .'e amateur." 'H'ng rude?" V"e her aid: "Ex-, "Ex-, nn! Soldiers fold their eave their girls behind 'suppose all women are J?8"" it as a friendly ;atto trust me." at bay on the palace . j"3' on the tip of her v.be Norwod so thor- ould never presume ; er again. She wasn't iZ ; d'dn't expect that cea from one man to : Ranged her mind. among the embers. Damned nigh red-hot. If I'd hit him, he'd ha' sizzled. Point is that whoever sent him will be figuring they tried the wrong diplomacy. Next thing, knife or bullet Dodge 'em and look out for poison. Make the cook taste everything and then bury the cook. From now on, I eat nothing. Even whiskey ain't safe. They can drill and plug the bottle; but it kills more comforting than ground glass or bamboo fiber. The priests know you dined at the palace tonight. They're dead sure the Maharajah greased your palm. Well there's where the dump is. 'Tain't safe to go closer." "Wait here," said Norwood. O'Leary picked up a stick. He shadowed Norwood along the footpath, foot-path, until Norwood peered beneath the waterfalL He had to stand on a slippery ledge of rock. As O'Leary O'Lea-ry had foretold, the moon's rays did wanly penetrate, but it was torchlight torch-light that revealed the tunnel-mouth. Norwood stood there for several minutes watching spectral figures dump blue clay from baskets, to be carried away by the river. "Look out!" yelled O'Leary. Norwood jumped. A living cobra, flung by an unseen hand, struck his face fell writhing struck missed. Norwood almost fell into the pool |