* About one hundred dollars
* Railway station
Chapter VII
"Sarcasm? I Wonder if that ever Pays."
It is the teaching of financiers and statesmen, and of them who make laws, and of most religionists, that of all things a man should first seek safety—for his own skin—for his own money —for his own soul. Yet I find this teaching strange; because of all the dangers in the universe, the greatest lies in self-preferment.
—From the Book of the Sayings of Tsiang Samdup
The letter was written on the same long, ivory-colored paper as that which had reached McGregor's office in the silver tube, but this time it was not European handwriting, although the words were English. Some one more used to a brush, such as the Chinese use, and who regarded every pen-stroke as a work of art in true relation to the whole; had taken a quill pen and almost painted what he had to say, in terse strong sentences.
"To Cottswold Ommony, Esquire, "At the house of his friend.
"May Destiny mete you full measure of mercy. The piece of jade is neither yours nor mine. By deeds in the valley of indecision a soul ascends or descends. You are one to whom reward is no inducement; to whom honor is no more than wealth a pleasing substitute for right doing. There is nothing done in this life that is not balanced by justice in the lives to come and the ultimate is peace. So do. And not by another's hand are deeds done; nor is the end accomplished without doing all that lies at the beginning. Thus the beginning is the end, and the end the beginning, as a circle having no beginning and no end, from which is no escape but by the Middle Way, which lies not yonder but at the feet of him who searches. Take the stone to Tilgaun, which is one stage of the journey to the place whence it came. From Tilgaun onward let those be responsible on whom the burden falls. There is danger in another's duty. Peace be with you. Peace give you peace that you may multiply it.
"Tsiang Samdup."
Mrs. Cornock-Campbell read the letter aloud. Not smiling, she passed it to Ommony and watched his face. He read it twice, frowning, and gave it to McGregor, who emitted his staccato, fox-bark laugh, which Diana heard and answered with one deep musical bay from the porch. "That links him technically-tight," said McGregor, folding the letter with decisive finger-strokes and stowing it into his pocket. "Where did he learn to write such English?"
"Oxford," said Ommony. "He took D.D. and LL.D. Degrees, or so Marmaduke told me. We're not the only section of humanity that runs to Secret Service, Mac. We look for one thing, they for another. There isn't much they don't know about us, along the line that interests them."
Mrs. Cornock-Campbell looked incredulous.
"A Ringding Gelong Lama—an English Doctor of Divinity? Wonders don't cease, do they! What could he gain by taking that degree? Amusement? Are they as subtle as all that?"
"Subtle, yes. Amusement, no," said Ommony, frowning darkly. "How spike the guns of the persistent missionary, unless they know how the guns are loaded? That's the gist of one of his letters to me. But damn the man! Why couldn't he meet me by appointment instead of writing this stuff? I've suspected him for some time of—"
Mrs. Cornock-Campbell laughed. "He evidently knows you, Cottswold, better than you know him."
"Know him? I've never met him!" Ommony retorted. "I saw him today for the first time, from behind a brass Buddha in Chutter Chand's shop. There've been lots of times when he ought to have met me, to talk over details in connection with the trusteeship, but it all had to be done by correspondence. He has set his signature to every paper I drew up, and he has agreed to every proposal I have made. Confound him! Why is he afraid of me? Why couldn't he come in, instead of leaving that fool letter on the door-step?"
"Wise letter!" (Mrs. Cornock-Campbell went back to the piano. None but Rimsky-Korsakof could describe her sensations.) "He evidently knows how to manage you. Do you ever bet, John? I will bet you five rupees I know what's next!"
John McGregor drew a five-rupee note from his pocket and laid it on the piano. Mrs. Cornock-Campbell began playing. Dawa Tsering, his head to one side like a bird's, watched her fingers, listening intently.
"There are devils inside the machine," he said after a while. "Give me my knife, Ommonee, and let me go." But Ommony, pacing the floor, both hands behind him, frowning, took no notice of any one. He was away off in a realm of conjecture of his own.
"Remember: I stand to lose five dibs!" McGregor remarked at the end of five minutes. "Suppose you put me out of agony. I'm Scots, you know!"
"Damn!" Ommony exclaimed. "Why can't he take me into his confidence? I hate to suspect a man. Pen and ink anywhere?"
"I lose," said Mrs. Cornock-Campbell, nodding toward a gilt-and -ivory writing desk against the wall. "Take back your five rupees, John. You'll find a five of mine being used as a book-mark in one of those volumes of Walter Pater on the shelf. Put something in its place."
McGregor paid himself. Ommony at the desk tore up sheet after sheet of paper, chuckled at last, and wrote a final draft. "There, that should do. That's obscure enough. That hoists him with his own petard. Why don't women ever have clean blotting-paper?"
He showed what he had written to McGregor, who read it aloud, Mrs. Cornock-Campbell playing very softly while she listened.
"To the holy Lama Tsiang Samdup, in the place where he has chosen to secrete himself.
"I will take the Middle Way if I can find it, and I hope neither of us may get lost. I wish you all success.
"Cottswold Ommony."
"Sarcasm?" said Mrs. Cornock-Campbell. "I wonder if that ever pays."
"We'll see!"
Ommony sealed up the envelope, on which he had written simply "Tsiang Samdup," and stood over Dawa Tsering.
"Take this letter to the Lama. Come back here with proof you have delivered it, and you shall have your knife."
"Send him in my dog-cart," McGregor advised. "My sais* is one of those rare birds who do as they're told. He doesn't talk or ask questions."
* Coachman
So Dawa Tsering was seen on to the back seat of the dog-cart, with a horse-blanket under him to keep grease off the cushion, and the conference was resumed. McGregor questioned Ommony narrowly concerning the events of the afternoon, and particularly as to the exact location of the courtyard where the attack had taken place.
"It doesn't look to me as if they meant to kill you," he said at last. "It seems to me they were hell-bent on merely driving you away. Um-tiddley-um-tum-tum—we've made a mess of this—we should have had that building watched. Katherine, I will bet these ten rupees that our friend from Spiti draws blank."
"Men are unintuitive creatures," Mrs. Cornock-Campbell answered. "No, John, I won't bet. The obvious thing was to take the Lama at his word and go straight to Tilgaun. I supposed Cottswold would see that, but he didn't—did you? What is the objection?"
"This,"
