Harold Lamb

“ I remember hearing Captain Dixon singing somewhere outside the tent, "It's a long way to Tipperary!" Then the singing stopped and I felt the tent and everything else slipping away. It was a pleasant feeling, too, until I began to walk under thousand-foot trees, every one with a great boa coiled in the branches. And Anim Dass was skipping around, grinning at me from behind the boles of the forest, with a hat made of vultures' wings. ”

“ Carnie laughed. "I thought you said Moorcroft was balmy—mad, you know."
"And he may be," I insisted. "But it stands to reason that something must have kept thieves out of the place for three hundred years, because the location of the tomb was known to the natives, and Moorcroft seems to have found it untouched."
I wanted to tell him what I'd heard in the grove, and to ask him if he knew Dixon was planning to marry his sister. Arnold did not seem to consider such a possibility. I suppose Gordon had had a whole platoon of suitors. He was studying me with a frown. ”

“ And equally of course we'll keep the flag flying. After you've prepared breakfast, Arnold, you take one rifle and post yourself beyond the wood where you can watch the Chitral trail. And, Smith, if you are game, you can go down into the gorge by the lower trail and try to bury what's left of Anim Dass."
He lit a cigarette and sat in a brown study while Arnold and I pitched in and brewed black coffee, fixed up eggs and toast and opened the tin of marmalade. We felt better after that, especially when Dixon took matters so easily. ”