Front matter
Reading edition
BOOKS BY TALBOT MUNDY
RUNG HO
KING—OF THE KHYBER RIFLES
GUNS OF THE GODS
THE WINDS OF THE WORLD
HIRA SINGH
THE IVORY TRAIL
THE EYE OF ZEITOON
TOLD IN THE EAST
HER REPUTATION
THE NINE UNKNOWN
OM—THE SECRET OF AHBOR VALLEY
OM
THE SECRET OF AHBOR VALLEY
By
TALBOT MUNDY
INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL-COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1924
By Talbot Mundy
Printed in the United States of America
PRESS OF
BRAUNWORTH & CO.
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
BROOKLYN, N. Y.
CONTENTS
I“Cottswold Ommony . . . Is No Man’s Fool.”3
IINumber One of the Secret Service.15
III“What Is Fear?”27
IV“I Am One Who Strives To Tread the Middle Way.”40
VThe House at the End of the Passage.52
VI“Missish-Anbun Is Mad.”62
VII“Sarcasm? I Wonder if That Ever Pays.”78
VIIIThe Middle Way.89
IX“Gupta Rao.”107
XVasantasena.123
XI“All This in the Space of One Night.”139
XII“All Things End—Even Carriage Rides.”148
XIIISan-Fun-Ho.160
XIVThe Second Act.173
XVThe Roll-Call by Night.188
XVI“Where Are We?”199
XVIIDiana Rehearses a Part.213
XVIIIDiana Adopts Buskins.226
XIXA Message from Miss Sanburn.236
XXOmmony Capitulates.251
XXIThe Lay of Alha.260
XXIIDarjiling.272
XXIIITilgaun.282
XXIVHannah Sanburn.294
XXVThe Compromise.307
XXVIAhbor Valley Gate.319
XXVIIUnder the Brahmaputra.327
XXVIIIThe Lama’s Home.338
XXIXThe Lama’s Story.350
XXXThe Lama’s Story (Continued).362
XXXIThe Jade of Ahbor.375
OM—THE SECRET OF AHBOR VALLEY
EVOLUTION
Tides in the ocean of stars and the infinite rhythm of space;
Cycles on cycles of æons adrone on an infinite beach;
Pause and recession and flow, and each atom of dust in its place
In the pulse of eternal becoming; no error, no breach
But the calm and the sweep and the swing of the leisurely, measureless roll
Of the absolute cause, the unthwarted effect—and no haste,
And no discord, and nothing untimed in a calculus ruling the whole;
Unfolding; evolving; accretion; attrition; no waste.
Planet on planet a course that it keeps, and each swallow its flight;
Comet’s ellipse and grace-note of the sudden firefly glow;
Jewels of Perseid splendor sprayed on summer’s purple night;
Blossom adrift on the breath of spring; the whirl of snow;
Grit on the grinding beaches; spume of the storm-ridden wave
Hurled on the north wind’s ice-born blast to blend with the tropic rain;
Hail and the hissing of torrents; song where sapphire ripples lave
The crest of thousand-fathom reefs upbuilt beneath the main.
Silt of the ceaseless rivers from the mountain summits worn,
Rolled along gorge and meadow till the salt, inflowing tide
Heaps it in shoals at harbor-mouth for continents unborn;
Earth where the naked rocks were reared; pine where the birches died;
Season on season proceeding, and birth in the shadow of death;
Dawning of luminous day in the dying of night; and a Plan
In no whit, in no particle changing; each phase of becoming a breath
Of the infinite Karma of all things; its goal, evolution of MAN.
OM