Chapter I: Front Matter

[Cover Illustration]

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

=O M=
=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.=

C O N T E N T S

I “Cottswold Ommony . . . Is No Man’s
Fool.”. . . . . . . . . 3
II Number One of the Secret Service.. 15
III “What Is Fear?”. . . . . . . 27
IV “I Am One Who Strives To Tread the
Middle Way.”. . . . . . . 40
V The House at the End of the
Passage.. . . . . . . . . 52
VI “Missish-Anbun Is Mad.”. . . . 62
VII “Sarcasm? I Wonder if That Ever
Pays.”. . . . . . . . . 78
VIII The Middle Way.. . . . . . . 89
IX “Gupta Rao.”. . . . . . . . 107
X Vasantasena.. . . . . . . . 123
XI “All This in the Space of One
Night.”. . . . . . . . . 139
XII “All Things End—Even Carriage
Rides.”. . . . . . . . . 148
XIII San-Fun-Ho.. . . . . . . . 160
XIV The Second Act.. . . . . . . 173
XV The Roll-Call by Night.. . . . 188
XVI “Where Are We?”. . . . . . . 199
XVII Diana Rehearses a Part.. . . . 213
XVIII Diana Adopts Buskins.. . . . . 226
XIX A Message from Miss Sanburn.. . . 236
XX Ommony Capitulates.. . . . . . 251
XXI The Lay of Alha.. . . . . . . 260
XXII Darjiling.. . . . . . . . . 272
XXIII Tilgaun.. . . . . . . . . 282
XXIV Hannah Sanburn.. . . . . . . 294
XXV The Compromise.. . . . . . . 307
XXVI Ahbor Valley Gate.. . . . . . 319
XXVII Under the Brahmaputra.. . . . . 327
XXVIII The Lama’s Home.. . . . . . . 338
XXIX The Lama’s Story.. . . . . . 350
XXX The Lama’s Story (Continued).. . 362
XXXI The 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