160 The Diary of a Drug Fiend
if one were not certain of being able to stop in an
instant when the peril were perceived. We could
descend perhaps three thousand feet in ten minutes
where people without that training would have had
to go down step by step on the rope, and perhaps found
themselves benighted in a hurricane in consequence.
“But the best of it was this: I was in command of
a Himalayan expedition some years ago; and the
coolies were afraid to traverse a snow slope which
overhung a terrific cliff. I called on them to watch me,
flung myself on the snow head first, swept down like
a sack of oats, and sprang to my feet on the very edge
of the precipice.
_“ There was a great gasp of awed amazement while
I walked up to the men. They followed me across the
mauvis pas without a moment’s hesitation. They
probably thought it was magic or something. No
matter what. But at least they felt sure that they
could come to no harm by following a man so obviously
under the protection of the mountain gods.”
Cockie had gone deathly white. He understood with
absolute clarity the point of the anecdote. He felt
his manhood shamed that he was in the power of this
blind black craving. He didn’t really believe that
Lamus was telling the truth. He thought the man
had risked his life to get those coolies across. It seemed
impossible that a man could possess such absolute
power and confidence. In other words, he judged
King Lamus by himself. He knew himself not to be
a first-rate airman. He had flattered himself that he
had dared so many dangers. It cut him like a whip
that Lamus should despise what people call the heroic
attitude; that he looked upon taking unnecessary
risks as mere animal folly. To be ready to take them,
yes. “I do not set my life at a pin’s fee.”
Lamus had no admiration for the cornered rat.
His ideal was to make himself completely master of
every possible circumstance.
Cockie tried to say something two or three times;