Talk:The King in Check

Information about this edition
Edition:	Extracted from Adventure magazine, 1922 July 10, pp. 3–67.
Source:	https://archive.org/details/adventure-v-035-n-04-1922-07-10 and Project Gutenberg
Contributor(s):	ragpicker
Level of progress:	The text in Gutenberg seems to be from the book. Adventure magazine, during that period, had the custom of replacing even mildly "offensive" words (like hell and damn) with ——. As at Chapter II, that (and UK vs. US spelling) seems to be the main difference in the two texts.
Notes:	Accompanying illustration(s) may be omitted
Proofreaders:	ragcleaner

Mundy on his novel.

From the Camp-Fire section of the magazine, pp. 174–175.

A FEW words from Talbot Mundy in connection with his complete novel in this issue. There has been quite a little outside testimony, from people qualified to know, that Mr. Mundy has in these Jimgrim stories set forth faithfully a very remarkable knowledge of the inside of things that have been happening in Palestine and Arabia these past few years. Certainly he had, during the greater part of a year, most exceptional advantages and opportunities for finding out what lay beneath the surface.

I have avoided the charge of propaganda, which is leveled nowadays at every one who puts a thread of truth into a story, by refraining from writing this one until long after the event. Feisul has come into his own; he is in Baghdad at this writing, with the offer in his pocket of the Kingdom of Mesopotamia, and the Arabs are busy electing him with no other contestant in the field.

THE description of Feisul is drawn at first hand. He is like good wine that needs no bush; you can't say enough in his praise, or overdraw the man's impressive manliness, any more than you can overa the meanness of the method used to get rid of jim.

I refuse to say how much of this story is true. Treat it as fiction, and let it go at that; it happens to amuse me to take drab facts and weave a story out of them, and I don't know that they're worse material than whole-cloth inventions would be. But if you're still curious, I'll admit this: I was in Damascus while Feisul was playing that losing hand, and I had the whole story from his own lips of the Arab share in the great war, of the Allies' promises, and of how they had been broken after the armistice, when Arab friendship didn't look quite so necessary as it did when the promises were given. We talked for hours, but he never once complained on his own account. He is an Arab patriot first and last, with no other aim than to see his nation self-determined and ruled by a government of their own choosing.

THERE are one or two points made in the story that admit of no contradiction. For instance, Feisul did escape with a handful of loyalists to British territory. He went to Haifa, thence to Egypt, thence to Italy, and finally to London, where he did exactly as Jimgrim had advised him, making the acquaintance of the right people, avoiding politicians, and biding his time.

All the names in the story other than Feisul's and that of Colonel Lawrence are absolutely fictitious. I have Feisul's permission to use his. Colonel Lawrence only comes in by unauthorized deputy. It isn't I who took his illustrious name in vain, but the thousand and one rumor-mongers who were busy in Damascus at that time. You heard on every hand that Lawrence was back in Damascus in disguise, although there wasn't a word of truth in it. Hadad is alive and kicking. So is Jeremy. So are Jimgrim and Narayan Singh. You'll hear from Ramsden and the last three down in Egypt presently, in a tale called "A Secret Society," which is also founded on unquestionable fact that would be questioned, nevertheless, if told as truth. Truth seems to be a mighty dangerous lady, unless you smuggle her past the censor with her skirts below the knee and lots of powder on her nose.—Talbot Mundy

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