The Gray Mahatma — Talbot Mundy

When Mundy published the short novel The Gray Mahatma (retitled Caves of Terror in book form) in the Nov. 10, 1922 issue of Adventure, it was the first time the supernatural and mystical elements of Eastern religion and philosophy took the forefront in his work. Mundy would return to the white man's quest for esoteric knowledge in many of his later classics such as Om -- The Secret of Abhor Valley and The Nine Unknown. In Caves of Terror, the gray mahatma, a high-level Indian mystic wishing to draw Athelstan King [hero of Mundy's early classic King -- of the Khyber Rifles] into an allegiance to use Indian mystic "super-science" to bring India from under the yoke of British colonialism, has been doomed to death for leaking secrets to the dangerous and cunning, but ever so seductive Yasmini, who wishes to use these same powers to dominate the World. . . .While the breathtaking pace of the story tends to marginalize Mundy's underlying message of Eastern wisdom's insights into many things unexplained by Western science, it is this same pace which likely earned it its "best novel of the year" accolade from the readers of Adventure." -- George Dobbs, SF Site