Adventure Magazine Cover, December 18, 1919 — page 123: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Seven Cities of Cibola hausted. He had seen his companions - die in.many ways, one by one, till finally he came to this city shining in the sun- light. All were driven away except Es- tevanico, and he was killed, and Fray Marco fled. He alone came back. With the best intentions in the world, Senor Governor, Fray Marco saw exactly what he was looking for.” “How mean you?” | “I mean that the active brain sug- gested to the tired body what it sought and it was seen.” “Then—then the great quest is a fail- ure?” ks “Wait! Is it a failure for a brave knight to essay a great venture and to come back, his hands untainted, his heart pure, his honor clean with a record of great work done and of the cross preached for a thousand miles through- out a heathen land? If this be a failure —then, sevior, | can not tell what success looks like. If money be the only end sought—well, _ then, Don Francisco has failed indeed.” “But he has lost a favtnae* “The expedition was at his own charges. If Don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado makes no complaint, the King of Spain can find no fault.” “How did Coronado take his failure?” “As a true Spanish knight should. He goes farther afield. There were three pitched battles. When I left him he was about to try for a city called Quiviri, that lay far to the south along the great river.’ ‘“‘Was no wealth at all found ?” 5 found a little on my private ven- ture.” “What was it?” Andres picked up the saddle-bags, that he had brought in across his arm, and opened them, taking out a roll of -soft skin tied with thongs. Untying the thongs, he whipped the roll loose across the table and opened the flaps, disclosing to the astonished eyes of Mendoza row on row of blazing emeralds. Green and red where the light glittered in the bases, they flashed and sparkled; uncut jewels worth a king’s ransom, and the larger stones flashing in their artificial beauty ; all the stones that Andres had found under the helmet in the cave. Mendoza sat astounded. 109 “Tell me where these came from and all the details. “These are not the work of savage peoples. Where did they come from?” Andres sat down and talked. He be- gan at the moment he had left Culiacan, and he omitted not a detail till he told how they had come back in sight of the walls, “And here I am, Sefior Saree still seeking my object, seeking my acquittal of the charge that I was implicated in the murder of that scoundrelly fiscal of the king.” Mendoza looked steadily at him, his eyes blazing. “Andres de Avilez,” he said presently, “T know now, as well as if the saints had told me, that you had nought to do with the matter of the murder. I have made every effort to find out who killed the man but with no results. The matter is still unsettled. I know that no guilty man would ever have returned. What was that?” The two men sprang to their feet and stood staring at each other as a scream rang out from the women’s quarters, fol-. lowed by another and another. “Saints and angels! Come with me!” Mendoza whipped out his long sword as he ran up the long hall with Andres close behind him. The door of Mercedes’ room was open. In the middle of the room the girl was standing. Her golden hair streamed to her waist; her face was very pale and at her feet lay the very dagger that had killed Fonseca, its hilt of tortoise-shell and twisted gold bent and flattened, the blade still dark with tell-tale stains. A little farther away lay the body of Maria, face down upon the floor, her frame convulsed with sobs. “What is it, Mercedes? For Heaven’s sake, what is it now?” “Nothing! ’” Mercedes drew herself up and shivered a little as she faced them, but her eye caught the dull gleam of the dagger on the floor and she shuddered again. Maria, lying face down upon the floor, twitched and shivered, and her out- stretched hands weaving in and out among the fringes of the rug struck the knife-blade, sending the eadagert tinietitg along the floor. Sot . ‘* * . a - 2. = ~ — rt Se TA ee eee tae CONMIGO KS