Adventure Magazine Cover — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

downward into the water. - arose from the natives on the far side. follow me out into the stream when I start. There! We're close enough to the shadows, now. Go ahead, you men.” Lanky rose to his full height and fired a few rounds carefully. Then he threw up both arms, sent forth a piercing yell and fell face A great shout Then the brown-eyed lad rose shouting de- -finace, and made as if to charge his enemies. But he took only a step, for suddenly with a strange gesture he turned himself half-around and collapsed. “Well done! Now, Joe, these men are supposed to be dead. Come on with me as fast as you can down-stream. Try for the beach and then to Allegria. The chances are you won’t find a soul on the way. They’ll all be here, looking for that money. Maybe a woman or so, but don’t let them see you.’ “Nothing doing,” rebelled Joe, yet half- 2 floating, half-running toward the sea with the tumbling current. “T’m beggin’ your pardon, major,” he con- tinued between well directed shots with his revolver. “T know a man when I see one, an’ I guess I know my duty, too. If they get you, they get me.’ “Thanks, Joe, but if you get to the post you can save all of us. My place is here. You can make it if you are careful. And hurry! When those devils find that the safe isn’t in the ambulance, and I suppose they overhauled it before it got very far, they’ll search every inch of this stream-bed. It’s only a question of a few hours until they find us. So it’s up to you. Got enough ammunition?” “Got as much as you have, I guess.” The major smiled grimly. “All right, Joe. Hike, now! Better just disappear like the others. I shall do it my- self in a few minutes. Play dead.” FORTUNATELY for them the pur- <4 suit was less than half-hearted. To : magnify an apparent victory into the extermination of the entire American Army was an easy matter at any time. But the cer- tainty of an unequaled national treasure—for certainly so much must be in the possession of the great paymaster—for spoils, greatly facilitated the process. Few cared to wander far from the spot where that treasury was supposed to be. It was much simpler to consider the guardians of it dead than to follow them. Parties from both sides of the river met, crossed and recrossed. And while they explored the ford and thence moved slowly down stream, Lanky and his Not Wholly for Pay companion hid their faces inthe black mud of the bordering swamp and made their way to a spot where the nipas, like giant ferns, curled over to the brown flood and hid them as in a maze of curtains. Neither spoke for a time, chest deep in the current. : Then the brown-eyed, girl-faced youth whispered, but not joyfully— “Well, we got the box, Lanky.” - “Yes, we got it all right.” “It wasn’t heavy, at that.” ***Course not. ’Twas in the water.” ‘Uh-huh. Hadn’t thought o’ that.” ‘They said no more during a long hour. “We can get it down to the beach easy after dark; that i is, if the gu-gus don’t get us in the mean time.” = “Uh-huh. They’re though.” Sunset impended, but yet the natives searched. “They won’t get to us by night,” aye Lanky. There was no reply. “What’s the matter, young felluh?” “Guess m’ head’s hit.” “Nope. But it makes me a little sick. It hurts. ”Taint nothin’ though.” Eventually the short twilight glowed and then rapidly dimmed. =e a Lanky, that major’s some officer, ain’t “You bet!” “Wonder if he got through?” “Hope so,’ It was dark. “We can make a slow start if you like, yo felluh. I don’t hear nothin’.” : — ‘“‘Where we goin’, Lanky?”’ There was a challenge in his voice. Laaky did not reply for a moment. Then he said; “Guess we’re goin’ to turn this here money into headquarters at Allegria, ain’t we? Ain’t that what we come for?” “Sure is, Lanky,; that’s what we come for.” ‘“‘An’ we ain’t done nothin’, ever, but straight soldierin’, have we?” “Nothin’ but straight maidleta® Lanky.” “That’s what we *ve always said, ain’t ite An’ nobody But there were loud shouts at the ford, heard plainly in the still, evening air; good American throats calling them, and the voice of the major, near them, in answer. “Them’s our own people, callin’ us,” said Lanky. “Uh-huh.” ’way up-stream yet, CORMICOOO©