Adventure Magazine Cover — page 136: what you’re looking at

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

wide-set eyes to the blazing shimmer of topaz. He hung intently on Burnham’s speech, and it was evident from the*contraction of his great forehead, ordinarily smooth as a polished boulder, and from the compression of his mouth that it was not merely an issue of trade but a vital personal matter that was being de- bated. For Jacob Travis knew, as ‘did every other agent in the room, that on his daughter’s acceptance or rejection of the governor, on the capture or escape of Nelson Steene, hung his future with the great company. “TI ask you plainly, Travis,” the governor cornered him. ‘Are you shielding from me this man Steene who had been hunted out of the district and bottled up«in Great Play- green Lake by Henderson’s post runners?” “By the painted star of the company I swear lam not,” declared Jacob Travis vehe- mently. “You do not know his whereabouts this very night?” 4-do: not,” “But I’m certain that his daughter does,” interjected Henderson, whose post runners were scouring Great Playgreen Lake to find their bottled man even while the session was ‘in progress. ‘I have as much faith in Jacob’s word as I have in my own. I do not doubt him. But it is not enough that he takes an Oath across this table. Have him call Clara and let her swear to the same thing.” : Travis was on his feet like a flash. “Governor Burnham, f object,” he almost shouted. ‘“Itisnot fitting that a woman should be sworn before this council. Ifeft is an affair of hers—and I can not deny that it is—it is an affair of the heart and not the business of the Hudson’s Bay Company.” “Yet if by her personal leanings she com- plicates the company’s affairs, her sentiments immediately become their business,” argued Burnham. ‘Jacob, you'll have to call her,” “And what if I do?” cried Travis, flinging both arms wide in a gesture of helplessness. “She will not tell this council anything ‘she knows. You have spoken plainly, governor, and I in my turn will speak as plainly. I will not force her to speak against her will.”’ “Nevertheless she will not swear to any- thing false,’ decided Burnham. ‘‘Henderson has information that she can not evade, and we can narrow things down till we get Steene. Go on and call her.” It was the decree of superior authority. Travis grimly obeyed it. He struck a bell that stood on the table at his right hand, the belli that summoned Drumming Grouse, the bowsman of his canoe, his messenger and man servant about the post. Immediately the door of the council room opened and Drumming~ Grouse the Cree bowsman stepped jin. Adventure A picturesque figure, tall, lithe-muscled, he ing vividly upon the brilliant colors of his cos- tume, the dyed fillet on his head, the tricolosed — sash, the gorgeous beads and embroidery of “3 his moccasins and leggings. He posed thus, staring straight at Travis, i his smoky face as impassive as a carving, his — dark eyes surveying the council-room scene unemotionally as he awaited his factor’s com- mand. brigades are camped.” “Go and tell her she is wanted at the council,” directed Travis. ‘Fetch her here at once.” e- tended in front of the house. Down the ve- ope steps he sprang and held on along the ore a word and stalked out of the doorway — “Drumming Grouse, whered is my daughter?’ <8 5 “Faotor, she is down the shore where the | THE Cree bowsman wheeled without 5 : = ie and across the broad veranda that ex- It was ten o’clock at night, but over ~<a Great Playgreen Lake the Summer aurora was > : playing with the radiancé of day. It revealed the lake waters sparkling in — barbaric glory, etched the pine-clad islands with magic needles of flame and silhouetted — sharply the long lines of canoes drawn up on the landing-shore. Drumming Grouse could identify them all as he strode forward, the Grand — Rapid, Nelson River, Split Lake and Beren’s = 4 River brigades and, standing out huge and 1 im-— pressive beside the others, the governor’s six- fathom craft. Near each posed its crew, the Grand Rapid, © Nelson River, Split Lake and Beren’s River men, and by the -governor’s his famed crew of Iroquois whose skill and endurancé with the ~ paddle made wonder tales for the scores of camp-fires winking round the rocks. : Black as the silhouettes of their craft Drum- ming Grouse’s unemotional eyes beheld the crews, showing clearly against the sheen of — water and sky, moving and ~ gesturing like gi- gantic animated shadows — a blazing pageant of brawn in the tapestry of the northern night. Over and above them he discerned the girl he sought. Queen of the pageant she might have been, her fair hair glowing like a golden crown under the play of the aurora, her form wreathed in a dress of soft Summer material that shone white as an ermine robe. Drum- ming Grouse knew she was watching out over Great Playgreen, and he knew she watched in suspense for the return of Henderson’s post runners. Silently he climbed the rock upon which she stood and came to her side. Clara Travis did not start. Hers were the gifts of the North-born and she could sense a presence even though she heard no sound. Subconsciously she was aware that the tall lithe figure looming suddenly beside her in the CORNICLOOOKS com f ( ny rs ‘ eS. Ve Vere avi icau