Adventure Magazine Cover — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

Beet {eae 5 e fe? te Co > eee ey ee _ guard. Slippery devil. 50 “There was the gunshot, then the scream. I knew it was a woman. I believed she was in terrible danger. Then she crawled out of the earth at my feet. I spoke and she knew me. She asked me to save her. I thought— Heaven knows what I thought.” “Well, I suppose you’re satisfied by this time I wasn’t trying to shoot her,” growled Putnam. “And she’s satisfied, seeing as how she got us two to fighting so she could have a chance to get away.” _ ~ “Pm after her——” “You're not. Not now. No more chance then you have of being named governor of New France. I took a paper away from her. One that would have put us all in pickle if it fell into Montcalm’s hands. It is a list of our troops, giving our full strength and showing where the men are distributed. There were two of them———” “Three, unless you’re counting the one I got back in Albany. I had my _ head nearly knocked off. There’s a spy, dresses in a scarlet uniform of the Jersey Blues. Is he down in that hole? - —— his liver, P’ll kill him.” “Softly. None of that, lad, or I'll put you under guard for the rest of the war. Cap’n Pean may hang for a spy, but he mustn’t have any Indian tricks played on him.”’ “Pean? Oh, Lord! What luck! Such luck!” groaned Willis. “I’ve just come from Fort William Henry. They told me to tell you, if we met, that your prisoner escaped from the guard-house. And I never suspected he was ‘Sergeant Enoch Champers of the Jersey Blues,’ and the man who I would have bagged in Albany if not for that little spit-fire.” “Did he get the paper back?” “T guess not. They didn’t mention it. He got away right after they put him under Now he’s loose. The girl may meet him. ~I must find her.” “Let her go. Why follow her? I have her rr? “T must find her because she nearly stove -my head in—and—and was sorry for doing it. Said she was sorry———” “Sorry she didn’t do a good job, I guess,” fumed Putnam, feeling about and finding his rifle. feelings when she got us to fighting each other ‘like she did. Well, this hiding-place -won’t serve her any, more, and I don’t believe she'll steal any more papers in Albany.” “She didn’t steal this paper. as a sergeant in Shirley’s old regiment, walked up to the window and reached in and took it off a desk. Hark! A signal!” It was the bird-call Putnam had heard a few hours before. It ended and then a sweet young voice mellowly called across the clearing: “Ephraim Willis! Ephraim Willis! I love you, Ephraim Willis!” “Mighty little. she cared for our Pean, dressed . ' Adventure CHAPTER IX INTO THE DANGER ZONE AGAIN ID you hear that?” Willis whispered, seizing Putnam’s arm. “Vou’re trembling like a poplar leaf. Get pee -your control, or you'll find yourself in a “Did you. hear her—calling out something?” fiercely persisted’ Willis, giving Putnam’s arm a vigorous shake. “You forget you’re yanking the arm of your officer, sir. Yes, Ephraim, 1 heard the minx. Another trick to get you into the woods where. some of her friends will catch you “No! Never!” cried Willis, “She has said it. By Heavens, the impossible has happened. I’m off.” “You'll come to the fort with me, ordered. ” Putnain “I’m going to fmd the woman who’s to be my | wife,” retorted Willis. “You'll come pretty near obeying orders so . long as you stay in this piece of the woods. Now you hark to me.” Putnam ceased speaking and eweps his gun- barrel about in a circle. fs burning! The young pup has quit me. How’s that for discipline?” With scarcely a sound to betray his abrupt withdrawal Willis had heeded the lure of the voice and was now threading his way through the forest in search of the one woman. Witha grunt of disgust Putnam struck out for Fort - William Henry. He should have been immensely pleased with the success of his adventure. He had recov- ered two most important papers. Willis al- ready had recovered the third. Only by a miracle could the girl or her confederates again secure such valuable information. Yet his triumph was soured by Willis’ behavior. “Good boy. Home folks,” he muttered as he used his gun as a staff in picking his way back to the fort. “But the minute a woman, the woman, comes along he throws aside every- thing to chase her. The tarnation fool!” This characterization soothed “his irritated nerves, and he repeated it; but inasmuch as its application was based on the woman his mood: gradually became speculative and he lifted his heavy brows and pondered. After all there was no knowing what a man might do when the only woman entered Ris life and called to him. Putnam’s own courtship and marriage had been after the orderly New England fashion; but had the trail to his woman taken him amid dangers and against great odds would he have held back? He-smiled grimly and admitted: “’d been a ’tarnal fool, too. Well, well, I a the spit-fire isn’t Bek any game on CORNICOOOLKK (E@)