Adventure Magazine Cover — page 70: what you’re looking at

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

_ Coax you.to tell all. 60: ee : Adventure Pean was wishing to prolong the conversation . until help should arrive. Behind the Frenchman towered the moun- tain.. A sharp run- and he would be hidden on its wooded slopes. He still held his gun by the barrel. The Frenchman could use his ax before the gun could be raised and swung as a club. “Shall we walk, my brave captain?” asked Pean. “Your news is stale. It can wait. The lists you stole have been returned to head- quarters, the ’riginal and the two copies. What you memorized will do Montcalm no good as we have shifted our troops.” “‘As I feared. But there are other informa- tions.” | “Of course. But Lord Loudoun will not move the army against Louisbourg this season.” “So?” loudly cried Pean, his voice strident and his face flushing. “I see you know too much, I think you have much to tell that will be new to us. I believe our red allies can Ahead of me. March!’ ‘A shout from the direction of the lake an- nounced the coming of men, but Putnam had no glances to waste. Pean’s hand was grip- ping the ax more tightly. They stood a dozen feet apart. By the contraction of the Frenchman’s eyes the ranger knew that they would be at death grips in . another few seconds. He dropped his hand down the gun-barrel, and as he did so Pean’s : visage became savage, and whipping out his ax he shouted: “Vou refuse. to surrender? Then die!” He leaped backward and threw up his arm. 3 On the point of hurling the ax he was thrown off his poise for an instant by the appearance of a small wrinkled face, white with a black eye, at the neck of Putnam’s shirt. Then the arm swung forward just as Putnam dropped on his knee and one hand, the right hand cocking and discharging the gun. The ax grazed the ranger’s head; a,splotch of dark red showed on the white breast of the officer’s travel-stained coat. The puppy whim- peréd and Pean fell dead on his face. With a leap Putnam cleared his body and ran for the . woods. Behind him rose infuriated cries, but the fugitive took no time to’ look back. Several shots were fired, but all were poorly aimed. Through the pumpkin-patch he raced, his feet tripping on the vines and nearly throw- ing him. From the bosom of his shirt rose a mournful protest. He reached the edge of the woods and dived into cover just as a long, wailing cry soared above the hoarse shouts of the Canadians. “That will be the Abnaki, famous trailers,” he panted, reaching for his twenty-inch powder- horn and measuring out a charge as he glided diagonally up the slope. all the difference in the world.” After reload- ing the piece he came to a-narrow lane that extended far down the slope, where the ledge cropped out and defied even the tenacious ever- greens to find holding-ground. He crossed this opening and halted behind a big fir. The puppy whined and licked the hand thrust in to quiet him. “Poor little fellow,” soothed Putnam, his kind heart ever pitying ‘the helpless. “You don’t know what to make of it all. If you could have your way the world would be nothing but play and boiled duck. But his Majesty and Louis the Fifteenth have different notions. “Ah, now some one comes! And only the Indians. One—two—three. Not so bad as I’d feared. Pup, I’m going to shoot, but don’t you be scared. .We must put the fear of the *. Lord into them red trackers.”’ He could catch flitting glimpses of caked bodies .as the warriors glided zigzag through the woods, moving from tree to tree and yet advancing swiftly, and bending low to read the trail on the forest floor. Three sinister figures, the personification of the forest’s inex- orable cruelty. To shoot while they were yet within the woods meant a waste of powder. Putnam waited until they came to the opening and the leader glided into view and sought to find the trail on the naked ledge. The rocks left no signs of the ranger’s passing, yet.a tiny piece of moss torn from its fastenings told the whole story to the Indian. Putnam covered him but w&ited until he straightened to his full height to call to his companions. With the bang of the gun the stricken brave~leaped convulsively but made no outcry. His companions vanished like magic and raiséd a lugubrious howl, pétition- ing Kechi Niwaskw, their god of good, and the more powerful Machi Niwaskw, god of evil, to aid them in encompassing the death of this white man. Putnam: descended the slope a considerable distance before resuming his course round the mountain. He halted and loaded the gun and quieted the puppy, then proceeded at ‘double speed to gain the western flank of the moun- tain. He came to the point where he had ascended the mountain and passed it without taking any pains to conceal his trail. He ran on until he came out on a ledge. Springing from this, he caught the bough of a spruce, gently swuhg into the trunk and rapidly descended thirty feet to the ground. Now he turned squarely back and with as much speed as exquisite~ caution permitted moved parallel to his trail. Reaching a point where his line of vision up the slope crossed his trail, he dropped behind a decaying log and sighted his gun on a birch. COnniclboolks “And that makes (E@