Adventure Magazine Cover, August 18, 1921 — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

52 sword, waiting for a sign from his master. “Clear the way, fellow,” the baron roared. “Who are you, to bandy words with the Umfraville?” The soldier, a tall, heavily muscled man, stood his ground. “I am Bermond,” he answered slowly, “once captain of the wall in High Tower. When we were parted betwixt you and de Born, you chose me.” - “You are my man, then, sworn to obey me,” the Blue Boar cried. “You, too, are sworn, my lord—sworn to deal honorably with my lady of Gislac. I am here to see that you keep your oath. I have made a vow to the Blessed Virgin that neither you nor any man shall bring shame upon my gracious lady.” Umfraville’s rage clutched him by the throat. “You, a dog of a spearman, to use such words to me! You shall hang for this! Ho! Tarn——_” Bermond clapped an unceremonious hand over his new master’s mouth. At sight of this unspeakable act, the other guardsman took a step forward. But Bermond, half- turning, tripped him up with the haft of his spear. “T)o not call, my lord,’ he cautioned sternly. “Nor draw your blade. Call off your man here. One shout, one flash of steel, and half your host will be at the other’s throats!”’ The thought surged into Umfraville’s brain that Bermond’s words were literally true. Gislac’s men, whom he had brought with him from High Tower, were equal in numbers to the cutthroats of his original force. Weakened by hunger as they had been, they were none the less fierce, well disciplined, devoted to their lady. “Few would leave this glade alive and hale, were such a fight begun,” Bermond prompted. ‘Who would protect my lady then?” Umfraville shrugged his great shoul- ders. “As you will,” he submitted. “Yet I meant your lady no harm. May a man not speak with his betrothed?” “Fetch a priest, turn the betrothal into a wedding, and none of us will say you nay,” the spearman answered. “Hold us not for rebels, my lord. In all save this we will serve you faithfully, as our old master bade rT esseee Adventure | THEN it was that Umfraville saw % Ai the flaw in his scheme, and his fists eal balled with rage. “Aye, fetch a priest, say you!” he mut- tered. “And a wedding! Fool that I was, not to have thought! What good would a priest do me? Why, fellow, I have been excommunicated these seven years, de- prived of the sacraments for the churches I have pillaged. What wouldst thou have me do, then? Send to Rome for indul- gence? Pray the Pope to come marry me?” “Nay.” Bermond was stolid. “Send to Canterbury. Thomas Becket, clerk to the archbishop, is my lord de Gis- lac’s friend. He will persuade his master to permit the wedding, perhaps to raise the ban from you.” Umfraville shook his head. ‘Thomas Becket and Theobold, the arch- bishop, are enemies to King Stephen and hate us of the baronage.”’ “‘Ask the king to intercede with the arch- bishop for you,’’ Bermond suggested hope- fully. Umfraville pondered this. He had been excommunicated by the Primate of York with King Stephen’s full assent. But now he was in a position to ask favors again, having compelled the surrender of the pro- claimed outlaw de Gislac. Moreover, there were rumors from Lon- don that Henry of Anjou meditated an in- vasion. Stephen would be ready to con- ciliate good fighting men. The Archbishop of York, unlike the high-principled Theo- “bold, was ever ready to bless or ban at the king’s nod. It would take time to send a messenger to London and much longer before any re- sponse could come from York. Umfraville was a man of strong passions, but stronger shrewdness. Left to himself, he might have solved his trouble by cynically dispensing with the marriage service, for the strain on his plighted word was great. But he needed the loyalty of Bermond and his forty com- rades. He could not afford to provoke a fight that, even if he won, would leave his force a shattered wreck at the mercy of the resentful Richard de Monrepaire. He re- called ruefully that the Reiver had never been known to forget a wrong. Moreover, by marrying Margaret he would win advantages that a less legal COmiclbook C©