Adventure Magazine Cover — page 42: what you’re looking at

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

36 “Hullo, Mac!” chimed in Constable quietly. “How are you? Jolly glad to see you—or rather—” he laughed softly— ‘Jolly glad to hear you!” “Well, I’m !” floated gently the voice of the Jittle doctor. ‘Where the deuce did you pop up from? But, ssh! No time now. Listen. Ill throw you a rope and you'll have to swarm up.” “Right-o! But half a moment. body with you?” “A couple of my men and a donkey,” re- turned Macnamara. ‘‘We’ll have to break round the mountain for Uganda. Look out!” Again an arm broke the rim line and a fiber rope wriggled against the stars, the end of which hit the perpendicular sides of the shaft with a smack. “Vou go first,’ said Dorsay. “No. But wait,’ returned Constable. “T say, Mac, better cover our tracks, hadn’t we? We'll rlg up a body here to look like one of us asleep so that they won’t smell a rat tomorrow morning, what?” “Good idea, old man,” assented the doctor. ‘‘Giye us a longer start. But all the same they won’t follow farther than the lower slopes for fear of the mountain devil.” Any- “Right-o! Come on, young-feller-me- lad,”’ added Constable to Dorsay. ‘We'll have to lug your dead friend out. It’s a nasty job, but he’ll sleep just as well here as inside the cave, poor soul.” XI Aa) BY DAWN the little expedition yee had gained the northern elbow of the mountain and was hidden by the mist which often dwells around the summit of Mount Elgon. The going was rough and cold in their slight tropical clothes, particularly for Con- stable, but they plugged on steadily, warm- ing up in the heat of the rising sun, until about noon, when, reasonably safe from any pursuit, if the natives had discovered their flight, they halted in sight of the plain of Busoga, covered in swamp and forest, be- neath them. “No,” replied the doctor as they sat around the camp-fire, in answer to. a long- deferred question regarding the upshot of the Somali’s attack. “They wiped out about half my men and got away with three of them and two donkeys.” ‘And one perfectly good American,” in- Adventure terrupted Dorsay, smiling. “Don’t forget that.” “T didn’t,” asserted the little doctor, grinning like a Scotch terrier. ‘“‘At first I thought the darned American had kicked the bucket. Anyway I followed up your trail and found your dead friend and_the horse. Horse spoor easy enough; but your trail was difficult. “However, we eventually found the spot where you had met several natives and my donkey. I arrived at Yamba’s only a few hours after you and Dorkin had left. Of course, I hadn’t the remotest notion who he was. ‘The old man swore you had left to- gether, but I knew he was lying. “They tried to put me off for some time, and then suddenly came round and offered to lead me straight to you. I smelt a rat. I came to a village not far from the sacred one where they led you out into the trap, and then refused to budge. I suspected something was in the wind, but couldn’t make out exactly what. “Through my men and overhearing one of their shauris I knew that you were near, and that some witch-doctor business was on. I tried to buy the local man, but he tried to double-cross me. By the way, did you see anything of a compass?” “Surely I did,” assented Dorsay, and re- lated the circumstances. “Well, I managed to get Mangu,” con- tinued the doctor, “‘the old fellow and chief of the witch-doctors, to come to see me, and kidded him that this was an extra special piece of magic which would reveal the man whom the gods had appointed and all that sort of thing. Sheer bluff, of course, be- cause I had only a ghost of a notion what I was talking about—guesswork; but I wasn’t far wrong. “You had rotten luck. About four to one against the needle hitting right on you. If it hadn’t, it might not have saved you altogether, but at any rate it would have delayed matters. “Well, that night I heard the caterwaul- ing and guessed that something had gone wrong. I. darn’t barge in, but had to sit quiet and watch.” ‘Then things began to get uncomfortable. - A lot of monkey work was going on around. Mangu came later and wanted to lead me straight to my white friend, you or Dorkin. Trefused. They would have simply trapped . me as well. COMMICLOOOKS Con