Adventure Magazine Cover — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

Buried Gods from the threads of my shirt. Then a cloudburst came and my last few matches were dissolved in mud, leaving only some useless phosphorus.” “Good Lordy!” exclaimed Dorsay. “I should think you would have gone crazy!” The Englishman looked fixedly at Dorsay for a moment. “A couple of times, young fellow, I thought I was s “Yes, yes,” said the little doctor impa- tiently; ‘‘get on.” “Well,” continued Constable, “I pre- served the mud and phosphorus in a bit of hollow ivory. Then I raveled my shirt and what remained of my socks and underwear, and spun a long cord with the thread. ‘With this I began to trace my way out through the labyrinth. Whenever I came to a doubtful point I’d pick out a bit of stone and smear it with phosphorus; so I left glowing points behind me. “There’s something ruddy awful in grop- ing through a slimy tunnel, black as Not a sound but the infernal drip-drip-drip of the water from the tips of the stalactites. Once in a while I’d barge into a stalactite, and it would collapse with a splash and a sound like the soft wheeze of a river animal. “There was a little comfort in looking back at the glowing spots of phosphorus; so as I went on I smeared the rocks more and more thickly. “Tt had just smudged some on a small round stone like a large volcanic pebble, and had continued on for a few steps, when sud- denly I felt absolutely sick. The cord in my hand had parted! “Water must have soaked through the flimsy thread, and it broke at the first strain. My only hope then was to follow the points of phosphorus immediately, and x 39 get back before the glow faded away. By this time I was jumpy and scared—nothing but a bundle of nerves anyway, you know. “T turned quickly, and began blundering my way back, my heart beating a hundred to the minute. “And the first thing I saw in the dead blackness in front of me was a skull in a ball of pale flame, with black, empty eyes and gaping mouth grinning at me. “Of course, it was only-the round stone I had smeared with phosphorus. But the shock was too sudden for me to grasp that then. I must have yelled and—and gone a bit—eh—balmy—because I haven’t the foggiest notion what happened next until young Beffert here caught me smashing the Australian—the next day—I think it was.” His voice trailed off, and his eyes re- mained fixed dully on the coals. His hands stole almost furtively up to the matted beard. Then he scrambled widely to his feet. “Good !’ he cried. “It’s true, then! It’s true!” His companions looked up, startled and silent. For a moment they could think of nothing to say. Then the tenseness passed from Geoffrey Constable’s face. He faced the darkness with a reckless light blazing in his eyes, and shook his fist in the direction of the Turkana village. “All right,” he cried. “Six years I’ve given you! But you'll pay—you’ll pay— fifty thousand blinking quid!—a fortune in ivory! Gentlemen, it’s ready for us when- ever we want to collect. Are you with me?” And the young American and the grizzled little doctor jumped to their feet with yells of enthusiasm that rang through the night, and stilled—for a moment—the wild, threatening voices of Africa. Asa result of the vote by our readers, ADVENTURE is going to appear three times a month, beginning with the October issues (on the stand in September). The dates are the 10th, 20th and 30th. Remember them, COMMICLOOKS (C@)