Adventure Magazine Cover — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

66 - in the direction of Carmichael’s rock cut; and then, when Dalton had materially lessened the distance between them, cer- tain peculiarities in the man’s gait began to evidence themselves. “Aha! Papa Dupré’s blind pig on Lake Shabogama,’’ was Dalton’s smiling inter- pretation of the mystery of the pedal eccentricities of the man in front of him. “Papa Dupré’s outlaw whisky thus facili- tates the law. Outlawry comes to the unconscious rescue of law and_ order. Strange contradictions characterize a law- less land.” His smile subsided quickly into a grim- lipped look of triumph. With no pretense of caution, which was unnecessary under the circumstances, Dalton stepped still more briskly after the pack man, who labored wabbily along through the muskeg less than a quarter of a mile in advance of him. A short, distance beyond the poimt already reached by the object of his pur- suit rose the crest of the granite hill through which Carmichael’s men were cutting. Dalton now consulted his watch. It was just three o’clock. He spurred his weary legs dutifully into a sort of jog-trot, some- what emulative of that affected by the half-breed mail-runner. “Must be about time for Carmichael’s blast,” he said to himself. Hardly had he reasoned in such wise when, out of the distance, startling the still afternoon air with its shrill portent, came the shouted warning: “Fire! F-i-r-e!”’ The pack man did not appear to have heard; or, having heard, to give heed. Dalton was much closer to him now. The man was very evidently intoxicated. He staggered indifferently over or around the many impediments that littered the right of way and his progress was obviously slow. At the top of his lungs he was bellowing some maudlin French-Canadian ditty’ Once he pulled off his cap and waved it about his head—evidently an attempt at reprisal upon the relentlessly swarming black-flies. “Fire! F-i-r-e!’”’ The warning had become fainter. Dal- ton knew that by this time the men of the gang would have sought and found security from the coming blast behind stumps or trees or ledges of rock at a safe distance from the point of danger. The man in charge of the big blast had in all probability Adventure a carried his firing-battery the full length of its long wires and was now waiting, finger on key, until any chance pedestrians within the zone of exposure should have had plenty of time to heed the amply shouted warning and ensconce themselves in places of safety. Dalton shouted-sharply to the inebriate, who had now arrived within fifty yards of the cut and, apparently oblivious of the grave danger confronting him, was walking directly and nonchalantly toward it. At the sound of Dalton’s voice the pack man turned, steadied himself, peered back along the right of way and then, beholding Dal- ton running rapidly toward him, took off his cap and waved it hilariously. “Wire! T-1-r-e!”’ The third and last warning pealed quaver- ingly through the serene stillness. Nature was in repose. Only a slight breeze lazily stirred the stately spruces. The drunken pedler, unmindful of his impending doom, turned and proceeded again toward the mouth of the cut. He could not possibly have been seen by the men of Carmichael’s gang, who had long since secreted them- selves in the deep excavation well removed from the scene of the blast and whose westward view along the right of way was effectually shut off by the intervening hill- top with its thick covering of brush. Dalton stopped running, but shouted again—loudly and commandingly. Then, mindful of his own safety, he leaped from the open into the ample shelter of the spruces. Peering from behind one of these he saw the pedler stop a second time and look bewilderedly about him, passing his hand over his bearded features as if striving to brush the alcoholic mist from his brain and to retrieve his normal facul- ties. Still again Dalton called—with all the force of his lungs. EF * THEN the fascinated watcher from r 7°" his spruce- covert saw the entire F Stns ld hilltop tremble violently and sliver into fragments; and at the same moment a sharp sound like the crack of a whip split the air, which sound was immediately swallowed up by a deep roar that burst thunderously forth and then sank, grumb- ling and muttering, into a volley of echoes that coursed their way among the sur- rounding vatleys and finally became smoth- ered by distance. EO = a lNOOKS: (C@)