Adventure Magazine Cover — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

Sled Wheeler and the Nameless Order look on his own face made the men knot close about them both. “T told you the time was coming for a show-down—it has come.”’ The words were mild, but a silence fol- lowed that was ominous. “You talk big, Wheeler,’ Garth sneered. “Let it go at that.” “Twice you tried to kill me and failed,” Wheeler went on in level tone. “The third time you thought you had done it. Now it’s my innings—this is my night to fight, and you will fight or back down. Pick your two men—Drake and Brendon are mine—and come in here!” As he spoke he motioned and led the way into the fencing-room. Garth followed— after him came the German commander of the Kronprinzg and his lieutenant, Schroe- der. The door was closed on white inquir- ing faces. ‘What is this? A formal challenge in the style of our grandfathers?”’ Garth made an effort at lightness, but his smile was sickly. “Still if you are bound to have it, I don’t know why not.” “T know why not,’’ Dan said. “Because you lack the sand to give a man a fair deal. You want a sure thing or a chance to doa dirty trick. But now you will fight or back down. Do you back down?” Garth hesitated. Too much depended on the outcome to risk it all on an even chance, but he saw in von Reuter’s face a dawning contempt. The German thought him a coward. His eyes eee bloodshot. “No, u!”’ Garth cursed in a voice suddenly thick. “Tf you are tired of li 9) “T am tired of your talk,” snapped Wheeler. ‘Quit, and get action.” ‘Then I have choice of weapons!” Garth’s face flashed with triumph as he turned to the German officers. “Will you two gentlemen oblige me? And I choose the sword!”’ He turned on Wheeler with a malicious snarl. “Since you want medieval procedure, we’ll have medieval weapons.” “Anything at all—so we get at it.” Dan spoke in the same level tone. Drake was pale—his mouth open to pro- test. Garth wasa skilled fencer and swords- man. Wheeler never had held a foil and would be butchered. 127 At that moment Drake saw the turbaned Brahmin, who had slipped in unobserved with a few onlookers. His dark eyes were fixed on Wheeler and he gave no sign, but his face was tranquilly contemplative. Drake could hear his words of the afternoon —‘‘He may in no way be hindered’”’—and he knew he could not persuade Dan in that mood, possibly. Garth was grinning with suppressed de- light—he had Wheeler cold! “Tt is ver-rry ir-rregoolar—”’ von Reuter gargled his r-s heavily as he protested— “and I must not be detained by any le-gal consequences—no ar-rrests or delays. I must aboard ship to sail vithin two hours.” He looked about the large room. ‘And it can not be done here.” ‘Why not go aboard the Senator’s steam yacht—the Lina W.?” Garth asked Drake, insolently grinning. ‘The two men on her can be kept for’ard, and the body’—with a wave of his hand at Wheeler—‘‘can be dropped astern with a weight to sink it. We can run out into the bay, and be back here within an hour. Nobody will be any wiser. The little cabin is well lighted—small, but my man can’t get away from me.” Again Drake was about to protest at the absurdity of the plan, but ‘‘That’s right,’’ Dan announced definitely. “I won’t get away. Where are the swords?” The walls were decorated with all sorts of weapons, among them crossed swords of different periods and climes. But of them all there were only two exactly alike—two cavalry-sabers that had been carried in the last war—the Civil War—by the men who had given them to the club. Drake, who feared that Garth might insist on sharpened foils, reached down these sabers as he asked— ‘“What’s the matter with these?” “They’re right—get busy,’’ Wheeler again announced. Garth stepped quickly forward, his smile gone, and drew one of the blades from its scabbard. It was still bright—blued half- way up—a broad, curved blade with dull edge and a sharp point. Garth tested it with his thumb—and his smile came back. “Tt has a point—that’s the main point.”’ He nodded to his seconds. As the party got into overcoats to cover their costumes Dan heard a low voice at his ear. COMmicaoo S (© iin