Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

XXIX 74 IS] fires, bathed over all by the broad ‘ moonlight, Nell Clark and Davies knelt beside Steve Carr and received his husky, whispered message of disaster. The ships had come up from Salinas Bay truly, but in ¢ompany with a victorious king’s ship guided by a jubilant and vindictive Kestral. “T’d ha’ beaten ’em off, cappen, but for th’ dogs o’ Cook and the Frogs ye left me for garrison,’ panted Steve. ““‘ "T'was rank treachery from inside as beat me. Give up the fort an’ town, they did, and all but trapped me for a hangin’. Look at me!”’ The stricken man was indeed a sorry object. His clothes were caked with dried blood, his limbs and face were seamed and crossed with cruel wounds, his eyes were anguished, and his mouth twisted with un- bearable torture; yet triumph rested in his expression. His eyes flashed just once as they met the troubled gaze of Nell, and his life slipped from his lips in a final pean of victory. “So long,"Nell, I paid John Cook f’r both of us, lass!’ Davies covered the dead man’s face with his own kerchief, and gazed moodily at the scene of recent combat. The ground was littered with bodies; the air was murmurous with the curses of wounded men. Over against the nearest tree a curious group of seamen stood at a respectful dis- tance from a strange figure kneeling over another as strange who lay prone, and from the lips of him who knelt issued a low, mournful, crooning note which rose at inter- vals to a shriek of frenzied rage. “Shall we see who’s yonder?” suggested Nell, shivering. “Aye, we'll see everything while the show’s goin’ on,” Davies laughed grimly. He seized her arm in a grip that hurt. ‘“There’s one thing sure, Nell, and that’s the destruction of all our plans back there.” He pointed toward the vast forest and the sea beyond. “By signs, and poor Steve’s report, the Don’s at peace wi’ th’ old land once more, and by taking yonder town we’re pirates again. More, that king’s ship will aid in tracking us down now wi’ all the cunning 0’ the Don at home here to make it devilish fhot or us.” IN THE dancing light of dying Adventure “So Ed Davies’ quit then?” cried Nell excitedly, gripping his arm in turn, and with a grasp no less convincing than his. “Ye'll turn tail and run from rs “Not so fast, girl!’ Davies laughed as they approached the group. “TI said naught o quitting. I said our plans back yonder were exploded. Ye learn but-slowly if ye believe me that soft o’ backbone. Come, let’s see what’s here first. We start within the hour and shall leave no uncertainties to dog our course as we go.” Striding through the muttering crowd, they peered down at the queer pair on the turf, and suddenly Nell darted forward, put her face close to the head of one of the nondescript strangers, and swung back to Davies with a gasping cry. “Ed! ’Tis Doggett and Rando, or their ghosts!” “Ve’re mad, girl,’’ Davies retorted, bend- ing low to peer.as Nell had done. “ ’Tain’t in human bounds they could. ha’ won this far from Brazil’s reefs.” The figures he stared at were as the figures of apes; the faces those of animals, or wild men. Naked but for a string of leaves, hairy, scorched black by tropic suns, scarred and skinned in unwholesome patches by thorn, spear, and tusks of beasts, each leathery skin but poorly covering the bony skeleton beneath, yet they were indubitably men, white men, and by the gunpowder fancies tattoed idelibly on arms and chest, seamen. “By Judas, ye’re right!’ exclaimed Da- vies, and turned up Doggett’s grim, hairy face with a hand beneath his chin. Doggett growled bestially and raised a short tube to his lips, inhaling a deep breath. Rando, the man brought out of the tree by Nell’s badly aimed shot, raised a weak hand and snatched away the deadly }?? blow-gun. “Ha’ done, Doggett,” he said raspingly. “°Tis but th” Schoolmaster. Tell him. ’Twas Cook as left us to the bulldog, Dog- gett, not he.” ‘““How did ye come here, man?”’ demanded Davies, utterly at a loss. Mystery seemed piled upon mystery in that eery lakeside glade. “What ha’ ye to tell? Ye’re all but mut- ton, man!” “Aye, he’s carrion,’ growled Doggett, peering at the surrounding faces with the air of an animal cornered by dogs. COnmiclboooks eat. (C@