Adventure Magazine Cover — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

The Land abandoned for long, as was evidenced by the presence of great trees and dense vegetation. Here we came upon a spot soaked with blood, eloquently proving that the man had been badly wounded and had been com- pelied to rest awhile. Deeper in, following the blood spoor, we came upon another kind of portico of ser- pentine columns in a better state of pres- ervation than the first we had found. Within this was the body of the temple, with fairly high ruins of the walls. The roof, if ever there had been one, had long since gone, but there were abundant signs that human beings used the place. And on the far side, amid a small forest of young trees, rose a tall, round shaft jutting up from two great black stones, evidently used as a kind of altar, sprawling upon which was the form of a man dressed in peculiar-color robes such as we had never seen before, and a green turban. “Must be a priest,” commented Billy after examining the corpse, which had been shot through the lungs. “That would ac- count for his daring to enter the sacred grove. I guess he or his fellows must have kidnaped Fieldy. There must be a way out—through the back probably. Come on.” 7 But before going, I gave a glance at the shaft, which was polished and covered with what Sabah had declared were Aramaic characters relating the history of the Queen of Sheba; and from the general form of the monument and drawings upon part of the walls I saw that the python was symbol of the primitive nature worship. Also I remarked that before the black stones where lay the dead man the ground was cleared and beaten flat by many feet, suggesting that there was perhaps an inner cult which still used the old temple in preference to the one erected by the Gandhi. As Billy had guessed, from a corner of the ruined temple a distinct trail led through some creepers, evidently purposely leit to mask the path, to a hole in the wall. After scouting cautiously beyond, we went through and found ourselves in dense jungle on quite a well-beaten path. “Say, Billy,” said I, “they must have carried off Fieldmorre along this path. I guess we’d better go along and investigate.” “That’s right,” he agreed; “and what’s more, I’m for taking a chance. See if we can get into the town and to my Jews. of Ophir 121 Maybe I can persuade ’em to fix us up with some disguise.” “Y’m with you. Tonight the show, ac- cording to Sabah, and I am cetermined to see that out anyway. But, Billy, Jew clothes won’t be any good. They sure won’t let Jews into their movie palace.” ““’Course not, but they can get other gear. Send out the girl to buy it. The only point is, how’re we going to get through the guards? The timber runs pretty close up to the old wall of the millah. It’s partly ruined, and I found an easy gap to scramble through. Anyway we’ll see. Come along.” On the edge of the dense jungle we could see through the light timber a group of three guards squatting in the shade of an angle of a buttress of the wall. The next group was out of sight as far as we could see after a bit of scouting. “‘There’s only one way,” said I. “That, I reckon, is to stalk near enough for a sure shot. You take one and I another and both the third as he tries to bolt, which he surely will.”’ By careful crawling we drew to the edge of the light timber. Beyond there was no cover at all, and some sixty or seventy yards of soggy ground between us and the guard, who appeared, we could now see, to be playing some kind of game. ‘“You take the fellow in the far corner,” whispered Billy. “If that other guy would kindly move his head about four inches I might get ’em both.” Even as he spoke, the man, in leaning forward to play, unwittingly complied. Billy fired a fraction of a second before I did. My man crumpled into the corner where he was sitting. Looking, I saw that both Billy’s men had leaped to their feet. One swung round and pitched on to his face; but the other, apparently mad with fright, charged straight toward us. Billy dropped him half-way. ‘“‘Now run like the ——,,” he called, “‘be- fore they get after us.” Billy had in fact mighty nigh got two in one shot, for as we passed, I saw the man who’d started charging us had a gash right across his eyes, which had surely blinded him instantly. As we gained the broken gap a little to the left we heard shouts and saw some other guards running round the wood. Whether they had seen us or not we couldn’t judge. As I dropped after Billy into the dirty GOMIIGooOo S C@