Adventure Magazine Cover — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

Three-Part Stor s Fert X fe bs Arthur D Howden Smith Author of “The Heels of Chance,” “The Doom Trail,” etc. CHAPTER I SIR GUI RIDES ADVENTURING HE warders of Nerak sprang to their posts as the horn clanged cas brazenly in the velvet darkness across the moat. ‘“‘Who comes?”’ they shouted. “Tis I, your lord,” was the impatient answer. ‘Make haste, varlets! I thirst!” Sir Antonio della Stravone, the seneschal, came running across the courtyard. “Do you not know Sir Gui’s voice?” he fussed. “Lower the drawbridge, fools! Hoist the portcullis!”’ Winches clanked and pulleys whined as the ponderous mass of the draw descended slowly to span the open gap. The horn sounded again, with an abrupt note of command. MHoofs thudded on the wooden planking, rumbled in the archway oi the gate below the bulk of Baldwin’s Tower. A cavalcade emerged from the gloom of the entrance and trotted into the midst of the open space that stretched from the outer wall to the soaring pile of the Inner Ward. “What luck, Messer Gui?” hailed the seneschal as the leader dismounted. “Little enough,” grumbled the lord of the castle. “A murrain on this sweltering, barren land! Even the pigeons take flight from it!” “What would you?” returned the Italian with a shrug. “War, always war! The 50 animals and birds are free. They will not bide it. ’Tis only we and the poor folk of the villages who must wrangle on with the Saracens.” 7 “°Tis otherwise in Byzantium,” pro- tested the tall huntsman. “There life is worth living. Here ’tis a weight upon your hands.” “Be of good cheer, lord,”’ urged the sene- schal. “Company awaits you in the great hall.” Sir Gui turned upon him with an air of relief. “For that I thank the saints!” he ex- claimed. ‘One night I am not condemned to you and Fray Gilberto—and my own sour thoughts! Who is it?” “Messer Renier de Chappes.”’ “The adventurer whom the king hath made lord of Mardan?”’ Aye.” “And vou call him company!” Sir Gui’s laugh was loudly scornful. ‘An upstart foreigner, a jackal that hath obtained the fief a better man died to win and save! Better yourself, Antonio!” The Italian chuckled with quiet amuse- ment. “The lord of Mardan is not alone,” he said. ‘John the Englishman is with him.” “‘Ah, that is another story!” Sir Gui’s voice rang with pleasure. ‘He hath ever a brave geste to sing and news to relate. I will join them.” He started to ascend the steps which led }?? OO) (Cc S ©