Adventure Magazine Cover — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

The Wolf-Chaser summit of the pass against a thousand. Why did not Cheke Noyon post a guard in the Urkhogaitu?”* “Because the ten would be food for the crows by now,” grunted Aruk. “When did our Tatar folk ever post a guard “The Krit!” cried Yulga suddenly. “We are passing his yurt, and he will be slain in his sleep if he is not warned.” Swearing under his breath, Aruk reined in, calling to the others to ride on and take the news to Kob. He would go for the Krit. “Be quick!” not let them take you But Aruk was a fox in the night. The chapel in the grove proved to be deserted, Hugo having gone far afield on his horse that night; and the hunter edged down to the steppe by paths that did not meet the main trail on which the Kalmucks had already passed him in force. He did not fear for Yulga or her father. “The hut of the Krit will soon be ashes,” he muttered, for fires were already making the night ruddy behind him. The Kalmucks, seeing that their approach was observed, were slaying the people of the countryside and setting fire to their yurts. Once, crossing a clearing in the gray of the false dawn, Aruk saw a patrol of the Kalmuck Turks surround a nest of tents. He could make out the black, quilted coats of the dreaded riders, could see their round, sheepskin hats and the points of their long lances. They were driving the flocks of sheep in the clearing, and harrying out the tents whence men and boys ran, half-clothed, to be spitted on lances or hewn down with simitars. The wailing of women rose on the air, to subside into moans. Aruk made out the small form of a young girl fleeing toward the trees. Three of the Kalmuck horde ran after her, on foot. The squat men of the Turks dragged her down as dogs pull down a hare. Only a black blotch showed on the grass of the clearing. Safe within the screen of = poplars, Aruk hesitated, fingering his ow. “Dogs and sons of dogs!” From his pony the hunter fitted shaft to string and discharged his arrows swiftly, heeding not whom he struck; for he knew Yulga was alarmed. “Do »? 61 the sheep-herder’s child was as good as dead already. The unexpected flight of arrows from nowhere set the Kalmucks to yelling. Two fell writhing in the grass. Another began to run back toward the yurt. The girl lay quite still on the grass, a shaft through her body. A last arrow whistled from Aruk’s bow, and the fleeing man dropped to his knees. “La allah—l allah’ Aruk heard his groan. Others in steel helmets were running out to the sound of conflict. The hunter turned his pony and was off again, changing his course to strike for Kob, leaving the sounds of pursuit be- hind him. “T was a fool,” he assured his pony’s ears, “‘since the —— only knows where I will get more arrows. ‘There is small store of weapons in Kob, and Galdan Khan has mustered the hordes from the Kalmuck steppe and the Moslem hills to his aid. A Moslem cried out back there. This is not at all like a joke.” Indeed, the dawn disclosed a forest of spear-tips streaming out from the shadows of the foothills toward Kob. The black coats of the Kalmucks were mingled with the green and red of the Turks. Fur-clad archers from Sungaria rubbed stirrups with the fierce, mailed riders of the Thian Shan. Behind these, down the broad, grassy trail, sheepskin-clad footmen escorted the creaking carts of the Kalmucks. A camel- train appeared when the sun was high, dragging small cannon. Above the tramp of the horses, the squeaking of the wagons, the shouts of the drivers, rose the mutter of kettie-drums, the shrill clamor of the pipes and the hoarse song of disciplined Moslem soldiery. Like pillars along the line of march ascended shafts of smoke imto the trans- parent air of a mild June day. On each flank dust rose where the masses of cattle were driven in and turned over in a bedlam of bellowing and trampling, to the butchers who rode among the wagons. Here and there prisoners were dragged in by groups of horsemen, to be questioned briefly by the mirzas and beys of the horde, then to be slain and tossed into ditches. In this manner came the Kalmucks to the old mud walls of Kob and the moat that had been dry for an age. Before sun- set the cannon were set in place, and a CORnNICGLOO S (C@