Adventure Magazine Cover — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

6 _ _ Adventure beg pardon, Miss Marshall. Still, I don’t suppose it shocks you to know that one of your uncle’s murderers got what was com- ing to him. Retribution, and all that.” The girl did not answer his words or his smile. Her deep eyes, so darkly blue that they seemed almost black, rested steadily on his bronzed face for a time. Then she glanced away down the creek and held her paddle as if anxious to go. The blond man’s grin faded. He rubbed his jaw, scowled, shrugged and took his place in his dugout. We boarded our own craft and shoved off ahead of them. And as we swung on down the creek I wondered what had displeased the girl. But I did not wonder long, for women and their moods have never troubled me much. Soon my thoughts were all on the thing that had taken place on the shore be- hind us. I could see the night fire smolder- Ing red in the gloom; the two men lying in their hammocks; the slow, stealthy raising of the short man’s head, and his motion- less watch of the tall one’s breathing; the silent swing of a gun, the sudden flash of the shot; and then the hurried plundering of the body and the hasty departure down ‘the black stream. . - It was nothing to me that the eellng- faced brute had been murdered in his sleep. Aman who would carry a white girl, or any other girl, to such a fate as awaited her in the camp of Black Hawk deserved a hun- dred deaths. It was nothing to me that the short man, murderer of his comrade, was still alive. But.it was something to all three of us men that that short man was not yet punished for his share in abducting the senhorita. There were others besides him, too, who had hada hand in that outrage—men of Viciado, one of the worst towns on the great river, toward which we now were journey- ing. And as I thought, I spoke my thought. ‘“‘We shall find him in Viciado, no doubt. Within the week we can teach him and his fellows what it means to treat white wo- men brutally.” Pedro, up in the bow, erunted agreement. And while we stroked ahead at the slow pace we had chosen, we pictured with grim satisfaction what we should do three days thence. What fools we were! We did not know what awaited us down the stream. pa NOON found us ashore, joking as gee} we ate, but a little troubled in mind. Seal We were squatting on a shady point, and at each side of us the water swerved away in a different direction. The creek had split. | Part of it veered off to the northeast, the rest to the northwest; and there was noth- ing to indicate which of the two new creeks we ought to follow.. As the water was low, one of them ought to be dried up; but both looked to be of about the same depth and width. And the girl, when asked whether she remembered the joining of the streams cite pv tya here, did not. “Makes no difference anyhow,” argued Senhor Tom. ‘Both of them are bound to flow into the Amazon, and that’s where we re heading for.” “True,” I said. ‘“‘We head for the Ama- zon, but we also seek a certain place on the Amazon. One of these streams will take us there quickly. The other may wind about for many miles before reaching the great river, and then bring us out far from where we want to go. And——”’ There I stopped, not wishing to mention before the girl that we had not much food. But my comrades understood. “Quite so,” the blond man assented. “Well, we'll have to trust to luck. Unless you fellows have an idea on the subject I’ll flip a coin before we start. Meanwhile let’s smoke and—Miss Marshall, show me your hands!” Surprized by the sudden command, she held them out, palms down. He turned them over. Swiftly she tried to snatch them away. But he held them’firmly a minute before letting go. “Thought so,” he nodded. ‘“‘Blistered. Now I’ll have to do all the paddling.” “Indeed you will not,” she retorted. little blister is nothing “No, a little blister is nothing,” he cut in. “But seven big blisters are something. You have four on your right palm and three on your left. All caused by trying to be smart and outpaddle us. You should know better.” > Her chin rose a little, but after an in- stant’s search of his eyes she smiled. “I’m sorry,” she said simply. “I thought I was helping, and now I have only made myself a hindrance. ¢ ee COHMIELOO But these canoes ~ (E©) cS