Adventure Magazine Cover — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

_ journeyed to and fro. 136 “You're a great little help, aren’t you?” Jimmie said disgustedly as he guided his pal up the last few feet to the platform. “Waste a couple of nights in this uncom- fortable roost and then the very second the beast comes along and I get a chance Z a shot you must needs shout your head rs) mee “How could I see the bloomin’ root, Jimmie? D’ye think I tumbled down for Fane’ = —; “No, you crazy fool. You tumbled down for whisky. And now our lion’s about ten miles away again and going at about a mile a second.” “Aw, shut up, Jimmie. He’ll come back. If he’d come back twice, he’ll come again.” Contentedly Bertie sat himself down with his back to the tree. A hand went to a bulging hip-pocket and in the darkness he held something out. “Here, take a pull at this, Jimmie. Warm up a bit and get more cheerful.” Jimmie’s hand, in the shadows, felt anxiously, eagerly round. “Did you bring the bottle over, Bertie? That’s better. Save you walking back and forth to the store till you wear a path.” Mechanically Bertie felt the weight of the bottle lifted and he let go of it. “Did I bring a bottle, Jimmie? A bot- tle?” he said scornfully. “I brought two.”’ THE silvery leaves glinted and gleamed in the moonlight. The gentle, fitful breeze danced through them and sent little silvery arrows {lirt- ing and playing about. Arrows like tiny flashes of white electric light. Quite hap- pily Jimmie sat down beside Bertie and pushed him over a bit. His back, too,-was comfortably fixed against the tree. “Cold, eh, Bertie?”’ “Darned cold, Jimmie.”’ Slowly at intervals the bottle passed from hand to hand. semporenyy: it was warmer. Fair to warmer. “Cold, eh, Jimmie?” . “Darned cold, Bertie.”’ More frequently at intervals the bottle For the time being it was somewhat humid. Almost passable. Two hours passed and the sitting men were stiffening. But for the breeze and the night cries far away all was still—still and quiet as nature is at rest. The second bottle was tapped—tapped, - Adventure recorked, turned upside down and shaken. Shaken professionally to make the fusel-oil play fair. “Lonely, ain’t it, Bertie?” “Darned lonely, Jimmie.” The bottle went. from one to the other. Again the world was lively and everything was bright. Moonlight was sunlight, and sunlight filled the air. Slowly two more hours rolled away. “Lonely, ain’t it, Jimmie?” “‘Darned lonely, Bertie.” The bottle passed from mouth to mouth. Bertie lay flat on his back. -His eyes were closed and he was busily watching a pink crocodile chasing a blue tortoise with yel- low horns up a thousand-foot barber’s-pole. The tortoise stopped to scratch an ear with his hind foot and just at that very moment a horse with purple zebra stripes slid from the top of the pole clean on to him. And Bertie couldn’t understand it. A mosquito hovered over Bertie’s nose and loudly yelled for company. Company came in companies and sang “‘God Save the Queen.” And Bertie was distinctly puz- zled. Another mosquito with nine-foot legs and six thousand corkscrews soldered to its head descended on Bertie’s forehead and commenced excavating with a steam- shovel. Annoyedly Bertie started to lift a hand to flick it away. The hand rose lazily a few inches, then flopped back helplessly on to the boards of the platform. And Bertie rolled over on to his face. Somewhere above, the sky opened of a sudden and six millions of mosquitoes came down in a bucket. Seven or eight million of them settled on Bertie’s right ear and began hem-stitching. Dreamily Bertie moved a hand to slap them. The hand rose just clear of the floor, then fell listlessly down again. And Bertie rolled over on to his back. Ten thousand mosquitoes camped on Bertie’s chin and began to drill for oil. In sheer disgust Bertie’s hand. started up toward them. The muscles refused and the hand bumped limply back. With a rush horse and tortoise climbed to the top of the barber’s pole, then slipped and landed in the lap of a blue monkey. And Bertie rolled over on to his face and - forgot about it. The aged lioness, tearing at the tough car- cass with her gnarled, decayed teeth, came Gomichooks (E(O) 3