Adventure Magazine Cover — page 146: what you’re looking at

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

140 ~ “One of my boys has found them. Found them at last,” he explained excitedly. For a moment Bertie’s brain strove to collect itself and he sat up wonderingly. “Who? Found what?’ he asked still sleepily. ‘Tombs and his crowd, Bertie.”’ In a second Bertie’s head was acting and he was on his feet. “The fellows who lose ’em, Frank? fellows who make a business of it?” “Yes,” the graybeard said, and his eyes seemed to look into the distance thousands of miles away. ‘The fellows who lose ’em, Bertie.” ——!” Bertie began eagerly. “And we'll get em, eh? Stop ’em this time?” The graybeard smiled thoughtfully. “T think so, Bertie. J think this will be about the last.” Slowly Bertie sagged back and sat on the side of his stretcher. Something unusual suddenly flashed into his mind. His face sank on to his hands and for a time he was in deep contemplation—deep, penetrating, inside meditation. Ponderingly Bertie rose again and his eyes bored squarely into the eyes of the graybeard. His face was troubled. _ “But suppose there are people who want to be lost?” he objected questioningly. The two white men left the clearing and turned their horses into a Kaffir path. Behind them rode four natives and their leader, M’Poine. Trotting contentedly along was Cora. ““Men never want to get lost, Bertie,” the graybeard said dreamily as they moved away. ‘““They may appear to want to, but really they are forced.’ “And when they’re forced, they want to. Same thing.” “Not at all, Bertie. When they’re forced, they have to. But what human man ever voluntarily shuns the world and hides out here? Hides in this wilderness of hills and plains and trees?” “T don’t know, Frank. What’s your name beside Frank, anyway? I’ve known you now three days and yet you’ve never told me.” The graybeard’s eyes twinkled and he looked at his companion amusedly. ° “My name? Same as yours, Bertie. Just nothing. Frank Nothing.” For a second Bertie’s eyes, too, twinkled, then he rode on in determined silence. te The A ede a ne i SA es Sa x » oF . Le aa Adventure The sun shot up over the hills in the east and bounded into the sky. Quickly the heat became oppressive. An _ occa- sional harsh-voiced pheasant chased into the shade and lay there panting. Once in a while a startled hare rose and dashed frantically for safety. And ever and anon lizards and snakes with gaudy skins crawled and crept into holes and under friendly rocks—crawled and then turned to stare with wondering, unblinking eyes. But for the rasping screech of the little green parrakeets and the eternal hum and buzz of the myriads of insects the air was utterly dead. Briskly the horses in single file tripped with the curious African half- walk—half-broken trot along the winding Kafhr path. The grass on either side stood high as _ their shoulders and the everlasting bush wandered away to the skyline in all the four directions. The horses came to the brow of a hill. Away to the horizon was a sea of bush. Bush and scrub and trees. Trees and scrub and bush. Miles and miles and miles of unbroken sameness. Miles and miles of country, each mile so like the last mile as to be its very | twin. - The graybeard checked his horse and sat peering into the distance. Away to the west on the very rim of the world was a tiny set of teeth—teeth like ‘dainty saw—teeth which were mighty ills. Quietly the graybeard pointed. “T found one over there, Bertie. Found him four years ago,” he said half to him- self. “Crazy, Frank?” “Crazy? Mad as a March hare, Bertie. I kept him for many months. Kept him till a glimmering of: reason had flickered back. Then I shipped him home to his people.”’ For a second or so Bertie was glum, “Bit of a bomb-shell, eh? Kind of a surprize-packet,” he said smilingly at last. “T’m open to bet it was, Bertie. A use- less younger son as usual. And the Old Man in a hole—as usual. Insured him for a hundred thousand pound amongst a dozen different companies and then persuaded him to go on a hunting trip. Gave him over to Tombs and Africa. esi they’d do it between them.”’ Gomichoo (9) <S) (EO)