Adventure Magazine Cover — page 176: what you’re looking at

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

TS. § f dive * 170 sat Bertie. One arm round Cora clutched her tightly, and hugged her as a child a doll, the other hand beat jumpy time. ‘““Tor-ee-e-e-a-dor! ‘Tor-ee-e-e-a-dor The music trailed away and Bertie’s eyes came round to Cora, “You poor old beast,’ he murmured softly, ‘to think I stayed up in that tree night after night to kill you, and now we’re just the best of pals.”’ _ The young man stopped and for a moment }?? thought, then quietly murmured on again. - “The best of pals, eh, Cora, and at the very minute I begin to find that life’s worth living, hanged if I haven’t got to leave you.” Then Bertie’s lips went close to Cora’s ear, and very seriously he loudly whispered: “They'll get me back to London, Cora girl, but they can’t keep me. I'll soon be out with you again.” A dried-up twig snapped sharply, and Bertie turned his head. Grinning he sprang to his feet, the color forcing its way under the skin. “Just saying good-by to Cora,” he said lamely. “Just having a last fond look at the old life.” Frank stood close in front of him, his kind old eyes quite queer. The women halted a dozen feet away. “A last look, eh, Bertie? One last fond look at—freedom?”’ “Yes, freedom, Frank. The only kind of life that God meant human beings to live.” Whimsically ‘Bertie turned and jerked his head toward the painted board. For one fleet second the old Black Sheep was boss. “Seems a darned shame to bury that poor fellow without a little wake,” he fin- ished up. The eyes of the two men looked fondly, fixedly almost into each other’s brain and each man smiled sympathy; then the old graybeard’s face took on a painful tense- ness. “T’ll have to go back home and fix up things, Bertie,’ he said sorrowfully. “Give Adventure the horses and stuff to M’Poine and the other Kaffirs and settle with them. Then we can drive the ten days down to the sta- tion by Cape cart, and take the train t oe . ‘ A warning hand went up and Bertie’s face said, “Listen.” Both men listened— listened as they’d never done in all their keen-edged lives. “But what’s over the horizon? away behind the haze in the distance!” a clear, sweet voice was asking. The two men’s eyes came round. Just a few feet away, with backs toward them, and arm in arm, stood the two women. The white-haired lady was pointing, her whole frame eagerness and curiosity. “What’s behind the haze?” she repeated. “Just another line of deep blue haze, and another far horizon,” Eileen was telling her. “And away behind the hills?”’ “More hills and more deep blue horizon.” The old lady’s face came round, her mouth close to Eileen’s ear. “T wonder would Frank and Bertie let us stay a while,’ she whispered audibly. “T’d like to go on and on and on and findit all out for myself.” And Eileen’s face, all gleaming, came close to the rosy cheek. “And I. I started once—I’d dearly like to finish,”’ she eagerly, anxiously said. Then Frank’s eyes spoke to Bertie, and Bertie’s eyes spoke back. And both men’s hats came off. “The lure—the lure—the mystery—the glamour of Old Africa!” Frank’s smiling lips were saying. ‘“‘She’s got ’em! She’s got ’em. She’s got ’em, Bertie.”’ The white-haired lady’s head came round, | her face bright as the girl’s. “Well, can’t we stay, Frank?” Frank’s eyes once again sought Bertie’s. “The lure—the mystery,” the graybeard said again, and then his happy eyes went damp. ‘“She’s got ’em, Bertie. Got ’em! Old Africa’s got ’em. Got ’em! ways runs true to form.” nee What’s © She al- - comichbooks (E(0)