Adventure Magazine Cover — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

62 You couldn’t see his face in the dark, but I think he was chuckling. “Strange!” said the banker. “Yet you say they have been betrayed—their plan is known—yet they left for the front this “evening?” It was pitch-dark inside the car, for the rain swished down in torrents and Jeremy fastened the flaps after he got in. René’s change of expression was a thing that you could feel, not see. He kept perfect silence for about two minutes, while the car skidded and bumped at the rear of the procession. Then— “You tell me that Feisul knows, and et 3 “Oh, I didn’t tell you that,’ laughed Jeremy. “It was this other man who said so. I never deceived any one; I’m an honest fellow, I am. Remember, I warned you against him when we talked in the hotel; you can’t blame me. I told-you he was up to mischief. I advised you to keep a care- ful eye on him and to look twice at his paper! Wallah! You must be a lamb in fox-skin. My master is a wolf in a woolly overcoat! Wait till you’ve seen him eat that chicken that you brought, and then you'll know what kind of a man he is! “Vou see, you should have given me money when I asked you for it. I'ma fellow with a price, lam. Whoever pays my price gets his money’s worth. If you’d had the sense to pay me more than this man does, I’d have helped you trick him instead of helping him trick you; but he gave me my wages before dinner and you gave me noth- ing, so here you are, and I wouldn’t like to be keeping your pair of trousers warm! I tell you, this Ramsden effendi is an awful fellow, who will stick at nothing, and I’m worse because I’m honest and do what I’m paid to do!”’ I took the precaution of putting my arm around René, for it was likely that he had another weapon hidden somewhere, and the obvious thing for him to do was to shoot the two of us and make a bolt for it. For a second I thought I felt his hand moving; but it was Jeremy’s, searching all his pockets and feeling for hidden steel. So I pulled out a cigar and lit a match. Of course, any one’s face looks ghastly by that sort of sudden light; but René’s was a picture of hate, rage, baffled cunning and fear, such as I had never seen; his eyes looked like an animal’s at bay, and the way -it over with, ‘I make the sacrifice. Adventure his lips parted from his teeth conveyed the impression that he was searching his mind wildly for a desperate remedy that would ruin all concerned except himself. But it was only a stale old recourse that he had. In a man’s extremity he turns by instinct to his own tin gods for help, and you may read his whole heart and religion then. £ : ~ “Very well; very well,” he said, as if he were on. the rack, speaking hurriedly to get You will find my money in an inner pocket underneath my vest. It is a life’s savings. Take it, and let me go. It is not much— only a little—I am not a rich man—I had hoped to be, but—it would mean a fortune to you no doubt. Take it and be merciful; give me back the smaller packet of the two, keep the larger and let me go.” Out of curiosity I reached inside his vest and pulled out both packets. Jeremy struck a match. The smaller packet contained a draft on Paris for a quarter of a million francs. The larger held nothing but corre- spondence. I returned them to him. “Listen?” I said, “I’ve never yet mur- dered a man, so if you provide me with another excuse for murdering you, you'll be a virgin victim. Keep that in mind!” CHAPTER XV “Catch the Algies napping and kick out of ’eml” OU’RE no doubt familiar with the fact that the accounts given by two men who have witnessed a battle from the same angle will differ widely, not only in minor detail but in fundamentals; so you won’t look to me for confirmation of any one of the countless stories that have seen the light of print, pretending to explain how the French won Damascus so easily and unexpectedly. I was only on the inside, looking outward as it were; the fellows on the outside, looking in, would naturally give a different explanation. Then you must bear in mind that thisisa day of “official” accounts that would make a limping dog of Ananias. When the Gen- eral Staff of an invading army controls all the wires and all lines of communication you may believe what they choose to tell you, if you wish. But you don’t have to, as they say in Maine. And I admit that all I saw was from a curtained auto as we swayed and bumped over broken roads, Co DOO AMG S C©