Adventure Magazine Cover — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

88 outthrust roots and low entwined creepers.: His face was brushed by harsh-skinned lianas, and the petals of a thousand flowers pelted his shoulders and marked his path- way. He left a trail that a blind man could have followed. On, on he ran, never ceasing, and never losing his sense of directi@h, until at last, breathing easily, he slowed to a walk and his movements became those of the native hunter. He hardly left any trail and the noise he made was not. Far behind he heard the crack of a rifle and then the hoarse boom of dynamite. He grinned a little. Presently he came to the beach and fol- lowed the sand-edge for perhaps a mile, until he reached the trader’s house without hav- ing seen anything of the men of the oppos- ing armies. He kept on past the house for about a quarter of a mile until he came to where a high outcrop of rock ran into the sea and formed one of the arms of the harbor. He made his way to a well-hidden cave, screened by some bushes, and deposited his burden there. He dragged off the sack and bound the woman securely, making an effective gag out of a piece of his loin-cloth. Then he went back the way he had come. | | 3 | IN THE meantime the trader was | aN busy. He had halted on the edge of the ravine until the first of the Little People came loping into view. A few shots of his rifle—he fired above their heads —sent them scuttling to cover and to de- bate. He backed warily on to the bridge, still swaying from Maru’s hurried crossing, and crossed to the other side of the ravine. He listened to the sounds of Maru’s progress and was well satisfied. The main thing was to give the Marquesan time. The trader settled himself in the jungle and covered the bridge with his rifle. A few spears whistled near, but as the throw- ers dared not break cover to take aim they were futile, and an occasional shot from the rifle kept the throwers well hidden. Waiting until he judged Maru to have started on the way back, the trader rose cautiously to his feet. He had already lit a cigar, and now he proceeded to toss a few sticks of dynamite across the ravine with a view to scaring throughly those on the other side. He heard a crashing in the jungle as the sticks went off, most of them falling down of the bridge. Adventure . the aching space under the bridge, and he chuckled grimly. The Little People were drawing off. Silent as a ghost, so silent that the trader nearly shot him, Maru stepped out of the jungle at his side. “Tt is done,” he said calmly, and took the spare rifle from the trader’s shoulders. The Marquesan grinned as his gaze wan- dered to the other side of the ravine, desert- ed and hazy through the dynamite fumes. “T think,” ” said the trader slowly, “we can — be moving.” As noiselessly as possible he backed off into the jungle, and turning led the way where he could strike the path out of sight Making his way to where Maru had driven a broad swath into the brush he took from his pocket a large bag of tin-tacks. Several handfuls of the tiny spikes he scattered about in places some yards from each other, and returning to the beaten path again he repeated the process. “That'll hold them for a bit,” he mut- tered, and pocketing the bag he started off along the path toward the beach. Occasionally he looked back, but it was . not with apprehension, it seemed rather with glee. Perhaps he was thinking of the tin-tacks. Maru, too, was grinning., Keeping a wary lookout for the armies of ' Karea and Lu, the two men made their way back to the house on the shore of the harbor, finding that nothing had been disturbed, though one of the shot-guns had gone off, evidently with disastrous effect, for there was some blood on the ground near it. Maru reloaded the alarm and refastened the trip- line, while the trader made his way to the veranda and his cheroots. Maru later repaired to the rafters to keep watch and ward. The fate of the two men now rested on the knees of the gods, and in the balance of luck. | i" TOOK the Little People some fifteen minutes to discover that the white man had left his place of con- cealment, and in hot rage they crept in single file across the bridge, nearly five hun- dred of them, to melt like dusky wraiths into the jungle. Scouts went down the pathway first, and low calls gave out the fact that the trail of Maru and the woman had been discovered. At the same time the spot where the trader had lain in the jungle COnnicloooks C@